Pin pierces Sania bubble

Nineteen-year-old Sania Mirza, the darling of the crowds, declared the Bangalore Open closed in front of a stunned crowd at the KSLTA stadium courts on Wednesday evening.

The error-prone teenager, the top seed at the WTA Tour Tier III event, looking anything but the player who had captivated the hearts of millions of Indians around the world with her stunning exploits, crashed out of the tournament to little-known Camille Pin of France 6-1, 5-7, 2-6 in the pre-quarterfinals.

The success of the $175,000 tournament depended entirely on Sania. For, only she had it in her to draw the crowds. But with her exit, it looks the remainder of the tournament is likely to be played in front of empty galleries. The loss of the second-seeded Shahar Peer, winner of the Pattaya Open last Sunday, was another body blow for the organisers.

During the second part of the Sania-Pin clash, the hardcourts at the KSLTA began to resemble the famous French clay. Outplayed and outthought in the initial part, the 24-year-old Pin, who had no weapon at all in her armoury, needed to come up with something different to stay alive in the match, and quickly at that.

That precisely was what the French player did. The high lobs were her saviour. Pin knew she didn't have the power to match the Indian and hit winners. She also knew that the Indian loved to finish off the rallies pretty quickly. But what she knew was that the Indian was a little impatient.

Good game plan

The 110th-ranked player was spot on with her game plan. She tested Sania's patience with her moon balls and forced her into errors. Blanked 6-1 in the first set of the mediocre encounter, Pin began the repair work when down 3-5 in the second set. Helping her cause was an elbow injury to the Indian, suffered when she went for an overhead in the sixth game of the first set.

"Sania hits pretty heavy. My brain was working overtime and I decided to go for the high lobs and force Sania into errors," said the elated French player.

Sania just played right into her hands. To make matters worse, frustrated at the turn of events, the errors just flowed from her racquet. The Indian lost the plot totally and even the urgings from the spectators could not help her.

Down 3-5 in the second set, Pin, riding on Sania's largesse — four straight errors — broke the Indian in the ninth game and then held serve in the next — for only the second time in the match — to level scores at 5-5. Pin broke again in the 11 th game, courtesy a wrong call by the line judge, to go up 6-5.

Pin took the second set 7-5 and pushed the issue to the decider. Sania was looking more and more exasperated. She was just not prepared to handle the high returns, and became more and more error-prone. That seemed to suit the French player fine. From 2-2 in the decider, Pin won the next four games. In the eighth game, Sania made a brave fightback, saving three match points, but hit a backhand wide to hand the match to Pin.

For the record, Sania had just 38 winners, but an astonishing 85 errors came from her racquet. Pin had only 49 errors and even fewer winners – 13 to be precise. But the French girl was a winner by a mile as far as strategy was concerned.

“Hats off to her,” Sania said masking the disappointment. “She played the best she could.”

“I guess she did what she had to do,” the Indian added referring to the moon-ball strategy Pin employed. “I tried to go in, I tried to lob, that’s not how I play,” Sania explained.

“I guess I need to be more patient. Probably, start adapting to that kind of players. That’s something I need to learn.”

Sania, however, remains in contention in the doubles, making the quarterfinals along with Liesel Huber.

Earlier, second-seeded Peer was beaten 4-6, 2-6 by Italian Maria Elena Camerin in the first round.