Sania bows out of Australian ITF event

The Indian challenge at the Grade-1 Australian Hardcourts ITF Juniors Championships at Glen Waverly, Melbourne, Australia, ended on Wednesday, with junior Sania Mirza crashing out of the singles.

Mirza, seeded eighth, lost to Elke Clijsters of Belgium 3-6, 2-6 in her third round match.

Earlier, she had defeated Linda Smolenakova of Slovakia 6-3, 7-6(4) in the second round and Daniella Dominikovic of Australia 6-1, 6-0 in the first.

In the boys' doubles, Amanjot Singh and Rohan Gajjar also crashed out of the event. The duo lost to the eighth seeded French pair of Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 2-6, 3-6.

Earlier they had defeated the Australian pair of Christopher Letcher and Christopher Roman 7-6(4), 6-2 in the first round.

In the girls' doubles, sixth seeds Sania Mirza and Linda Smolenakov of Slovakia lost to the Australian pair of Darya Ivanov and Tiffany Welford 4-6, 0-6, while Sasha Abraham, partnering Amani Khalifa of Egypt, lost to the American pair of Nicole Pitts and Sunitha Rao 3-6, 1-6 in the first round.

Last week, Sania and Smolenakov had won the doubles title at the Victorian Grade II championship at Traralgon, Australia.

This tournament is the big preparation event before the Australian Open juniors next week.

Earlier report:
Sania is lone Indian to survive in Australian ITF event
Gajjar, Bhel lose in Australian Hardcourt event