Mirza was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Anabel Medina Garrigues, the world number 33 from Spain, and her performance looked little like those of the zingy, dynamic player who has become the heroine of much of Asia. —AFP Photo

DUBAI Sania Mirza, the first Indian woman to score high profile success in tennis, admitted on Monday after defeat in the first round of the Dubai Open that a career-threatening wrist injury had returned.

Mirza was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Anabel Medina Garrigues, the world number 33 from Spain, and her performance looked little like those of the zingy, dynamic player who has become the heroine of much of Asia.

“It hurts when I stretch to a forehand. It hurts when I try to hit a hard cross court backhand,” the 23-year-old from Hyderabad said.

“So you know it's tough when you're playing with that and then mentally you're struggling, thinking 'oh great the wrist is back. Oh how am I going to deal with it'.”

“I was thinking during the match. And 'okay, what am I going to do? Do I play Malaysia? Do I go back home? Do I see my doctor?' All these things were going on in my head at that point in time.”

Mirza did pause to acknowledge that Garrigues was “a very good player, no doubt about it,” and to state that the injury was not the main reason for her defeat.

She also revealed that after a doctor came on court, taping the wrist and taking a few anti-inflammatory tablets were the only short-term remedies possible.

Mirza apparently began to feel the injury again two days ago and since then it has kept getting worse. When she tried to take a more optimistic view, she vacillated between doing so and admitting increasing worry about her future.

“You go through good patches and bad patches and that is something we have to deal with as athletes. It's like your good day at work and your bad day at work,” said Mirza.

“For us it happens every week, every day. So it's just something you have to fight through and hope that things change around, because they have to. At some point they will.

“You know you win one of those ugly matches and you suddenly get your confidence back. But right now that's not my major concern. My main concern is my wrist - which I have to sort out.”

Afterwards Mirza reportedly went to a specialist to discover how much deterioration there has been to an injury which seemed to have improved after an operation nearly two years ago.

She appears doubtful for the 220,000-dollar Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur starting a week today.