Sania to undergo scan before hitting the court

Sania, who is working with Indian cricket team physio John Gloster, said she wanted to be completely fit before returning.

Sania Mirza, India’s teenaged tennis ace, will undergo a bone scan on April 30, which will determine when she returns to competitive tennis following a six-week break due to an ankle injury. The Hyderabadi, 18, ranked 73 in the world, is hopeful of getting a tournament in before the French Open, which will perforce be the focus of her attention.

“My target for now is to win a round in the French Open,” she said. “After I reached the third round of the Australian Open, there have been a lot of expectations. People are now expecting me to reach semifinals and win tournaments. That is not possible every time but I do appreciate those expectations and I am trying my best to live up to them.

“I am happy to be coming back from an injury and playing on clay despite hardcourts being my favourite surface,” she said, “because clay is easier on the body.”Sania, who is presently working with the physio of the Indian cricket team John Gloster in New Delhi, where she is also cheering the Indian team from the sidelines in the Fed Cup Asia-Oceania Group I competition, said, “There was a lot of pressure on me to play the tournament but doctors told me that the only way I can beat this is by rest. I rather miss one Fed Cup than play it this year and then miss it for a long time. I was really looking forward to playing the Fed Cup this year with Shikha (Uberoi) also coming in, but that couldn’t happen.”

Sania, who has been working with Bob Brett for sometime now, is still on the look out for a full-time coach. “We have short-listed a few people,” she said. “Mahesh Bhupathi is looking at that. The important thing is that I need to have a good rapport with the coach. He can be the best in the world but if we are not comfortable working together, it doesn’t help.”

The glamour girl of Indian sport, who has captured a fair deal of the corporate market with her face endorsing everything from jewellry to cycles, reiterated, “I am a tennis player first and foremost, and the day I feel that the endorsements are coming in the way of my tennis, I will stop it immediately. My goal is to break into the world’s top-25 in the next two years and I won’t let other things get in the way of that.”