By IANS,
Melbourne : India’s Sania Mirza will begin her singles campaign against Marta Domachowska of Poland in the Australian Open tennis beginning here Monday.
Sania is on a comeback trail after remaining out of action for most part of 2008 due to a career threatening wrist injury and her ranking has slipped from a high of 27 to current 107.
The 22-year-old Indian’s first round opponent is ranked 61st and reached Australian Open quarterfinal last year to register her best Grand Slam performance so far.
The Hyderabadi has come back to courts only last month in the World Team Challenge in Hong Kong where she showed flashes of her old self when she upset 25th ranked Agnes Szavay of Hungary in straight sets and helped the Asia-Pacific team to become the Silver Group champions.
Sania’s best Australian Open performance was her third round appearance in 2005 and 2008.
Marta had the better of Sania in straight sets way back in 2003, the only time they have faced each other.
If Sania manages to get past Marta, she could potentially run into 10th seed Nadia Petrova of Russia in the second round. Nadia is up against Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova in the first round.