Sania Mirza has, in the past, made it clear that clay was her least preferred surface. On Tuesday, for the second consecutive year the Indian failed to make an impression on the red dirt at Roland Garros with a straight set first round loss.Having played only three times on the surface this year Sania, barring flashes of brilliance, was simply outclassed by No 10 seed Anastasia Myskina 6-4, 6-1. While a win would have helped her log a personal milestone — making it past Round One — the 37 unforced errors she had in her stats simply stalled her progress.Barring the first eight games where the Indian traded serves with the 2004 French Open champion Myskina, the rest of the match belonged to Myskina who, despite not having a great year, seemed to peak at the right time. With two breaks in the first game — Sania’s only high point in the first set — the second saw the Indian hold the opening game before Myskina took charge.Incidentally, Myskina has the dubious distinction of being the only champion to lose in the first round the following year.Down 1-3, Sania lost six points in a row, which was due to her over ambitious stance of forcing the pace of her returns that ended up in unforced errors, to trigger what easily was her downfall.The loss — her second at the French Open after losing to Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-3, 6-3 last year — thus meant that this year she has failed to move past the second round of any tournament she has competed.Having ended her singles campaign, Sania in company of Janette Husarova (Slovakia) will take on Catalina Castano (Colombia)/ C Martinez Granados (Spain) in Round One of the doubles event.Going by the form Sania has had in the doubles event, the Indo-Slovak pair is likely to run into the winners of the No 3 Anna-Lena Groenefeld (Germany) Meghann Shaughnessy (USA) versus Michaella Krajicek (The Netherlands)/ Agnes Szavay (Hungary) encounter. But that’s provided they win Round One.
