Sania-Marti suffer shock first defeat

Stuttgart, April 23 : Sania Mirza and Marti Hingis lost their first competitive match as a women’s doubles team as they crashed out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix here.

First-time pairing of Petra Martic and Stephanie Vogt pulled of a straight set stunner 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday.

Martic and Vogt were playing together for the first time and had one Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) doubles title between them.

Before Wednesday’s defeat, Sania and Marti won back-to-back-to-back titles at Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston, a run which helped the India become the world’s No.1 women’s doubles player.

Marti was not at her physical peak during the match and was treated for a back injury.

The Indo-Swiss pair are currently No.1 doubles team on the leaderboard for the season-ending WTA championships -the BNP Paribas WTA Fils - to be held in October-November in Singapore, this year.

In other matches, No.2 seeds Caroline Garcia and Katari Srebotnik beat German pair of Antonia Lottner and Cari Witthoeft, 6-3, 6-3, while No.3 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova downed Jocelyn Rae and An Smith, 6-2, 6-1.

If Mattek-Sands and Safarova go on to capture the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix title this week, they will pass Sania and Marti the No.1 spot on the leaderboard. IANS