Sania's sensational stint at US Open ends

Indian tennis' Cinderella Sania Mirza saw her amazing run at the US Open Grand Slam come to an end as she bowed to the might of Russian number one seed Maria Sharapova in the women's singles fourth round here on Sunday.

The 18-year old Indian put up a brave performance while going down 2-6 1-6 to the 2004 Wimbledon champion who clinched the victory 59 minutes to move into the quarterfinals.

The scoreline bore no indication of the tough fight put up by Sania who proved in that one hour at the Arthur Ashe stadium that she had it in her to fight it out with the top players on the biggest stage.It was exhilarating stuff as Sania matched Sharapova stroke for stroke, the pace and depth of her strokes at times leaving the six-foot one-inch tall rival gasping for breath.

Crucially, it was her backhand with sharp angles that posed problems for Sharapova who occupied the world number one spot in world rankings for a brief period last week.

Sania's best moment of the match came when she clinched a long rally to avert a second breakpoint in the sixth game of the first set.

The Hyderabadi was rewarded for her hard work with USD 70,000 and 112 WTA points that should see her move up from her current ranking of 42.

Sharapova showed it's not just her attractive looks that is her conquering force but her racquet skills too.

Sharapova adjusted to Sania's pace quickly and her burning intensity slowly began to snuff out the Indian's challenge.

Once she wriggled out of a triple breakpoint situation in the seventh game of the first set, Sharapova pulled away from her opponent quickly.