Sania Mirza put up a spirited fight against eighth-seeded American Venus Williams before crashing out in the third round of the women’s singles event of the Australian Open here today.

Sania gave the Wimbledon champion a run for her money before losing 7-6 (7-0), 6-4 in an intense battle which lasted over one-and-a-half hours. In a gutsy performance, the 31-ranked Indian matched Venus shot for shot in the first set to drag it to a tie-breaker.

However, the tie-breaker proved to be a one-sided affair as Venus swept past the Indian to go one up. The 21-year-old was mainly undone by the 30 unforced errors, which spiked her chances. The Indian ace committed as many as 16 unforced errors in the second set which tilted the game in the favour of the American.

Besides, Venus served well, never ging Sania a chance to break her in the second set as she wrapped up the match in style.

The American next takes on the winner of the match between Li Na of China and Marta Domachowska of Poland in the fourth round.

After her narrow Williams, Mirza left the gathered reporters in no doubt as to how she was feeling.

“I’m a little disappointed and tomorrow morning I’m going to wake up and feel even more like crap about it,” Mirza told reporters.

“I felt like I had the first set and should have closed it out at 5-4. But I take a lot of positives out of it. She’s supposed to be one of the biggest hitters of the game, and I was out-hitting her. That’s a very good thing for me,” Sania said. The former world number one had the distinct edge in the serve department. “I think we always knew she’s one of the best servers in the game and I’m really not,” Mirza said. “I’m very critical about my game. I think I’m one of the worst servers in the game. If you want me to put it very, you know, matter-of-factly. “I think I was still able to hold my own. I was able to hold my serve. Yes, of course she came up with the aces when she needed today and I couldn’t.”