Sania falls in round 1 at Dubai

Martina Hingis proved too strong for Sania Mirza, winning her first round match at the Dubai Open 6-3, 7-5 on Tuesday night.

The Swiss five-time Grand Slam champion, who has returned to the circuit following injuries that kept her out of international tennis for three years, won the first set in 34 minutes and despite some stubborn resistance from the 19-year-old Indian in the second was through in an hour and 28 minutes.

The 25-year-old Hingis had entered the quarter-finals of the Australian Open last month and followed up the good showing by beating Russia's Maria Sharapova in the semi-finals of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

She will take on Anastasia Myskina in the second round.

The first set was rather even early on as both players looked to size up each other. Hingis broke in the fourth game only to see the Indian, winner of the doubles title at the Bangalore Open with Liesel Huber last week, return the compliment in the next game.

But another break in the sixth took the sting out of Sania as Hingis raced to a 4-2 lead. Though Sania had a good eighth game to cut Hingis' lead to 3-5, the Swiss ace held easily in the next to take the set.

The second set was a battle of attrition as six breaks were traded between the players. Hingis broke in the opening game but was broken back in the next. But Sania lacked the consistency to sustain the pressure and was again broken in the third. Hingis then held, after Sania saved two break-points, for a 3-1 lead.

But the Indian ace, who hit the headlines at the Dubai Open last year when she beat the then US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova as a wild card, broke in the sixth, and though she was broken for the third time in the seventh, she snatched another break in the tenth game to level scores at 5-5.

But any hopes of a fightback that the Indian teen sensation may entertained were dashed by the Swiss, who drew on all her experience to win the 11th  and 12th games comfortably and take the set.