Sania Mirza had mixed luck on the opening day of the Nordea Nordic Light Open as she advanced to the second round of the singles competition but made a stunning first-round exit from the doubles event in Stockholm on Wednesday.
Seeded sixth in singles, Sania beat Frenchwoman Emilie Loit 6-3, 6-2 to set up a clash with Czech Iveta Benesova in the $ 145,000 tier IV hard-court event.
In a lopsided encounter, the Indian ace, who has plummeted to 50th in the latest WTA charts owing to a string poor performances, was in her elements as she outplayed Loit in less than an hour's time.
However, Sania and her French partner Nathalie Dechy frittered away a good start to crash out of the doubles event.
The second seeded Indo-French pair plunged to a 6-1, 6-7 (2), 7-10 defeat against unseeded duo of Camille Pin of France and Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium in one hour and 27 minutes in the first round.
Sania and Dechy converted all three break points and saved six of the seven on their own serve to race away with the first set.
However, the French-Belgian pair curbed their erratic play and bounced back in the second set, which they won through tie breaker.
