The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Sania falls to Dementieva

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Friday, Jun 30, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Sania falls to Dementieva

Nirmal Shekar

London: Suggesting that she has rediscovered her love affair with Wimbledon and its velvety lawns, Sania Mirza sped away like a Renault from the front of the grid in a women's singles first round match against seventh-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva on Wednesday.

Opening up a 5-2 first set lead in quick time, the only Indian in the singles draw here threatened to pull off a stunning upset in the 120th championships before the tenacious Russian clawed her way back to post a 7-6(5), 7-5 victory in an hour and 24 minutes.

Through the first half hour, Sania was superbly dominant. Unleashing an avalanche of rapier-like passing shots, a majority of them with her bazooka forehand, the teenager from Hyderabad played breathtaking tennis.

Taking the ball early to fire blistering winners, Sania broke the willowy Russian in the opening game itself and soon sped to a 4-1 lead with two breaks. What is more, she came within a point of making it 5-1.

That is when the fairytale developed dark shadows. It took that long for Dementieva to figure a few things out. Once she did that, the Russian started redirecting traffic, going mostly for Sania's backhand.

Twice the Indian teenager had the opportunity to serve out the first set. The first time, at 5-2, Sania double faulted on breakpoint and on the second occasion she failed to win a point.

But, then, in the tie-break, Sania pulled up her socks and opened up a 5-3 lead only to lose four points in a row, three of them on forehand errors.

The second set was another roller-coaster ride. Three times the players traded breaks before Dementieva, who is more at home on clay and has never progressed past the fourth round here, broke to 6-5 and then served out the match.

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