Sania-Mattek suffer first round exit in last event before Olympics

Carlsbad (USA): Sania Mirza ended her Olympics build-up on a disappointing note as she suffered a first round exit from the WTA Premier event in USA along with her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands, here today. The unseeded Indo-American pair fought hard before losing 7-5 4-6 5-10 in one hour and 56 minutes to Chinese Taipei combination of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan in the  $740,000 hard court event. It was a roller-coaster contest for Sania and Bethanie as they came from no-where to win the first set as they were trailing 2-4 at one stage. [caption id=“attachment_380004” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Sania Mirza. Reuters[/caption] They though failed to carry forward the momentum, allowed the Taipei pair to draw parity before and then lost the match tie-breaker. It was last tournament for Sania before the Olympics as she is to report to the team captain S P Misra in London July 23. PTI