London, June 22 (IANS) India’s Sania Mirza-Malik was beaten in straight sets in the first round of the women’s singles on the opening day of the all-England lawn tennis championships at Wimbledon Monday.
Sania, ranked 111, lost 4-6, 1-6, to 54th ranked German Angelique Kerber after a flourishing start in a late match.
Sania, returning to circuit after nursing a wrist injury for nearly three months, clearly looked out of sorts as she had very little preparation heading into the Grand Slam event.
The Indian, who during the break from tennis married former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik, lost in the second round in the warm-up tournament at Birmingham and then failed to make it to the main draw at Eastbourne.
Sania started breaking Kerber in the first game of the match, but that advantage was nullified as she herself dropped serve twice to lose the first set.
The German thereafter hardly looked like relaxing her stranglehold on the match as made Sania realise that she needs to do much more if she has to make headway on the circuit.
The Indian kept making simple unforced errors and from 17 in the first set they mounted to 31 by the time the German closed out the match.
Sania’s continued to have trouble with her serve and that compounded her woes as she could not even get half of her first serves in.
Sania will now have to concentrate on doubles with her Danish partner Caroline Wozniacki.
Their opening round opponents are Anne Keothavong and Melanie South of Great Britain.
