Monday, July 10, 2006

Sania drops to 40th spot in WTA rankings

The first round loss at the Wimbledon tennis championships has pushed Sania Mirza, who was the lone Indian woman in the Grand Slam event, two places down to 40th in the latest WTA rankings released on Monday.

With 501.50 points, the Hyderabadi girl is the fourth highest ranked among the Asians who are headed by 19th ranked Ai Sugiyama of Japan and China's Na Li (22nd) and Jie Zheng (34th).

Sania, who made it into the second round of the prestigious tournament last year, fumbled at the first hurdle this time, losing to Russian Elena Dementieva -- who has climbed two steps to be ranked sixth.

Dementieva also had a hand in the 19-year old Indian's defeat in the doubles event.

Sania and Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands were knocked out by Dementieva and Flavia Pennetta of Italy in the second round but, that did not affect the Indian teenager's doubles ranking as she managed to hang onto her 33rd position.

New Wimbledon women's champion Amelie Mauresmo of France bolstered her top ranking by reaching to 3692 points, a healthy lead over Belgians second ranked Kim Clijsters (3377) and third-ranked Justine Henin-Hardenne (3093).

Meanwhile, India's doubles specialist Leander Paes with 2505 points retained his ranking at the 14th spot.

Mahesh Bhupathi's ranking remained unchanged too as the Bangalorean maintained his 24th doubles ranking with 1755 points.

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