Will take time to find rhythm, says Sania

Sania Mirza hits a forehand during her first round match against Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova at the Sydney International tennis tournament January 9, 2006

Sania Mirza managed to win her first set of the season but a couple of crucial line call overrules nipped her fight in the bud as she went down to Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova in the first round of Medibank International Open here today.

Sania, playing in her first WTA Tour match of the season, went down 6-4 2-6 6-2 to Hantuchova, world number 17, in a Centre Court match at the USD 600,000 event.

The 19-year old Hyderabadi, world ranked 34, should have been 5-2 up but an overrule by the chair umpire at a critical moment cost her the lead.

A similar overrule in the decider saw the Indian go down 2-5 down instead of staying on serve for 3-4.

Sania said it would be at least a couple of months before she found her touch as she had made a few changes to her game while training under Tony Roche.

"It will take me a few months for sure in match pressure situations before I expect to be confident with what I am trying to execute. But for a start -- pretty good,"

Sania had marked her return to the courts with an high profile exhibition event in Hong Kong last week after a back strain brought her 2005 season to an early end. "I think I have recovered sufficiently from the back problem as I had no problems with it," she said.

The Hong Kong event featured three of the four reigning Grand Slam champions and Sania got to play two singles and as many doubles matches, pairing up with world number two Kim Clijsters.

Sania failed to win a set in that event but felt she was still finding her match rhythm after a tough three-week workout with Roche in Sydney during the winter break.

On the new shoes custom-designed by Lotto that she has started using only last week, Sania said, "I am a lot more comfortable in them than I ever was.