Game, upset and match

Stuttgart (Germany): Playing her first match as world number one, India’s Sania Mirza crashed out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix event with partner Martina Hingis, who was not at her best due to a back injury. Also making shock exits at the tournament were Agnieszka Radwanska, Petra Kvitova and Sabine Lisicki. Kvitova was beaten in straight sets 3-6, 6-7 (2/7) by American Madison Brengle while Lisicki were sent out 0-6, 0-6 by Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas. 

 

Seventh-seeded Radwanska of Poland lost 6-7 (8), 4-6 to Sara Errani of Italy. Radwanska had won seven of the previous nine matches against Errani. In doubles, the top seeded Indo-Swiss pair lost 3-6, 3-6 to Croatia’s Petra Martic and Stephanie Vogt from Liechtenstein in the first round. It was first defeat for Sania and Martina since joining forces. In an incredible run of 14 straight wins, they won three back-to-back-to-back titles in Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston.

 

Sania and Martina lost three straight games from 3-3 to drop the first set. They made progress in the second set, going up 2-0 with an early break but the first-time pairing of Martic and Vogt fought back, made it 2-2, and easily clinched the set and the match. World number four Kvitova failed to make it past the second round in her first tournament since February.

 

Brengle broke the 2014 Wimbledon champion’s serve seven times to clinch victory in just over one-and-a-half hours. 

Kvitova, who took a six-week break to recover from exhaustion, resumed training three weeks ago and won both her Fed Cup semifinal singles rubbers as the Czechs beat France 3-1 last weekend. The unseeded American, who reached the last 16 at the Australian Open in January, will face France’s Caroline Garcia in Friday’s quarterfinals.