Hyundai Hopman Cup: India lost 1-2 to US

The Indian team of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna began its Hopman Cup campaign against former champion and 2nd seed United States in the 20th edition of the prestigious mixed team event at the Hyundai Hopman Cup in Perth's Burswood Dome on Saturday. The Indian team, seeded seventh, has been given a direct entry.

Unfortunately, in this first match, Sania was first felled by cramps and then Meghann Shaughnessy as India went down 1-2. Sania was hit by cramps when she was leading 3-1 in the third and final set before she lost 3-6, 6-4, 3-6 in the opening singles. A little later Mardy Fishy handed Rohan Bopanna a straight sets loss 6-2, 6-4. But then the Indian pair maintained their unbeaten record (recap: They won all their ties in the 2006 edition) - as they beat the Americans 6-4, 6-4 in 71 minutes.

Shaugnessy is 21 rungs below Sania at 52 on the WTA charts but she has beaten the Indian twice in their three meetings. The women's singles was a preview both players had of the other's game before they get together as a pair in women's doubles at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Group A has United States, India, Czech Republic and hosts Australia, while Group B comprises Serbia, Chinese Taipei, France and Argentina are in the group B.

Sania and Bopanna are playing the Hopman Cup for the second year running. Last year Sania won two of her three matches, while her doubles pairing with Bopanna went undefeated. Sania had led India to a shock win over Czech Republic in the first tie of 2006 Hopman Cup.

Sania Above Controversy

We are sure you're hearing a lot about Sania and the controversy around her off-tennis-court activities. Some of you have left comments in our postings why we are not reporting those in our site.

In this site we concentrate only on Sania and her tennis. All controversies surrounding her are created by others and we are not interested in them or the controversies created by them.

We are only looking forward to the next game that Sania would play at the end of this month.

Life is too short to linger on controversies. Cheers!