So far, injuries have spoiled major parts of Sania Mirza’s career. Injuries have caused major ups and downs for her. But, amidst all this, she is confident of going from strength to strength. This year has been year of injuries and recuperation for India’s top-ranked tennis player. First, it was a knee injury that put Sania out of the 2008 WTA Tour for eight weeks.

Then, she suffered another blow to her campaign in the middle of the year when she aggravated a wrist injury and was operated upon. This forced her to pull out of the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the year. “I’ve always done well at the US Open and it was very disappointing for me to miss the Grand Slam on my favourite surface,’’ says Sania.

Weeks before the event, the 21-year-old Indian tennis star had to concede her opening round match in the Beijing Olympics against Iveta Benesova of Czech Republic after trailing 1-6 1-2 due to an injury blow. Now, after two months of rest and recuperation, she is back on the court and back on her way to rejoining the WTA Tour. “After reaching a career-high ranking of 26 last year, this is easily one of the toughest phases of my career. Then, I had difficulty in lifting even a glass,’’ says Sania, who is not ready to spoil her career by a rush comeback and she decides to make it a slow process. The wrist injuries are usually painful. The game revolves around the wrist unlike the knee injury when she could take part in couple of tournaments, including Wimbledon.

Sania has been practising for the last couple of weeks. After starting with 15 minutes of training, she has been practising for 90 minutes per session. “I’ve been practising for two week. Things are looking good. By God’s grace, my wrist seems to be in good shape,’’ says Sania, going on to add that sitting at home and not playing tennis is extremely difficult. “It’s not easy, but having good family support around me, has made my forced break comfortable.’’ Sania has been to the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association complex for a few practice sessions with Radhika Tulpule, but she will concentrate on recovery exercises for the next couple of months. “I’m not looking at tournaments right now. I’m concentrating on recovery exercises. I’m working hard on my physical training sessions.’’

Meanwhile, her ranking has taken a beating because of her long lay-off from tennis. After reaching a career high of 26, she has slipped to 98 in the WTA rankings. Her ranking is set to slide further and may even go behind 100. “It doesn’t affect me because I’m aware of this drop. Even when I was ranked 26, it didn’t affect me. You have to work hard and play good tennis. Then, my ranking will take care of itself,’’ says Sania, who reveals that she does read newspaper headlines when her ranking slips. Sania’s father Imran Mirza feels that she should not return to professional tennis till next year. “The time of her return is uncertain. Recovery is a slow process. We need to plan and make the journey back to big tennis in a smooth way,’’ he explains.