Indian challengers continued to exit from the French Open as Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands were forced to retire from their pre-quarterfinals following a groin problem to the latter, here today.
Sania and Bethanie, seeded seventh, had annexed the first set but the American encountered a groin issue in the second set and eventually they pulled out with score reading 7-6(0) 3-5 against 11th seeds Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova.
Sania and Bethanie, who had encountered a back problem yesterday, had overcome American pair of Lauren Davis and Megan Moulton-Levy 1-6 6-3 6-0 in their second round match.
Sania's defeat means that now Leander Paes is the only surviving Indian in the French Open.
Paes has lost in the men's doubles but is still alive in the mixed doubles, where he and Jelena Jankovic will take on eighth seeded American Liezel Huber and Brazilian Marcelo Melo for a place in the quarter-finals.
