Sania becomes Asia’s number one tennis playerOctober 29th, 2008Controversies, injuries and inconsistent form have threatened to derail Sania Mirza’s career time and again but the Indian star continues to rise nevertheless, touching a new high today by becoming Asia’s number one woman tennis player.
Sania unlikely to reconsider pull-out decisionOctober 28th, 2008Tennis star Sania Mirza indicated on Tuesday night that she was unlikely to reconsider her bombshell decision not to participate in the Bangalore Open, but said she would do duty for India whenever selected. In an e-mail interview to PTI, Sania was also critical of a section of the media for lacking restraint and blowing up petty issues related to her.
 The 21-year-old tennis ace, Asia’s number one and ranked 29th in the world, said she opted not to play the Bangalore Open as she was not in the right frame of mind to do justice to herself or her abilities.
Asked whether she would reconsider the decision following a wave of disappointment across the country, she said, “First and foremost, it would be wrong to say that I have pulled out of the Bangalore Open because in the first place, I did not even enter the draw.” “This is the first time in my career, when I have not entered an international tournament being played in India for genuine personal reasons. I do not think I’m in the right frame of mind right now to do justice to myself or my abilities. If I was to play in this state, I believe I will be letting my fans down,” she said.
 Sania had cited the controversies dogging her career as the main reason for pulling out of the Bangalore Open and insisted that no sportsperson in India had undergone such turbulence in the last two months.
“I don’t think that all sportspersons have faced the kind of situation that I have, particularly in the last two months. Why nobody made an issue when two of our greatest tennis players, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, chose to skip the ATP event in Chennai?” she said.
On whether her decision to pull out of the Bangalore Open would deprive genuine tennis fans of watching her play, Sania said, “The millions of genuine fans all over the country follow me through television, irrespective of whether I’m playing in India or anywhere else in the world.”
“Not more than 6000 to 7000 spectators can get to enter the stadium to watch the match live and it is unfortunate that they will miss out on this opportunity,” she said.
Sania also criticised section of the media for blowing up issues relating to her.
“We also probably need to take a look at the lack of restraint with which certain sections of our media tend to highlight petty issues relating to me, which are bound to encourage mischievous elements because of the massive publicity that they generate.”
“If two people out of a billion file a case on me, the whole world hears about it and it is wrongly projected to be a mass reaction against me,” she said.
Asked whether the decision not to play in India was valid for the Bangalore Open only, she said, “I will take it as it comes and decide accordingly. But I have reiterated several times that I will always be available to do duty for my country whenever and wherever I’m selected to represent India.”
Has Sania Mirza lost a crucial match?October 28th, 2008Sania Mirza’s decision to skip Indian tennis tournaments to prevent more controversies has shattered millions of her fans. More importantly it raises a question on whether the tennis ace is actually playing into the hands of her detractors.
True, she has been unnecessarily dragged into controversies once she started scaling new heights in the world of tennis. Be it the Muslims clerics’ Fatwa for wearing mini-skirts; be it the hue and cry for supporting pre-marital sex; be it shooting of an advertisement on the premises of Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad; be it the contempt suit for a photograph in which her feet appears to be next to the national flag.
 But it is foolish to think that shirking matches will give her mental peace because Sania Mirza is what she is because of tennis and the more she plays the better it would be for her own career as well as for the growth of the game in India. The advent of Sania Mirza has actually done to women’s tennis what Sachin Tendulkar’s batting did to gully cricket.
 That Sania has actually played into the hands of those who raked up the controversies is being conceded even by Indian Davis Cup captain Leander Paes, a man who has been dogged by controversies all through his career. “The greatest joy as an athlete is to play for your country and in front of your people. No athlete is bigger than the game or bigger than the country. Sania will have to be careful about that,” Paes told the Times of India in an interview.
Sania Mirza should be alive to the fact that the controversies follow celebrities. Prominence makes news, is what journalists are taught. And Sania, who trained to be a journalist, too must be aware that she is headline material for the rags as well as television channels. It is a world-wide phenomenon. Neither Sania nor her advisers (read Mahesh Bhupathi’s Globosport) can stop cantankerous elements from taking pot-shots at some celebrities. Ask Amitabh Bachchan how it feels!
Maybe, Sania Mirza should take a leaf out of Amitabh’s book. Stop interacting with the media for a while. All those who chase her for a sound-byte as a reaction to some depraved fatwa or loony photograph should be made to think again. Of course, Sania also has the example of Shah Rukh Khan, who dared to look a controversy in the eye by taking on India’s Health Minister on the “smoking on screen” issue.
And if she needs examples closer to her sport, all Sania needs to do is check out the lives and times of greats such as Martina Navratilova and Monica Seles. While Martina battled taunts about sexual preferences all her life, Seles came back after being stabbed in the back to win a Grand Slam tournament.
The choice is yours Sania!
We believe you should not disappoint millions of your Indian fans just because a few cantankerous publicity seekers make you cringe.
Sania Mirza, catalyst for a silent revolutionOctober 27th, 2008HYDERABAD: In the unconventional pairing of the glinting nose-ring and the brisk tennis skirt lies a metaphor that perhaps best sums up how a racquet-wielding 18-year-old became a youth icon in the best way possible: traditional moorings and liberal values segued as she followed her dreams uncompromisingly. Sania Mirza runs into Maria Sharapova in Acura ClassicOctober 26th, 2008SAN DIEGO (California): Sania Mirza recorded her fourth top-20 win in a week to set up a blockbuster quarterfinal clash with world no. 2 Maria Sharapova at the $600,000 Acura Classic women’s tennis event. |
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