Sania Mirza crashes out of Wimbledon first round

India's Sania Mirza crashed out of the women's singles event of the Wimbledon with a 6-7(4), 6-2, 3-6 first round loss to France's Virginie Razzano here Tuesday.

After losing a closely fought first set in the tie-breaker, the 60th-ranked Indian broke the 96th-ranked Razzano twice in the second to make it a set-all.

Sania's first serve, however, dipped to 48 percent in the final set and was broken twice for her to lose after a two-hour-12-minute battle.

The 24-year-old Hyderabadi's loss levelled the two players 1-1 head-to-head. The last time they faced each other was in 2007 at the hard courts of Los Angeles where Sania won in straight sets.

The Indian has never moved beyond the second round in the singles here.

Sania still has the women's doubles event to back on, where she is partnering Russia's Elena Vesnina.

Sania and Elena are seeded fourth and meet Anna Chakvetadze of Russia and Melanie Oudin of the US in the first round.

Sania and Vesnina were the runners-up at the French Open earlier this month.