The second round jinx at Wimbledon continued to haunt Sania Mirza. The Indian ace crashed out of the All England Championships following a 4-6, 4-6 defeat to Romania's Sorana Cirstea on Wednesday.
This is the fourth time in the last five years that Sania has failed to get past the second round at the premier grass court event.
Last year she was beaten 9-7 in the third set at the same stage by unheralded Spanish clay court specialist Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.
In 2006, the Hyderabad girl had even failed to get to the second round, losing to Russia's Elena Dementieva.
This time, Sania had beaten world No 51 Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in the first round and looked good to make it to the third. However, she made a characteristic 30 unforced errors to Cirstea's nine and that explains the loss.
The 28th seed Romanian, who made headlines when she reached the quarter-finals of the French Open earlier in the month, accounting for, amongst others second seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic, scored a crucial break in the fifth game and went on to pocket first set.
She maintained her aggressive approach and broke Sania again in the first game. But the Indian ace showed signs of a fightback as she broke back in the second and again in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead.
But Cirstea boke back in the fifth and then scored the crucial break in the ninth game to end Sania's challenge.
