Lack of rhythm cost me the match: Sania

Tennis ace Sania Mirza, who crashed out of the Australian Open after losing to Michaella Krajicek in the second round, on Thursday attributed her defeat to a "lack of rhythm" throughout the match.

"I really didn't have the rhythm throughout the match, I saw it coming... I knew I was going to make some errors here and there when it really mattered and that's what happened," she said.

Sania recovered from a sluggish start to put up a tougher challenge in the later part of the match but committed far too many unforced errors to go down to her 17-year old Dutch opponent 6-3, 7-5.

"I think the match was pretty winnable, but that is how it is," said Mirza.

"It is hard when you are not playing your best tennis and the other girl's coming from winning a tournament."

The 19-year-old Indian, seeded 32 in the Australian Open, was nervous in the first set when she was broken four times.

Sania, playing with a taped left knee, picked up momentum in the second set when she bounced back from a break and saved two match points in the tenth game.

"The bottom line is I did not play up to my standard and did not play well. Of course I'd love to have done better. But it's the beginning of the year and I just have to put it behind me."

Michaella, world number 43 and the 2004 US Open and world junior champion, broke Sania in the very first game of the match, pouncing on her weak second serves.

Michaella, with a 5-0 win-loss record this season, was 4-2 up in the second set up but allowed Sania to come back into the match as she dropped serve in the seventh game.

The Indian, however, failed to convert two more breakpoints that came her way. A doublefault saw Sania face a double matchpoint situation in the twelfth game, and another misfiring forehand sealed her fate.

Sania, who shot to fame after reaching the third round here as a wild card entry last year, said that she enjoyed the crowd cheering for both the players.

"Obviously they were a bit noisy today but it's fun playing that atmosphere when you have people for you and against you, it just makes it more exciting," she said.