Sania goes down fighting; Dokic eases past Baltacha

The unseeded Indian lost 4-6, 6-2, 3-6 to her Australian opponent in one hour and 32 minutes in her opening round of the $220,000 event.
The Indian came up well after conceding the lead but failed to keep up the momentum and was broken thrice in the final set. Sania had lost the second round of the Auckland event to Italian Flavia Pennetta last week.

The Indian, however, remains in contention in the doubles competition pairing with Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual. They have been seeded second and open their campaign against Edina Gallovits of Romania and Marie-Eve Pelletier of Canada.
Australia' Jelena Dokic beat British number one Elena Baltacha 6-4, 6-2. Dokic will play Israel's Shahar Peer in the second round after the number two seed beat Australia's Olivia Rogowska 6-3, 6-2.

Meanwhile, Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy had to be content with a runner-up finish at the ATP Brisbane International event after the top seeded duo lost the summit clash to Marc Gicquel and Jeremy Chardy in straight sets.
The Indo-Czech pair lost 3-6, 6-7 (7-5) to the unseeded French pair in the final on Sunday. Gicquel and Chardy had also stunned the second seeded pair of Julien Knowle of Austria and Swiss Lindstedt in the opening round.

In Sydney, US Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki and former world number one Jelena Jankovic joined a growing list of early casualties at the Sydney International on Monday.
Zvonereva hobbled out of her first round match with countrywoman Elena Vesnina with a recurring ankle problem.
She thought she had recovered enough to play in Sydney but retired with the scores locked at 3-3 in the first set.

A jet-lagged Wozniacki was knocked out by China's Li Na 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, came from behind to beat Germany's Sabine Lisicki 3-6, 6-1, 7-5. Jankovic lost her opening round match 5-7, 6-1, 7-5 to Hungary's Agnes Szavay.