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PARIS : Sania Mirza made light of her first round exit in the singles advancing to the second round of women’s doubles while Mahesh Bhupathi kept himself on track to win his third French Open Grand Slam title by steering clear through the first round of men’s doubles event here yesterday.The 19-year-old Indian combined with Slovakia’s Janette Husarova for a facile 6-1 6-3 against Spaniard Conchita Martinez and Castalina Castano of Columbia. The duo will next play third seeds Anna-Lena Groanfield of Germany and Meghanshaugnessy of USA.

Bhupathi and Xavier Malisse of Belarus registered an easy 6-2 6-2 victory over Gilles Muller of Luxemburg and Christophe Rochus of Belarus to move into the second round of the clay court event.Leander Paes and Martin Damm of Czech Republic, who are seeded seventh, have been pitted against Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in their opening encounter.

Putting behind the disappointment of her singles loss, Sania Mirza and Slovak Janette Husarova today cruised into the second round of doubles competition with a 6-1, 6-3 win over the Spanish-Columbian pair of Conchita Martinez and Catalina Castano.Sania, who crashed out of the singles competition yesterday following her first round loss to Russian Anastasia Myskina, and Husarova dominated the match from the start and did not give any breathing space to their opponents.The Indo-Slovak pair raced away with the first set 6-1, as Martinez and Castano struggled to match them. The second set followed almost the same pattern except that the Spanish-Columbian pair put up some degree of resistence and managed to win three games, but Sania and Husarova had taken control of the situtation by then and saw off the little challenge thrown by their rivals to take the set 6-3 and pocket the match.Sania and Husarova will now take on the winners of the match between third seed German-US pair of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Meghann Shaughnessy and Michaella Krajicek (Netherlands)/ Agnes Szavay (Hungary).Despite struggling in the singles circuit, Sania has managed good results in doubles. She teamed up with Australian Alicia Molik to reach the finals of last week's Istanbul Open.

Sania lost to Russia's Myskina in the first round of French Open.
Sania Mirza lacked the patience to win on the slower clay courts but would come good on the faster grass at Wimbledon, her French Open vanquisher Anastasia Myskina said today.Myskina, who ousted Sania 6-1 6-4 in the first round of the French Open women's singles, said it was an open secret that Sania did not like playing on clay."Clay is not her surface for sure. I don't think she likes playing here because it is long rallies for her and she likes to hit the ball. She doesn't have a lot of patience for here," the 24-year old Russian said after advancing to the second round at Roland Garros.Sania said she wanted to be in the top-15 by 2006-end."My goal this year is to stay in the top-50. I still want to say I want to be in the top-15," the 19-year old Hyderabadi lass said.But Myskina had her doubts."I don't know if she (Sania) can be top 20. But if she can win for the grass season, she is going to be really good," the world number 12, who became the first Russian woman to win a Grand Slam by triumphing here in 2004, said.Sania, who returned to the courts last week after a three-week break, blamed lack of knowledgeable coaching back home for her injuries – right wrist and elbow, and lower back."These are the negatives of coming from a country where tennis is not popular and people don't know about training and preparation," she said."In the past I could be running for an hour and not be match fit."I'm growing all these muscles now that I never knew I had. I'm straining my body a lot more than I did in the last few years." Sania said she was coming to terms with the expectations of a billion people."It's my second year on the circuit and every day it gets tougher. Last year every time I won a match it was a surprise," she said."Now every time I lose a match it's a surprise. People have a lot of expectations for you, especially a billion people in India. It makes it hard.

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 Paris: Sania Mirza lost in the first round of French Open on Tuesday.Russia's Anastasia Myskina continued her recent return to form with a 6-4 6-1 win over Sania Mirza in the first round.Myskina, the winner in 2004 and 10th seed this year, had too much experience for the world number 40.Myskina will now meet with Sandra Kloesel of Germany or Hungarian Melinda Czink in the second round.
Apart from her win two years ago, Myskina has never been beyond the second round in Paris, but after taking a tight first set she was always in control.Runner-up in Istanbul last week, Myskina ripped through the second set with the loss of just one game to take her place in the second round.In the WTA Tour rankings released on Monday, Sania had slipped down two places to 40 in the singles but jumped two positions to 37 in the doubles.

Tennis players of WTA Istanbul Cup 2006 pose at the Maiden's Tower which dates back to 341 BC on an islet in Istanbul's Bosphorus May 21, 2006. (L-R) Anna Lena Groenefeld (Germany), Mashona Washington (U.S), Ipek Senoglu (Turkey), Anastasia Myskina (Russia), Catalina Castano (Colombia), Sania Mirza (India), Anna Chakvetadze (Russia), Meghann Shaughnessy (U.S). REUTERS/Fatih Saribas

New Delhi: Sania Mirza had contrasting luck in the WTA Tour singles and doubles rankings released on Monday.According to information received here, the 19-year-old Indian slipped down two places to 40 in the singles but jumped two positions to 37 in the doubles.The slip in singles rankings comes despite a first round win at Istanbul where she also reached the doubles final with Australian Alicia Molik.The Hyderabadi girl, who returned to action after a three-week break last week, is set to play former champion Anatasia Myskina in the first round of the French Open now underway in Paris.Swiss Roger Federer and Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo continued to lead their respective rankings, with no changes in the top ten on either being recorded.

Tata Tea has set an ambitious target of making Premium, a mega brand by the end of fiscal 2006-07. As part of its strategy, the company has launched its latest advertising campaign featuring Sania Mirza for Tata Tea Premium. The tennis sensation explodes on the TV screens once again, this time to display a perfect blend of mental and physical agility with Tata Tea Premium. Significantly, Tata Tea Premium’s future roadmap is to clearly leverage the brand’s strength in geographical spread and the brand loyalty to further expand its market share. Speaking on the occasion, Sangeeta Talwar, executive director, Tata Tea said, ‘the new ad campaign helps strongly reinforce the brand proposition of Tata Tea Premium. Mental strength and physical energy are two very important attributes for being successful in life. Tata Tea Premium is seen as a key enabler that activates one to take on challenges.’

New Delhi: A second doubles title this season eluded Sania Mirza as she and Australian Alicia Molik went down in the summit clash of the Istanbul Cup on Saturday.The Indo-Aussie pair was beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine and Belarussian Anastasia Yakimova at the clay court event.

New Delhi: Sania Mirza was handed a tough draw at the French Open as she runs into former champion and World No. 12 Anastasia Myskina in the first round of the women’s singles at the clay court Grand Slam, starting on Sunday.The minor dip in rankings, currently 38 on the WTA Tour, seems to have played a crucial role in Sania not being seeded at Roland Garros. The 19-year-old Indian returned to the courts this week at Istanbul after a three-week rest to recover from a wrist and lower-back injury.“I would say that physically I am at around 70 percent. The pain in my wrist and back is much better but the wrist is still swelling up after playing a session,” Sania told from Istanbul.“But, I have just had about four days of training after my injury before the Istanbul tournament so I guess it will take me some time to get match fit.”In the men’s section, defending champion Rafael Nadal will face Swede Robin Soderling in the first round with a likely fourth round clash against 14th seed Lleyton Hewitt, who is suffering from a foot injury.At the top of the draw, World No. one Roger Federer will take on Frenchman Arnaud Clement in the first round with 13th seed Nicolas Kiefer of Germany as his likely opponent for a quarterfinal spot.The draw: Robin Soderling (Swe) v Rafael Nadal (Esp); Roger Federer (Sui) v Arnaud Clement (Fra); Tomas Berdych (Cze) v Feliciano Lopez (Esp); Vincent Spadea (U.S.) v Nikolay Davydenko (Rus); Andy Roddick (U.S.) v Alberto Martin (Esp); Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) v Albert Portas (Esp); David Ferrer (Esp) v Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Esp); Christophe Rochus (Bel) v Thomas Johansson (Swe); Tommy Haas (Ger) v Rainer Schuettler (Ger); Marat Safin (Rus) v Fernando Gonzalez (Chi); Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) v Jan Hernych (Cze).

Fifth seeded Sania Mirza suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Michaella Krajicek of The Netherlands in the second round of US $200,000 Istanbul Cup tennis championship on Wednesday.The Indian ace went down 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 to the ninth-seeded Krajicek, who will now face either Meghann Shaughnessy of the United States or Anastasiya Yakimova of Bulgaria, who play later in the day, in the quarter-finals.Sania, ranked 38, was playing her first tournament on the WTA circuit after a three-week rest.Next up for Sania is the French Open Grand Slam, beginning on Sunday.