Sania Mirza [Images] has earned a favourable draw at the Australian Open, She takes on 294^th-ranked home challenger Cindy Watson in the first round of the women's singles tennis competition.

Sania, who entered the main draw, courtesy a wild card after reaching the final of the Asian Tennis Championships last year, could not have asked for a kinder draw as she walks out to play her first Grand Slam match in Melbourne next week.

Watson has played at the Open four times and reached the third round in 2002. Her career-best singles ranking is 131, which came the same year.

But Sania has the age on her side, as she is nine years younger than Watson. And if there is any suggestion she might lack in experience, her 12 singles titles on the ITF circuit compares more than well with Watson's seven.

Sania, ranked 169th on the WTA Tour, is drawn in the bottom quarter that features Serena Williams [Images], who has been seeded seven for the event starting Monday.

But for Sania to play the American, she has to first get past Watson and a very difficult second round, where she would meet either Petra Mandula of Hungary or Flavia Pennetta, the Italian 30th seed.

The best performance by an Indian girl on the Grand Slam stage so far is that of Nirupama Vaidyanathan, who reached the Australian Open second round in 1998.

Meanwhile, in the women's singles qualifiers of the year's first Grand Slam, US-based Shikha Uberoi lost to Teryn Ashley of the United States 6-3, 6-3 in second round.

Shikha had beaten Lioudmila Skavrouskaia of Russia [Images] 6-1, 6-4 in first round.

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