Sania, Bopanna Bow Out In Doubles

India's Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna fell by the wayside at the Australian Open on Monday.

Sixth seeds Sania and Alicia Molik of Australia lost 5-7, 3-6 to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Israel's Shahar Peer, seeded 12th, in the third round of women's doubles.

Sania is still in the running in the mixed doubles event with Mahesh Bhupathi. The Indian duo face a tough task against second seeds USA's Lisa Raymond and Simon Aspelin of Sweden on Tuesday

Bopanna and Rajeev Ram's winning run at the Grand Slam ended when they were beaten in the third round of the men's doubles.

The Indo-US pair, which had scalped fifth seeds Leander Paes and Australian partner Paul Hanley 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(6) on Sunday, lost to Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie of South Africa 6-3, 4-6, 3-6.

But the Indian challenge in the men's doubles stayed alive, as Mahesh Bhupathi and partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas advanced to the quarter-finals, beating Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland. The sixth seeds won 6-3, 6-2.

They will take on the top seeded brother duo of Bob and Mike Bryan next.

Hard To Please A Billion People: Sania

Fighting one controversy after another ever since her rise to prominence has taken a toll on Sania Mirza's morale and even forced her to consider quitting the game but the Indian tennis ace says she has gradually learnt not to get rattled by off-court furores.

"Yeah, it is painful... You know you can never get used to things like that. Of course, it does hurt you, because you are playing for your country," Sania said reflecting on the controversies ranging from her on-court attire to a recent court case relating to allegedly disrespecting the Indian national flag during the Hopman Cup.

The 21-year-old said she has understood that she would never be able to please everyone in her more than a billion strong nation.

"1.2 billion, I mean, there are going to be a couple of people that don't like you. That's very hard, but it's very hard for everyone to like you as well," she said.

"But I don't take it personally, to be honest. They obviously have good enough reasons for whatever they're doing," she quipped.

Sania, who crashed out in the third round of the ongoing Australian Open after a straight set loss to former Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, said despite the controversies she remains focussed on her game.

"If I wasn't, then I wouldn't be playing these tournaments, I wouldn't be feeling the way I feel about my country, and I would not be living in India right now with all this," Sania said.

"I would have moved out a long time ago, but I'm proud to live in India and whatever I am I am because I have grown up in India," she added.

But the Hyderabadi ace admits that her young age makes it difficult for her to understand what the fuss is all about whenever fatwas are issued against her for wearing "revealing" on-court attire or any other petty issue.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/

Sania Advances To Third Round

Sania Mirza survived a brief lapse of concentration before advancing to the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday with a 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 victory against Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky.

Sania started off in smashing fashion as she took the first set 6-1 in just 22 minutes, but the Swiss world number 119 fought back in the second set.

The 31st-seeded Indian also didn't help her cause with a string of unforced errors in the second set, but things improved in the decider. Sania continued to toil in the third set and broke Bacsinszky's serve in the 12th game to win it 7-5 and advance to the third round.

The 21-year-old next faces eight seed American Venus Williams for a place in the last 16. Venus was also made to work hard in both sets before beating Frenchwoman Camille Pin 7-5 6-4.