Yet another 1st round exit for Sania

Sublime Federer humiliates Henman; Roddick comes through tricky first round

India8217;s Sania Mirza crashed out of the women8217;s singles with a 7-6 7-5 7-5 loss to seventh seed Elena Dementieva of Russia in the first round here today.

Sania was leading 5-2 in the first set after the two players traded breaks of serve.

A spurt of unforced errors from Sania8217;s racquet then allowed Dementieva to win the next four games and make it 6-5.

The 19-year-old Indian then pushed the set into the tie breaker. Sania was 5-4 up in the shootout before she put a backhand wide and the Russian followed it up with a forehand winner to go 6-5 up. A wide forehand then gave the set to Dementieva.

In the second set, the Hyderabadi teenager saved two break points in the very first game but could not stop her opponent from gaining a 3-2 lead. She then fought back to level the scores at 4-4.

A tiring Sania then sprayed her shots wide to lose serve once more and went down 4-5. But soon she forced three break points when Dementieva served for the match and converted the third when her rival hit a forehand long.

But Dementieva came back strongly to force two break points of her own and went up 6-5. She served for the match for the second time and won the tie after one hour and 25 minutes.

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Meanwhile, three-times defending champion Roger Federer ripped Tim Henman8217;s Wimbledon dreams to shreds with a majestic 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 win in the second round on Wednesday.

8220;It8217;s a big relief for me to come though this match against Tim today,8221; said Federer, who had been beaten by the four-time semi-finalist in their only previous meeting on the surface in 2001. 8220;I played a really good match and am very, very happy with the result because it wasn8217;t something that I was expecting.8221;

The home favourite had been expected to challenge Federer8217;s record run of 42 successive victories on grass as he is one of few players on the tour to hold an advantage over the Swiss maestro in their head-to-head meetings. Before the tournament started Federer had admitted that he wanted to avoid Henman in the early rounds.

But it did not take long for Federer to pick Henman8217;s serve-and-volley tactics apart.

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Such was Federer confidence that at 2-0 up in the second set, he produced an outrageous half-volley passing shot winner from the baseline.

The cheering crowd did their best to lift the spirits of their hero at the start of the third set but failed to halt Federer8217;s charge.

American Andy Roddick also came through a tricky first round test beating Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 6-2.