Sania is Asia's No.1

Sania, who lost to Venus Williams in the third round of the singles in Australian Open, has now replaced China's Li Na as Asia's top-ranked women's singles player at No. 29 in the WTA Rankings.

Sania lost to Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the third round to match her 2005 performance in the season's first Grand Slam. However, that effort was enough to earn her enough points for climb up the rankings ahead of Li, who was 30th in the last rankings and is set to pay the price for her third-round loss to unseeded Polish player Marta Domachowska.

Sania had a reasonably good run in the Australian Open as she made the third round of the women's doubles event with the Australian, Alicia Molik, besides reaching the mixed doubles finals with her country mate, Mahesh Bhupathi.

Australian Open: Sania-Bhupathi Lost in Mixed Doubles Final

China's Sun Tiantian and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia won the Australian Open mixed doubles title today with a 7-6 (4) 6-4 victory over the unseeded Indian pair Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi.

Fifth-seeded Sun and Zimonjic started with an early break on Rod Laver Arena, but the Indian team broke serve soon after, forcing the eventual tiebreaker. Sun and Zimonjic continued their momentum by breaking Bhupathi in his opening service game. The Indians saved three match points on Bhupathi's serve in the ninth game, before Zimonjic served out to secure the title.

Australian Open: Sania-Bhupathi in Mixed Doubles Final

The Indian pair, Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi, showed great coordination to storm into the final of the mixed doubles competition after scoring a straight set victory in Melbourne on Friday.

They won against Andy Ram of Israel and Natalie Dechy of France in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 in the Semi-Final.

The pair will now play the 5th seeds, China's Tiantian Sun & Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic in the final.

Australian Open: Sania-Bhupathi Reached Semifinal

India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza made it to the mixed doubles semi-finals at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

They first stunned the second seeded US-Swedish pair of Lisa Raymond and Simon Aspelin 6-3, 2-6, 10-7 in the second round to enter the quarter-finals.

Thereafter, they advanced a round further thanks to a walkover from their quarter-final opponents, seventh seeds Kveta Peschke and Martin Damm, who had beaten Galina Voskoboeva and Frantisek Cermak 6-1, 6-1 in their second round match.

Australian Open: Sania-Bhupathi Cruised to 3rd Round ... ... but Sania-Alicia Lost

Unseeded Indian pair of Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi cruised to the 3rd round of the mixed doubles of Australian Open on Tuesday. They defeated second seeded pair of Lisa Raymond of the United States and Simon Aspelin of Sweden 6-3, 2-6 (10-7). They will now meet the winner of the mixed doubles match between third seeded pair of Zi Yan-Mark Knowles and Meilen Tu-Marcin Matkowski on Tuesday.

However, on Monday, in women's doubles, 6th seeds Sania Mirza of India and Australian Alicia Molik were ousted 5-7, 3-6 by the 12th seeded pair Victoria Azrenka of Belarus and Shahar Peer of Israel in a 3rd round match that lasted almost an hour-and-half.

Australian Open: Sania-Alicia in 3rd Round

Sania, coming out of her defeat to Venus Willams in 3rd Round singles match, played with revived spirit and won her doubles match to move into the 3rd round of the women's doubles event in the Australian Open on Sunday.

Sania and her Australian partner Alicia Molik, seeded sixth, defeated the Russian pair of Nadia Petrova and Elena Vesnina 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in the second round. Sania and Molik took 113 minutes to get the better of their unseeded rivals who made six double faults.

Sania and Molik will face the 12th seeded pair of Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Shahar Peer of Israel in the third round, who defeated the Swiss duo Emmanuelle Gagliardi and Patty Schnyder 6-3, 6-3 in their second round match.

Australian Open: Venus Defeats Sania

Eighth seed Venus Williams defeated Sania at the Australian Open to win 7-6 6-4 and reach the fourth round on Saturday.

Sania, who is seeded 31st, produced a superb performance but American Williams eventually wore her down to reach the last 16.

Sania played sparkling tennis early in the match, with her forehand particularly damaging, and served for the opening set at 5-4. But Williams lifted her game to fight back and force a tiebreak, in which she won every point to claim the first set in emphatic style. She then took full control by breaking Sania’s serve in the seventh game of the second set to take a 4-3 lead.

Australian Open: Sania in 3rd Round

Sania advanced to the 3rd round of the Australian Open on Thursday with a 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 victory against Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky.

Sania started off in smashing fashion as she took the first set 6-1 in just 22 minutes, but the Swiss world number 119 fought back in the second set. Sania had to toil in the third set before she broke Bacsinszky's serve in the 12th game to win it 7-5 and advance to the 3rd round.

Sania next faces 8th seed American Venus Williams for a place in the last 16. Venus also had to work hard in both sets before beating Frenchwoman Camille Pin 7-5 6-4.

Australian Open: Mirza-Molik Pair in Doubles 2nd Round

Sania made a good start to her doubles campaign at the Australian Open at Melbourne today as she sailed through to the 2nd round. Mirza paired up with Australia’s Alicia Molik to defeat the duo of Eleni Daniilidou (Greece) and Jasmin Woehr (Germany) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

The 6th seeded pair of Mirza and Molik won the first set comfortably before the rival team of Daniilidou and Woehr came back strongly to win the 2nd set. However, after that, Mirza and Molik ensured that there would be no more hiccups as they clinched the deciding set to sail through to the 2nd round.

Sania and Molik will take on Russians Nadia Petrova and Elena Vesnina, who breezed past local favourites Sophie Ferguson and Trudi Musgrave 6-3 6-4.

Australian Open: Sania in 2nd Round

Sania defeated Uzbekistan's Iroda Tulyaganova in straight sets to advance to the second round of the Australian Open at Melbourne on Tuesday. The Indian, seeded 31, beat Tulyaganova 6-4 6-2 in little over an hour long tie to set up a clash with Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky, who beat Australian Sophie Ferguson 6-4 6-3.

The 21-year-old, who was also battling minor injuries like an abdominal strain that cut short her season last year, was rusty to start with and wasted a couple of break points besides committing 11 unforced errors in the opener. But Tulyaganova's patchy form worked to Sania's advantage and the Indian wrested the first set after a 40-minute see-saw battle. Sania then showed some fine form in the second set, outplaying Tulyaganova in just 29 minutes to advance to the second round of the season's first Grand Slam.

Sania Lost in Hobart International Quarter Final

Italy's Flavia Pennetta upset India's Sania Mirza 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in a quarter-final at the $1,70000 Moorila Hobart International on Wednesday in Hobart, Australia. Sania, who was seeded 6th in the Tier IV hard court event, wasted 7 break points.

Sania had been one of only two seeds remaining in the main draw at the start of the tournament's third day but, by the end, No. 2 Vera Zvonareva was left alone among seeded players. Pennetta converted five of eight break points and overcame a mid-match slump on her way to a gritty win over Mirza.

The tournament is a warm-up for the season's first grand slam -- the Australian Open -- starting January 14.

India Lost in Hopman & Sania Lost her Doubles Partner

Indian challenge in the Hopman Cup ended when the United States defeated hosts Australia to top Group B here today.

Later in the day, India lost 1-2 to the Czech Republic. Sania went down fighting against world number 23 Lucie Safarova and her teammate Rohan Bopanna failed to counter the class of Tomas Berdych. Sania recovered from a sloppy first set but failed to sustain the momentum and eventually lost 2-6 6-4 3-6 in 110 minutes. Later, Bopanna was also outclassed by Berdych 6-4 6-0 in just 58 minutes.

The Indian pair, however, earned a 6-3 6-2 win in mixed doubles match. The Indian pair's victory was their 6th on the trot in the Hopman Cup having won all their three mixed doubles ties last year.

Overall picture: India lost 1-2 to United States, won 2-1 against Australia before today's defeat. Sania managed just one singles victory in this year's tournament while Bopanna is yet to win one at the event.

Sania Lost Her Doubles Partner: Sania’s doubles campaign at the Australian Open suffered a setback as her partner American Meghann Shaughnessy was injured in the Gold Coast tournament. Shaughnessy damaged her knee in her first round match against Italian Francesca Schiavone. She might need surgery and could be out of the sport for the next six months. Sania, ranked 18, was to pair with the American ranked one place above her in the world doubles rankings at 17 in the Hobart tournament next week and in the Australian Open.