Hyderabad capitalizes on Sania mania

It is not just Indian tennis star Sania Mirza who is laughing all the way to the bank.

Sale of tennis racquets at Sachdeva Sports, the one-stop shop for tennis equipment in Hyderabad, has shot up, almost like Sania's ranking in the last eight months.

"Last year, we sold 200 racquets and this year, because of Sania's winning streak 500 to 600 racquets have already been sold," says Vijay Shah, proprietor, Sachdeva Sports.

With parents choosing tennis over cricket as the sport their children should play, tennis academies have mushroomed in Hyderabad.

Channelise enthusiasm

The city today has 18 coaching clinics and each one of them gets new entrants almost everyday. Like 6-year-old Nikita, enjoying her first experience of hitting the ball on Tuesday.

"I came here to enroll my daughter in tennis. She is very interested and I want to encourage her,'' said Jyotsna, parent of a tennis enthusiast.

The last eight months have seen nearly 800 children picking up the racquet. Hyderabad's talent pool is more than 1,200 players now.

"Nearly 70 per cent of people come because of Sania. They keep reading about her in the papers, see her on TV. They want to do like her,'' said Vasudev Reddy, former Davis Cup player and coach.

Followers of the game say Hyderabad is best suited to capitalise on the Sania mania. Because unlike many other cities, Hyderabad has the infrastructure to channelise the enthusiasm into a system that can produce more Sanias.