Sania Mirza - General Discussion of tennis matters

Rishav · Post by **Rishav** » Wed Feb 05, 2003 3:06 pm

Hi guys,
I know that sania mirza is a great player and is the most talented in our country, but do you think she deserves the attention she is getting? I mean Martina Hingis at age 16 was winning Grand slam titles and there are a lot of WTA players in the top 50 that are under 17 years of age. I agree throughly that she is an extremely talented player and we don't have too many players of her class, but reaching some 500 rank in 16 years of age is no big achievement. :-?

(P.S-I don't want anyone to get angry with me, this is my own personal and humble opinion

Post by **Dhruv** » Wed Feb 05, 2003 3:41 pm

Well, I sort of agree in the sense that Sania is probably no Martina Hingis, but then again she is no slouch either. Yes, if she was in Europe or the US she might not get as much attention as she is getting currently but then again how many good tennis players does India have compare to those countries. She is probably about the level of an Ashley Harkleroad, Sunitha Rao (with top 100 potential) at a similar age. Yes there are a lot of really good juniors out there esp Russians e.g.

Dinara Safina #68 in the world at 16 years (Marat Safins younger sister,Apr 27 1986)
Svetlana Kuznetsova #46 in the world at 17 years(Jun 26 1985)

and then the next batch

Vera Douchevina, Maria Kirilenko as 16 years olds (top 5 juniors)

Tatiana Golovin (#8 In the juniors at 15 years) and the extremely young talent Michaela Krajicek (Richard Krajicek half sister) #5 in the junior ranks at the age of 14

but in the end I think she is getting the attention in India that she deserves because she has the potential to be the best ever Womens tennis player to come out of India. Niru started something a few years back, Sania and the current crop of young players hopefully will help Indian tennis reach a much higher level.

As a comparison look at attention the underperforming Indian cricket team gets (#5 in the ICC rankings for one dayers) tied with the Windies, just barely a point or so ahead of NewZealand (who thrashed them in New Zealand) and England. If they don't have a reasonably strong showing at the world cup they'll end up ahead of only Zimbabwe, Kenya and Bangladesh. And even if they win the thing they will still be only ranked #3 or #4 because they so far behind (points wise) the top 4 teams.

So maybe Sania is getting too much attention but hey compared to what other sports teams/individals get for similar/worse performances it is miniscule.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Wed Feb 05, 2003 3:41 pm

Nobody is comparing her with Hingis just yet. It is probably a good thing that she isn't quite where Capriati and Hingis were at the same age (look at Hingis now, and Capriati during the second half of the 1990s) -- but to talk of her in the same breath is compliment enough...
There has been NO Indian woman player in the world's top 100 ever. Sania could well make that grade within the next 18-24 months. We fans have every reason in the world to be excited -- and to be waiting with bated breath for her to realise some of that enormous potential.
If she plans her career well, she could well be a top 20 player -- and that would be icing on the cake for us fans: to tell you the truth, we are just excited by this young kid's raw talent and achievements. If she went on to emulate Hingis, etc., all the better. While we pray for it to happen, we are happy merely to celebrate her many milestone achievements on the path to global glory.

Post by **jayakris** » Wed Feb 05, 2003 4:04 pm

While I have been a long-time ardent supporter of Sania, I am NOT happy with all this hype that is out there. She has a lot mot work to do. So far she is doing fine in handling all the hype and exposure, but I really don't think all this hype serves any useful purpose other than to take attention away from a lot of other girls who need serious help from all sides.

Will be terrific if Sania becomes a top-100 player, but I am also a lot interested in seeing a group of Indians led by Sania in the top-200 (or led by Sunitha if she really does jump across to India).

Imagine (Sunitha), Sania, Isha, Ankita, and Tara all in the top-200 in four years!

Much more needs to be done to make something like that happen. Sponsors' attention need to be diverted to a lot of other players too.

OK, I am going to simply put in a thread to remind everybody the biggest news from this WTA Open.

ISHA LAKHANI UPSET A TOP-175 PLAYER AND BECAME THE ONLY INDIAN TO HAVE DONE THAT OTHER THAN NIRUPAMA (and half-Indian Laxmi Poruri)

(incidentally, I had an email within half hour of that Isha win from Nirupama who was amazed and thrilled. The lady understood the magnitude of what the 17 yr old had just done).

Jay

Post by **Dhruv** » Wed Feb 05, 2003 9:26 pm

Sania Mirza's name has shown up in the two Benin city satellites $10K in the weeks of 17th Feb and 24th Feb. I guess it is good in a way that she plays outside India, so that one more local girl has a opportunity to pick up points in the Chennai and Dharwad events.

I think Rohan is also going doing there for the $15K futures in the same weeks, but I also heard that he was going to try for the ATP in Doha

. Don't know which one will happen maybe both if he loses in the futures event early ??

Post by **jayakris** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 2:52 pm

I have no earthly idea why Sania would skip the Indian events and go to $10K events with worse fields in Nigeria! .. The only rational explanation I can think of, is that she would rather play some newer players, as the field at the Indian events comprise of a lot of players she has seen and played at Manila, Hyderabad etc late last year.

Jay

SaniaFan · Post by **SaniaFan** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 4:03 pm

Other reason may be that she want to get some cheaper points to move upi her ranking. Pbly she also find field relatively easier there. Afterall she gets to play only 12 events.
I think she is loosing focus here. Another half year of good juniors maght have done her more good. Anyway Hope she does well there.

Post by **jayakris** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 4:11 pm

I hope she is not losing focus. I liked leaving junior ranks for pro tournaments, if they were against better quality players in challenger qualies and all. No point in wasting time in $10K events (in Nigeria of all places!) against players ranked below her. Even winning another couple of satellites and wasting 2 events out of the 12 does not boost her ranking all that much (may be move up to 425 or something) .. A bit puzzling, this Nigeria thing.

Jay

Post by **Dhruv** » Sat Feb 08, 2003 1:43 pm

Well, I'm just being lazy, that and the fact that I am away from home (have been for a while now) so unreliable internet access so I add stuff where I can.

I really should probably start a new topic but the Sania Mirza heading is general enough to allow for this I guess

Well Sania is trying to qualify for the main draw at Qatar Total FinaElf Open

Petra Mandula(HUN,96) vs Lucie Ahl (GBR,229)
Sania Mirza vs Olga Blahotova (CZE,174)
Anna Zaporozhanova (UKR,367)vs Gala Leon-Garcia (ESP,135)
Yomna Farid (EGY,776) vs Zi Yan (CHN,289)

Thats her quarter of qualifying. Not the easiest but then like always could have been worse. lets see how she does . After this I believe it is the Nigeria Futures $10K that Jay doesn't like.

Post by **jayakris** » Sat Feb 08, 2003 3:57 pm

Imran Mirza was in the chatroom during the friday davis cup matches, and said the only calculation in the Nigeria trip was to play diferent players. That's all. Would like to get a few more points and raise the rankings a bit more I think, hence the $10K satellites. Not bad, for some challenger qualies and all that later in the year. It will be some grade-1 juniors before that. That sounds fine, actually!

Gotta run. I will be away during today's davis cup crucial matches. I hope some of you would be around in the chatroom. Seems like Dhruv is away too ..

Jay

Post by **Dhruv** » Sat Feb 08, 2003 8:28 pm

Blahotova d. Sania Mirza 6:4 3:6 6:1

1 more WTA point for Sania.

Welll atleast she is taking them to three sets but no wins so far. She seems not to be able to keep up the same level of play for the third set. I haven't seen either match live or on TV so I only have the scores to go by. Maybe going to the satellites and picking up a few extra points and then challengers qualies is not a bad idea.

I think she is not quite ready for top 200 type players quite yet. She probably needs more match practice against 200-400 type players and win a few of those before taking the next step to the top 200 level. I agree with Jay in that she really hasn't played that many matches against top opposition and playing $10K satellites against 500+ ranked players will only do her so much good.

PS: Jay, I haven't really been at home since I last e-mailed you. I hope to be back late next week, but it looks like that may be getting postponed.

. Anyway, I do have internet access even though it is at 128k.

SaniaFan · Post by **SaniaFan** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 3:25 am

Well she is definitely getting better and there is no doubt about it. Another statistics: she has not lost in straight sets for 6 months now and that includes top 200 players. I feel one thing about Sania. i think she is most consistent of the Indian players. So I feel once se start winning these she'll be more consistent than some of the others who win big but once in a while. That is just my (biased

) opinion.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 2:10 pm

Sania's raw talent is evident from the fact that she almost always wins the first set, no matter how high the opponent's ranking.
But she appears not to be able to sustain that intensity, particularly into the third set. She clearly hits the ball very hard, and depends on over-powering her opponents. As she leaps to playing higher-ranked opponents, she will probably need to learn to conserve some of her energy for the more crucial phases of a match.
The promise is there, but needs to be carefully nurtured...the next hurdle is to win a match against a top-100 opponent, and/or to qualify into a WTA tour event. It might help if someone like Manisha travelled with her, and they started playing doubles together -- although the age difference may be a slight deterrent there.

Post by **Dhruv** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 2:44 pm

From what I saw/see at the WTA site

BLAHOTOVA Olga CZE bt MIRZA Sania IND 64 36 61 So she seemed to win the second set after losing the first. Maybe one of us has the scores crossed but I agree with what you have to say.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 7:02 pm

Moving from a 300 plus ranking to a near 100 ranking is a huge step and then moving into the top 100 ranking is another big step. Sania can make it but we need to be patient with her. If the fans start expecting too much from her then we will only disappoint ourselves. Her match statistics show that she is not being blown away by good players and she is able to stay even with them for atleast a set and a half or two sets. Perhaps she should spend time with an exercise physiologist and a trainer and get into better shape. We should learn from Martina Navratilova and the William sisters.

My one concern about Sania is that she hits the ball very hard (from the reports I hear) and if her muscle strength and conditioning is only fair then she may sustain a serious muscle injury with the hard hitting.

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