Sania out of Nasdaq-100

Miami:

In the Nasdaq-100 event which has 18 of the top 20 women players, wild card entries Sania Mirza and US-based Neha Uberoi have been dumped out in the first round. The 18-year-old Indian went down to Spaniard Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 2-6 5-7 yesterday in one hour and 13 minutes in the Tier 1 tournament, which belongs to the level next only to the Grand Slams. Playing as a wildcard in what was only her second event at this level, Sania struggled with her serves a€" making eight doubles faults as against just one ace a€" and had as many as 10 break points against her out of which Lorenzo converted seven. In fact, the 77th-ranked Indian failed to hold on to her serve in the first set and the two games she won were by breaking her opponent, 11 places below her in world ranking. Meanwhile, Neha Uberoi, a player of Indian origin playing for USA, went down to Galina Voskoboeva of Russia 4-6 2-6. Neha, younger sister of India's Fed Cup team member Shikha Uberoi, has also earned her entry through a wild card awarded to the reigning Luxillon Cup champion. Top seeds' game Meanwhile, world number one Kim Clijsters has advanced to the second round, defeating German qualifier Sandra Kloesel 6-0 6-1 in just 46 minutes. In the men's event, defending champion and second seed Andy Roddick of the United States, and third-seeded Australian Open champion Marat Safin were scheduled to launch their campaigns with second-round matches. Also slated for action were women's eighth seed Venus Williams and No. 9 Vera Zvonareva, men's fifth seed Carlos Moya of Spain, No. 11 Guillermo Canas of Argentina and Croatian Davis Cup hero Ivan Ljubicic, the 13th seed.