Sania ties up with SA trainer Mattews

Sania Mirza will work with South African fitness trainer Heath Mattews in the 2007 season in a bid to take her performance and ranking to another level.

Mattews will arrive in Hyderabad for a pre-season session with Sania in early November and the duo will spend a fortnight prior to the Hopman Cup (Asian edition) working almost exclusively on fitness, Imran, Sania's father, told the TOI.

Mattews, who has travelled extensively on the ATP circuit last season, and has worked with South African Wesley Moodie and India's doubles ace Mahesh Bhupathi, will travel with Sania, starting January 2007.

Sania, presently ranked 55th in the world, is playing at Tashkent this week and will also play in Bangkok next week, before returning home. Besides the Tour events, which might also include a tournament in Belgium later this month, Sania will play the Hopman Cup and the Doha Asian Games in December. She'll take a short break from the Tour in December to recharge her batteries for the coming season.

Imran, who doubles up as Sania's coach, added that he was on the look out for a top-notch coach for his daughter. The Hyderabad-based pro, who has had victories over players like Martina Hingis (ranked 9), Katarina Srebotnik (21) and Karolina Sprem (formerly ranked No.11) in the last couple of months, working with coaches Asif Ismail, S Narendranath and her father, will continue to get inputs from all quarters as her management team stay on the hunt for an ideal coaching partnership.

Sania, who has reached a career-high doubles ranking of 26, will not be playing any more doubles on the Tour this season and will focus on singles. She will, perforce, return to doubles play when she turns out for India in the Hopman Cup and the Doha Asian Games.