Nirupama-Miyagi bow out

The first round jinx in the doubles at the Grand Slams continued for Nirupama Vaidyanathan as the Indian ace and Nana Miyagi of Japan lost their first round women's doubles match at the French Open. They were beaten by the unseeded pair of Kristin Freye of Germany and Trudy Musgrave of Australia 3-6, 5-7 on Wednesday.

Nirupama and Nana were broken early in the fourth game on Nirupama's serve in the first set. They had a chance to win back the service break in the seventh game at 2-4, but they wasted the opportunity. They managed to save one set point on their own serve at 3-5 before losing the first set in the next game at 3-6.

In the second set, Nirupama and Nana were again broken in the third game on Nirupama's serve, but they fought back to level in the very next game on Trudy Musgrave's serve. Games went with serve till 5-5, but in the 11th game Nirupama's serve was again broken as the Indians lost the set 5-7.

Nirupama's problem was her serve. She was broken in three out of her five service games. When she was at the net with Nana serving, the pair won 20 of 24 points, but when she was serving, they won only 12 of 32 points.

Niru had neck and shoulder pain two weeks back after playing for five consecutive weeks, which proved very successful as she won big doubles titles and raised her doubles ranking to 129 from near 160.

Nirupama had played in the Australian Open in 1998 and 2001, and lost in the first round both times.

Kristin/Trudy will face the winner of the first round match between the third seeded pair of Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Elena Likhovtseva of Russia and Alicia Ortuno of Spain and Maria Alejandra Vento of Venezuela.