Tough opener for Sania at Texas Tennis Open

Dallas (USA): Sania Mirza needs a super performance if she has to bring her singles campaign back on track as she has drawn world number 22 German Sabine Lisicki as her first round opponent in the Texas Tennis Open here.

Sania has not moved beyond first rounds and qualifiers in the four tournaments she has played after making a comeback to the circuit post Wimbledon break. She fell in first round of Washington DC and Carlsbad events and then lost in the qualifiers of Toronto and Cincinnati events. Lisicki, seeded fifth in the USD 220,000 WTA event, is in top form these days as she reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon and Stanford events apart from reaching quarter-finals of Carlsbad. She though had lost in the first round at Cincinnati. Sania and Lisicki are one-one this season in head-to-head record with the Indian emerging winner at Charleston and the German at Auckland. Lisicki was place as low as 170 at the start of the season but is now close to enter in top-20. PTI