Indian tennis star Sania Mirza has withdrawn from her singles match in the first round of the qualifying event of the $ 600,000 Aegon International in Eastbourne.

Sania was trailing by 4-6 2-3 against Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania when she decided to withdraw from the match due to a hip-strain. Alexandra Dulgheru was declared winner of the match after Sania opted to withdraw from the contest. Sania will now play in the doubles event with her Chinese Taipei partner Chia-Jung Chuang.

The unseeded pair of Sania-Chuang will play against fourth seeded Australian pair of Samantha Stosur and Rennae Stubbs. In the Aegon Classic, Sania made into the semifinals of the singles and doubles last week and now she is playing in Aegon International without any rest which took a toll on her.

The top seeded pair of Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy of Czech will start their campaign against Polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski. While second seeded, Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles will play against Stephen Huss of Australia and local Ross Hutchins in the first round of the Aegon International