India's Sania Mirza went down fighting to Russian Ekaterina Bychkova in the first round of the Tashkent Open at the Olympic Tennis Centre in Uzbekistan, on Tuesday.
Bychkova, ranked 175 in the world, scraped past 125th ranked Sania 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 in a two-hour seven minute battle to make it to the second round where she takes on the top seed Alexandra Dulgheru.
Watched by her husband Shoaib Malik, Sania, who came through a long flight on Monday looked rusty in the first set going down tamely 6-1 in less than 30 minutes.
Sania, who won the doubles at Guangzhou, lost her serve thrice in the first set as he lost the third, fifth and seventh games
In the second set, Sania seemed to have found her rhythm to take the set after being down 2-4 and securing breaks in the seventh and ninth games. Bychkova served poorly serving five double faults.
The Indian star looked like closing the match racing off to a 5-2 lead in the decider.
But Bychkova, who had earlier defeated Sania at Bali in 2005, clawed back breaking her in the eighth, 10th and the 12th game.
Sania had two match points in the 11th game, but Bychkova hit an ace and winner to get back into the match and hold on.
In the 12th game, Sania had an opportunity to level scores 6-6 and force a tie-break but she served two double faults which sealed her fate.
Sania partnering Marai Elena Camerin of Italy will start her doubles campaign in the tournament on Wednesday.
