Once again, Sania's serve proved the proverbial Achilles' heel as she went down 6-7 (0/7) 4-6 to the eight seeded former Wimbledon champion after putting up a spirited fight.

"Obviously, I'm a little disappointed because I felt I had the first set and should have closed it out at 5-4," the 31st seed said after her match against Venus which lasted a little over one and a half hours. I think we always knew that she's one of the best servers in the game, and I'm really not. I mean, I'm very critical about my game. I think I'm one of the worst servers in the game," Sania said.

The 21-year-old fought hard in the match and felt despite the loss, she could take away a lot of confidence for future matches.

"I take a lot of positives out of it. I mean, she's supposed to be one of the biggest hitters of the game, and I was out-hitting her. And I think that's a very good thing for me, for my confidence," she said.

"Obviously I stepped it up in the last couple of days. She just pressed on the gas pedal when she needed to, and I didn't. I think that was the difference. But I think I was in it till the end."

The 21-year-old said she was happy to have held her own against Williams, who lauded the Indian's tenacity.

"She was definitely trying to dictate terms, so I just stuck with playing my game and didn't change it," said Venus.

"I think ultimately I had a little more than her and it helped me in the end. I'm definitely serving very well," the 27-year-old added after the hard-fought victory.

Sania sidestepped queries on the pre-tournament controversies which dogged her and said she was only focusing on playing for her country.

"In my eyes I'm representing my country all the time," she said.