Sania, Bethanie out of French Open, retire mid-way

Paris: Indian challengers continued to exit from the French Open as Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands were forced to retire from their pre-quarterfinals following a groin problem to the latter, on Tuesday.

Sania and Bethanie, seeded seventh, had annexed the first set but the American encountered a groin issue in the second set and eventually they pulled out with score reading 7-6(0) 3-5 against 11th seeds Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova. Sania and Bethanie, who had encountered a back problem yesterday, had overcome American pair of Lauren Davis and Megan Moulton-Levy 1-6 6-3 6-0 in their second round match. Sania`s defeat means that now Leander Paes is the only surviving Indian in the French Open. Paes has lost in the men`s doubles but is still alive in the mixed doubles, where he and Jelena Jankovic will take on eighth seeded American Liezel Huber and Brazilian Marcelo Melo for a place in the quarter-finals. PTI