Los Angeles: Sania Mirza once again fell at
the second round stage when she lost in straight
sets to Meng Yuan at the USD 600,000 East West
Bank Classic tournament. The 16th seed Indian
lost to her unseeded Chinese opponent 4-6 3-6
in one and a half hour contest to crash out
of the hard court WTA event. Sania borke Yuan
once and dropped her own serve twice to go down
in the first set. Then in the second, Sania
could convert just three out of six breakpoints
while the Chinese cashed in on all the five
breakpoints to snatch the match away from the
Indian. The defeat came as a big jolt to Indian
fans, who have pinned hopes on India’s
numero uno woman player to win a medal at Beijing
Olympics. Sania had also lost her second round
matches at WTA events in Birmingham, s’Hertogenbosch
and at Wimbledon singles last month. Last week
she had lost to a British qualifier in the first
round of the Stanford WTA tournament.