[In the decider, Sania again took the lead after breaking Mashona in the first game. But she surprisingly failed to put away at least two simple forehands, her strong points. Fortunately for Sania, Mashona was proving to be error-prone. After levelling the score 3-3, the American committed two double faults to hand Sania a 5-4 lead. Yet, the Hyderabadi had to stamp out a last minute challenge by Mashona who forced three break points. Sania finally clinched the issue when Mashona put a forehand wide. Meanwhile, Svetlana Kuznetsova became the first defending women's US Open champion to be eliminated in the first round since the beginning of the open era, falling to 20-year-old Russian compatriot Ekaterina Bychkova 6-3, 6-2. The fifth-seeded Kuznetsova's departure yesterday follows Anastasia's Myskina's first-round exit in the French Open in May to Maria Sanchez Lorenzo and is the fourth time a defending women's champion in a Grand Slam was ousted in her first match. Bychkova, a winner of three ITF developmental circuit tournaments, didn't get past the second round of the qualifying rounds at any of the Grand Slams earlier this year. Kuznetsova, who has won only one tournament since her US Open title last year, in Bali, Indonesia, the week after the Open, committed 45 unforced errors and was broken six times in the match.] I just didn't play my game, ... I wanted it badly. It wasn't my day. Things weren't going my way. I was ready, but I was not at my best. |
but smiles, ''She is still everywhere. |
Dubai gave me a lot of confidence. |
For me, it's a bit unusual. You play Maria and have the crowd behind you. I felt amazing that the crowd was with me. |
For the moment its working and I'm very happy. |
He is a very good friend of mine. We wanted to play together so much, I think its very sad what happened to him. |
I already won it, so I'm happy with that. I will have many chances just to play this game, and hope to play many more US Opens and have chances to win it again. |
I am sure of my innocence and I will not allow these irresponsible accusations which do not comply with credible anti-doping procedures to distract me or my performance at the Australian Open. |
I could not get on top of it. I was not feeling playing my game. I was not feeling my shots. I was fighting in the end. I was feeling better. But still it was not good enough. |
I couldn't find my game in the beginning of the match - I was standing too far from the base line and netted most of my returns, ... But then I adjusted to a slow surface of the court and had no problems. |
I couldn't find my game in the beginning of the match - I was standing too far from the base line and netted most of my returns. But then I adjusted to a slow surface of the court and had no problems. |
I didn't play for three days, so it's pretty hard to go out there. |
I didn't play for three weeks and it's my first match on clay, and it was a little bit tough, |
I didn't play much for two months since I played Zurich last year and I was a bit stiff at the start, a bit nervous. |
I don't feel like I did something wrong. I just try to take it out of my mind because I need to play my game, this is my first priority, |