Agency
 
Cincinnati (USA), Jul 22: Sania Mirza went down fighting against world number eight and top seed Anna Chakvetadze in the singles semifinal of the USD 175,000 Cincinnati Open tennis tournament here.

The Indian star, seeded third, pushed her more fancied Russian opponent to the limit but lost the three-setter 2-6, 7-5, 3-6 at the WTA Tier III event on Saturday.

Sania, who played her fourth three-setter in as many matches, tried hard to keep herself in contention by pulling off the second set but Chakvetadze came back stronger to race out to a 4-0 lead in the decider and eventually sealing the match.

Making her first semi-final appearance here after quarter-final exits at each of the last two editions of the tournament, Sania confessed that she ran out of steam towards the end.

"She played a great match, she's a tricky player to play. After the second set, I was mentally drained and I think my level dropped a bit and when you are playing against a Top 10 you can't afford to do that," she said.

Chakvetadze, who fought back from 4-1 down in the second set only to get pushed to a third, said Sania did not play well.

"It was really up and down on both sides. In the first set she didn't play very well, making a lot of mistakes. In the third, she was more relaxed because she was down 5-0. But overall it was a good match."