Kuznetsova ends Sania's Wimbledon dreamIndia's Sania Mirza saw her Wimbledon centre court debut end in cruel disappointment on Wednesday when she was knocked out in the second round by Russian fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.
The 18-year-old Mirza, playing in her first Wimbledon as a senior, threw away a series of golden chances to clinch a shock win against the US Open champion before going down to a 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4 defeat.
But she can still take some heart from her performance in the 2hr 17min match against a player ranked 69 places above her.
Mirza, who created history at the Australian Open in January when she became the first Indian woman to make the third round of a Grand Slam, carved out plenty of openings but lacked the weight of shot and experience to pull her through.
She edged ahead 4-2 with a break in the first set before allowing Kuznetsova to reel off the next four games to take the opener after 38 minutes.
Mirza was also 5-3 ahead in the second before being pegged back although she settled her nerves to take the tiebreak after an error-strewn set which has seen five breaks of serve.
The 19-year-old Kutnetsova then threatened to run away with the final set building up a 5-2 lead before Mirza launched a thrilling but vain comeback leaving her opponent to look forward to a third round clash against 16-year-old Czech Nicole Vaidisova.
SourceI Saw Some Portions of the Match and I must say That Sania Really Played Well and This Would be One Loss,She Would not be Disappointed About.
In Fact,In Each Set,Sania had Broken Sevetlana Twice and Even Raced to a 3-0 Lead in the Second Set.But in the End,the Russian's Power-Game and Experience on the Big Stage Eventually Prevailed.
With a 1st Round Loss in the Doubles Earlier and This Loss,Sania's Wimbledon's Run has Come to an End.In the meantime,She Became the First Ever Indian Woman to Play at Wimbledon's Centre Court.No Doubt that She will Gather More from this Experience and Hopefully will go on to Bigger & Better Things in the Future.