Birmingham, Jun 9: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza crashed out in the first round of the women's singles event at the AEGON Classic tennis tournament here, losing to Tamira Paszek of Austria in a thrilling three-setter.

Sania, ranked 58th in the world, was stunned 3-6 6-4 2-6 by less-fancied Paszek at the USD 220,000 grasscourt event yesterday.

The world ranked 80th Austrian will now be up against Russian sixth seed Ekaterina Makarova, who got a bye in the first round.

The tournament is the first of the two warm-up events on grass ahead of this month''s All England Championships at Wimbledon.

PTI