Sania-Elena lose French Open final

Paris: Sania Mirza missed out on winning her second Grand Slam title as she and her partner Elena Vesnina lost the French Open women`s doubles final to unseeded Czech pair of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka on Friday.

Unforced errors cost the seventh seed Indo-Russian pair dearly as they lost the summit clash 4-6 3-6 in one hour and 21 minutes at Court Suzanne Lenglen here. It was a good opportunity for Sania to add a women`s doubles title to her already Australian Open mixed doubles trophy, which she won along with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi in 2009 but it turned to be an off day for the Indian and her partner Vesnina. Nevertheless, Sania did create a history of sorts by becoming first Indian female tennis player to reach the women`s doubles final. Vesnina struggled with her first serve throughout and Sania`s feeble shots at the net only helped the cause of the Czech pair. Even the Czech players, especially Andrea, struggled with the first serve in windy conditions but the Indo-Russian pair committed more unforced errors. A strong show by Lucie turned out to be the real difference between the two teams as she did not drop her serve even once and had good control over her strokes. Sania prevented a first set rout when she held serve in the seventh game when they were down 1-5. They made it 4-5 after breaking Andrea in the eighth game, raising hopes of a comeback. But Lucie served out the first set in the 10th game when the Russian hit a backhand long on the second set point.Lucie had committed a double fault on first set point but an unforced error by Sania gave the opponents a second chance which they converted thanks to Elena`s long backhand. The second set too started badly for Sania and Elena as the Russian dropped her serve to hand a mini lead and then she could not held her serve even once. Sania raised her game in the second set and created opportunities but Elena had a poor day. They had a chance to turn the tables when they broke Andrea in the fourth game and had two breakpoints against the same player in the eighth game to make it 4-4 but Lucie yet again played well and denied the rivals a comeback. Lucie hit a volley winner to win the match on second match point.Elena and Sania split euro 165000 as prize money while the winners took home euro 330,000. PTI