BIRMINGHAM: Indo-Australian tennis combine of Sania Mirza and Casey Dellacqua lost their women's doubles opening round match of $731,000 Aegon Classic in straight sets to China-Chinese Taipei pair of Jie Zheng and Yung-Jan Chan here on Thursday.
The top seeds were easily beaten by Zheng and Chan 4-6, 2-6 in an hour and 10 minutes on the outdoor grass courts of the Edgbaston Priory Club.
Sania, with her new partner Casey, got two opportunities to break serve in the first but both were wasted. On the other hand, the unseeded pair of Zheng and Chan got five opportunities, all of which were saved by the top seeds before they closed the set on their sixth chance.
Down on confidence after losing the first set, the second set was totally dominated by the China-Chinese Taipei combine. The duo notched two breakpoint opportunities to easily seal the second set and enter the quarterfinals of the tournament, which is a build up of Wimbledon.
Overall too, Zheng and Chan dominated, winning 60 of the 109 points played in the match.