Sania crashes out of singles event in Guangzhou Open

Guangzhou :

India's Sania Mirza went down fighting to local favourite Zhang Shuai 4-6 6-1 4-6 in the quarterfinals to crash out of the Guangzhou International Women's Open here on Friday.

The unseeded Indian ace, who shocked third seed Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan 6-4 6-3 in her previous encounter, came back strongly after a set down by winning the second set convincingly.

Sania, who has slipped out of the top-100 after a string of poor results, looked like she would score another upset over the second seeded and world number 77 Chinese but could not win a closely fought decider to lose the one hour and 52 minute contest.

Sania though is still in the fray in the doubles event as she and Edina Gallovits of Romania had beaten Australian combination of Sally Pears and Jermila Groth 6-4 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.

The Indo-Romanian duo will take on fourth seeded pair of British Anna Smith and Chinese Zi Yan in the quarterfinals.