Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza has crashed out of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships after she and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black went down in a closely-fought first-round women's doubles match on Tuesday.
Mirza and Black were defeated by Czech Republic's Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Safarova with the 7-6, 5-7, 1-0 (11-9) scoreline highlighting the see-saw contest.
According to Gulf News, the loss was surprising not just given the strong support for Mirza but also because it follows her two consecutive final appearances at the tournament.
Mirza and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands beat Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik and Russia's Nadia Petrova for the crown here last year, although she finished runners-up alongside Russia's Elena Vesnina against the USA's Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in 2012, the report added.
