PTI - Thursday, 2-30 pm
 
Melbourne, Jan 19: Sania Mirza crashed out of the Australian Open after a straight sets loss to Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands in the women’s singles second round on Thursday.

Sania recovered from a sluggish start to put up a tougher challenge in the latter part of the match, but committed far too many unforced errors to go 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 when she was broken four times.

She picked up some momentum in the second set when she bounced back from a break and saved two matchpoints in the 10th game.

The Hyderabadi girl struggled to get the timing in her shots throughout and even her ever-reliable weapon of 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 and 35 unforced errors along the way.

Michaella, 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 breakpoints and Michaella hit a forehand for 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 today, as she worked hard to get into a winning position in 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 doublefault saw Sania face a double matchpoint situation in the twelfth game, and another misfiring forehand sealed her fate.