Sania Mirza went down fighting against world number eight and top seed Anna Chakvetadze in the singles semifinal of the $175,000 Cincinnati Open
CINCINNATI (USA): Sania Mirza went down fighting against world number eight and top seed Anna Chakvetadze in the singles semifinal of the USD 175,000 Cincinnati Open tennis tournament here.
The Indian star, seeded third, pushed her more fancied Russian opponent to the limit but lost the three setter 2-6 7-5 3-6 in .... minutes in the WTA Tier III event on Saturday.
Sania, who played her fourth three-setter in as many matches, tried hard to keep herself in contention by pulling off the second set but Chakvetadze came back stronger to race
out to a 4-0 lead in the decider and eventually sealing the matter.
Making her first semi-final appearance here after quarter-final exits at each of the last two editions of the tournament, Sania confessed that she ran out of steam towards
the end.
"She played a great match; she's a tricky player to play. After the second set, I was mentally drained after playing so many close points. I think my level dropped a bit and hers raised and when you are playing the Top 10 you can't afford to do that," she said.
Chakvetadze, who fought back from 4-1 down in the second set only to get pushed to a third, said Sania did not play well.
"It was really up and down on both sides. In the first set she didn't play very well, making a lot of mistakes. In the third, she was more relaxed because she was down 5-0. But overall it was a good match."
Chakvetadze has already won titles this year in Hobart, Australia, and at S'Hertogenbosch.
In the final, she will play seventh-seeded Akiko Morigami of Japan, who advanced with a 6-7 (8/10), 6-4, 6-3 victory over Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova.
A 2005 finalist here, Morigami upset second-seeded Patty Schnyder in the quarters on Friday.
Sania and her American partner Betahnie Mattek, top seeded, advanced to the doubles final after pulling off 2-6 6-3 10-3 win against Liga Dekmeijere of Latvian and Ipek
Senoglu of Turkey in the semifinals.
In the title clash, the Indo-US team will meet Russian Alina Jidkova and Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus, who thrashed third seeds Japanse pair of Morigami and Aiko Nakamura 6-2 6-1.
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