NEW DELHI: Sania Mirza's fortunes hit a new low on Monday as she dropped out of the top-50 in world rankings for the first time in more than a year.
The 19-year old Indian went down 10 places to be 54th in the latest WTA rankings.
The Hyderabadi girl became the first Indian woman to break into top-50 on August 8 last year following a splendid run in the US hard courts seasons prior to the US Open.
Sania was ranked as high as 31 on October 10 before ending the year at 34. That was a jump of 172 places from her 2004 year-end ranking of 206.
Her best performance in singles this year so far has been two quarterfinal appearances - at the $175,000 event in Cincinnati in July and the $75,000 Forest Hills event last week.
Meanwhile, Sania is set to launch her US Open singles campaign with her first round match against Croatia's Karolina Sprem on Monday.
