21 January,2009 10:44 AM IST | | AFP
Indian icon Sania Mirza crashed out of the Australian Open Wednesday but said she was just happy to be back after a painful six months on the sidelines. Her 6-3, 6-2 loss to Russian 10th seed Nadia Petrova was only her second match back and even winning once here was good enough for Mirza, who shoulders the hopes and expectations of a sports-mad nation.
But the 22-year-old vowed to bounce back as she works to once again to match her career-high of 27 after recovering from a serious wrist injury. "I'm just happy to be back and doing what I love doing, playing tennis and competing," she said.
"There was a big crowd out there and I haven't played like that for six months. Of course I'm disappointed at losing but I will try and take positives from this. I will try and get into the top 30, of course, but the last five or six months have taught me to live for the moment so I don't want to get ahead of myself."
On her game against Petrova, she conceded she was simply outclassed by a better player.
"When you're playing theu00a0World Nou00a010 you expect her to raise her game under pressure and that is exactly what she did," she said of her opponent. I was a break up and I played a decent match but I still have a lot to work on. There are no excuses. I could blame it on a lack of match practice time, or on playing the world number 10. I had a sore stomach as well," she added.
"But at the end of the day I have to give her credit."
