Sports India

Serena Williams acknowledged her potential, as did half-a-dozen awe-struck rivals, and a billion Indians starved of sporting success swooned.

The rest of the world sat up and took notice yesterday: a cute Indian girl is the fastest-rising player on the women’s circuit.

But 24 hours after dumping US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova from the high-profile Dubai Open, Sania Mirza would only say: “I may have won yesterday, but that is history. Yesterday was a different day and tomorrow is going to be different as well. I’ve just got to go out there and give off my best. I can’t live in the past… I have to look ahead.”

Asked if she was revising her goal of bursting into the top 50 by the year-end, she replied: “I’ve had a great season so far but right now I’m not thinking of any numbers, just focusing on my next match (against Serbian Jelena Jankovic)… In any case, I think I still need close to 200 more points to move into the top 50,” said Sania, who should be jumping to around No. 75 after ending the 2004 season at 206.

Having lived through some agonising moments on Tuesday afternoon when she was contemplating conceding the match to Kuznetsova (after falling and twisting her ankle), Sania woke up this morning to find that the painkillers had worked like magic.

“I had a light workout this afternoon for about 20-25 minutes… there wasn’t much discomfort, I should be ready to play tomorrow,” Sania said while driving to a clinic organised by the Dubai-based Zeeshan Ali’s Matchplay Tennis Academy.

“The ice treatment has worked wonders,” she added. Sania had an hour-long “hit” with Zeeshan at the academy in the afternoon.

“Her ankle seems to be healing. She’s moving perfectly and there seems to be no pain as such,” Zeeshan said.

He has been surprised by her ability to stay focused and not let all the attention go to her head. “Her success will now lie in her staying fit and injury-free since she has the game to be in the top bracket,” he added.

How does she see her quarter final against a player who is a nobody in comparison to her latest victim?

“Each opponent is different, so each match is different. Jankovic is an all-court player with good groundstrokes. It won’t be an easy match, but my confidence level is high… I’ll go out there and play my natural game. Hopefully, the result will go in my favour,” Sania said.

Jankovic, who turned 20 on Monday, is currently ranked No. 28. Like Sania, she has one WTA Tour title on her CV but, unlike the Indian, the Serbian has not progressed beyond the second round of a Grand Slam.

The father agreed with Sania’s assessment of Jankovic. “She has a hard-hitting game like Sania’s… I think Silvia Farina-Elia (the Italian who lost to Jankovic yesterday) would have been an easier opponent, she doesn’t have the big weapons to hurt anyone,” said Imran Mirza, perhaps trying to play down the high expectations of a country which has overnight turned into a tennis-crazy nation.

Recalling the pain his daughter went through early in yesterday’s match, Imran said he hadn’t thought Sania would be able to take the court after the ankle injury.

“After getting medical attention, she just wanted to complete the first set… we prayed that she could at least put up some fight for the thousands who had turned up to watch her play.”

An hour later, the Mirzas were celebrating the most memorable moment in their lives.The celebration came in the form of a dinner at Le Meridien with close friends.

With a possible rematch with Serena looming (if both players win their respective quarter finals tomorrow), better fasten your seat belts. Indians have quickly learnt to expect the unexpected from Sania.

As the 18-year-old herself said: “Jelena may be better ranked than me, but I don’t know if she is a better player. Perhaps tomorrow…”

New tennis kid on the block Sania Mirza is sure doing India proud by her brilliant performance on the courts. The latest feather in her cap was defeating US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open. It comes as no surprise that the tournament will be aired deferred live on Dubai based Ten Sports.

The telecast will include Mirza’s quarter-final match, as well as full delayed coverage of her win over Kuznetsova.

Mirza’s brilliant comeback from 0-4 down against the fourth seed Russian star will begin on Ten Sports at 7:30 pm on 3 March, followed by live coverage of the quarterfinal match. The live quarterfinal matches will be played in two sessions – evening 4 pm to 6 pm, followed by the night session from 8:30 pm to 10:30 pm.

Mirza is scheduled to play her quarterfinal match against Jelena Jankovic of Serbia-Montenegro, who is ranked 28th in the world. At the same time, there are high expectations from Mirza to improve upon her current 97th position after this week.

The two semi-final matches are scheduled for Saturday, 5 March and the final is slated for Sunday, 6 March.

Taj Television Limited (owners of Ten Sports) CEO Chris McDonald said, “We take great pride in providing relevant and entertaining sports content for the Indian sub-continent, and nothing gets bigger for the fans here than Sania Mirza’s wonderful quest in Dubai at the moment. Our viewers wanted to see her in action, and we are happy to serve them.”

The 18-year-old from Hyderabad upset world No 37 Jelena Kostanic of Croatia 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 in the first round, and despite a painful twisted ankle, got the better of a shell-shocked Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the quarter-finals of the $ 1 million WTA event. She recently created history by becoming the first Indian to win a WTA event at her hometown Hyderabad last month.

India on Wednesday presented cash awards of Rs.39 million to 258 sportspersons for their performances in the international arena during 2004, with Olympic silver medallist shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore claiming the biggest purse of Rs. 2.3 million.

Rathore won the amount for the silver in the double trap event at Athens last year and his two gold medals - in the double trap and in an individual event - at the Asian Clay Championship at Bangkok. The ace shooter was, however, not present at the function as he is training in Australia for the upcoming Commonwealth Championships in Melbourne. Rathore’s India team-mate and veteran Mansher Singh was the second highest money earner with Rs. 1 million. He received this for winning two double trap gold medals - men’s individual and team - at the 10th Asian Championship at Kuala Lumpur last February. Mansher also won two gold medals - individual and team - in the Bangkok Asian Clay Championship.

Sports Minister Sunil Dutt presented the cheques at a function at Vigyan Bhavan here. Speaking at the function, he urged young sportspersons to force the government to increase budgetary allocations next year with good performances at the international level. “Try to reach the stars - that should be your aim. It will also help you become good citizens,” Dutt said.

In all, Rs. 39.1 million in prize money was presented to the 258 sportspersons from 18 disciplines - athletics, archery, billiards and snooker, boxing, chess, gymnastics, hockey, kabaddi, judo, rowing, shooting, squash, table tennis, tennis, ten pin bowling, weightlifting, wrestling and yachting.

The winners: Athletics: K.J. Clinton, Surinder Singh, Pritam Bind, Gurkirat Singh, Madhu Kumar, Sangeeta Mohan, Tete Anmol Ratan, Sunil Kumar, Reddy Bangaraish, Lakhan Mardy, Durlav Bachchu and Pramod. Archery: Jayanta Talukdur, N. Ravindar, Rahul Banerzee and Prabhat Kandy. Billiards and snooker: Alok Kumar, Pankaj Advani, Anuja Thakur and Aditya Mehta. Boxing: M. Suranjoy Singh, Hemant Kumar Sahu, Chhote Lal Yadav, Dinesh Kumar, Suresh, David Suman, Manwar Hussain, Suresh Monkra, Jagbir Singh and Pankaj Rathi. Chess: S. Meenakshi, Dronavalli Harika, P. Hari Krishna, Swati Ghate, Tejas Bakre, Koneru Humpy, S. Vijayalakshmi, M.R. Venkatesh, Arun Prasad, Pravin Thipsay, Poobesh Anand, Eesha Karavade, Deepan Chakkravarty, K. Lakshmi Praneetha, Parimarjan Negi, Vishal Sareen, P.D.S. Girinath, Pon N. Krithika, Saptharishi Roy Chowhury, R.R. Laxman, Abhijeet Gupta, Gopal G.N, Y. Sandeep, Y. Prathiba, I. Ramya Krishna, Soumya Swaminathan, Dhyani Dave, Sai Nirupama Kotepalli, Rucha Sanjeev Pujari, Aditya Udeshi, Devangi Patankar, N. Vinuthna, Mallu Lalith Abhilash Reddy, Deep Sengupta, K. Priyadharshan, M.N. Srinath, Tejaswini Reddy, Saba Aziz Mhate, Gundala Madanasri, Fenil Shah, Chandana Priya. R, Mary Ann Gomes, Shiven Khosla, D. Sai Srinivas, P. Priya, Kruttika Nadig, Somak Palit, Syed Nabeela Farheen, Kajri Choksi, Aswin Jayaram, J. Rajasurya, B. Aditya, Vijay Sai Krishna Gottipati, S. Sai Krishna, Harsh Karnati, Jarbana Ramyasri, N. Srinath Rao, Sethuraman S.P, Prasanna Raghuram Rao, Mohana Priya. J, S. Tejaswani Reddy, Sai Srinivas, Tejdeep Adabala, H. Sowmya, Harsh Lingala, Lakshmi Sahithi. P, Santhana Mahalingam Ashwini and Sravan Kumar Dasika. Gymnastics: Rohit Jaiswal. Hockey (5th Women’s Asia Cup gold winners): Helan Mary, Dipika Murthy, Suman Bala, Kanti Baa, Binita Toppo, Sumrai Tete, Suraj Lata Devi, Subhadra Pradhan, Masira Surin, Surinder Kaur, Mamta Kharb, Saba Anjum, Jyoti Sunita Kullu, Sanggai Channu and Adline Kerketta, Jasjeet Kaur. (4th Women’s Asia Cup bronze winners): Marita Tirkey, Nilima Kujur, Anjan Barla, Subhadra Pradhan, Guddi Kumari, Asunta Lakra, Shushila Lakra, Premsheela Kujur, Jasjeet Kaur, Sushma Kiran Ming, Deepika, Amrita Minz, Sarita Lakra, Rajni Bala, Rajwinder Kaur, Balwinder Kaur, Th. Ranjita and Fulmani Soy. Kabaddi: Sanjeev Kumar, Rakesh Kumar, Navneet Gautam, Sunder Singh, Rajbir Singh, Jaspal Singh, Manpreet Singh, Shailesh Ganpath Sewant, Vikas Kumar, Ramesh Kumar, B.C. Suresh and Thyagaraj. Judo: A. Anita Chanu, Archana, Navjot Chana, L. Nirupama Devi, Bittu, Diviya, N. Gomati Chanu, Pawadneep Kaur, Bhupinder Singh, Vinod Solanki, Richa Sehgal and Akram Saha. Rowing: Gurnoor Kaur, Satish Joshi, Ashish Yadav, Jusstin Thomas and Raj Kumar. Shooting: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Mansher Singh, Ronak Pandit, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Suma Shirur, Deepali Deshpande, Bhirgu Dutt, Zakhir Khan, Ronjan Sodhi, Moraad Ali Khan, Arti Singh Rao, Pournima Zanane, Anisa Sayyed, Shweta Chaudhary, Sushma Rana, Manoj Kumar, Annu Raj Singh, Girija Deshi, Minerva Singh and Anwer Sultan. Squash: Ritwik Bhattacharya, Saurav Ghosal, Sidharth Sachdev and Manish Chotrani. Table Tennis: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy, Poulomi Ghatak, Mauma Das, Subhajit Saha, Subham Choudhary, Nandita Saha, Mamta Ashok Prabhu, Mantu Ghosh, Soumyajit Sarkar, Sanil Shankar Shetty and Divya Chandrashekar Deshpande. Tennis: Sania Mirza, Jeevan Nedunchezian and Sanam K. Singh. Ten-pin bowling: Shaik Ahmed Hameed. Weightlifting: Geeta Rani, A. Sandhya Rani Devi, Renu Bala, L. Monika Devi, Nansita Devi, Satisha Rai, Gurminder Singh, Vicky Batta, P. Harita, Sudhir Kumar, Tikina Gopal, R Kalidass, G. Santhil Kumar, Tejinder Singh and N.G. Romi Devi. Wrestling: Palwinder Singh Cheema, Sujeet Mann, Alka Tomar, Geetika Jakhar, Ravinder Kumar, Naveen, Jyoti, Suman, Priyanka Singh, Hardeep Singh, Geeta, Sudesh Kumari, Dheeraj Rai Singh, Ramesh Kumar and Joginder, Minakshi Devi. Yatching: Nitin Mongia, Amit Arvind, Rajesh Choudhary, Aashim Mongia, F. Tarapore, Vikas Kapila, Ram Kumar Singh, Rajesh Dhulaji, Sanjeev Chauhan, Derrick Menezes, Naresh Kumar Yadav, G. L. Yadav, Pallavi Naik, Rohini Rao, Shilpa Oberoi, Neha Maheshwari, Ninand Meyanker, Shellar Prasad, Rohith Ashok, Trunal Helogaonkar, Abhishek Mahtre, Saraj Singh and Vrushank Giamonkar.

On a day when another seed — Australian Alicia Molik (No.5) — was sent packing by Daniela Hantuchova — Sania Mirza rode on an inspiring crowd to get past a much superior ranked opponent.

To borrow a football cliche, it was a game of two halves. The first clearly belonged to Svetlana Kuznetsova, a protege of Martina Navratilova’s. The Russian powered her way to an effortless 4-0 lead and the huge Indian crowd here feared the worst.

Added to this was the drama of Sania having to call the trainer on court after she slipped and twisted her left ankle while going for a return. ‘‘I took a pain-killer and it started to take its effect after about 10 minutes’’, Mirza said.

But the effect seemed to be amazing as Sania suddenly raised the level of her game. What followed was pure crowd frenzy at every shot and point that she played.

And as her opponent struggled, Sania showed no signs of her left ankle giving way, sending down some amazing shots that left Kuznetsova gasping. She broke Kuznetsova in the fifth, seventh and ninth games and then served out the set to win it 6-4 in 45 minutes.

The second set started on a breezy note with both players exchanging service breaks to be tied 1-1. In the third game, Mirza sent down a low backhand return which Kuznetsova netted to give the Indian a second break and a 2-1 lead.

Sensing a fantastic, improbable victory, Mirza kept her game crisp and tight and forced her much superior opponent to scurry all over the court.

Her reward was to break Kuznetsova in the seventh to go 5-2 clear. The match was at hand.

But Kuznetsova wasn’t finished yet. She went 40-0 up on Sania’s serve before the Hyderabad girl stemmed the flow. Sania pegged back three points and took the set 6-2.

Sania’s win over the No 4 seed netted her 69 points, including 43 bonus points for beating a a Top-10 player.

No matter what happens in the next round, where she will meet the winner of the match between Elia Silvia Farina of Italy and 28th seed Jelena Jankovic, Sania should get a Top-75 ranking when the next WTA list is released on Monday.

Battling an ankle injury but cheered on by an Indian-dominated crowd, Sania Mirza scripted a superb comeback — winning 12 of the last 14 games — to beat reigning US Open champion and fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-2 at the Dubai WTA Open here today. It’s the first time an Indian woman tennis player has beaten a reigning Grand Slam winner.

The win — which takes her into the quarter-finals — could see her crack the Top 75 when the new rankings are released next week.

‘‘To be honest, I never expected to win,” beamed the Indian teenager as she threw away her racquet and covered her face with unbelieving glee. ‘‘I put in a lot of hard work but, once again, it was the crowd that inspired me and pushed me to give of my best.’’

‘‘This is probably among the best matches I have ever played. I was nervous playing against Serena (Williams) during the Australian Open. But today I was mentally prepared to play against a top player,” she said. ‘‘I was not overawed, but I did come mentally prepared to do my best.’’

‘‘The crowd was so much for her, but that was okay as I was not thinking about it’’, Kuznetsova said. ‘‘I just couldn’t get myself into the game.’’

In New Delhi, her mentor Mahesh Bhupathi was audibly upbeat. ‘‘I hope the world who talked of Sania’s Hyderabad Open victory as a fluke will now shut up. I’ve always said that she’s champion material.’’

Bhupathi, in town for the Davis Cup, said: ‘‘She’s proved that the Hyderabad Open was not just a one-off, that she won because of a weak field. And all those said it was ‘rigged’ to Sania’s advantage can take notice of her feat today.’’

‘‘She’s the one who is going to keep doing well and also keep the Indian flag flying high.’’

Giantkiller Sania Mirza will defy the pain-barrier once again and go all out in her quarter-final clash with Jelena Jankovic in the USD 585,000 Dubai Open WTA championship on Thursday.

Brushing aside concerns that she might have to concede the match against the 28th seed Serbian due to a troublesome ankle injury, the star Indian player said there was no way she was going to give up.

“I will definitely play the quarter-finals,” the 18-year-old said, her steely resolve coming to the fore once again.

Winning streak

Playing in the event as a wildcard, Sania stunned world number seven and fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in the second round yesterday despite her ankle hampering her on more than one occasion. After the win, she admitted she was driven to despair with the ankle “killing” her.

“It was the third time in three weeks (it happened) and I was crying because I was in so much pain. I was disturbed because always my ankles are getting injured,” she said.

Sania said she was taking things easy today as she did not want to strain herself before the big match.

“I have just had 30 minutes of practice, I have been resting mostly,” Sania said adding she was feeling “much better” now with massage and treatment as advised by the doctors.

Natural game

Asked if she had put in some special preparation in the lead-up to this event, Sania, currently ranked 98, said, “I do not have any special preparation, I just go out and play my natural game. Inshallah (God willing) tomorrow also I will be able to play good tennis.”

Sania, who created history by becoming the first Indian to win a WTA title in Hyderabad last month, picked 35 WTA points after her win in the first round here against world number 34 Jelena Kostanic of Croatia and after her giantkilling act of the second round, she is all set to move into 60’s in the world rankings.

Having started the year around the 168-mark, it has been a remarkable run for the teenager who became the first Indian woman ever to make it to the second round of a Grand Slam during the Australian Open in January this year.

Indian Tennis’ new heartthrob Sania Mirza, who is acquiring quite a reputation on the WTA tour, is into the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty-Free Open. The 97th ranked Sania overcame an ankle injury to defeat US Open champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 6-2. She will now play Jelena Jankovic in the quarterfinals. Ten Sports, a Dubai based sports channel will provide a live telecast of the match.

It has been quite a year for the 18-year-old Indian on the WTA Tour so far. First came a third round appearance in the Australian Open where she lost to the eventual champ, Serena Williams. Then a first WTA title in front of her home crowd at the Hyderabad Open. In fact her appearance at the Dubai Open was in doubt following an ankle injury that she picked up during the course of her victory at Hyderabad.

In her match against the world No. 7, Kuznetsova, Sania had to take a 10-minute break in order to get some attention to her ankle.

‘My ankle was killing me. It was the third time in three weeks and I was crying because I was in so much pain. I was disturbed because always my ankles are getting injured” Sania said after the match.

She was down 0-4 and 30-40 at this time. A painkiller & some tape to wound up the ankle worked miracles as she pounded out the hapless Kuznetsova with powerful forehand shots & better back court play. She finally won 6-4 6-2.

‘I started well and she was nervous, but I didn’t do anything to make her play like that,’ Kuznetsova admitted.

The scheduled telecast of the quarterfinals to be played in two sessions is as follows: evening session 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm, followed by the night session from 8:30 pm to 10:30 pm.

After a frantic start of the year for Jordan Grand Prix, with its acquisition by Midland Group, a privately owned trading and investment-holding organisation led by Russian-born Canadian businessman Alex Shnaider and a car and driver line-up presentation on Red Square in Moscow on 25th February; the team arrives in Melbourne with fresh expectations and hopes for the first race of the 2005 FIA Formula One World Championship.

With Eddie Jordan stepping down from his role has Chief Executive, the management of the team has undergone key changes. Dr Colin Kolles has been appointed Managing Director of Jordan Grand Prix. His first contact with motorsport was through Rally Racing twenty years ago. Since 2000, he entered the F3 Euro Series with his own team and then operated Germany’s most successful F3 teams.

At his side, newly appointed Sporting Director, Trevor Carlin has a long background in motorsport as well, starting his racing career in 1980 as a junior mechanic working on Formula Ford 1600 and Formula Ford 2000. Since then, he successfully managed various British F3 teams and in 1998, he started his own team Carlin Motorsport with Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan finishing twice on the podium at the end of the season. To complete the list, Adrian Burgess will act as Sporting Manager, Ricky Taylor as Chief Mechanic, Christian Geistdoerfer as Marketing Director and Salvatore Cuccu as Sponsorship Manager. The team has also appointed Paul Monaghan as Chief Engineer with Bradley Joyce joining as race engineer. Annouck Heinrichs has taken the role of Press Officer and will be the point of contact for all media enquiries.

Not only is the management new but also the two race drivers: Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro. At the age of 28, Narain Karthikeyan will be the first Indian ever to drive in the FIA Formula One World Championship. After winning the Formula Asia Championship in 1996 with a host of records and being the only Indian and Asian driver to win this Championship, he entered the British Formula 3 Championship. Since 2002, he started racing in Formula Nissan World Series as well as in the FIA GT Championship.

Tiago Monteiro also 28, from Oporto, Portugal, started his career in the Porsche Carrera Cup in 1997. From 1998 to 2001, he entered the French F3 Championship where he raced very successfully. After one season in Champ Car World Series, he decided to return to Europe and race in the Nissan World Series where he finished second in the Championship with five race wins with Carlin Motorsport. He was awarded Rookie of the Year.

During the presentation in Moscow, the team was also pleased to announce Robert Doornbos as official third and reserve driver. Doornbos was the team’s official test driver for the last three races of 2004 and will continue his work during Friday test and practice sessions at Grands Prix.

During the winter, Jordan Grand Prix became the first team to secure a customer engine deal with Toyota and 2005 marks Bridgestone’s seventh season as tyre supplier to the Silverstone-based team.

Winter Testing
Both drivers completed race simulations without encountering any specific car problems; adding over 3700km to the mileage of the new EJ15 cars, before they were sent to Melbourne. The progress of the EJ15 chassis throughout the month of February was very encouraging, with the drivers improving their lap times day after day. With a new engine partner and the 2005 technical regulations, the control system of the car had to undergo constant development. The drivers also spent much of the allocated time of the test days acclimatising to the environment of F1 cars, the levels of performance and handling available but also to the demands placed upon them, both physical and mental. At the beginning of testing, they focused on optimising their driving position in the car, but then they worked on initial set up changes as they began learning more about the EJ15. Finally, key areas for the future and assessment of the vehicle performance were identified.

TEAM QUOTES ON THE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX

Trevor Carlin, Sporting Director
“I am very excited to be here. We only had five weeks to prepare for this race so everyone at the Jordan factory has done a fantastic job to get the cars ready. Hopefully we can be reliable, get both cars to the end of the race, maybe have a bit of luck and finish close to the top ten. That is the best we can hope for.”

Narain Karthikeyan
“This is my first visit of any kind to Australia. So far the circuit looks quite dirty but I think it is not too difficult to learn and it is going to be ok. I am looking forward to it. It is a steep learning curve as a rookie but I am up to the challenge and I will give my best shot.”

Tiago Monteiro
“I was here last year and I was obviously dreaming of being here as an official driver but definitely not expecting it, so it is great to be back in that dream position and have my name on the board above the garage in the pit lane. It makes a big difference. So far everything has been great. We have been doing interesting PR activities, met a lot of different people and been around the track. It looks interesting, dirty and bumpy but we will have to deal with that and I cannot wait to be in the car. I have been here since Monday and although I have enjoyed spending time in the city, I just cannot wait to drive the car. That’s what I’m here to do and the moment that I get behind the wheel can’t come soon enough!”

Robert Doornbos
“I am really happy to be part of the Jordan Team as I was last year. Obviously Friday is the most important day for my job. I look forward to helping the team and do the best job I can. It is a new circuit for me but that was also the case in the last three Grands Prix last year. I can find my way very quickly on a new circuit and I cannot wait to get back in the car. I am really excited.”