Sania Mirza flattered to deceive once again as she bowed out of the US Open women’s singles with a three-set loss to Fransesco Schiavone of Italy in the second round on Thursday.
Much like her Wimbledon loss to Elena Dementieva, Sania started strongly before fading out, losing 7-5, 1-6, 2-6 to the 14th seed in the year’s final Grand Slam at the Flushing Meadows.
If anything, the Italian proved an even tougher nut to crack than Dementieva while taming Sania in two hours and 20 minutes to advance to the third round.
The first set was a see-saw battle which saw Schiavone rally from being 1-4 down to go 5-4 up in the first set.
The Hyderabadi girl, however, held her nerves to retain her serve for 5-5 and broke her opponent in the next game by earning triple breakpoints.
Sania appeared to be on a roll as she garnered three set points and rounded off the set in style.
But the second set turned out to be a disaster.
Schiavone broke Sania three times to mark a complete turn around in the match.
Sania had a break of her own but 14 unforced errors including three doublefaults undermined her chances.
An 80 per cent first serve in that second set showed the Italian in regal form.
In the second game of the decider, Sania had five breakpoints but could take none of it.