Sania to play in French Open in top-50 players

NEW DELHI: Her first-round exits in two successive build-up tournaments notwithstanding, Sania Mirza gained two spots to re-enter the top-50 WTA singles rankings to launch her French Open Grand Slam campaign on a confident note.

Sania was ranked 50th with 488.00 points.

The 20-year-old Indian star, who returned from around a long injury lay-off, lost in the singles opening rounds of Morocco Open and Istanbul Cup Tier IV and III tournaments respectively.

Sania will now be seen in action in the French open, where she will open her camapign against Italian Alberta Brianti.

She had won the doubles title in the Morocco and reached the final in Istanbul, Turkey with different partners but was not benefitted much as she maintained her 37th position with 1042.00 points in the doubles rankings.

Leander Paes also clung to his sixth place in the ATP doubles rankings despite some ordinary outings in the recent tournaments. He has 3940 points in his kitty.

His compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi was a distant 26th with 1600 points after he suffered a downslide of three places on the ATP chart.