Tokyo:
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza crashed out of the Pan Pacific Open with a first-round defeat in a marathon three setter against Chinese Jie Zheng here on Monday.
Sania, who had to qualify for the USD two million hard-court event, went down 7-5, 2-6, 3-6 after a contest lasting more than two hours.
Sania, who has been plagued by a nagging wrist injury for more than a year now, fought hard in a see-saw opening set.
She broke her rival thrice to go 1-0 up.
However, Sania ran out of steam thereafter and lost her serve four times to go down 2-6 in the second set.
The third set followed a similar script and the Indian was once again outplayed with her serve being a major let-down.