Game, set and loss to Sania

It doesn’t make for great viewing when the Hyderabad Queen is at the receiving end. On Thursday, the tense look on Sania Mirza’s face got magnified as she was up against World No.7 Ana Ivanovic, who hails from Serbia.

We did not get to see a battle at the French Open which could have been compared any way to what has happened in Ivanovic’s country in the recent past.

But what really caught the eye was Ivanovic’s cool demeanour on court. Her face was cold almost right through the one hour plus contest, and I had this nagging suspicion the Serbian was expecting Sania to throw up some surprise stuff.

Sania has done that in the past against the bigger players, but when you have been on the Tour for a few years, people start reading your game. I am not saying that Sania played junk tennis, but for someone known to come up with the laser-sharp stuff on the forehand, she wasn’t hot today.

She looked tentative and was not relaxed in the match, which suggested she was feeling the pressure of playing at a high level. I had written just yesterday, Sania looked composed and cool. But 24 hours is such a long period in a player’s life, it can make you look so different.

The Sania we saw on Thursday was very different. I know it is very tough to comer back from a first-set thrashing. Yet, if Sania was nursing hopes of staging a fight-back, she would have had to come up with the big stuff.

Big stuff? The only thing which grew big was the unforced errors. The forehand was spluttering and the backhand a shot with which she could not have got winners. So what does one do in a stage like that?

Sania, perhaps, had no answers while thinking on court as Ivanovic stroked with purpose and covered the court with grace. When it came to Ivanovic’s serve, she was almost invincible. The first serve was smart, and if she was getting to hit second deliveries, Sania was not ready to test her with the returns.

It was almost like a waiting game for Ivanovic in the second set, which is what most professionals do. She waited for her chance on Sania’s serve -- the ninth game – and pulled the trigger.

Sadly, Sania slumped into errors and the contest was almost gone. The crowd which turned up to watch this match was sizeable. For Sania, it’s back to doubles and mixed doubles.

Two Grand Slams of the season are over and Wimbledon looms large. Sania has to work hard on her serve and get consistent if she plans to beat the tougher pros.

Easier said than done?