Sania Mirza and doubles partner Cara Black got off to a bad start in the New Year with a shock first round defeat against wild cards Jarmila Gajdosova and Ajlaat Tomljanovic at the WTA Apia International, in Sydney on Monday.
The third seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair went down tamely, suffering a 3-6, 2-6 defeat in under an hour.
Sania and Cara converted just one of the six break chances they got while dropped their service games twice in each set.
The Australian-Croatian combination hit four aces to one of their rival and committed one double fault to three of Sania and Cara.
The third seeds won 38 points while the wild card pair 57.
Sania and Cara will now be seen at the Australian Open next week.
Image: Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Sania Mirza of India look on during their match against Jarmila Gajdosova of Slovakia and Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia on Day 2 of the Sydney International at Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre on Monday
Photograph: Joosep Martinson/Getty Images
