‘My game’s OK, I must focus on my fitness’

She threw her racquet in disgust at one point and looked despairingly at her family when she hit the ball wide but despite her loss in the quarters at the Dubai WTA, Sania Mirza seems to be enjoying her tennis. ‘‘I’ve had a fantastic week. I’m very happy with the way I’m hitting the ball. It was just Jelena’s day yesterday’’, Sania said on Friday.

Excerpts from an interview:

ON HER FITNESS: Even the top ranked players have some chinks in their armour. I’m not worried that I didn’t get too many first serves in yesterday, what I really want to focus on is my physical fitness.

ON HER ANKLES: They’ve given me a few problems; they get twisted, swollen and that can really hurt. In the match against Kuznetsova, I was in tears because of the pain. But I didn’t have any problems in my match last night, so I don’t know why my ankle flares up.

ON NEEDING A COACH: We are working on a few options. But I did defeat the world number 6 without a coach, so its not a major problem

ON WHAT’S UP NEXT: I take it one game at a time. I want to break into the top 50 by the end of the year. I’ll be playing the event in Miami next week or the US$75,000 tournament in France.