Melbourne, Jan 27: All hopes of an Indian win at the Australian Open were dashed as Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza went down in straight sets to fifth seeds Sun Tiantian of China and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic in the mixed doubles final today.

The unseeded Indian duo wasted several chances as they lost 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 in one hour and 21 minutes. The first set saw a see-saw battle as the Chinese-Serbian pair started with an early break, but were themselves broken in consecutive service games. Sania and Bhupathi, who were up 4-3 at that stage, had only themselves to blame as they allowed their opponents to claw back, eventually losing the set in 42 minutes.

The Indians failed to bounce back in the second set, committing several double faults and unforced errors as Sun and Zimonjic romped home with ease.


UNI