Sania slips after French woes

A first-round exit in the just concluded French Open Grand Slam has pushed Sania Mirza one rung down to 41 in the latest WTA rankings.

The Indian, who had lost to 10th seed Russian Anastasia Myskina in the first round of the top clay court event, now has 522.50 points in her kitty.

However, leaving behind her clay court disappointment, Sania will begin her grass court campaign as 14th seed in the USD 200,000 DFS Classic at Edgbaston. She will clash with Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko in the first round of the WTA Tier III event.

Sania is also slated to play the doubles for which she has teamed up with Italian Francesca Schiavone. The third seeded pair faces Russian Elena Vesnina and Zi Yan of China in the first round.

Among other Indian girls, Shikha Uberoi climbed up 12 places to 165 while Ankita Bhambri remained on 349. Isha Lakhani slipped 32 places to 401 and Rushmi Chakravarthi slided two places to 442.

Rohan Bopanna, who has set a date with word number one Roger Federer in Garry Weber ATP tournament at Halle (Germany), is the top ranked among Indian men in the singles at 267 after gaining three places while Prakash Amritraj, who had a steep slide by 34 rungs, follows at 287.

In the doubles, Leander Paes slipped two places to 15th, while his estranged partner, Mahesh Bhupathi, moved up six notches to 24.