I am a fan of Tendulkar for life: Sania Mirza

Hyderabad, September 8: Sania Mirza on Thursday said she was not competing to match the popularity levels of cricket and that she was a ‘life fan’ of batting star Sachin Tendulkar.Driven by the 18-year old’s incredible success in recent months, tennis has reduced cricket, India’s most popular sport for long, to a formal mention in the sports pages.

And media reports have begun to count Sania’s bank balance, terming her the second biggest selling brand after Sachin Tendulkar.

But the teen tennis sensation believed that neither she nor tennis was in a race with cricket to grab the corporate pie. “I’m not competing with that game. In fact its my favourite game and I am life fan of Sachin Tendulkar,” she said.

When pointed out that her popularity ratings match that of Tendulkar, Sania said, “I’m flattered to hear that. But honestly speaking I’m a fan of Tendulkar and I’m not competing with cricket”.

Ever since she earned a lucky wild card for a main draw entry at the Australian Open Grand Slam 2005, the 18-year old has had the Indian fans drooling for her.

Her matches at the USD 140,000 WTA event in her home town of Hyderabad has always played to full house, and the television ratings of the events featuring her have begun outstrip those of cricket, a game that has been the ‘religion’ to subcontinent public.

A banner reading ‘Thank You Sania, for taking us away from cricket!’--held aloft in the crowd at the Hyderabad Open 2005, which she won to become the first Indian to win a WTA tour title--conveyed the story.

At the US Open, her matches were scheduled on show courts to enable telecast of the same in India. And they took the prime spot on the Indian television, elbowing out India’s cricket matches on the tour of Zimbabwe.

The teenager, however, said she was keen to know the cricket scores. “Being in the US, I was worried and wanted to know about Indian matches”.