INDIA is currently being swept by Sania Mania. In a nation where cricket is king and cricketers are treated - and behave - like royalty, a teenage tennis player has suddenly pushed them off the headlines and the TV screens.
Sania Mirza is the new rising star of the circuit, climbing from 206 in the WTA rankings less than a year ago to 48, the best by an Indian woman and by any Indian player since Wimbledon junior champion Ramesh Krishan in the late '80s. Currently, she is at No50 with a 22-15 season record. Thirteen of those wins have come against players ranked higher than her, including the world-ranked seven and nine. On Friday, she advanced to the final of the Forest Hills Classic in New York State.
These achievements have made her an instant celebrity in India and today she is the only sportsperson who can rival cricketers for the number of products she endorses. Massive crowds saw her win a WTA tour event in her home town of Hyderabad shortly after the Australian Open and today she cannot step out of her home without two bodyguards. It is an unwanted price of fame and something she is just beginning to get used to at the age of 18. Her mobile number is kept a secret from Indian sports journalists who are known to call up day and night pleading for quotes.
Mirza is also the only Muslim woman on the international circuit and that has made the focus on her even sharper. Coming from a conservative Islamic family in the capital of the south-eastern state of Andhra Pradesh, Mirza has managed to smash numerous stereotypes on her way to tennis stardom in a nation where sports success outside of cricket are few and far between. But there has been an undercurrent of tension along the way.
Father Imran - a club cricketer himself and distantly related to former India captain Ghulam Ahmed and Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal - has repeatedly expressed his concern over the revealing outfits worn on the tour.
Her answer? "I am a devout Muslim and try to pray five times a day. As for my outfits, my religion is a forgiving one and I hope I will be forgiven for this as well. After all, tennis is a game which requires mobility so such clothes are a necessity."
And she does have loftier matters to ponder. "It is human nature to want more and I now want to make it to the top 20," she says.
At 18, she has already made waves by reaching the third round at the Australian Open before bowing out in a tight finish to Serena Williams. It was the best performance by an Indian woman in a Grand Slam. She made it to the second round at Wimbledon before going out in three sets to Russia's reigning US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, the same player she had shocked in the Dubai Open earlier in the year.
Asked what she has learned this year, she says: "I learned I'm more confident than I thought I was and much more determined. I can do anything to compete."
That confidence manifests itself in her fearless ground strokes and in-your-face attitude that has raised eyebrows in a nation unused to seeing such aggression in a sportswoman.
"Going for my shots has brought me so far and if my unforced errors are high, the winners compensate."
Mirza was recently ranked second - unsurprisingly to cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar - in a national youth icon poll conducted by a weekly newsmagazine and has just been awarded one of the nation's top sports honours, the Arjuna Award.
Currently coached by John Farrington of the Bahamas, her progress at Flushing Meadows will be keenly followed by millions back home.
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