Sania-mahesh crash out in second round
London, June 30: French Open champions Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza crashed out of the Wimbledon with a crushing straight-set defeat to Australian P. Hanley and Russia’s A. Kudryavtseva in the second round of the mixed doubles competition here on Saturday.
The fifth seeded Indian combo, who had clinched their second Grand Slam title together earlier this month, suffered a 3-6, 1-6 defeat to the unseeded pair in a 50-minute match at the All England Club here.
The Australian-Russian combo sent down six aces and also broke the Indian pair four times out of the seven chances that came their way. In comparison, Sania and Bhupathi failed to create any opportunity and also had three double faults and four unforced errors.
The Indians, who would not be playing together in next month’s London Olympics after the All India Tennis Association (AITA) paired Sania with Leander Paes in mixed doubles, were better than their rivals in their first serve but they failed miserably in the second in the opening set.
In the second set, Sania and Bhupathi looked lacklustre as Hanley and Kudryavtseva sent down four aces and pushed the Indians to commit unforced errors and sealed the match comfortably.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer came within two points of crashing to his worst Wimbledon defeat in 10 years on Friday before battling from two sets down to beat French 29th seed Julien Benneteau.
Federer came from two sets down to win 4-6, 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 7-6 (8/6), 6-1.
Second-ranked Victoria Azarenka reached the fourth round by beating Slovakian qualifier Jana Cepelova 6-3, 6-3 on Saturday. Serena too booked her place in the last 16 with a 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 9-7 win over China’s Zheng Jie.
— PTI, AFP