The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Lucky loser Sania enters main draw

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 27, 2005

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Lucky loser Sania enters main draw

New Delhi: Sania Mirza entered the main draw as a lucky loser after her defeat in a final qualifying round at the $585,000 WTA Tour event in Stanford, USA.

Sania put up a brave fight before going down 2-6, 6-7(10) to Israeli Shahar Peer on Monday, but she entered the competition proper after Chanda Rubin pulled out with an ankle inflammation.

Sania will now play wild card Eleni Daniilidou, currently ranked 58th in the world.

A win over the Grecian would pit the 18-year old Indian against second seed Venus Williams who has a bye in the first round.

However, there was no such luck for the Uberoi sisters, Shikha and Neha, as both went down in the final round of the qualifiers.

Shikha went down to Marissa Irvin of the U.S. 6-2, 6-4, while Neha, who represents her adopted country, the U.S.A., lost to Alina Jidkova of Russia 6-4, 6-4.

Meanwhile, Harsh Mankad strengthened his case for an entry into the U.S. Open qualifiers after edging out 470th ranked Toshihide Matsui in the $50,000 ATP Tour Granby Challenger first round. — PTI

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