Sania Mirza suffered her fourth successive defeat, a straight-sets mauling, at the hands of Italian Francesca Schiavone and crashed out of the ASB Classic WTA tournament in Auckland on Wednesday.
The Indian ace lost 0-6, 3-6 to her fourth seeded opponent in the second round of the US $220,000 hard court event, thus making a disappointing start to the season.
The world number 17 proved too tough an opponent for Sania, who failed to get on the board in the opening set.
Sania has never beaten Schiavone, with whom she has paired for doubles in the past.
Earlier, the Hyderabadi also crashed out of the doubles competition after losing in the first round along with Spaniard Virginia Pascual of Spain.
The second seeded pair suffered a shock 1-6, 6-7(6) defeat to wild card entrants Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium and Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
