`I really enjoyed meeting Big B’

Playing on the most competitive turf after being operated upon for a wrist injury requires a lot of guts and gumption. And the poster girl of Indian tennis, Sania Mirza, has it in plenty. Although her performance at Wimbledon (singles) may not have grabbed headlines, for India’s highest ranked woman tennis star, it was the decision to play that was more challenging. Taking all the hits and misses in her stride.

India’s Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek crashed out of the Wimbledon doubles event after losing in straight sets to Venus and Serena Williams in the quarterfinals Wednesday. Sania and Mattek, seeded 13th, lost 4-6 3-6 to the 11th seed American sisters in almost an hour and a half to bow out of the championships at the All England Club. The match was twice interrupted by rain.

India’s Sania Mirza brought up one of her best moments at Wimbledon late on Monday evening as she went through to the quarterfinals in the company of her American partner Bethanie Mattek. Sania and Mattek fought back from a set down, levelled the match, and then opened up a 2-0 lead when their opponents, Akgul Amanmuradova from Uzbekistan and Darya Kustova from Belarus conceded the match.

The Indian mixed double pairing of Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi could not take advantage of a near home crowd advance against Igor Andreev and Maria Kirilenko.

The Russians won a tight affair 7-6 (4), 6-3 in which nothing could separate the opposing players, except for one crucial statistic: Mirza and Bhupathi were denied a break point opportunity for the entire match.

A profligate Sania Mirza squandered four match points to crash out of the women’s singles event of the Wimbledon Championships as she lost her second round match 0-6 6-4 7-9 to qualifier Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez here today.
The 21-year-old Indian did manage to overcame a sloppy start after losing the first set on love but awful misses on easy points proved fatal for her.