NEW YORK: Sania Mirza and American Coco Vandeweghe, wildcard entrants in the women's doubles, went down 6-4, 4-6, 3-6 to 12th seeds Nadia Kichenok of Ukraine and Raluca Olaru of Romania in a first-round clash of lost opportunities.
Both pairs gave themselves six chances each on their opponent's serves, Kichenok and Olaru clinched four which was two more than the Indo-American combine which, simply put, reflected in the scoreline.
Sania and Vandeweghe took their time registering their presence on the opposition's serves. They struck in the tenth game of the first set which the Indian opened with a no-frills forehand winner. Olaru then sent down three double-faults (of the seven in the match) in a game where the seeded duo surrendered early advantage.
The wildcards, who partnered once four summers ago on grass, came up woefully short on the big points in the second set, forgoing the chance to make it a straight-set affair. The Indian was broken in the third game and the American in fifth, but they had managed to level at 2-2 by breaking a struggling Olaru again. Kichenok, who along with her twin Lyudmila, had put out Sania and Ankita Raina in the first round of the Tokyo Olympics, rallying from 0-6, 3-5, proved to be the strongarm of the combination, taking control to level set scores.
The 12th seeds, animated and wearing their joy well, broke the American in the fifth game of the third set. Kichenok then held firm in the sixth game to take control of the decider.
