Sania Mirza suffered a double blow at the Australian Open, losing her women's singles and doubles matches in Melbourne on Thursday.
The Indian ace went down in straight sets to Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands in the women's singles second round. Later, she and partner Corina Morariu of the United States were beaten 2-6, 1-6 by 14th seeds Svetlana Kuznetsova and Amelie Mauresmo in the first round of the women's doubles.
In the singles, Sania recovered from a sluggish start to put up a tougher challenge in the latter part of the match but committed 35 unforced errors and went down to her 17-year old Dutch opponent 6-3, 7-5.
The 19-year-old Indian, ranked 32 in the world, was nervous in the first set, where she was broken four times.
She picked some momentum in the second set when she bounced back from a break and saved two match-points in the tenth game.
The Hyderabadi girl struggled to get the timing in her shots throughout and even her ever-reliable weapon, the forehand, kept misfiring today.
As it were, she hit a forehand long to concede the match after an hour and 21 minutes, committing five double-faults.
Krajicek, world number 43 and the 2004 US Open and world junior champion, broke Sania in the very first game of the match, pouncing on her too weak second serves.
The Dutch teenager, who had won two Tour titles in the last four months, dropped serve in the next game but got back the lead, a forehand setting up a volley winner for breakpoint and Sania obliging with a wide forehand.
After going down 2-5 with another break of serve, Sania showed signs of recovery when a drop shot followed by a return winner gave her the break back.
But the Indian hit an easy putaway into the net to face two break-points and Michaella hit a forehand for a break and set.
Sania, playing with a taped left knee, showed more resilience as the match progressed but wasted a breakpoint in the fifth game of the second set when a simple volley went long.
In fact, that game captured the pattern of Sania's game, as she worked hard to get into a winning position on every point only to squander them with unforced errors.
Michaella, with a 5-0 win-loss record this season, then choked. From being 4-2 up, she allowed Sania to come back into the match as she dropped serve in the seventh game.
The Indian, however, failed to convert two more breakpoints that came her way. A double-fault saw Sania face a double match-point situation in the twelfth game, and another misfiring forehand sealed her fate.
Sania also faces a tough task in the mixed doubles, as she and partner Stephen Huss of Australia square up against third seeds Bob Bryan of the United States and Vera Zvonareva of Russia in the first round.
Mahesh Bhupathi gave India something to cheer about when he and South African Wesley Moodie beat the unseeded pairing of Italy's Danieli Bracciali and Oliver Marach of Australia 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the men's doubles.
The 11th seeds next take on the French pair of Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra.
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