Just when one begins to think that the hype and adulation that she draws fail to justify her form and fitness, Sania Mirza stands up and gives an account of her prowess. The 20-year showcased this last week when she won the Pilot Pen doubles title, along with Italy’s Mara Santangelo, ahead of the US Open tennis tournament.
Seeded 26th at the New York event, Sania steamrolled Estoria’s Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 6-7, 6-1 to advance to the second round on Tuesday night.
With her scintillating drives and powerful forehand, Sania has been sensational in the run-up tournaments, with her ranking rising to a career-high 27. Did the Hyderabadi do anything different to hit such superb form?
Says Sania from New York, “Nothing. I just did what I have been doing all through my career — continued to work hard. That is the only path to success.”
Five top-25 scalps in the last two tournaments, breaking into the top-30, the first ever-Indian woman to reach such heights... everything seems to be falling in place for Sania this year. Life surely has travelled a long way for the lass who began her career with a world ranking of 987 in the year 2001.
“I’m having a great year. I’m playing my best tennis. I never thought of reaching here when I started playing tennis. “But after breaking into the professional circuit, I did think that with a lot of effort I could get there,” said Sania, who will team up with Mahesh Bhupathi for the doubles tie at the US Open.
Though Sania beat Kanepi with elan on Tuesday, consistency is one thing she is not too well known for. Superb on one day, the all-powerful forehands give way to ordinary play as she lets the momentum slip away. Explains Sania, “If you closely follow the career graphs of the top 100 players on the WTA circuit, you will find that apart from maybe, the top 5, all the rest of them constantly have their ups and downs.
“Tennis is a truly global sport and intensely competitive. Besides, each player has her own style of play and my biggest strength is my aggressiveness, which has brought me to this level. This style requires that I take a lot more chances and the margin of error is small. “I can never become as consistent as a defensive player like, say Patty Schnyder, but I continue to make an effort to improve to the best of my ability,” she said.
Consistency or not, there is no denying the fact that Sania’s rise has been the fastest in the sports history of the country. If she can maintain top fitness, there is no stopping her upward surge. “Tennis is a very competitive sport with players from more than 200 countries vying for top honours. It is slippery at the top, for sure, but I’ll spare no efforts to sustain my success,” she said with confidence.
As Sania now prepares to face American Laura Granville in the second round, there will be huge expectations from the millions back home. “Of course, I’m conscious that there are a lot of expectations. “But I’d like to believe that the pressure of expectations is a privilege that I’ve earned with my performances,” she signs off.
0 comments:
Post a Comment