A. Joseph Antony
| SAAP's contribution sizeable when seen collectively |
HYDERABAD: Much before the career managers and big sponsorship deals came along, Sania Mirza's march to glory was well on its way. From 2001 to date, the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh's (SAAP) financial support alone has come close to a crore — Rs. 99.25 lakhs to be precise.
The latest instalment of SAAP assistance was a Rs. 20 lakh grant, on her return from the U.S. Open, released by its vice-chairman and managing director, G. Kamal Vardhana Rao. "Sania has effected a paradigm shift in sports perspective and I'm confident SAAP's support will take her to greater heights," Rao said.
Cash-strapped
Not many government organisations have backed their wards to such an extent and certainly not those as cash-strapped as SAAP. Even when reeling under huge bills for setting up 2002 National Games and 2003 Afro Asian Games infrastructure, it didn't tighten the purse strings when extending encouragement to the Hyderabad lass. G. Asok Kumar was VC & MD, SAAP in those trying times but in his short stint alone, between 40 to 45 lakhs was handed over.
Money was disbursed under two heads, viz; financial assistance and cash awards. The first category took care of travel, training and participation in international events, while in the latter incentives were given for achievements. Of these, Rs. 65 lakhs was spent on specialised coaching in Italy and USA. "The incentives were timely," recalled former VC & MD, Sumita Dawra.
Broadly corresponding to the period of Sania's ascent, SAAP had funded the conduct of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Open, a Tier IV event, in Hyderabad, that for three editions staged thus far, cost a whopping amount. These gave her considerable international exposure besides landing the aggressive youngster her maiden WTA crown.
Pay and play
Support was not in cash alone. A `pay and play' scheme costing Rs. 100 an hour for using SAAP's tennis facilities was in operation then. She got to use them for however long and whenever she wanted, for free. So also was the grant of a 500 square yard housing site at Bharani layout, an upmarket locality of Hyderabad.
What did/does SAAP expect in return ? "Acknowledgement of its support by displaying SAAP's logo in her attire was one request made to her," recalls Asok Kumar.
"SAAP's financial support has been staggered, barely making a ripple in the media for a day or two. When seen collectively, it is a sizeable contribution to the teen sensation's success," he added.
| http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050924/asp/sports/story_5278770.asp | ||
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Our hopes, levitating sky-high, sadly came crashing down when Sania lost to Melinda Czink of Hungary in the second round of the WTA Sunfeast Open. Carried away by a wave of enthusiasm, fans were visualising a Sania-Myskina clash in the finals. Coming back to reality, Sania’s loss to a 121-ranked player reflected, among other things, the fickle nature of rankings. Ranking margins are very slim and do not take into account various factors such as injuries, etc. Sania and all fans must understand that the climb to higher rankings is peppered with such losses and should be used as a spur to greater effort. Everybody is asking: “What happened to Sania?” The Hon. Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, sitting one row behind me in the stands, observed: “Sania has lost five service games.” Experts are pummelling Sania about her serve. After a double fault, Sania, in a fit of temper, threw her racket on the court. One is worried that a constant barrage may in due course become a psychological hurdle for Sania in future. Speed is not of paramount importance in service. Depth, deception, variation can make up for lack of speed. So Sania should not despair on this account. The style and attitude of a player are really an extension of his or her personality. Any attempt to change this is fatal. Sania’s aggression should never be curbed. Only she must learn how and when to use her weapons for maximum return. The attempt should be to augment her attacking game, not change it. Another important factor, which comes to mind, is to learn how to distribute your energy in a match, especially in hot climates. It is self-destructing to slam the accelerator flat to the board. Your energy reserve has to be carefully nursed and parcelled. In my view, Sania’s all out effort in the first set, which she won 6-0 drained her resources. She had her opponent reeling on the ropes but could not deliver the K.. punch. Just a couple of games more and a forlorn Czink would have capitulated. But Sania could not maintain her level of play and errors crept into her game. To hit winners at the speed she does, one has to have perfect balance, position and timing. If the preparation for the shot is even a split second late you miss the target. Sania must be credited for her courageous fightback, when she was 1-4 down in the final set and levelled to 4-4. I was happy to see her hoist a couple of high top-spin forehands when out of position, instead of her usual going-for-broke shots. Leander Paes in his early days was impetuous and over aggressive, but I was able to tone him down and teach him to use his top speed at the most important stages of the match. For Sania, nothing is lost. Only, she must learn from her defeats and the mistakes she makes. She has to meet the challenge of getting a higher ranking the way she hits her forehand — blast it with all her strength. |
Indian tennis player Sania Mirza plays a shot to Villmane Castellvi of Puerto Rico and Sunitha Rao of USA as she takes part with her Spanish partner Virginia Ruano Pascual in their doubles second round match at the WTA Sunfeast Open 2005 in the eastern India city of Kolkata, previously known as Calcutta September 22, 2005.Pascual and Mirza won the match 6-1 6-3. REUTERS/Jayanta Shaw
Indian tennis player Sania Mirza serves the ball to Villmane Castellvi of Puerto Rico and Sunitha Rao of the U.S. during a second round doubles tennis match with her Spanish partner Virginia Ruano Pascual at the Sunfeast Open in the eastern India city of Kolkata September 22, 2005. Mirza and Pascual won the match 6-1, 6-3. REUTERS/Jayanta Shaw"It was an up and down game. I played well in first set. But ultimately I couldn’t finish it off. It was a bad day, it was sheer bad luck," Mirza said.
The Hyderabad-based player, however, pinned her hopes on doing well in the doubles where she partners Virginia Ruano Pascual to an easy win over Punam Reddy and Ragini Vimal to march into the quarter final.
| By Rajdeep Sardesai, Special to Gulf News |
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| Every thing that Sania Mirza does on and off court appears to make news. From her dangling ear-rings, her dazzling nose-ring, her delightfully bold T-shirts, to, of course, her tennis exploits. And yet, being Sania Mirza cannot be easy. Bad enough that you are supposed to meet the expectations of a country with limited sporting achievement, there are also those who will choose to search for controversy. Which is why a fatwa from an obscure Islamic organisation insisting that the teenage poster girl stop wearing short skirts made it to the front page of several national dailies. When Sania was asked for a response to the issue at a recent press conference, she simply shrugged it off. While the controversy will hopefully die down, it does highlight the triple burden which confronts the 18-year-old potential superstar: she plays a sport other than cricket, she is a woman and she is a Muslim. More difficult To be a champion sportswoman in India is even more difficult than being a top-grade male athlete. This, despite the fact that some Indian women have actually outperformed their male counterparts. Yet, in the last 58 years, there has been only one individual woman athlete who has managed to make a mark at the highest international level and that was P.T. Usha in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Till recently, sports was trapped in a familiar patriarchal set-up, where women were expected to stay in the kitchen, while the men could engage in the rough and tumble of sporting activity. The only state which was able to successfully break out of this male-dominated system was Kerala where the rise of the woman athlete is directly co-related to extremely high levels of female literacy and a resultant greater sense of gender equality. It is only now, with the emergence of a new metropolitan culture in which nuclear families are realising the importance of sports as a vehicle for social mobility, that women athletes from cities such as Bangalore and Hyderabad have actually begun to make a mark. But while breaking the gender barrier is important, it is the religious dimension that is intriguing and far more complex. The obvious response of right-thinking, reasonable Indians would be that Sania should be seen for what she is: a highly talented 18-year-old representing the country on the world stage and revelling in the attention. Why see Sania in any narrow, bigoted sense, even if only as a symbol of minority achievement? It is a valid question, but the validity of which cannot mask a certain reality: Sania Mirza is, of course, a potential national treasure, but she is also, importantly, a terminator of a certain stereotype. The Indian middle-class will not admit it readily, but the fact is that in recent years the identity of the Indian Muslim has been sought to be boxed into certain categories: the Muslim as unthinking bigot; as anti-reform; as even worse, anti-national criminal. The dominant image has been of a community caught in a time-warp, whose elders are backward-looking, whose youngsters see Osama as their hero and whose women are forced to live in the shadow of the veil. This stereotyping has been accentuated in the post-9/11 universe, partly as a result of a media over-simplification, in part because of a failure of the community's so-called leaders to recognise the need to embrace modernity and also because of the rise of a hate machine that revels in every little instance of minority bashing. The recent Imrana case provided a classic example of how easy it is to fall into the trap of communal prejudice. One case in an obscure western Uttar Pradesh village is played out as a national "media event", with all the familiar elements: a raped, helpless Muslim woman, a group of bearded maulvis who appear to show little concern for her, a fatwa whose origins are shrouded in mystery and a local community which chooses not to intervene. The combination is designed to only have one effect: reinforce the image of the Muslim as an evil, anti-woman obscurantist. Breaking shackles Which is why being Sania Mirza in today's age is important. She represents the empowered modern Indian woman's desire to be freed of the shackles of the past, expressing a joyous individuality that lies at the heart of robust democratic society. For groups such as the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, which have struggled to come to terms with modernity, a Sania Mirza is the perfect reason why such organisations must reform or perish. It would, of course, be unfair to place the burden of an entire community on the young shoulders of a Sania at a time when her real test is on the court in a highly competitive sport. Her ultimate identity will revolve around her sporting talent, but at the same time her spirit and ambition will be a reminder to her co-religionists of the challenges and opportunities that are being provided by modernity. Rajdeep Sardesai is editor-in-chief of India Broadcast News. |
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| STEPHANIE SAMUEL | ||
Calcutta: Hurricane Sania turned out to be a storm in a tea cup. Sania Mirza was stunned 6-0, 4-6, 4-6 in by Hungarian Melinda Czink in the second round of the WTA Sunfeast Open on Wednesday, leaving the tournament shorn of its sheen, at least in singles. And Sania had only Sania to blame, as she let go off a psychological advantage of winning the first set to love and letting Czink in. Her first serves, already under the scanner, deserted her completely; numerous unforced errors and five double faults added to the humiliation of being bested by the world No. 122. Of course, it didn’t help that Czink, whose forehand was her strength, upped her game by attacking Sania’s backhand, the Indian’s weakness, relentlessly. But back to the first set, where the Indian could do no wrong. The third seed here and world No. 34, came out firing on all cylinders, never once putting a serve, volley, forehand or foot out, and swept the Hungarian off her feet and into the second set in the blink of an eye. Set II was a tough fight, with Sania getting broken in the very first game. But she broke back in the very next to stabilise things. But not for long. Come the seventh game and Sania, the double faults made their presence felt and the teenager ended up giving her serve away on one. 4-3 to Czink, who hold her serve to make it 5-3. Sania’s serve became even more erratic and she double faulted twice in the ninth game, the second taking the game to deuce. An ace inbetween didn’t make up for blunders, as Czinks forehand reigned supreme. A couple of deuces later, Sania had the advantage. Then an objection from Czink over a baseline call must have been a bit too strong for the chair umpire’s liking and she was giving a court violation, and docked a point. So Sania lived to see another game. In vain, as she squanders double break points. Czink save the first with a brilliant serve and volley, and Sania helped her to deuce by netting a forehand. Two more forehands into the net later, and Czink had taken the second set. Sania lost her way in the first half of the third set, going down 0-3 in a flash. She suddenly found herself facing the prospect of giving a set away to love herself. The errors crept in further, frustration made itself felt, the racket was thrown a couple of times and the first serve fell to an all-time low. People began shifting uncomfortably in their seats. What was going on? A sigh of relief went up when Sania managed to get one break back in the fourth game. And the crowd was back at its vociferous best when Sania stumbled her way back to another break to level things at 4-4. Surely now she would step it up and give us what we wanted to see --- a famous win against all odds! But that, sadly, was not to be, as the gutsy Czink, turning a deaf ear to the pro-Sania galleries, upped her game, and broke right back. The end was in sight, and, though Sania tried gallantly to get the set back on even keel, even gaining a break point to that effect, it was not to be. She ended the match as she did the second set — with two forehands into the net. Sania’s doubles partner and birthday girl Virginia Ruano Pascual had a mixed day, crashing out in the second round of singles 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (6-8), 6-1 to Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi. Later, she and Sania swept into the doubles second round with a 6-1, 6-0 thrashing of Indian duo Punam Reddy and Ragini Vimal. Shikha Uberoi, however, kept India’s flag flying by pulling off a stunning 6-2, 6-3 win over No. 8 seed Rika Fujiwara to make it to the quarter finals. A pumped up Shikha, who is based in the US, made up for a faulty service and several unforced errors with some scintillating forehands and powerful winners. In the first set, she broke Fujiwara in the second game, was broken back in the next and broke back in the fourth. She held on that break to win the set. In the second, Shikha was broken in the fifth, but breaks in the sixth and eight gave her the match. She will now meet Austrian Sybille Bammer, who beat Australia’s Nicole Pratt 1-6, 3-6 earlier in the day, in the quarters. Top seed Anastasia Myskina had a clinical 6-1, 6-0 win over Romania’s Edina Gallovits to set up a second-round meeting with countrywoman Galina Voskoboeva, who got past Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-3, 7-5. In other first round play, Russian second seed Elena Likhovtseva and Croatia’s seventh seed Croatian Karolina Sprem won their respective matches. Playing on Court 2, Likhovtseva, the second seed, needed two breaks in the first set and one in the second against Ukraine’s Yuliana Fedak to breeze into the second round. The Russian, ranked No. 16 on the WTA Tour, won 6-1, 6-2, and will now meet Sunitha Rao of the US in the second round. Karolina Sprem got past Australian Evie Dominikovic 6-4, 7-5 and faces Villmarie Castellvi of Puerto Rico in the second round. |
Calcutta: John Farrington is a man much in the news in India now, courtesy being the travelling coach of Sania Mirza. In the city as his ward attempts to claim the Sunfeast Open crown, Farrington interacted with the media on Tuesday. Being asked whether he was working on Sania’s serve, Farrington said he was working on all aspects of her game, serves included. “It is a continuous process of making changes and adjustments.” Would he want her to temper her aggressive style? “I don’t want her to lose her aggression,” said Farrington, “Playing to win makes a big difference.” The Bahaman said he felt Sania should go to the net more often. “I think she should attack the net more. This would give her an advantage as she would go towards the net and send deep returns which would put her opponents on the defensive”. Sania as a student? “She absorbs a lot, is very attentive and receptive. I couldn’t ask for a better student,” concludes Farrington. |
| STEPHANIE SAMUEL | ||
Calcutta: The stage is set, the players are ready. It’s all systems go for the WTA Sunfeast Open that kicks off on Monday at the recently renovated Netaji Indoor Stadium. A week-long electrifying show — to be played on imported Greenset hardcourts — is in store, with some of the biggest stars on display. And none bigger than our very own Sania Mirza, who has managed the impossible by directing this cricket-crazy country’s attention to another sport. The tight security around her because of the controversy over her on-court dress code may prove to be a damper, but obviously no one, least of all the state government, is willing to take any chances. The high-profile meet — the second WTA tournament in the country after the Hyderabad Open which is three editions old — is being touted as one of south Asia’s biggest events with a prize money of $1,70,000. The 32-strong field will see two top-20 players — world No. 13 and former French Open champion Anastasia Myskina and world No. 16 Elena Likhovtseva — in action. Other international offering includes world No. 127 Nicole Pratt of Australia, winner of the Hyderabad Open in 2004; Italians Maria Elena Camerin (72), who lost to Sania in the second round of the US Open, and Antonella Serra Zanetti (78). Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn is also in the fray. Top seed Myskina, who hasn’t won a title this year, begins against Romania’s Edina Gallovits (125), and cannot meet Sania until the final, should they both make it that far. For Myskina, a former world No. 2, a triumph in Sania territory should propel her back into the top-10. World No. 1 doubles player Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual, meanwhile, will be teaming up with Sania in doubles. All eyes, however, will be on the talented, tenacious, aggressive and fiery Sania. Tennis’ newest glam girl has had a dream run this year, rising meteorically from 206 at the end of 2004 to 34 in the world, beating her own deadline of making it to the top-50 by three months. Playing at home may just prove to be a catalyst and an obviously partisan crowd might just push her all the way to a second career title — she won the Hyderabad Open in February. Not that she will have an easy run to the final. The first two rounds might be a breeze, but after that the going will get tough. She will begin her campaign on Tuesday against Japanese qualifier Junri Namigata, who booked her place in the main draw with a 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-4 win over Chinese Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh. Sania should get past her, and next up will be the winner of the match between Argentine Ma Emilia Salerni and Hungarian Melinda Czink. Salerni, 103 in the world, refused to comment on the potential match-up with the Indian, saying she was “focused on her first match. I’ve never played Sania before, so I can’t comment. Let me get to the second round, then I will speak about meeting her.” If Sania makes it to the last four, a match-up with Likovtseva seems likely, but before that she may be troubled by Karolina Sprem. The Slovak girl is ranked below her, but is known for her giant-killing ways. Sania, of course, will be looking to cock a snook at her critics, who continue to revile her serve and the fact that she commits too many unforced errors, by going the full distance here. The other Indian in the main draw hoping to steal Sania’s thunder is Shikha Uberoi (151), who is up against Japan’s Ryoko Fuda (185) in the first round. Sister Neha (248), a wild card entrant who plays for the US, will kick off her campaign on Monday against Sunitha Rao (161), another American of Indian origin. The winner of this match is likely to face Likovtseva next. Two other Indians made it to the main draw: Rushmi Chakravarthy and Ankita Bhambri, who won their respective final-round qualifiers on Sunday. While Rushmi outclassed Chin-Wei Chan of Chinese Taipei 6-3, 7-5, Ankita battled her way past countrywoman Isha Lakhani 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Ankita is slated to meet Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi in the first round on Monday. Sister Sanaa, however, failed to qualify, losing 1-6, 4-6 to Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei. |
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| Sania Mirza at the Netaji Indoor Stadium stands on Sunday. Picture by Gautam Bose |
After decades, the Netaji Indoor Stadium will echo to the sounds of tennis. The dilapidated stadium refurbished in record time is dressed up to international standards. The Sunfeast Open 2005 Tier III with prize money of $170000 commences Monday and concludes on September 25.
The tournament is of great significance to sport and tennis in West Bengal. The vibrant and enlightened response of the chief minister and sports minister to enterprising promotion, and the involvement of large industrial houses have made such an event possible.
The presence of Sania Mirza, a near icon at the tender age of 18, has pumped life into what could have been labelled as a comatose rip-off meet.
A couple of years ago I saw Sania at Deshapriya Park, watched and supported by her omnipresent mother. Thereafter, since last year I watched with great interest her spectacular progress on the television and also her match against Sharapova in the fourth round of the US Open. In between, she had collected the scalps of Kuznetsova and Petrova, two top ten Russians.
Sania’s victories were hotly debated on the cocktail circuit. The jealous verdict, which invariably emerged, was that she was overrated, boosted by sponsors and very lucky. Her generous TV endorsements raised the jealousy factor a notch higher.
After Wimbledon and her superb match against Kuznetsova I wrote that there is ‘something special’ about Sania. On Saturday when I watched her at close quarters practise at the Netaji Indoor Stadium and not on a 29 inch television screen, which can never convey to you the real speed of shot, I was bowled over by her speed of shot and aggression. No wonder, she had the long-legged Sharapova go from modelling mode to undignified scampering at Flushing Meadow. Sania looked slim and fitter than what I saw of her in her television matches.
In Sania’s (seeded three) quarter all the players are ranked 100 and above except for the 7th seed Karolina Sprem of Croatia. I remember Sprem at Wimbledon 2004. She was 18- year-old and ranked No. 30 in the world. With a stream of crisp winning shots she mowed down Venus Williams, Shaughnessy, Maleeva, all seeded players before Davenport put her down in the quarters.
Though Sprem is ranked 85 now, her previous record shows that she is capable of playing top quality tennis. After Sprem, Sania will take on Russian might if everything goes according to the seeding. Likhotseva in the semis and Myskina in the finals. It is a tough tournament for Sania to win and she will have to be at her very best.
The presence of the Uberoi sisters, Shikha (ranked 151) and Neha (ranked 248), along with Sunitha Rao (ranked 161), will certainly add to the interest in the tournament. In Sania’s shadow one tends to dismiss them lightly. Believe me, to get to where they have, is not at all easy. One has to admire the enterprise, sacrifice and hard work put in by these girls. Special mention has to be made about the parental support, which entails far more sacrifice and is a much harder and trying job.
Whatever the results of the tournament, it has resuscitated tennis in Calcutta and put it back on track. To pull up sport onto its feet one requires a strong organisation with international awareness and vision, unstinted government support and the cooperation of industry. Only when these have jelled can we aspire for greater things.
As a lover of sport one has to applaud the chief minister, sports minister and the sponsors for putting Calcutta back on the tennis map. In equal measure, the enterprise shown by Jaidip Mukerjea, the tournament director and the Bhupathi family in organising and putting together the whole show, is laudable.
To stray from my blinkered vision of tennis I can see a golden opportunity for development of sport in West Bengal. Industry in West Bengal is at full throttle on the runway. Thousands of crores will be invested in industry and new townships. This is the time sport must be woven into the fabric of our lives, especially for the generations to come.
The current generations have suffered much due to the lack of sports facilities and a tunnel vision concept of education. Now that West Bengal’s economic future seems secure, we should think about sport. Think Big. Build football fields, astroturf for hockey, gymnasiums, athletic tracks, tennis courts, basketball, badminton etc. Let every child in the state have access to sport at minimal affordable cost.
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