Indian challenge ends as Sania-Martina bow out of French Open

 Indian ace Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis crashed out of the French Open after being upstaged in straight sets by Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova in their women's doubles quarterfinal match here today.

Top seeds and hot favourites, Sania and Martina went down to the seventh seeded American-Czech pair 5-7 2-6 in the Clay Court Grand Slam.

With this defeat, India's campaign in the main draw of the French Open is over.
It was a below par performance by Sania and Martina, managing to win just a total of 61 points as compared to 70 by their lower-ranked rivals.

Sania and Martina simply failed to live up to their reputation as they struggled throughout the match.

Although they fought hard in the opening set, the Indo-Swiss duo could not step up the momentum when needed and lost 5-7.

In the second set, Sania and Martina turned out to be no match to their opponents. They lost their serve in the beginning of the set itself to fall behind 0-2.

Leading 2-0, Mattek-Sands and Safarova tightened the noose and the top seeds were left to play only the catching up game, which they eventually lost to bow out of the tournament.