Sania Mirza’s campaign in the Australian Open ended after she and her Czech partner Renata Voracova crashed out of the women’s doubles event, losing in straight sets to top seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta in the opening round.

Argentina’s Dulko, who is the World No 1 doubles players and her World No 2 Italian partner Pennetta, outplayed the Indo-Czech duo, winning the contest 6-4, 6-1 in just over 60 minutes.

The 24-year-old Sania, who was beaten by Justine Henin 5-7, 6-3 in the opening round of the women’s singles on Monday, and Voracova fought hard in the first set, but the second turned out to be a dampener as the Indo-Czech pair were outplayed.

Sania, who won the mixed doubles title at the Open with Mahesh Bhupathi  in 2009 — her only Grand Slam triumph — is not taking part in the event this time around.

Sania Mirza overcame a fighting Vitalia Diatchenko in a tough three-setter to storm into thethird and final round of women’’s singles qualifying event ofthe Australian Open here today.

The 24th seed Indian scored a 6-4 6-7(9) 6-3 in one hour46 minutes in the second round.

The 145th ranked Sania will next face Canada’’s StephanieDubois.

Sania dropped her serve twice in the opening set butsaved five other and managed to convert three of the six breakchances she got.

The second set was more closely fought as the Russiangirl raised her game and went all out against Sania.

Diatchenko earned 10 break points and converted three ofthem, same as Sania, but the set was decided through atie-breaker in which the Russian prevailed.

Both the players struggled with their first serve and itall boiled down to who could cash more on the mistakes of therival.

Sania dropped her serve twice but converted four of the six chances to seal her berth in the final round.

Sania Mirza will team up with Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain for the Australian Open commencing next month. Sania had a highly successful season this year with her doubles partners Francesca Schiavone and Chia Jung Chuang. The former doubles number one Pascual has to her credit 11 Grand Slams which includes 10 in doubles.

Sania said,”I will be playing with Virginia Ruano Pascual in the Australian Open and if we do well, we’ll continue to play together.”

Sania, who had won the 2009 Australian Open mixed doubles title with her partner Mahesh Bhupathi

Three years ago, Sania Mirza first hit the headlines at the Australian Open with her match against Serena Williams. Now, established as one of the popular players on the women’s tennis circuit, she goes up against Venus Williams in the third round on Saturday.
Sania defeated Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland on Thursday in the second round of the women’s singles at the Australian Open to enter the third round where she will meet eighth seed Venus Williams of the US.

Venus had an unimpressive second round match against France’s Camille Pin but finally won 7-5, 6-4.

Venus, who went through a tough three-setter in her second round, is wary of Sania. She said: “Yeah, actually, I have (played against her) – a little while ago. She’s a good player, also. She tries to play aggressive. Looks like she enjoys herself out there.”

Venus won a second round match featuring 14 service breaks as she defeated Frenchwoman Camille Pin 7-5, 6-4 in one hour and 33 minutes.

Sania came through beating Swiss player Timea Bacsinszky, also in three sets.

Sania Mirza beats Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland to enter the women’s singles third round in Australian Open on Thursday.

In a battle lasting for one hour and 44 minutes, Sania got the better of Timea 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.

In the next round, Sania has the uphill task of taking on eighth-seeded Venus Williams of the USA. The American defeated Camille Pin of France 7-5, 6-4 to book a berth in the third round.

Sania banked on the unforced errors of her opponent to wrap up the first set in style.

But Timea fought back strongly in the second set. Both the players committed an identical 17 unforced errors. However, Sania’s three double faults pumped up the Swiss girl who unleashed 10 winners to draw parity.

Mirza has struggled with injury over the last year, and the problems have continued in 2008. She had an average outing in the Hopman Cup team event before reaching the quarter-finals of a Tier-IV event in Hobart.

Sania Mirza would have found life remarkably more straightforward had she been born in an era when women players wore nothing less than an ankle-length dress, bustle, tie, hat and gloves.

But when the Indian goes on court today in a thigh-length skirt – hardly unusual amid a generation of scantily clad players – it can be construed as a message of defiance.

In September 2005 a group of Muslim clerics issued a fatwa demanding that Mirza, a devout Muslim, cover up during matches, and soon after that the then 18-year-old bowed to the pressure and swapped her skirt for shorts. Haseeb-ul-Hasan Siddiqui of the Sunni Ulema Board said her outfits left “nothing to the imagination,” and that “for an entire nation of young Muslim girls she will be a corrupting influence”.

He claimed that her skirts and T-shirts – “Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History” reads one, “I’m Cute, No Shit” another and “You Can Either Agree With Me Or Be Wrong” a third – were “un-Islamic”.

But at this year’s French Open Mirza started wearing a skirt again. “How I dress is a very personal thing, so give me a break,” she said. “I’m just trying to have some fun. If I have something to say I can speak, can’t I? I don’t have to speak through what I wear.”

For most of her compatriots, Mirza is an idol. She was the first Indian woman to break into the top 50 of the WTA Tour rankings, the first to reach the fourth round of a grand slam, the US Open in 2005, and the first to win a tour title, in her home city of Hyderabad, which according to some reports caused a mini-stampede.

Such is the interest in Mirza’s life that she says she often used to find intruders in her house and was forced to employ two guards to man it day and night. The world No44’s image adorns billboards all over India and her endorsement fees match those of the cricketer Rahul Dravid.

“Sania mania” peaked in August 2005 when she destroyed Nadia Petrova 6-2, 6-1 in the third round in San Diego. That year Petrova had already reached the French Open semi-finals and the Wimbledon quarters and attained a career-high ranking of world No3. The pair meet again for the first time this afternoon in the second round of a tournament which already has a special place in Mirza’s career.

In 2003 she won the junior doubles title here with Alisa Kleybanova to become the youngest Indian – and first Indian woman – to win a junior grand slam. At that point hardcourts were her favourite surface but after taking the then reigning US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova to three sets on Centre Court in 2005 she realised that her game was best suited to grass.

“This is a very special tournament for me, a great place to come back to,” said Mirza, who beat Yaroslava Shvedova 6-0, 6-3 in the first round on Tuesday. “There are a lot of Indian people here and a lot of support.”

Indian tennis starlet Sania Mirza blasted her way into the second round at Wimbledon on Tuesday, easing past Russia’s Yaroslava Shvedova in straight sets.

Mirza, 20, wasted no time on Court 6 as she demolished the 19-year-old Muscovite 6-0, 6-3 in 55 minutes.

However, Mirza was frustrated by her opponent at 5-2 up in the final set, being pegged at deuce before world number 80 Shvedova finally won the game.

And she lost two match points in the final game before finally sealing it as the Russian misfired.

Mirza, who signed autographs for the Indian fans in the crowd as she left, now faces Russian 11th seed Nadia Petrova in the second round.

World number 44 Mirza’s best Wimbledon performance was reaching the second round in 2005, while her best Grand Slam outing was at the US Open in the same year, when she reached the fourth round.

Star Indian tennis player Sania Mirza will start her Wimbledon campaign on a high after she climbed two spots in the WTA singles rankings to No. 44.

Sania, in fact, also improved her individual doubles rankings by two positions to No. 40.

The 20-year-old, though, has had a poor run in the singles circuit since her comeback from an injury lay-off. After losing in the second round of the French Open, she crashed out of the Ordina Open in the first round.

Sania takes on 80th ranked Russian Yaroslava Shvedova in her first round encounter at the All England Club. Shvedova, however, holds an edge over the Indian after having beaten her in their only previous encounter at the WTA Bangalore Open last year.

In the women’s doubles, Sania opens her campaign with Israel’s Shahar Peer, while she teams up with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi in the mixed doubles event.

India’s doubles ace Leander Paes, however, dropped one spot in the individual rankings to No. 9, while Bhupathi, Paes’s former partner, remained a non-mover on No. 20.

Paes will only take part in the doubles edition of the Wimbledon with Czech partner Martin Damm, while Bhupathi will take the doubles court with another Czech, Radek Stepanek.

INDIA has won its way into this year’s Hopman Cup in Perth with a straight-sets win over Chinese Taipei in the inaugural Asian Hopman Cup in Hyderabad, India. World No.66 Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna won the $US20,000 ($A25,642) prize money and also the vacant eighth spot in this year’s main event at the Burswood Dome in Perth starting on December 30.

Both Mirza and Bopanna survived 90-minute matches to beat I-Hsuan Hwang and Ti Chen respectively. Mirza won 6-2 6-4 and Bopanna 6-3 6-4.

The Indians now join Spain, the Czech Republic and Croatia in Group B of the Hopman Cup. The 20-year-old Mirza said the win was one of the proudest moments of her life, especially coming in front of a passionate home-town crowd.

The Chinese media has included Sania Mirza among the world’s all-time ‘Top 10 Tennis Beauties’ along with Russian star Maria Sharapova and former player Gabriela Sabatini.

Sania figured 10th in the list carried out by the official Xinhua news agency.

The Indian star, currently ranked 66 in the world, was shown wearing a traditional Indian dress as well as donning a skimpy tennis attire, a picture apparently shot during a Grand Slam Championship.

The ten who figured in the list in order: Gabriela Sabatini, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Anna Kournikova, Martina Hingis, Daniela Hantuchova, Mary Pierce, Maria Sharapova, Justine Henin-Hardenne and Sania Mirza.