New York:
Forced to go through the qualifiers to compete in the US Open due to low ranking, Sania Mirza has been drawn against Russian Ksenia Lykina in the first round.
This is for the first time ever since her breakthrough year in 2005 that Sania has to go through the qualifiers to play in a Grand Slam.
The singles ranking of Sania has dipped to 160 as she is struggling with form and a recurring wrist injury. Sania made a desperate attempt to improve her ranking by playing a few ITF tournaments but her efforts did not meet much success.
Sania and Ksenia, ranked 236 in the WTA chart, have never played against each other.
The Indian's best performance at a Grand Slam came in 2005 at US Open when she made the pre-quarterfinals.
She is grappling with injuries since 2008 and her rankings plummeted in the last two years.
Meanwhile, Somdev Devvarman is all set to make a direct entry into the men's singles draw of the US Open after breaking into top-100.
There are 16 places up for grabs in the qualifying event for the main draw, starting August 30.