Sports India

Indian tennis’ dream girl, who is having a dream run in the tennis circuit, was in the city yesterday to attend few functions

Sania Mirza at the Acres Cricket Club, Chembur, yesterday. She came, she saw, she conquered. Dressed in brown trousers and a casual orange top, she could have passed for any other regular teenager, except that there is nothing regular about this girl. Sania Mirza, the hottest kid on the tennis field, visited The Acres Club at Chembur to inaugurate the Acres Cricket Academy and to launch Power Cricket, a state of the art bowling robot which has been made available for the first time in India. She was accompanied in this endeavour by former Indian all-rounder Sandeep Patil. The tennis superstar inaugurated the Power Cricket by facing a few balls herself from the robot, much to the amusement of the club members, who had gathered in large crowds to see their favourite pin-up girl. Not only did Sania face the balls thrown at her with ease, she even answered their questions with equal elan.

Sania, who started playing tennis when she was just six years of age, advised parents to let their kids enjoy the game rather than pressurising them to play it. “It is when you love the game and enjoy it, that you play your best,” she said.

A lot of autograph seekers were interested in knowing how this young girl managed to match the prowess of Serena Williams at the Australian Open. Sania presented them with one of her rare smiles. “I was nervous at first,” she admitted, but added that she had settled down by the second round. “I’m sure I will be much more confident the next time I play her,” she quipped. The 18-year-old was smiling when she said that it is not she who felt the pressure, but the Williams’ sister, who is a world champion. “I just went to give my best shot,” she added. Speaking about the Acres Cricket Academy, Sania said that clubs like The Acres Club are giving the right encouragement to youngsters by bringing out their talent. “I have always enjoyed cricket as a game because like tennis, it requires discipline, dedication and high levels of training and concentration. In fact, if I was a boy, I’m sure I would have been a cricketer,” she said with a laugh.

Teenage tennis sensation Sania Mirza yesterday urged corporates to take initiatives and sponsor talented sportpersons in order to ensure that more athletes could come to the forefront.

Teenage tennis sensation Sania Mirza yesterday urged corporates to take initiatives and sponsor talented sportpersons in order to ensure that more athletes could come to the forefront.

“The right kind of support and training is essential and it is only when corporates come forward that we will see more tennis players, more cricket players and more Rathores in the making,” she said while speaking on the eve of Women’s Day at a conference, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries’ women’s wing, here yesterday. “I have just been plain lucky,” she said while tackling a question on the support she received from the corporate sector in the nascent phase of the 18-year-old’s career. Hyderabad-based Sania created history by becoming the first Indian woman tennis player to reach the third round of a Grand Slam event during the Australian Open earlier this year before adding another footnote by winning the WTA Hyderabad Open. “I was lucky that I was sponsored at the age of 13 when I was a non-entity. Today, there are more corporates coming forward to sponsor not necessarily because they are interested in the sport but more for mileage they would earn out of it,” Sania said.

Agreeing to a participants’ view point that way back in 1970s corporate sponsorship was not heard of nor were women athletes taken seriously, she said “Now times have changed. People are looking beyond cricket. Sport now does not only mean cricket but we need to have some patience before all sports get the desired support and sponsorship", Sania, who reached the quarter-final of the Dubai Open tournament last week, said. Sania, however, reminded the audience that she did not receive all the support from the government, people and the media just because she was a woman,"they did not have pity on me for being a woman but supported me because they knew I had the talent to make it bid. Refusing to accept the gender discrimination, she said, “I do not know why there is such a big issue being made out of being a man or a woman. An achiever is a achiever, irrespective of the fact that whether he is a man or a woman and I personally think that a woman can do as well as a man.” On being a role model to thousands of aspiring teenagers, she said, “I have realised the responsibility of being a noticed sportswoman. Everything from my nosering to my sunglasses to my behaviour and my play is being noticed. However, I would rather have people noticing my game than my nosering and my sunglasses.”

India’s latest tennis sensation Sania Mirza on Monday dispelled worries about her ankle injury, saying that the injury is was not as bad she had thought it would be and she would be able to start training in 2-3 days’ time.

Sania was speaking after inaugurating a state of the art bowling machine, the Acres Club, along with cricketer Sandeep Patil.

Replying to a question Sania said her immediate goal was to break into the top 50 by this year’s end.

The player, currently ranked 77th on the WTA, also hinted that she was in the process of finalising a coach, though, she refused to take any names.

She said that she was looking for a coach with whom she could be comfortable with and he should know a bit more about fitness.

Warning parents against pushing their wards too soon, she said for the first few years the child should have fun on the courts and only after that if one saw potential should they approach some coaches to test the child.

On her biggest strengths, she said, ‘’It is the support of my family and friends, without that I would not have reached here.'’ She said that for tennis to overtake cricket in this country would be near impossible as cricket has become a religion in the country.

‘’I also like cricket with Sachin Tendulkar being my favourite player,'’ she revealed.

On her future tournaments, Sania said she would be playing in the Maimi Open beginning March 17 and then move to France before returning home for the Fed Cup matches.

The stirring exploits of our sportsmen in the week gone by have come like a breath of fresh air in an overall depressing scenario in which our politicians hit the nadir of disgraceful behaviour in their contemptible power-grabbing games.

In Dubai, Sania (‘second to none’ in colloquial Urdu) Mirza thrilled millions of neophyte converts to the game in the length and breadth of our country, while demonstrating the difference between ace and double fault in an essentially elitist sport.

Down Under, Narain Karthikeyan’s auspicious ninth place on debut in Saturday’s first qualifier of the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix, in which the legendary Michael Schumacher finished 18th, must surely have pleased the god after whom he takes his name. The good wishes — and prayers — of the legion of his fans and well-wishers will surely be with him today.

Across the Western Ghats, Pankaj Advani claimed the Asian billiards crown and, in Delhi, India’s Davis Cup combo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi also lived up to their formidable international reputation on Saturday, even as Harsh Mankad and Prakash Amritraj powered the squad to an unassailable 3-0 lead over China in the Davis Cup qualifying round.

To underscore the dichotomy: Whereas Sania, Narain, Leander, Mahesh, Harsh, Prakash and Pankaj have all provided their countrymen cause for pride and joy in a burgeoning national climate of hope and self-belief, our contemptible politicians have sullied the country’s image internationally.

Even as our netas continue indulging their perfidious tamashas, sports lovers are hoping that Sourav Ganguly’s Team India, which will join battle against the Pakistanis in Mohali on Tuesday, will be inspired by the exploits of their sporting compatriots to maintain an equilibrium in the fabric of our society.

Sporting arenas are wonderful play grounds for dreams. And nightmares. It is where some of the most open and public showing of extreme emotions is witnessed.

In some sense, it is an unforgiving theatre of absurd, showcasing lifes paradoxes in stunning relief. Even as one champion boundlessly exults after achieving what may be his or her lifes crowning achievement, in the same arena will sit quitely crouched in melancholy another, seeing his or her lifes dream lay shattered. It is a cruel reality show. But it is life.

This extremeness of happy expectation and bitter disappointment is what Indians may be experiencing today as they sit tensed over the happy prospect of Narain Karthikeyan revving up his Jordan engine on the F-1 circuit in Melbourne tomorrow even while they come to terms with the end of Sania Mirzas fairytale run in the Dubai Open.

But for all those mourning the loss of Sania last night especially after the win against Svetlana Kuznetsova two days ago, the thing to remember is Sania defeat was not such a bad thing at all. Though it might seem anti-climactic, Sania had outdid herself in reaching the level that she did. There was nothing to be ashamed in her defeat.

Sporting success is not a familiar friend, and praise accumulates and is then heaped on any sudden achievement. Mirza has done well to replicate quickly what Leander Paes did just once in his grand slam singles career (a third round placing), yet she remains an apprentice.

It is said that she is a top 10 potential, and irrespective of whether it is an exaggeration, it is an unnecessary burden for a player only finding her tennis feet. Sania is going to need that nerve, because even though shes just entered a new world, India expects the world of her. But is also here where we, fans and the media, should learn to temper our expectations with realism.

Let us face it, Sani is not going to win the French Open or Wimbledon. She may even lose there in the first rounds. But that will not undo her good work so far this year. Sania is a wonderful talent and needs to carefully handled. We should be happy if her accomplishments live up to her abilities. It is not her fault if they do not match up with our expectations.

We need to keep our perspective, and she hers. It is a lesson that we are better off carrying when Narain takes to the wheels tomorrow at Melbourne. He is not only a racetrack-scorcher but also a path-breaker. Becoming a first in a nation of over billion is in itself an achievement. But he is not the one to rest contended with that minor accomplishment. He understands the long haul ahead. And he is where he is now on his own and not due to any other considerations. He also knows it and that is why he is able to look into the eyes of other drivers and talk in equal terms.

The 28-year-old Narain finds this talk that he had only been given his spot for financial reasons as hogwash. A news agency has quoted him as saying: In India, theyre very happy for me and theres a lot of talk back home but people keep saying Im here for commercial reasons. I would like to say that in British Formula Three I was a race winner and Im not bad I think. Karthikeyan if anything has taken the hardest possible road to F-1.

He tested with Jaguar and Jordan in 2001 but did not make the grade and came agonisingly close in 2003, when he was offered a drive by Minardi but was unable to generate the huge sums of money needed by the cash-strapped team to secure his place. He signed a deal with Jordan then underwent extensive testing in Europe to get the super licence he needed to compete in Formula One.

Everybody in the high-octane world of F-1 racing knows influence or commercial consideration can get you to a certain level but not on to the track. Any one who is there is on merit. That is why even a Michael Schumacher has said: Obviously Im sure he (Narain) would have wished to have more time … but I saw him in testing and he did a good job. He had to watch his mirrors quite a bit and he did so I think hes capable of doing so. The race situation is slightly different but I believe hes doing a good job.

If a champion racer is saying that who are we to quibble. Even if Narain finishes last, we should remember he is a winner in a different sense.