London: Ankita Das made a mess of what could have been a memorable moment for her at the Olympics here today as she exited in the first round losing 1-4 to Sara Ramirez of Spain at ExCel centre.

The Indian teenager made far too many mistakes against the Spaniard and yet managed to win a game off her in a match that lasted 30 minutes in the round of 128. The Siliguri girl lost 9-11 8-11 7-11 11-8, 2-11. Ankita had earlier received a bye in the preliminary round.

Though Ramirez started off well, Ankita was up to her opponent showing some patches of brilliance. She, however, made several unforced errors at the net as well as in her serves that put paid to her ambitions. 

Paying her first ever Games match, she failed to control her nerves against the higher ranked Sara (83) giving away so many easy points. The 19-year-old Indian did admit after the match that she was a bit nervous. “I made too many silly mistakes that cost me the match,” said the Indian.

The Indian came into grove in the fourth game when she managed to win 11-8 but Ramirez was too good on the day to give her opponent any allowance in the next as she shut out the Indian challenged quickly to win 11-2.

“I should have won the first game where I had a good chance at 9-10 when I missed my serve. In the third I was leading by a couple of points when I thought I had the game in my grips. But I played very badly, my backhand shots were awful today” said Ankita. 

Whenever Ankita went into offensive the Spaniard tried to slow down Ankita’s game without allowing the Indian any chance of a strong comeback.

The other Indian in fray, Soumyajit Ghosh, will be taking on Gustavo Tsuboi of Brazil in the main draw round of 128.