Sports India

Jelena Jankovic of Serbia-Montenegro Thursday reached the semi-finals of the Dubai Open tennis championship here, defeating India’s Sania Mirza in straight sets.

Twenty-year-old Jankovic, ranked 28th in the world, took the match 6-2, 6-2.

She set up a semi-final clash with Serena Williams, who earlier beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-3.

Lindsay Davenport meets Patty Schnyder in the other semi-final.

This was 97th ranked Mirza’s first encounter with Jankovic.

The 18-year-old Hyderabad girl had stunned US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova Tuesday to reach the quarter-finals here.

Earlier, Mirza made history in Indian tennis by winning the WTA championship in Hyderabad Feb 13.

Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza began her quest for a semi-final berth in the Dubai Open tennis championship here against 28th ranked Jelena Jankovic of Serbia-Montenegro.

The 97th ranked Sania, who won the WTA tournament in Hyderabad Feb 13, is playing 20-year-old Jankovic for the first time.

The winner of this quarter-final will face Serena Williams, who beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals.

Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Sunil Dutt on Thursday wished India’s first ever Formula One racer Narain Karthikeyan all success ahead of the Sunday season opener in the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne.

Dutt hoped Karthikeyan would emerge as one of the top F1 racers in the years to come.

Proclaiming that Sania Mirza and Karthikeyan were the pride of the nation, he hoped the Hyderabad girl would continue her dream run by defeating Serbian Jelena Jankovic in the 585,000 US dollar Dubai Open WTA Championship on Thursday.

The Minister described as shameful the incident involving Indian Oil’s Deepak Thakur and Kamalpreet Singh of Punjab Police resulting in serious injuries to the former. Singh had hit Thakur with his stick in the recent Ranjit Singh Hockey Tournament match.

Dutt expressed confidence about the timely completion of all preparations for the Delhi edition of the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

On the controversy regarding sportspersons sporting the tricolour on their garments and equipment, Dutt said the matter was under the purview of the Home Ministry.

India’s Sania Mirza lost the first set of her quarter-final match against Jelena Jankovic of Serbia-Montenegro 6-2 in the Dubai Open tennis championship here.

Jankovic, ranked 28th in the world, led 5-1 at one point before Sania rallied back and took one game.

But Jankovic quickly overcame the 97th ranked Sania in the next game to take a one set lead.

The winner of this quarter-final faces Serena Williams, who earlier beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-3.

When Sania Mirza arrived in Dubai as a wildcard for the Dubai Open, she had modestly hoped to reach at least the second round.

Well, she’s gone one better. And in getting to the quarter finals, she has scalped first a player ranked more than 60 places above her and then the reigning US Open champion.

Her success is good news not just for Indian tennis but also her fans and of course the sponsors!

Her ankle may not be as famous as Sachin Tendulkar’s elbow but every fall she has, gets the entire country holding its breath.

She has got the Indians in every part of the world cheering her on, especially in Dubai.

Sweet success

At the age of 18, she is already a star, administering polio drops to children in Delhi and having audiences with President A P J Abdul Kalam.

Finally a star from Indian tennis to take over the mantle from Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, who’s company manages her business interests.

Sania started the year ranked 130 odd, she is now already ranked 97. And every win over a top player such as Svetlana Kuznetsvoa will get her even higher.

Sailing high

Soon she won’t have to depend on wild cards to play at events like the Australian Open and the Dubai Open.

“She is done fantastic for herself. She is on a super run at the moment. I think she needs to ride that wave as much as she can and win coveted WTA points,” says Leander Paes, Captain, Indian Davis Cup Team.

The fans are ecstatic, the tennis fraternity is overjoyed and the sponsors are thrilled to bits.

“It is amazing, her commercial value has been increasing by almost 20 to 25 per cent,” says Anirban Blah, Vice President, Globosport.

Her Steffi Graf like forehand has proved that Sania has the shots to play in the big league. Now all that she needs is the fitness and the temperament to go even further.

Regardless of the result of her quarter-final clash with Elena Likhovtseva, Sania Mirza will race into the top 75 after the Dubai Open. The person happiest for her is Mahesh Bhupathi. The racquet magician talks about the Sania Mirza he has known:

First serve
I first saw Sania on the juniors circuit when she was 13. I could see she had talent, but it wasn’t anything spectacular at that time. Of course, subsequently my dad (Krishna Bhupathi) would take her under his wings and three years back my company Globosport started managing her career. Life on the circuit is tough and she keeps calling me whenever she needs advice.

Lionheart on a roll
I don’t want to suggest any changes in Sania’s playing strategy at the moment. Winning is a habit. And she’s on a roll after upsetting US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova. I simply want her to continue playing the way she is. I’ve always told the young champ to hit the ball as hard as she can. And now she is implementing it brilliantly on court. Sania has a big heart. She comes out of tight situations by playing some big shots when the chips are down. My advice to her at the moment is to keep up the good work. The way she overcame her ankle injury to win against a reigning Grand Slam champ speaks volumes for her determination and killer instinct.

Family matters
Sania is like family. I spoke to her parents Imran and Nasima immediately after her victory over Kuznetsova at Dubai. They are really really proud of her. I could not watch her much-talked-about clash with Serena Williams — we were playing simultaneously at the Australian Open championships! But I met her after the match and she was really kicked about the support she had got at the Rod Laver arena.

Biryani banter
After the Open we actually enjoyed biryani, a delicacy Sania savours. Of course, like Mohammed Azharuddin, I’ve been telling her to go easy on biryani for the past three years.

Sania Mirza magic did not work on Thursday night as the Indian tennis ace was beaten 2-6, 2-6 in the quarterfinal of the Dubai Open women’s tournament by World No 28 Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic in less than 50 minutes.

Sania, who had shocked World No 4 and US Open champion Svetlena Kuznetsova to qualify for the quarterfinal, was completely listless despite a 5,000-strong crowd of Indians cheering her all the way.

She began badly losing her opening serve and was never really in the match as Jankovic played a cool and calm game to demolish the Hyderabad girl.

Taking a dig at critics who were not willing to give Sania Mirza her due after she won the Hyderabad Open, Indian tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi today said they should go for a “reality check” now that she had beaten world number seven Svetlana Kuznetsova.

“After Sania won the Hyderabad Open there were people who said that it (success) was at home and against lower ranked players. But now she has proved that she can beat the best in the world outside the country and her success back home was no fluke,” Bhupathi told reporters here.

“Now all of them should go for a reality check,” said Bhupathi whose company Globo Sport manages the 18-year-old Hyderabadi.

Bhupathi, who is here for India’s Davis Cup tie against China starting Friday, said they had been looking at the Dubai Open as a chance for Sania to garner some useful ranking points but she had went on to achieve more than that.

“It is one thing to get a break and another to make the most of it. Sania is making the most of her opportunities and this proves her ability.” Indian Davis Cup captain Leander Paes also echoed the same sentiments and said the teen sensation was having a superb run this year.

“Sania is riding on a wave and now she should garner as many ranking points as she can,” he said.

The 31-year-old said he always felt that the girl has quite a few similarities with him and the resilience she showed after being down 0-4 against one of the top 10 players yesterday had made the entire country proud.

Indian teen tennis sensation Sania Mirza is hoping to clash against her Australian Open conqueror and American champion Serena Williams at the Dubai Open. Her second round stunning victory over World No. 7 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia on Tuesday has given her the confidence to look far ahead in the WTA Championship being played at the desert kingdom. Today she takes on 28th Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in the quarter-finals. “One more win could pit me against Serena. If we clash again, I want to beat her,” Sania is reported to have told some members of the Indian media in Dubai.

“Just over a month ago, playing in a Grand Slam tournament was just a dream. I was thrilled just to get a wild card entry into the Australian Open. Now to realise that I have actually beaten a reigning Grand Slam champion is amazing. The feeling hasn’t sunk in yet. Before I came to Dubai I knew this was a high-profile tournament loaded with heavyweights, and, being a wild card entrant, I knew I had an opportunity to cause a few upsets,” she said.

“When I look at my sudden rise to the top, I feel blessed to be where I am today. From being ranked in the 450s last July, I shot straight up to the top 100. But the ascent has been built on some hard-fought matches and tough times. But all this is part and parcel of a sportsperson’s life. The rise has been tremendous, but like my parents always say, it is wise to keep your feet on the ground and strive to do better,” she added. Meanwhile, Ten Sports channel is showing the quarter-finals of the WTA event live from the Dubai Tennis Stadium. They are being held in two sessions: between 4 and 6 p.m. and 8.30 and 10.30 p.m. The channel is also repeating a telecast of Sania’s sensational second round victory on Tuesday over Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova from 7.30 p.m. today.