Sania loses playoff

Sania Mirza lost to Nicole Vaidisova of Czech Republic 7-6, 6-3 in the losers playoff at the Champions Challenge exhibition tournament today. Lindsay Davenport beat an injured Venus Williams 6-3, 6-1, and Kim Clijsters defeated Elena Dementieva 6-3, 6-3 to set up a showdown between the world’s top two female players in the final tomorrow.
Earlier, Serena Williams
withdrew from her match citing injury, dealing a blow to her preparations to defend her Australian Open crown in less than two weeks. Williams, plagued with injury for most of last year, forfeited her match against Zheng Jie from China saying she was suffering from inflammation of the left knee.
“This is really not something I would like to do, but unfortunately I was advised by the wonderful physiotherapists here, that I shouldn’t play because I developed some swelling in my knee,” Williams, told the crowd.