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Sania Mirza conceded her first round singles match of the qualifying event of the $ 600,000 Aegon International in Eastbourne after suffering a hip-strain.

The Indian ace was trailing 4-6 2-3 against Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania on Sunday when she opted out of the contest.

Sania though will play in the doubles event along with Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei.

The unseeded Indo-Taipei duo will take on fourth seeded Australian pair of Samantha Stosur and Rennae Stubbs.

Sania had made the singles and doubles semifinals of the Aegon Classic last week and probably continued tennis througout the week combined with long travel from Birmingham to Eastbourne took a toll on her.

In the men’s event Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy have been given the top billing and they will open their campaign against Polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles, seeded second, will play their first round match against Stephen Huss of Australia and local Ross Hutchins.

Riding on her semifinal appearance in the just concluded Aegon Classic, Indian ace Sania Mirza jumped 20 places to reach 78 in the latest WTA singles rankings, released on Monday.

After a prolonged lean patch, the Hyderabadi did exceedingly well at the grass court event where she also made it to the semifinals of the doubles event.

Sania also rose two rungs to be at 35th spot in the doubles ranking.

However, there was no change in the men’s doubles rankings where Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi retained their fifth and ninth spots respectively.
Somdev Devvarman, who is struggling these days, also remained unchanged at 132, though he continues to be India’s numero uno player.

Her singles campaign over, Sania Mirza’s doubles campaign also came to an end after the Indian and her Chinese Taipei partner Chuang Chia-Jung lost in straight sets in the semifinals of the Aegon Classic tennis tournament here.
The third-seeded Indo-Taipei pair lost 5-7 3-6 to the top seeded Zimbabwean-American pair of Cara Black and Liezel Huber last night.

Sania had earlier crashed out of the singles competition of the USD 220,000 Wimbledon warm-up event after losing to 13th seeded Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova in the semifinals

It was expected to be an all Asian affair at Birmingham as India’sSania Mirza won the first set in her match against SlovakianMagdalena Rybarikova with China’s Na Li already having booked a place in Sunday’s final with a win over Maria Sharapova.

However, a fantastic turnaround from the 20-year old Rybarikova saw her spoil a perfectly good script at the Aegon Classic handing Mirza a doughnut in the second set and overcoming a late rally from the Indian tennis star on the way to clinching a tight third set 6-3.

Mirza had beaten Rybarikova in their only previous meeting amazingly in her only other semi-final appearance of the year on the hard courts at Pattaya 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.

Sania started the match well hammering her first ace to close out the opening game. Sania had a sniff of a chance at 30-30 in Rybarikova’s opening service game, but the Slovakian held firm to hang on to her serve.

A second double fault from Sania in the third game gave Rybarikova three break points, and the 20-year old needed just one, breaking the Mirza serve for a 2-1 lead.

The lead didn’t last long as Mirza broke back for 2-2, before holding on to her own serve to 15, for a 3-2 lead.

Mirza continued to press home her advantage as she broke the Rybarikova serve again in the 6th game and made it four games in a row holding her serve to love to take a decisive 5-2 lead.

Rybarikova stemmed the run of games against her, finally holding on to serve for the first time in three games, but another strong service game from Sania handed the Indian star the first set 6-3 in just 27 minutes.

Sania continued to dominate the early exchanges in the second set and had two break points in the opening game. However Rybarikova showed the stomach for a fight as she held on to a crucial first service game.

Rybarikova broke the Mirza serve in the following game and played some smart tennis to hold on to her own serve for a three love lead.

Mirza lost the plot completely in the second set, dropping her serve on two further occasions, and only winning 14 of 41 points on her way to losing the set 6-0.

Rybarikova took the momentum into the third set holding on to her serve in a tight opening game before breaking the Mirza serve for the fifth time in the match for a 2-0 lead. Rybarikova had rattled off eight games in a row in what was an absolutely amazing turnaround.

Like a giant awoken from her slumber Sania finally registered herself on the scoreboard for the first time in 40 minutes breaking straight back to love, indicating there was still some life left in this contest.

A crucial fourth game in the context of the match went to deuce, but Mirza held her nerve and her serve.

After Rybarikova slipped in a tight service game, Mirza was in trouble again on her serve, but saved a couple of break points on her way to leveling the set at 3-3.

Rybarikova showed her class serving out a love game to put the pressure straight back on Mirza who was serving behind in the set.

Mirza couldn’t handle it as Rybarikova produced another outstanding game to break the Mirza serve and pull ahead 5-3. Rybarikova settled the match on her first match point to end a disappointing afternoon for the Indian.

Earlier in the day Chinese star Na Li booked a place in the final getting the better of former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova for the first time in six attempts, in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.

Sharapova served an exceptional 87% in the opening set, yet dropped her serve on two occasions, while breaking just the once herself.
Both players struggled to hold on to their serves in the second set as they broke each other on 7 occasions out of the 10 games played. Li was able to hold serve on that one extra occasion that mattered to close out the match in a shade under an hour and a half.

Sania Mirza’s impressive run at the Aegon Classic continued as the Indian ace sealed a semi-final berth by beating 16th seed Hungarian Melinda Czink in straight sets here on Friday.

The unseeded Indian survived some anxious moments in the dying minutes of the match before pulling off a 6-1, 7-6 (4) in the quarter-finals of the USD 220,000 WTA event being played in the build up to the Wimbledon.

Sania will next face winner of the other quarter-final match between 13th seed Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova and unseeded Polish Urszula Radwanska.

Sania went ahead by breaking Melinda at love in the fourth game. The Hungarian double faulted and the Indian pounced on the first chance and held next game to surge to a 4-1 lead.

Melinda struggled with her serve and a flurry of double faults again helped Sania’s cause as the Indian capitalised on her rival’s error to get one more break in the sixth game and served out the set in the game.

The double fault bug bit the Indian too in the second set as she committed two in the fourth game to hand a 3-1 lead to the Hungarian.

Sania though returned the compliment in the next game when she converted the second breakpoint and held her serve in the next to make it 3-3.

The Hyderabadi broke Melinda in the ninth game to create that little vital gap but squandered a match point in the next game to let Melinda draw parity.

Again she survived few anxious moments in the 12th game before stretching it to a tie-breaker, where she outplayed her rival to make the next round.

With this win Sania also equalled the win-loss record against Melinda 1-1 as she had lost her first match against the Hungarian when the two had clashed in Kolkata in 2005.