Auckland:
Sania Mirza suffered her fourth successive defeat, a straight set mauling, at the hands of Italian Francesca Schiavone to crash out of the ASB Classic WTA tournament on Wednesday.
The Indian lost 0-6 3-6 to her fourth seed opponent in the second round of the USD 220,000 hard court event, thus making a disappointing start to the season.
The world number 17 proved too tough an opponent for Sania as she failed to get on board in the opening set. Sania has never won a match against Schiavone, with whom she has paired in the past for the doubles competition on the tour.
Earlier, the Hyderabadi also crashed out of doubles competition after losing the first round along with Spaniard Virginia Pascual of Spain.
The second seeded pair suffered a shock 1-6, 6-7(6) defeat at hands of wild card entrants Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium and Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.