Tennis
Sania Mirza's women's doubles journey comes to an end at the Wimbledon
Despite putting up a brave fight, the Indo-American pair of Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands crashed out in the second round of the Wimbledon Championships losing to Elena Vesnina-Veronika Kudermetova.
Sania Mirza at Hobart International 2020 (Source: Sania Mirza/Twitter)
Sania Mirza's winning streak at the ongoing Wimbledon Championships was curbed when she, along with her long-time partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands got ousted in the second round of the Women's doubles. Falling to the all-Russian pair of Elena Vesnina and Veronika Kudermetova, the Indo-American duo lost, 6-4, 6-3.
Putting up a brave fight, Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands gave it their all but failed to capitalise during the key moments of the match and ended up on the losing side, bringing their women's doubles outing to a sudden end.
Having started strongly, Mirza and Mattek-Sands, who have won 6 WTA titles in their career so far, struggled a bit for rhythm as the Russian duo put the pressure on them. The first set was still a narrow fight but an early break in the second set - put the ball entirely in the court of the Russian combine.
Sania Mirza, a 6-time Grand Slam champion, shares history with Elena Vesnina as they have paired up previously and have won 5 WTA titles together and in 2011, the Indo-Russian combine of Mirza-Vesnina featured in the 2011 French Open finals.
With both Sania and Vesnina knowing the game of the other inside out, it was difficult for the Mirza-Mattek-Sands duo to find a way to claw back.
The 34-year-old Sania, who displayed a brilliant form at her first Wimbledon as a mother, also teamed up with a familiar partner and Indian ace, Rohan Bopanna for the historic Mixed Doubles match yesterday against the all-Indian duo of Ankita Raina and Ramkumar Ramanathan. Mirza and Bopanna breezed through the first set before Raina-Ramanathan turned the pressure on them and played a tight second set. However, the veteran doubles pair of Mirza-Bopanna showed resurgent streaks to win, 6-2, 7-6.
Despite having her Wimbledon women's doubles journey being thwarted to a close, the 2015 Wimbledon champion still has hope left as she will play in the second round of the Mixed Doubles later today. The Indian pair are slated to clash against the British combine of Aidan McHugh and Emily Webley-Smith. It remains to be seen if Sania can pick up her momentum in the mixed doubles encounter and stay afloat at the Championships.
