Indian tennis star Sania Mirza made a winning return to action after her wedding to Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik as she defeated Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan 6-1, 6-4 in the first round of the Aegon Classic on Monday.
Despite twin distractions of a high-profile wedding and a persistent wrist injury, Mirza played with remarkable assertiveness to beat Chan.
Mirza said the best she can do with her injury was to contain it, which made the win over Chan — only her second in a mere seven matches all year — in this Wimbledon warmup event all the sweeter.
“I was just happy to be competing and happy to be out there and feeling healthy,” said the player who is the first Indian woman to win a WTA Tour title.
“When you come back after a long time and have a win it’s good for your confidence,” she said.
Up until 6-1, 3-0, Mirza hardly put a foot wrong, connecting with the ball as cleanly as though she had never been away from the tour.
On the softish grass this enabled her to strike winner after winner, but when she tried to hurry things along her progress slowed.
It brought two double faults to cause her to drop her service game, after which Chan, ranked 83 in the world, began playing more like a player with top 50 ambitions and rallied to 5-4 down.
But when it came to closing out the match Mirza made no mistake, delivering two solid first serves from 30-all and both times following up with weighty forehand drive winners.
It earned her a second-round match with Tamarine Tanasugarn.
Mirza spoke positively about being separated so soon from Shoaib, and for a lengthy period of time.
“The distance between us is difficult. But we will be together for life hopefully, so two years isn’t long,” she said.
“Marriage is something which happens to everyone at some point,” Mirza said. “It’s just if you want to wait to finish your career or to get married now.”
“For me, marriage is personal and tennis is professional. It’s two separate things so it doesn’t feel like a distraction,” she said.
Chang Kai-chen also made an early exit as Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova made short work of the Taiwanese No. 2 in a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
Britain’s Laura Robson, who last week had to offer an abject apology for an interview she had given where she labeled some of her fellow players as “sluts,” advanced to the second round when her Swiss opponent Stefanie Voegele retired with a back injury.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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