Sania knocked out of West Classic in first round

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Keywords: West Classic Tournament, Anne Keothavong

New Delhi: Sania Mirza's woeful run of form continued and the Indian ace crashed out of the WTA Bank of the West Classic tournament with a straight-set opening round defeat at the hands of British qualifier Anne Keothavong in Stanford, United States.

Sania, ranked No. 33, went down 6-7 (4), 1-6 to No. 83 ranked Keothavong in a one-hour-twenty-minute contest of the tier II $600,000 event.

Sania, who has been battling injuries and poor form this year, and Keothavong were facing each other for the first time and both the players broke each other once in the opening set before the Brit seized the set in the tie-breaker.

If the first set was hard-fought, the second set turned out to be exactly the opposite with Sania hardly giving a fight to her lower-ranked opponent.

Keothavong broke Sania thrice before racing away with the set and the match to set up a second-round clash with sixth seed Marion Bartoli of France.

However, Sania is still in contention in the doubles competition where she will pair up with Russian Anna Chakvetadze.

The duo will open their campaign against the Czech pair of Eva Hrdinova and Vladimira Uhlirova.