By IANS
Hobart (Australia) : Sixth seed Sania Mirza went down in a tight three-set clash against unseeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy in the quarter finals of the Hobart International tennis tournament Wednesday.
Sania, one of the only two seeds left in the last eight stage, lost 5-7, 6-1, 3-6 in an hour and 32 minutes. Earlier, in the pre-quarter finals, Sania beat Russian L. Kudryatseva 6-3, 6-2.
In the other quarter finals matches second seed Vera Zvonareva beat fellow Russian Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-3 while qualifier Ashley Harkleroad of the United States beat another qualifier Edina Gallovits of Romania 6-4, 6-4. Zvonareva is now the only seed left in the tournament.
Sania had her chances in the first set, as she attacked well, but time and again she was let down by double faults. She had five of them in first set alone. And she managed to convert just one of the six break points she had, while Pennetta converted two of the three she got to grab the first set 7-5.
But Sania seemed to have found her rhythm in the second set, which she ran through at 6-1 winning 90 percent of her first serve points and converting three of the four break points she had.
However in the third set, she made errors on her second serve too often and lost 3-6 and with it the match.