Eastbourne, June 24: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and her doubles partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands lost their first round match in straight sets at the Viking International Eastbourne. The unseeded Indo-American pair lost 3-6, 4-6 to the Christina Mchale and Sabrina Santamaria of USA in a match that lasted one hour 18 minutes on Wednesday (June 23).
The 34-year-old winner of six Grand Slams in doubles will pair up with Mattek-Sands in the women's doubles event of Wimbledon, starting on June 28.
In the singles also seeds crashed out. Second seed Elina Svitolina crashed out of the Viking International in Eastbourne at the last-16 stage with a straight sets defeat to Elena Rybakina. The world number five lost 6-4 7-6 (7-3) to 21st-ranked Rybakina, whose reward is a meeting with Coco Gauff's conqueror Anastasija Sevastova in the quarter-finals.
Third seed Bianca Andreescu of Canada also lost in straight sets, Anett Kontaveit of Estonia beating her 6-3 6-3. And it was the same story for fourth seed Iga Swiatek, though she at least took a set as she was beaten by Daria Kasatkina.
It took an impressive rally from Russia's Kasatkina to bounce back from losing the first en route to a 4-6 6-0 6-1 success. She will now face Jelena Ostapenko, who beat Ons Jabeur 5-7 6-4 6-3.