Sania, expectedly, sails through

8220;Fitness is not my forte8221; admitted Sania Mirza, probably getting candid about her game for the first time. Defending her go-for-broke style of play, the Hyderabadi said: 8220;I can8217;t play a patient game. Fitness is not my forte.

8220;Fitness is not my forte8221; admitted Sania Mirza, probably getting candid about her game for the first time. Defending her go-for-broke style of play, the Hyderabadi said: 8220;I can8217;t play a patient game. Fitness is not my forte. I8217;m not as fit as Martina Hingis or Elena Dementieva. They just keep getting the balls back and wait for the opponent to miss. I can8217;t do that.8221;

Playing her first round match at the Sunfeast Open, Sania admitted to being 8220;rusty8221; and 8220;under pressure8221;, although the rollicking start against

27-year-old Rushmi Chakravarthi didn8217;t suggest that. 8220;I did suffer from nerves. I was running around a lot to get rid of that. She Rushmi knew she had nothing to lose,8221; Sania said.

If the opening set was all about Mirza, Rushmi 8220;started playing better in the second set. Her forehand got better, she was slicing the ball better,8221; said Sania.

The noisy crowd at the Netaji Indoor Stadium, saw ex-India skipper Sourav Ganguly cheer 8220;good friend8221; Sania from the VIP box. 8220;I knew he would be coming,8221; Sania said, adding: 8220;We are pretty good friends. I8217;ve known him for two years now. I called him when I dropped into the city and he asked if I could arrange passes for him for my match.8221;

The 52-minute duel saw Sania face only one break point on her serve. And the only time Rushmi looked like holding her serve convincingly was when she was serving to stay in the match at 3-5. Only, that was a little too late. A game later Sania was tossing balls as souvenirs and blowing kisses to the stands. Sania now remains the lone Indian in the main draw, after Shikha Uberoi, Sanaa Bhambri and Sunitha Rao8212;who has now applied to play for India8212;all lost their opening round matches. While both Shikha and Sanaa went down rather tamely, Sunitha put up a brave fight before going down 6-2, 3-6, 3-6 against seventh seed Nicole Pratt.

In the second round Sania meets the winner of the match between Sandra Kloesel and Galina Voskoboeva.

Story continues below this ad

Against Czech Hana Sromova, Shikha said she got panicky and couldn8217;t go for her shots in her 4-6, 3-6 loss. Delhi girl Sanaa who entered the main draw only after negotiating two tough qualifying matches, said she just didn8217;t get her timing right in her 2-6, 3-6 loss to Indonesian Angelique Widjaja. Pratt remained the lone surviving seed in the bottom half of the draw after Day 2 as second seed Karolina Sprem of Croatia, third seed Yuliana Fedak of Ukraine and Russian eighth seed Anastassia Rodionova fell by the wayside.