Sania holds on to 34th spot

New Delhi:

Sania Mirza held on to her 34th spot in the latest WTA rankings despite suffering a first round loss at the tour event in Bali. The teenage tennis sensation failed to add to the 888.75 WTA points she had compiled till last week after her run to the last 16 of the US Open where she lost to Russia's Maria Sharapova. She is the first Indian to advance so far in a Grand Slam event. Sania went out in the first round at the Wismilak International in Bali, losing in straight sets to Russian Katerina Bychkova. Upcoming challenge The 18-year-old Hyderabadi, who opens her campaign at the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata on Tuesday, is the third ranked Asian after Japan's Ai Sugiyama and Shuai Peng of China who hold the 32nd and 33rd spots respectively. Sania is seeded third in the Tier III WTA event. She dropped down a place in the doubles rankings to 149th but has a chance to climb up the ladder when she teams up with the top ranked doubles player in the world, Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain, at the Sunfeast Open. Shikha Uberoi has the next best singles ranking among Indians at 152, a drop of one spot. Rushmi Chakravarthi gained four places to reach 444 while Sanaa Bhambri held on to the 484th rank. There was no change in the top ten in the latest rankings with Maria Sharapova remaining number one followed by American Lindsay Davenport and US Open champion Kim Clistjers of Belgium. (PTI)