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

    Lights, Camera, Action! Bollywood-themed Eateries Trend Pan-India

    Lights, Camera, Action! Bollywood-themed Eateries Trend Pan-India
    Imagine gorging on 'Anda Apna Apna' or 'Chicken Tussi Great Ho" at a restaurant with walls splashed with Bollywood posters, dialogues and film memorabilia. Special-themed eateries across India are cashing in on the craze for everything Bollywood - films, songs and stars.

    Lights, Camera, Action! Bollywood-themed Eateries Trend Pan-India

    Minor Girl Raped In Delhi

    Minor Girl Raped In Delhi
    The girl was hospitalised after the incident in east Delhi's Preet Vihar on Saturday. The man took the girl from her house by telling her parents that he wants to feed "kanyas" (young girls) on the occasion of Hindu religious event Ram Navami, which marks the end of the nine-day Navaratri festival.

    Minor Girl Raped In Delhi

    Unseasonal Rain Kills Seven Across India; Damages Crops

    Unseasonal Rain Kills Seven Across India; Damages Crops
    The fury of unseasonal rain in different states of north and east India since Sunday evening has left at least seven people dead and damaged standing crops in thousands of hectares, officials said on Monday.

    Unseasonal Rain Kills Seven Across India; Damages Crops

    Bharat Ratna, Padma Awards Conferred On Prominent People

    Bharat Ratna, Padma Awards Conferred On Prominent People
    Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award, was bestowed posthumously on freedom fighter and eminent educationist Madan Mohan Malaviya at an investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday evening.

    Bharat Ratna, Padma Awards Conferred On Prominent People

    17 Die As Floods Ravage Kashmir

    17 Die As Floods Ravage Kashmir
    Up to 16 people were killed on Monday as a devastating flood in the Kashmir Valley forced thousands to flee to safer places as rain-fed streams rushed down the mountains, flooding parts of Srinagar. A man was washed away by a swollen river in Jammu region.

    17 Die As Floods Ravage Kashmir

    Canada Offers Expertise In Smart City Development To Telangana, Andhra

    Canada Offers Expertise In Smart City Development To Telangana, Andhra
    Consul General in Bengaluru Sidney Frank, who is leading a business delegation on a two-day visit to the two states, made the remarks at meeting here. 

    Canada Offers Expertise In Smart City Development To Telangana, Andhra