Sania Mirza’s dreams in the Wimbledon ladies' doubles event turned to dust on Wednesday when she and Israel’s Shahar Peer were knocked out 0-6, 7-6, 1-6 by Lisa Raymond (USA) and Samantha Stosur (Australia) in the pre-quarterfinals. The Indian star, however, remained in contention in the mixed doubles, pairing up with Mahesh Bhupathi to defeat Janette Husarova (Slovakia) and David Skoch (Czech Republic) 6-3, 6-4 in the first round.
When the number one ranked ladies team took just 15 minutes to wrap up the first set, it seemed like the match was heading for an early end. But Mirza and Peer pulled up their socks and pulled off a comeback of sorts to take the second set on a tiebreaker.
Constant hand touching, whispered asides and laughter during the breaks count for a lot. But age and experience count for a lot more, and those are the things that fuelled the Raymond-Stosur victory. They showed exactly why they're top-ranked as they pulled out aces just when they needed them, and hammered out volleys that couldn't be touched. It also helped that they had just one unforced error to Mirza and Peer's 10.
Speaking after the match to Radio Wimbledon, Sania said, "I think in the first set we had no chances at all, they were playing really well. We adapted in the second set a lot better, and I think we used our strengths a bit more."
Their strengths, she elaborated, were playing more from the baseline because Raymond and Stosur are old hands at the net. " It's no secret that they're much better than us at the net, we needed to play more from behind, which we did in the second set."
Curly-haired, and soft spoken Peer agreed, "In the second set we got the rhythm, found what we had to do. Actually they're the number one team and we had to play well the whole match to beat them, which didn't happen. I held serve only one time, which is not good to win a match. We have to improve, but I think we can develop together."
Raymond and Stosur's hard-hitting game really pushed the Indo-Israeli pair back. "It's different with them, because they don't play like typical women's doubles, they play like guy's doubles,"  Sania said. Shahar apparently told Sania on court, "Because they play like men's doubles, this match is good practice for your mixed doubles match."
Sania and Peer acknowledged that things have to improve, but there are several positives about the partnership. "We've grown up together, played juniors together, now we're both professionals together. She's a very good of friend of mine," said the 20-year-old Indian.  So what they're taking home is a sense of accomplishment. "It's important that we played together and played well, even after two years."