By IANS,
London : An inconsistent Sania Mirza’s Wimbledon hopes ended with a second round exit at the hands of her friend Sorana Cristea 4-6, 4-6 at the All England Club here Wednesday.
The Romanian teenager continued her cruise in women’s tennis as he dispatched Sania in an hour and 22 minutes to reach the third round.
Cristea had caused a flutter in the Grand Slam at French Open, knocking out former World No.1 Jelena Jankovic to seal a quarterfinal place.
Sania’s run-up to Wimbledon had been impressive and held hopes of her moving beyond the second round in her fifth attempt here.
But once again she scripted her own downfall with an erratic play, losing her serve at crucial moments. Although her booming groundstrokes had Cristea in trouble, errors flew far too many from Sania’s racket to neutralise her powerplay.
In the fifth game of the first set, Sania saved four break points, but eventually a misfiring forehand gave Cristea an early break. The Romanian consolidated the break with a love game to go 4-2 up.
Though Sania managed well to hold on to next two service games, she could not break Cristea, who won another love game to serve out the set.
Sania had a disastrous start to the second set, broken in the first game. But she fought back to break Cristea twice in the next three games to take a 3-1 lead. Sania had everything going her way at that stage with her forehand winners coming at will. It did not take much time for the momentum to shift though, as Cristea immediately broke her back and with a hold made it 3-3.
At 4-4, Sania was again broken and it was enough for Cristea to close out the match in the next game.