Sania goes down fighting

Top seeded Indian junior Sania Mirza went down fighting to South African Taryn Routman 4-6, 6-2, 4-6 in a marathon pre-quarter-final in the girls' singles, at the Dolphin international grade 2 championship in Durban on Thursday.

The 14-year-old Hyderabad girl was leading 4-3 in the first set when the tall South African not only held her fourth game serve but broke in the fifth to take a 5-4 lead. Taryn went on take the first set at 6-4.

Sania was down 1-2 in the second set but played with her serve and deep returns to win the set 6-2.

In the decider, the Indian was trailing 1-4 but rallied and managed to break her rival's serve to narrow the lead to 4-5. However, the South African held serve in the tenth game to take the set 6-4.

The match lasted for 120 minutes.

Sania and Sasha Abraham, both ranked 93 on the junior world rankings, are top seeds in the girls' doubles event. They will play their quarter-final match on Friday after a first round bye.

Sania and Sasha had won the doubles title in Cairo two weeks back. Sania, last week, played with Marzovic Wana of Yugoslavia in the absence of Sasha to win the doubles title.

Earlier, Sasha Abraham crashed out of the girls' singles, losing to South African Du plessis 3-6, 1-6 on Wednesday.

The Hyderabadi girl had requested the organisers to put off of her first round match by a day as she was unwell.

The illness took its toll as Sasha felt weak and threw in the towel at 3-3 in the first set.

Sania had won a grand double at Giza, winning both singles and doubles titles. At the Cairo event she lost in the singles final, but won the doubles.

Earlier report:
Sania in pre-quarters of Durban event