Sania confident of good performance

Sania confident of good performance

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Sania Mirza stroked with confidence and spoke sincerely about pulling her weight for the team's cause, before catching the flight along with the Indian team for the Asia-Oceania Group I Fed Cup tennis tournament to be held in Seoul from April 19 to 22.

Though she has been troubled by a string of injuries, with the wrist problem being the worst, the 19-year-old Sania made sure that she would be available for National duty by cutting short her commitments on the professional tour by a week.

"We will be seeded second on the basis of the rankings, and we are going with a good team. We will try our best,'' said Sania after having a rigorous work-out with Ankita Bhambri and Isha Lakhani on Saturday.

Injury not serious

"The injuries are not that serious. I need to have three or four weeks of rest. In fact, the doctor has asked me not to play this week. Since I didn't play last year, a lot of people want me to play. I am planning to take four weeks off the tour after the Fed Cup. In the worst scenario, I may go directly to the French Open,'' said Sania.

The latest problem has been her back, as she has been plagued by a painful muscle spasm, which in fact forced her to pull out of the tournament in Charleston this week.

"We should all pray that it doesn't crop up next week,'' said Sania.

Inadequate rest

The Hyderabad girl, ranked in the top-40 in both singles and doubles at the moment, did say that the few days of rest were inadequate. "I have held on for six weeks on the U.S. circuit, and hopefully will do so for one more week,'' she said.

Sania emphasised that as athletes, players were taking risk all the time, and it was a question of taking the bigger risks.

Talking about the other teams in the fray, Sania said that every team had at least one good player and the Indians would need to focus on their own game rather than worry about the opponents.

Pleased with run

in doubles

Sania was obviously pleased with her good run in the doubles and said that it would be decisive as is the case generally in team competition.

"Hopefully we will finish it off in singles itself, and won't need to get to the doubles,'' she said with optimism.

Summing up the season, Sania was categorical that it was only four months and she had done fairly well.

"I have jumped a lot in doubles and that gives confidence. I keep improving my game and my volleying has improved. In singles, it is a matter of getting a few wins together. There will be a lot of first rounds and some finals. We need not be depressed, but need to be optimistic,'' she observed.

Captain Enrico Piperno said that he was pretty pleased with the way Sania was hitting the ball.

"I am surprised that she has not won many singles matches this season. Maybe, she has preserved them for this week. If she plays the way she is hitting today, she is going to run over them. It is good that we don't have China in the group. We have a great chance. Australia is beatable. We have to play badly to lose to anybody,'' said Piperno, even as he admitted that he would have loved to have the tournament in India as was the case in the last two years.

Slow courts an advantage

"There are seven teams, and I hope we are in the smaller group, as it would help Sania. The courts will be slow and it will be to our advantage,'' said Piperno.

The second member of the team, Shikha Uberoi had reached Seoul directly from the U.S. and has been practising there from Thursday.

Australia, Chinese Taipei, Korea, New Zealand, Philippines and Uzbekistan are the other teams. The top teams from the two groups meet in the final and the winner will make it to the World Group II play-off to be played in July.