Poor build-up for Sania Mirza

She and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands suffered a first-round exit from the WTA meet here yesterday.u00a0

This was her last tournament before the London Olympics.

Sania Mirza

Though the unseeded Indo-American pair worked hard, still it wasn't enough against the Chinese Taipei combination of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan in the $740,000 hard court event. Sania-Mattek lost 7-5, 4-6, 5-10 in an one-hour-56-minute affair.

The first set was keenly contested which the Indo-American pair won 7-5 after trailing 2-4. But they failed to keep the momentum going in the next two sets.

The opponents came back in the second set to win 6-4 and restored parity.

The third set went into the super tie-break which the Taipei duo won 10-5.

Sania is expected to report to India tennis captain S P Misra in London on July 23.

Sania will play doubles and mixed doubles partnering Rushmi Chakravarthy and Leander Paes, respectively.