'Rusty' Sania bows to Salerni in opening round of Morocco Open

Fes, Morocco, May 16 (UNI) Top seed Sania Mirza has been knocked out in the first round of the Morocco Open here, losing in straight sets 2-6, 5-7 to Emilia Ma Salerni of Argentina.

Sania, who who made comeback in this tournament after nursing a two and a half month long injury, was no match for the qualifier Argentinian and showed signs of rustiness from the beginning of the match.

After her embarassing loss against the 213th ranked Ma Salerni, a disappointed Sania said, ''Of course it is disappointing. It was frustrating to be there knowing what I wanted to do, but not being able to execute like before the injury. But that's what lack of match play will do.'' ''I knew I'd be quite rusty and wouldn't be anywhere close to what I wanted. But I was definitely getting into the match in the second set. Because of my lack of match play I still didn't feel like I was playing great, and the confidence I needed at the end of that set wasn't there,'' she added.

Though she lost her first singles comeback match against a player ranked way behind her, the 50th ranked Indian expressed her happiness on returning back to the playing surface.

''After an injury, every sportsperson goes through these things though. But there are a lot of good things I can take from this. It was obviously good to be back on the court again feeling healthy as my knee didn't hurt one bit.'' Earlier on Monday, Sania teaming up with Vania King of US defeated the Russian-Ukranian pair of Alla Kudryavtseva and Olga Savchuk in their opening round doubles match of the Morocco Open.

Meanwhile, she expressed optimism about her chances in the upcoming tournamnets which includes the French Open.

''I've got a tournament in Turkey and the French Open coming up, so I want to keep improving and be at my best as soon as I can.'' UNI