The Indian challenge in the singles event at the WTA Indian Open ended on Tuesday night when Sania Mirza and Manisha Malhotra went down fighting in their first round matches.
The day also witnessed few upsets as the top seed Clarisa Fernandez of Argentina and third seed Elena Likhovtseva were knocked out of the tournament by lesser-known opponents, at the Lal Bahadur Tennis complex.
Star attraction and fourth seed Mary Pierce survived some tense moments before quelling the challenge of qualifier Jie Zheng of China 6-3, 0-6, 6-3.
Both Sania and Manisha failed to overcome their first hurdle, going down against Evie Dominikovic of Australia Tatiana Poutchek of Bulgaria respectively.
While Sania frittered away a one set advantage to lose 6-2, 1-6, 2-6, Manisha stretched her opponent before bowing out 2-6, 6-4, 5-7.
Sania was shown the door in 80 minutes by the gritty Australian, who bounced back into the game after losing the first set. Evie roared back into the reckoning with full power and broke Sania in the first, third, fifth and seventh games to win the second set at 6-1.
In the decider though young Sania saved a match-point before bowing out.
Manisha, though lost the first set, bounced back into the match by winning the next one. However, she failed to continue in the same vein as Tatiana brought into play all her experience to take the decider.
In another match, fifth seed Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan had little difficulty in dismissing Katalin Marosi of Hungary in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.
Unheralded Akiko Morigami (Japan) scripted the biggest upset of the day, defeating top seed Clarisa in straight sets, 6-2 6-4, while Tzipora Obziler (Isreal) made a similar effort, downing third seed Elena 6-2, 6-3.
Tounament favourite Mary Pierce kept her reputation intact, defeating Zheng while second seed Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand overcame qualifier Yuia Beygelzimer of Ukraine 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Results:
First round:
Tripora Obzeiler (Isr) bt Elena Likhovtseva (Rus) 6-2, 6-3; Akiko Morigami (Jap) bt Clarisa Fernandez (Arg) 6-2, 6-4; Flavia Penetta (Itl) bt Martina Sucha (Svk) 1-6, 6-3, 6-2; Renata Voracova (Cze) bt Tian Tian Sun (Chi) 6-2, 6-2; Maria Kirilenko (Rus) bt Asastassia Todinova (Rus) 6-4, 6-3; Mary Pierce (Fra) bt Jie Zheng (Chn) 6-3, 0-6, 6-3; Tatiana Poutchek (Blg) bt Manisha Malhotra (Ind) 6-2, 4-6, 7-5; Evie Dominikovic (Aus) bt Sania Mirza 2-6, 6-1, 6-2; Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thai) bt Yuli Begelzimer (Ukr) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4; Iroda Tulyaganova (Uzb) bt Katalin Marosi (Hung) 6-3, 6-3.
