At 22, can Sania Mirza make a comeback?

Sania Mirza was the heartthrob of millions. Good looks combined with tennis skills made her a heroine, a poster girl. The whole nation looked up to her to bring home more and more laurels and proudly followed her career.

At the age of 22, Sania is the 91^st ranked women tennis player in the latest (September 8) WTA list. That sounds good. An Indian girl in the top 100. But what is bothersome is the route map to her present grade.

Sania Mirza started 2005 with a rank of 134. From there onwards, it was a steady climb. By the end of August 2005 she had brilliantly fought her way to the 42^nd place. In August 2007 she reached her best ever rating, 27^th in the world. That was incredible. Many expected her to break into the top 20 this year. But instead it was a downward slide from then on.

What went wrong? A lack of focus and commitment? Nonchalance? Immaturity? I suppose a bit of all these plus fitness problems and a penchant for getting into controversies. Some of the issues she had to face were ridiculous. They were not of her making but brought severe pressures on her.

However, Sania Mirza cannot shirk the responsibility for appearing at the Beijing Olympics march past in training clothes. The explanation that she had to come straight from practice was childish. All those thousands of athletes who took part also had to practice.

Sania Mirza could have taken a cue from Leander Paes (once ranked 73 in men’s singles) for commitment and fitness. Or she could draw inspiration from the other three Indian girls who are doing brilliantly in their chosen sports.

Saina Nehwal is just 18. She reached the quarterfinals in badminton at Beijing Olympics with a great performance. The girl is now ranked 14 in the world. The other two are in squash racquets. Joshna Chinnappa, 22, the National Women’s Champion, is 39^th in the world (slipped two places recently). There is an interesting aside about Joshna. When someone mentioned that she was the Sania Mirza of badminton, her repartee was, ‘No, Sania is the Joshna Chinnappa of tennis’.

Then there is Dipika Pallikkal, the beauty who will be turning 17 this month. (A rising hope squashed?) This brilliant squash player is the world’s 57th ranked women. She slipped three places in the latest ranking. She certainly has a bright future if she does not follow Sania Mirza’s pattern.

There are great comeback stories in sports. Let us hope that Sania Mirza returns with all glory. But that would take a lot of character and hard work. Among the current top ten women tennis players, four are her age or younger. On the other hand is the example of Lindsay Davenport. Even at the age of 32, she is ranked 21.

Sania can still do it. She should ignore everything else and concentrate on her game and fitness.

Ends.

Also see:

Tennis: Leander Paes, the Indian Hero

Ramanathan Krishnan: India’s Tennis Legend.

Ramanathan Krishnan: India’s Tennis Legend.

Today’s newspapers carry a report from Kula Lumpur stating that the renowned Indian tennis player Ramanathan Krishnan was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award by the Asian Sports Press Union. On reading it, my mind went back to a print media report on the Wimbledon Championships in 1956 – 51 years back.

Centre Court. First round match. The1954 champion, J. Drobny seeded 5 and the crowd’s idol was playing a 19 year old from India, R. Krishnan. The youngster had won the Wimbledon boys crown two years earlier, but nobody gave him a chance against the Czechoslovak-born veteran left-hander who was making his 13th appearance at the All England Championships.

Krishnan took the first set 6-1. Drobny the next at 6-4 to equalize but there was nothing more he could do. The Indian won the next two at 6-1, 6-4. It was the greatest moment in Indian tennis since Independence notwithstanding Dilip Bose’s Asian Championship triumph in 1949 and subsequent seeding (15) at Wimbledon.

In the pre-Independence era, India had done well in tennis. The 1920s saw a string of victories by the Indians, particularly in the Davis Cup. The top players at that time were M. Saleem, AH Fayzee and AA Fayzee (brothers), Cotah Ramaswamy and Krishna Prasad. They triumphed over players from France, Romania, Holland, Belgium. Spain, and Greece. M. Saleem also reached the singles semi-finals in the 1924 Paris Olympics. Then there was Ghouse Mohammed who reached the last eight at Wimbledon in 1939.

But Krishnan surpassed them all. He reached Wimbledon semi-finals in two successive years, was 4^th seeded there once, and was ranked No.3 in the world. He spearheaded India’s entry into the Davis Cup finals in 1966; we lost 4-1. The match that we won was doubles in which Krishnan and J Mukerjea beat Newcombe and Tony Roche the previous year’s Wimbledon Doubles Champions. Krishnan’s Davis Cup record is outstanding, winning 50 out of 69 matches in singles and 19 out of 29 in doubles.

A grateful nation honored the tennis ace with the Arjuna Award, Padma Shree, and Padma Bhusan. Salaam, Krishnan!

Ends.

Also see:

Tennis: Leander Paes, the Indian Hero

Hockey days in Bangalore