Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

A new subforum created to discuss Sania Mirza. As a lot of the other tennis player threads were getting overloaded, thus a new forum to discuss Sania Mirza

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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by ankit1407 »

Sania as a tennis player has not really achieved any thing great but if you are looking for Sania as an Indian Women Tennis player than yes she did what no one else so far as done..We in India anyways love the word First Indian to do so bla bla..Subject most times dont matter much :)

Hope she has a lot better 2012..Good Luck.
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by gbelday »

Really?? To me, cracking the top 50 is a great achievement...And yes, she is the first and only Indian to have done that. I don't see anyone else on the horizon.
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by ankit1407 »

I guess i said the same thing, and for cracking top 50 yes its a great achievement no denying it but than you gotta stay in it as well for long...

And for second point of No Indian in horizon yes thats why i said her accomplishments are great comparing Indian women tennis history
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by Sandeep »

Ankit, not just India but if at all there is an Asian tennis hall of fame, I am sure she will be inducted in it. Not just her rankings but the craze she brought in for tennis in India is unparalleled. I think tennis as a whole gained in India because of Sania.
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by jic »

Commendable that Sania made Top 50 rising from a sea of nothing when it comes to female tennis players. It was pure talent on the forehand, and somewhat on the backhand, that did it. No credit to the system/coaching. Credit to GVK for sponsoring her before she was a celebrity. Sad that India with a billion people and so much sports sponsorship has not produced anything better and does not look likely to produce anything better in the near future.
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by rajorshi »

Well, so absurd debate rages on! And, worse, I am drawn to it!!! Its childish to say that Sania hasn't achieved enough from the point of view of world tennis. Its a big deal for any player to make it to top 100 and stay there for 4 straight years or so. Sania made it to top 50 in 2005 and stayed there for more than a year. Then she made to top 30 in 2007 and remained in top 40 for about a year. Her popularity is not restricted to India or the Arab countries. She may not have made full use of her potential, thanks to her recurrent injuries and some ingrain weaknesses in her game; but its ridiculous to just cocoon her achievements under the tag of '1st Indian'. A grand slam winner, a former top 30 singles players, a doubles top 10
player, a dozen WTA titles or so -these are stuffs that many tennis players can just dream of.
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by PKBasu »

Absolutely right, rajorshi.

jic, the one thing I don't agree about is your statement that there is a lot of sports sponsorship available in India. Actually there isn't, except for cricket. Sania has managed to get a good amount of sponsorship, but she has to work hard at it -- keeping a high public profile, attending lots of events, shooting, etc. Just ask the likes of Yuki, Vishnu, or any other emerging player: sponsorship is very scarce indeed for them.
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by Sandeep »

Yes I agree, Sania was lucky to have a tennis enthusiast in the form of G.V.Krishna Reddy, who himself was a state level tennis player in Hyderabad.
but she has to work hard at it -- keeping a high public profile, attending lots of events, shooting, etc.
Not really PKB. During the GVK days, she hardly was involved in anything that you have said. All credit to GVK for spotting and sponsoring her talent. Of course, this was all before she became popular. Once she became popular, Globosport played a big role in popularizing brand Sania.
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by PKBasu »

Yes, GVK's sponsorship was invaluable to her. But Sania was invaluable to GVK too: they have now become one of India's biggest construction contractors, aided by the publicity they (justifiably) received when Sania made it.
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by Sandeep »

But Sania was invaluable to GVK too: they have now become one of India's biggest construction contractors, aided by the publicity they (justifiably) received when Sania made it.
Seriously PKB? If a sponsorship can make me one of the biggest infrastructure firms, I am ready to take a loan from the bank and sponsor a sports player :). Politicians make contractors and not sports players. In any case, GVK is a huge conglomerate and infrastructure is just one of its arm. They are into a lot of other businesses also. What GVK did was definitely not an investment, it was purely out of love towards tennis. And it is to their credit that they never used Sania for any of their advertisements.

GVK is a great patron of tennis in Hyderabad, he has several coaching institutes and regularly sponsors the ITF tournament and several domestic tennis tournaments held in Hyderabad.
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by ankit1407 »

PKBasu wrote:Yes, GVK's sponsorship was invaluable to her. But Sania was invaluable to GVK too: they have now become one of India's biggest construction contractors, aided by the publicity they (justifiably) received when Sania made it.
I dont think it was the case,support they showed towards Sania was well before she achieved any thing....and honestly just by sponsoring someone a construction company cant make it big...I doubt that part of the argument...
GVK is a well known name in Andhra and it was even before they decided to sponsor Sania, all her public profile stuff came into picture when she joined hands with GS
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by PKBasu »

GVK may have been a well-known name in Andhra. But they were unknown to the rest of the country and the world. I, for one, only heard of them when I noticed the "GVK" sign on Sania's T-shirt at the Australian Open in 2005, when she played a terrific set against Serena Williams (in her pomp) in R3.

I have always saluted GV Krishna Reddy for his remarkable foresight in spotting Sania's talent and backing her all the way when she was completely unknown. GVK was an Andhra energy and infrastructure company until 2005. Since then, they have expanded throughout the rest of the country -- most spectacularly with the contract for refurbishing/upgrading the Mumbai airport (Chhatrapati Shivaji International) in 2006 and the Bengaluru (Bangalore) International Airport the following year. They have enhanced their reputation further by doing an excellent job with those projects, but in my opinion at least they would never have gained the national recognition needed to win those two projects without the brand recognition that came from their sponsorship of Sania.

(GMR of Hyderabad won the other contract for Delhi airport at the same time as GVK won for Mumbai, but it must be remembered that GMR already had the experience of building a new airport -- in Hyderabad, the construction of which began in 2005, in collaboration with Malaysia Airports and Fraport of Germany: I recall visiting the site on an inspection tour in 2006).
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by Sandeep »

PKB, you might have not heard about GVK as a group but I am sure you stayed at "Taj Krishna" or earlier it was "Krishna Oberoi" during your visit to Hyderabad? The hotel belongs to Gunapati Venkata Krishna Reddy or GVK. And I am sure many here would have heard about Novopan plywoods, one of the first businesses GVK has started?

And regarding their rise in infrastructure, all the Andhra Pradesh infrastructure companies have become billion dollar conglomerates under the tutelage of Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy and Sonia Gandhi. It is all masive corruption PKB, nothing to do with Sania :). Have you heard of any of these names before 2004, Navayuga Infrastructure, GMR Infrastructure, Lanco Infrastructure, IVRCL, Megha engineering, RAMKY, Indu Projects, Gayatri projects, Nagarjuna Constructions just to name a few!!! All these companies also started off long time back but have become billion dollar companies between 2004-2009 and all are Andhra Pradesh companies. Politicians give a damn about GVK's sponsorship to Sania, it is all about give and take :)
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by prasen9 »

I vote for the Sandeep camp on this one. Not that anybody cares for my vote.
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Re: Sania Mirza - General Discussion of non-tennis matters

Post by jic »

GVK is indeed a great patron of tennis because he loves the game. He sponsors players because he loves the game, and not because he expects a financial return on the investment in a "brand ambassador." This is proved by the fact that he supports a number of juniours who are not likely to have anywhere near as illustrious a career as Sania, and even Sania was an unknown (albeit with obviously great potential) when he first supported her. My only disappointment in GVK is that I believe they have not supported Vishnu Vardhan as much as they could have. I may be wrong on this, but I recall some time back Vishnu saying that he tried to approach them but did not get a favorable response and decided not to press his case too hard.
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