Sania fails to make singles main draw

Sania Mirza could not cross the final hurdle as she missed out on making the singles main draw of the Miami WTA Premier event after losing in straight sets to American 10th seed Sloane Stephens.

The unseeded Indian lost 2-6, 4-6 in the second and final qualifying round, which lasted little over one hour.

Sania was outplayed in the opening set, dropping her serve twice. She created four break opportunities in the second set but could cash in on just once.

Now Sania will ply her trade in the doubles event, where she is seeded third along with Russian partner Elena Vesnina.

They open their campaign against Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Czech Lucie Safarova.

Sania and Elena were finalist in last week's Indian Wells event.