Sania bows out of Stanford singles

Stanford, US, Jul 16 (UNI) Sania Mirza's disappointing season continued as the Indian was handed a straight-set opening round defeat by British qualifier Anne Keothavong in the WTA Bank of the West Classic tournament here.

Sania, who has been battling injuries and poor form this year went down 6-7 (4) 1-6 to Keothavong in a one-hour-twenty-minute contest of the tier II 600,000 dollar tournament.

Ranked 33 in the world, Sania was facing the 83rd ranked Keothavong for the first time. Both the players broke each other once in the opening set before Keothavong seized the set in the tie-breaker.

However, in the second set Sania failed to gave a fight to her lower-ranked opponent.

Suddenly Sania looked in all sorts of trouble as she was broken thrice as Keothavong held a tight grip on the her and the Briton cornered the Indian to seal the set and match to set up a second-round clash with sixth seed Marion Bartoli of France.

However, Sania is still in contention in the doubles competition where she will pair up with Russian Anna Chakvetadze.

The duo will face the Czech pair of Eva Hrdinova and Vladimira Uhlirova.

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