Close X
Friday, November 29, 2024
ADVT 
India

After Saina, Sania's Turn To Hit The Top

Veturi Srivatsa, 13 Apr, 2015 11:10 AM
    Just three days after Saina Nehwal was deposed as World No.1 badminton player in only a week, her Hyderabad citymate Sania Mirza ascended to the throne on Sunday as the tennis world’s top doubles player.
     
    The country rightly savoured and celebrated Saina’s rise to the top of the summit but before the weekend, she had to make way for Chinese Li Xurei to return to the top. Sania offset the disappointment and her accomplishment is also not easy coming.
     
    Sania, 28, created history in the company of Martina Hingis, winning her third straight Women Tennis Association (WTA) doubles title with the Swiss star, the duo beating Ausralian Casey Dellacqua and Darja Jurak of Croatia at the Family Circle Club tennis tournament.
     
    It has been a happy week for not only for Sania, but also Martina, the two climbing to the No.1 position as a team. Remarkably, the two have not lost ever since they joined forces three weeks ago. They won the two hardcourt ttitles in Indian Wells and Miami before triumphing on green clay at Charleston, South Carolina. Both promise much more in the weeks to come.
     
    It was a tough week for Sania and Martina, going through the agony of special tie-breakers in every round on the way to the final. As Saina mentioned it’s a tribute to their ability to bounce back even when they were not at their best. The fact that they lost only three sets over 14 matches in the three tournaments is an indication of their dominance.
     
    "It’s a dream for every kid to be No.1 one day,” said Sania just as Saina recalled how her mother wanted her to get an Olympic medal. Yes, she can’t think of a better person than Martina to get to the top, acknowledging the experience of the Swiss miss helping them wriggle out of tight situations.
     
    Martina said it in a perfect postscript: “I think now the pressure is off. I know we can play at any time, any surface, anywhere.”
     
    Sania’s rise was so quick and amazing that even she can’t believe she is No.1, not long ago she was trailing Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci at the top of the ranking table by some two and half thousand points.
     
     
    Sania is the third Indian to attain the No.1 ranking in doubles following her more illustrious compatriots Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhuapthi, who ruled the men’s doubles circuit in the 90s. Leander, in his 40s, is still counting his Grand Slam doubles and mixed doubles titels.
     
    Sania’s progress report is as impressive, her three Grand Slam mixed doubles titles underscoring her achievements.
     
    To put her fantastic run in perspective, it has to be viewed taking her performance graph last year. She ended the year winning the year-end WTA finals with the experienced Zimbabwean Cara Black.
     
    She has also shown how much does she care for the country’s tennis by leaving the pro circuit to play in the Incheon Asian Games. She won the mixed doubles gold with Saketh Maineni and also the fist ever women’s doubles medal, the bronze with Prarthana Thombare. She had been a regular in every Indian team right from the time she played at the Busan Asian Games in 2002 as a 15-year-old.
     
    Sania had planned it all and said so at the end of last year. She had set her sights high, keeping in view the No.1 doubles rank and also winning the elsusive Grand Slam doubles title this year. She has achieved one and looks good to fulfil the other, though not with the partner she thought she would, Chinese Tapei’s Su-Wei Hsieh, with whom she started the year. The two realised that their play was not compatible and broke off.
     
    Like Paes, Saina is also skilful enough to adapt her play with any partner as she has shone in mixe doubles. She won two Grand Slam titles with Bhupathi and the third with Brazilian Bruno Soares.
     
    Sania wanted to make name as singles player and she was on the right path, reaching a career-high 27th rank, battling it out with the established order. Pundits said she was good to be among the top 10.
     
    Wrist and knee injuries forced her to settle for doubles play so as not to punish her body. The decision was proved right and she built her career all over again.
     
    The Hyderabadi is highly articulate and is not one shy away from taking her critics, mostly bigots, who seem to take a vicarious pleasure in needling her on stupid issues. She is a brave girl coming from a conservative background. She has proved that you can’t be a worldbeater chickening out of controversies.

    MORE India ARTICLES

    AAP Confident, BJP Hopeful, Congress Despondent Post Election

    AAP Confident, BJP Hopeful, Congress Despondent Post Election
    A day after exit polls predicted an AAP win in Delhi, its visibly relaxed leader Arvind Kejriwal Sunday watched a Hindi movie as the BJP insisted it was still confident of winning the election with wider national ramifications.

    AAP Confident, BJP Hopeful, Congress Despondent Post Election

    Modi Asks States To Work In Tandem With Centre

    Modi Asks States To Work In Tandem With Centre
    Emphasising on the need to empower the states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday called upon states to forge a model of "cooperative federalism" to resolve differences even as he flagged poverty as India's biggest challenge.

    Modi Asks States To Work In Tandem With Centre

    Manjhi meets Modi, rules out quitting; Nitish to parade MLAs

    Manjhi meets Modi, rules out quitting; Nitish to parade MLAs
    The crisis in Bihar's ruling JD-U deepened further Sunday, as a defiant Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi asserted he will not resign, while the rival camp led by Nitish Kumar decided to parade legislators at Raj Bhavan Monday and stake claim to power.

    Manjhi meets Modi, rules out quitting; Nitish to parade MLAs

    Invisible Planes Next On India's Defence Research Organisation's Radar, Thanks To Sage Bharadwaj

    Invisible Planes Next On India's Defence Research Organisation's Radar, Thanks To Sage Bharadwaj
    India's premier defence research organisation DRDO is open to co-developing a technology promoted by an Indian scientist who claims he can make planes invisible using pre-Mahabharata sage Bharadwaj's formulae

    Invisible Planes Next On India's Defence Research Organisation's Radar, Thanks To Sage Bharadwaj

    Mauritian Ex-PM Navin Ramgoolam Arrested, Gets Bail

    Mauritian Ex-PM Navin Ramgoolam Arrested, Gets Bail
    Former Mauritius prime minister Navin Ramgoolam, who was arrested for involvement in cases of conspiracy and money laundering, was set to be released on bail later Saturday following a decision of the court after a bail motion was heard the same day.

    Mauritian Ex-PM Navin Ramgoolam Arrested, Gets Bail

    JD-U Crisis: Manjhi Wants House Dissolved, Nitish To Stake Claim Sunday

    JD-U Crisis: Manjhi Wants House Dissolved, Nitish To Stake Claim Sunday
    Bihar's ruling JD-U seemed to be on the verge of a split Saturday, as Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi sought dissolution of the assembly despite opposition from a majority of his cabinet even as his predecessor Nitish Kumar was re-elected legislature party chief

    JD-U Crisis: Manjhi Wants House Dissolved, Nitish To Stake Claim Sunday