Dubai: Sania Mirza squandered a one-set lead to crash out of the qualifying event of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, losing the first round match to Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak.
Sania won the first set comfortably but lost steam as the match progressed to lose 6-2, 3-6, 2-6 in the opening round of the USD 2,000,000 hard court event.
The Indian will now hope to do well in the doubles event, where she and partner Elena Vesnina are seeded second. They open their campaign against Oman's Fatma Al Nabhani and Slovakia's Andreja Klepac.
Meanwhile, her earlier one-week absence from the Tour cost Sania Mirza 16 places as she dropped out of top-100 to find herself at 113 in the singles ranking list.
Sania had played in the doubles event of the Doha tournament last week but did not compete in the singles.
However, she maintained her seventh rank in the doubles list. She had lost in the first round of the Doha event with Russian partner Elena Vesnina.
In the ATP list, out-of-action Somdev Devvarman dropped to 122, a loss of two places. But a resurgent Yuki Bhambri rose to career-best 289 after gaining a jump of eight places.
In the doubles list, Leander Paes continues to be India's top-ranked player at number seven, followed by Rohan Bopanna (11) and Mahesh Bhupathi (15).
The top-10 player will get a direct entry into the London Olympics and will have the liberty to choose a partner for the doubles competition.
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