The Hindu : Sport / Olympic Games : Sania and Sunitha lose

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Thursday, Aug 14, 2008
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Sport - Olympic Games

Sania and Sunitha lose

Special Correspondent

BEIJING: Sania Mirza and Sunitha Rao fought like wounded tigresses before succumbing to the top-seeded pair of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina of Russia in the pre-quarterfinals of the women’s doubles at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre here on Wednesday.

Sania, who was nursing a wrist injury and had a long tape running from her wrist to shoulder and Sunitha, who had her right thigh heavily strapped, made light of their discomfiture to put up an entertaining display.

However, the big-serving Russians, with their experience in the big league, came back strongly after trailing 0-3, being two breaks down, to eventually script a 6-4, 6-4 triumph in an hour-and-a-half.

After being up 3-0, the Indian pair lost four games in a row.

Sania held serve to make it 4-4, but Sunitha’s serve was broken in the 10th game which helped the Russians pocket the first set.

Fightback

In the second set, the Indian girls fought well to go up 2-1 by breaking Safina in the third game. But Sunitha failed to hold serve in the fourth.

In one final fling, Sania and Sunitha raised their level to break Kuznetsova in the fifth game, but thereafter the pair could win only one game. Sania saved a breakpoint to hold serve for 4-2, but when it looked like the duo could pull off a set at least, errors ate into their game.

After having retired midway through her singles match, it was a brave effort by Sania, to take the court in the first place and play a full match, with the help of pain-killers.

Sunitha, quite unused to this level of play, gave a very good account of herself, but her penchant to go for the big shots resulted in her over-hitting.

The Olympic campaign may have been pretty brief for the Indian girls, but considering the circumstances they acquitted themselves very well.

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