Sweden needs a Sania to lead the way: Wilander

Former world number one Mats Wilander today said teen sensation Sania Mirza would do well to aim at becoming a "better tennis player" instead of looking to win tournaments in the short term.

Wilander said Sania needed to have a "long term vision" to realise her dream of becoming the world number one or winning a Grand Slam.

"From now on it has to be a long term vision. It should be a matter of how much better she (Sania) can be in five years," said Wilander, in city as captain of the visiting Sweden team to take on India in the Davis Cup World Group play-off next week.

"The focus should be on becoming a better tennis player. It should not be on winning tournaments and rankings. It is the process that matters.

"Who knows, she can then be the top-two or the number one, or even win a Grand Slam," said Wilander, winner of eight Grand Slam titles and the youngest to win a singles crown at the age of 17 and nine months at Roland Garros in 1982.

Interestingly, Wilander's comments came when discussing the topic of Swedish tennis and promising women talent in that nordic country.

"We need someone like Sania to lead the way," said the former pro who held three major titles at the same time in 1988. "She definitely hits the ball a lot harder than me, or even than most guys on the men's circuit. She has got unbelievable ground strokes, she is a fighter and not afraid to go for her shots," Wilander said in praise of the 18-year old Indian.

The 41-year-old said Sania has to quickly make the transition from being a ball-basher to a mature tennis player.

"She has to learn the difference between what is to win and to not lose. There is a huge difference between beating the big players and losing to bad players.

"She is trying to win all the points. Someone like Federer lets the opponents lose a lot of those points.

"It has got nothing to do with her weakness. She is going for the winners all the time. At 18, it is ok. It would be a lot easy if you make your opponents give away the points.

"But it is going to take time. Someone like (Marat) Safin took five years to learn it, and so did (Roger) Federer.

"Doubles should be interesting. Bjorkman and Aspelin or even probably Johansson, but we haven't decided yet. We have three solid singles players and three doubles players." Wilander, who was part of the visiting team in 1985 and played the Indians in the 1987 final at home, said he had high regards for the Indians who he said have always done well in the team competition.

"Davis Cup is difficult because it is one match which needs lot of planning. Obviously if you play bad tennis, you are going to lose," he said.

"I don't know a lot about the Indian players, except of course Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi whom I have seen a lot on the tour. It is going to be an interesting doubles, if you win it you are going to be there on Sunday.

"Countries like India have always done well in Davis Cup. Some countries have players of less ranking but who do well in the Cup tie. It is a different kind of pressure.

"In 1987, Ramesh Krishnan and Vijay Amritraj were not high in rankings but they got India to the final. We expect India to bring their level up." Sweden will be without their top singles player Joachim Johansson who has been ruled out of action for six months following a shoulder surgery.

But Wilander said his absence would not hurt his team.

"It is not a problem. Joachim is very new. In Davis Cup, he has played one doubles and two singles. He would not been a certainty to play even if he had been here," he said.

"He is very good when playing at his best, but he has a very bad low levels. We need someone solid like Bjorkman.