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Leander Paes and his partner Cara Black defeated Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza to advance to the mixed doubles quarterfinals of Wimbledon Championships in London.

Top seeded Paes and Zimbabwean Black won 6-2 6-7 (2) 6-3 in the two-hour-and-seven-minute third-round contest, which was the first between the two pairs, on Monday night.

Paes and Black, who won the US Open mixed doubles title last year, were clearly the better pair in a rare match and also took advantage of the unforced errors committed by their opponents.

Thirteenth seeds Bhupathi and Sania committed nine double faults as compared to just one by their opponents though the all-Indian pair sent down more number of aces (6 to 3).
Paes and Black got as many as eight break points in the first set out of which they converted two to win it in 35 minutes.

Already out of singles competition, Sania Mirza’s doubles campaign also ended after she and her partner Chia-Jung Chuang suffered a straight set loss to Alla Kudryavtseva and Monica Niculescu in the second round of the Wimbledon Championships here on Saturday.

The 15th seeded Indo-Taipei pair lost 2-6, 3-6 to the unseeded Russian-Romanian combination.

Sania and Chia had their chances but failed to grab on those. Out of seven break points they got they could convert just one and paid the price.

Sania’s singles campaign was cut short in the second round by her friend Sorana Cirstea.

The Indian would now look to put up a better show in the mixed doubles event as she has reached the second round with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi.

When she first arrived here — a starry-eyed little girl sporting a pony-tail, chaperoned by doting parents — to play in the girls’ singles championship all those years ago, Sania Mirza might have hardly imagined that the early part of her career as a professional tennis player would the play out the way it has — like a game of snakes and ladders.

In a few packed, emotionally-draining years since making a breakthrough at the Australian Open in January 2005, Sania, aged 22, has been through it all in a hurry — form slumps, a series of injuries, spectacular surges, controversies on and off the courts — and it is hardly a surprise that she often sounds like a world-weary veteran after being forced by circumstances to live her life in fast forward.
Annus horribilis

The year 2008 was something of an annus horribilis for Sania as she started the year at No.32 and ended it just inside the top 100, at 99. A first right wrist injury early in the year required surgery and forced her out of the game for several weeks. This was followed by another right wrist injury just before the Olympics.

In sport, as in life, sometimes it is necessary to plumb the depths to get a clear view of the way up. And Sania, still a long way from becoming the player she can be — the consistent winner that she wants to be in the process of discovering the limits of her own potential — did prove today that she is ready for the arduous task.

In a first round match of the 123rd Wimbledon tennis championships, on a cloudy, warm afternoon, Sania quickly overcame a mid-match slump as she beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 to make her way to the second round.

After coming into the championship following her best tournament-run in a long, long time — a semifinal finish in the Aegon Classic on grass — the Indian star was unlikely to have been short on confidence. But after a dream start that saw her open up a 4-0 first set lead, Sania failed to impose herself on an opponent whose arsenal was mostly absent of heavy weaponry.

Then again, even if she blew hot and cold on the No.14 court where every single seat was taken and quite a few Indian fans had to crane their necks standing on the walkways to get a glimpse of the action, the woman from Hyderabad regrouped superbly after taking a break at the end of the second set.

Sania upped the ante on her serve, injected a strut into her court coverage and stepped in courageously for some rewarding fly-swatting on Anna-Lena’s second serves before finally blowing away her German opponent with an avalanche of blistering forehands.

Overall, it wasn’t the sort of performance that elicited a constant volley of Oohs and Aahs from the stands but it was a thoroughly professional demonstration of getting the job done on a big stage without too many missed heartbeats.

Last year, Sania, a bit rusty after coming in following a long injury-break, had failed to convert four matchpoints in the third set, losing to Martinez Sanchez, a qualifier in the second round.

This time, she plays Sorana Cirstea of Romania in the second round.

Not long after Sania returned to the locker room, the sport’s great summiteer got within six match victories of planting his Swiss flag on a peak no man has ever set foot on. Roger Federer, opening the proceedings on a brand new Centre Court in the absence of his friend and great rival Rafael Nadal, got past Yen-Hsun Lu from Chinese Taipei 7-5, 6-3, 6-2.

“Monday 1 p.m. It is a very privileged spot. Gets your heart beating, that’s for sure. He was a tough opponent,” said the five-time champion, after playing for the first time since winning a title — the French Open — that had long proved vanishingly elusive. “Rafa had dominated the championship (French) for so long. For me it was an unbelievable feeling,” said Federer.

Earlier in the day, Andreas Seppi of Italy upset James Blake (seeded 17) of the United States 7-5, 6-4, 7-6(5).

‘’This is something that has been my worst Slam, I don’t know why,” said a disappointed Blake. “Just didn’t feel like myself out there today.”

India’s Sania Mirza and Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei defeated American Jill Craybas and Carly Gullickson 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of the women’s doubles at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships here Thursday.The Indo-Chinese pair, seeded 15th, will next face Russian Alla Kudryavtseva and Romania’s Monica Niculescu, who beat Spaniard Lourdes Dominguez Lino and Arantxa Parra Santonja 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.

Sania and Chuang had difficulty in holding their service, and so had their opponents in the first set. Sania and Chuang dropped their serve twice, but broke their opponents thrice.

The American pair saved seven break points before Sania and Chuang broke them in the fourth game.

Craybas and Gullickson came back twice, but each time Sania and Chuang got back the lead and finally closed out the set in the 10th game.

Sania and Chuang were in full control in the second set and wrapped it up with two break of serves.

Sania Mirza’s singles campaign at the Wimbledon championships ended with a 4-6 4-6 second round loss to Romanian 28th seed Sorana Cirstea here today.
Unforced errors proved costly for the Indian in the one-hour-22-minute contest as she yet again failed to move beyond the second round here.
Sania played mostly from the baseline but struggled to keep her booming strokes within the court.

The inability to win points on serve added to the woes of the unseeded Indian against an opponent ranked as high as 27th in the world.

Sania had the first opportunity to get a break but Cirstea denied her friend the favour.

Sania then committed a double fault in the fifth game to hand the Romanian a break chance.

Sania saved four breakpoints in that game but another double fault undid all the good work

Sorana Cirstea and Sania Mirza are such good friends off the tennis court that when Mirza arrived at Wimbledon with a light suitcase she knew who to turn to for a supply of spare clothes.

Thus it was 19-year-old Cirstea’s kit that saw them both safely through to today’s second round of the women’s singles, where the two girls will face each other across the net.

Fortunately, the wardrobe issue has already been sorted out. Mirza, the 22-year-old from India who beat Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in the first round, has been shopping. “I don’t need to borrow stuff from Sorana again,” she said.

Friendship now has to be put aside as she faces the Romanian 28th seed, who appeared out of nowhere to beat two top 10 players on the way to the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.

Mirza said: “We’re both professionals and we know where to draw the line.”

In the Wimbledon ladies’ singles, India’s Sania Mirza has been drawn to play against Germany’s World No. 51 AnnaLena Groenefeld in the first round.
In doubles, Sania and her Taipei partner ChiaJung Chuang, seeded 15th, will take on the unseeded American pair of Jill Craybas and Carly Gullickson.