Sania Mirza Tournaments 2006 Part 2

[jaydeep]

Wow good result for Sania ... Getting all important match practice to remove rustiness from her game ... It would nice if she manages to win title with Alicia Molik.

Jaydeep.

[genius]

Disgraceful loss. I am really beginning to wonder if her fearlessness and boldness is more shallower than i first thought. I am also wondering whether she dedicates herself to mastery of her craft .Or she just tries to be 'professional'. for one whole year we have
to put with the same pattern.

[jayakris]

Let her get even 4 tournaments in a row relatively injury-free, and only then we can really comment on what exactly is the problem. I hope she is doing whatever is needed to avoid injury problems. There has been no continuity in whatever she is trying to do because of the injury breaks.

Jay

[arjun2761]

Let's not use the word "disgraceful" on anything Sania does. She is already our greatest women player ever and possibly among the greatest among all Indian tennis players. We should have some perspective on the level of competition that she is facing in a forum in which we applaud Mithun Murali win one round in a low level Asian satellite! Any sensible Indian should be proud of her achievements, even if we expect more. To say her performance is "disgraceful" reflects a complete lack of perspective of sports performance and levels of achievement.

[akmohanty]

Saw the French Open draw. Sania faces Myskina in the 1st round !!! Even though Myskina has never really got back to the form which took her to the French Open title in 2004, she should still be more than a handful for Sania. The only good thing probably is that nothing much will be expected from her !!! That will ease the pressure on her.

[jayakris]

All French Open discussion from now on, at the FO thread, please!

Jay

[completelyconked]

Disgraceful loss. I am really beginning to wonder if her fearlessness and boldness is more shallower than i first thought. I am also wondering whether she dedicates herself to mastery of her craft .Or she just tries to be 'professional'. for one whole year we have
to put with the same pattern.

I don't think so. She took a set off Krajicek on her worst surface after a long injury break, unlike her previous straight sets loss. Looking at Krajicek's results, she looks like a half-decent player on clay. Sania has hardly played 4-5 matches on clay at the highest level, and has never played a full season. Clay is a difficult surface to adapt to, and very demanding in terms of fitness, stamina, and patience. Also the surface doesn't complement flat strokes. Give her a couple of seasons on the surface. She will learn.

Besides, haven't you noticed that she is turning into a terrific doubles player? She has played with several different partners, won a title, and reached the finals of a couple of big tournaments. You should be very happy with her progress. Its no small feat to be doing this at just 19.Players generally take longer to mature as doubles players. It shows that something in her game is starting to click, so she has definitely not stagnated. Give her some time to get her fitness in order. I think a stint with Etcheberry would not go amiss.

[genius]

You should be very happy with her progress. Its no small feat to be doing this at just 19.Players generally take longer to mature as doubles players. It shows that something in her game is starting to click, so she has definitely not stagnated. Give her some time to get her fitness in order. I think a stint with Etcheberry would not go amiss.

I am NOT happy with her progress. first the spineless losses like the ones to Pin. Then the same patterns in the losses.how many times does she lose at the final hurdle after coming back ? how many times does she keep dropping serve at crucial times? i doubt these things would happen as repeatedly they did if she keeps her brains busy,constantly perservering to improve her levels and fights like a tigress on court. she has to find ways to hurt and defeat opponents on court and muster all efforts to that end . i am looking for incremental improvements in her game, all out efforts to sort out opponents and lionhearted fights.i am not seeing that. recently i saw the match vs stosur. it was really flattering scoreline for the aussie! i hate to see those matches again! mediocre stuff

[S_K_S]

What happened in the doubles final? The match has finished as the next match is on court. Does anyone have the score?

A.Bondarenko/Yakimova (UKR/BLR) d. Mirza/Molik (IND/AUS) 62 64

[completelyconked]

I am NOT happy with her progress. first the spineless losses like the ones to Pin. Then the same patterns in the losses.how many times does she lose at the final hurdle after coming back ? how many times does she keep dropping serve at crucial times? i doubt these things would happen as repeatedly they did if she keeps her brains busy,constantly perservering to improve her levels and fights like a tigress on court. she has to find ways to hurt and defeat opponents on court and muster all efforts to that end . i am looking for incremental improvements in her game, all out efforts to sort out opponents and lionhearted fights.i am not seeing that. recently i saw the match vs stosur. it was really flattering scoreline for the aussie! i hate to see those matches again! mediocre stuff

The same can be said of any young player in a sophomore slump. It doesn't mean that they don't fight, or work hard to improve. It was expected that she would struggle for the first half of the year. And this is clay. There is nothing surprising in these losses.
If you haven't seen incremental improvements in her game, then all I can say is that you don't notice very much. I've seen a lot of improvements in her game itself.
-Improved return of serve. Her reflexes are excellent. She is better at blocking back the serves down the T, and is more agressive on her returns off serves out wide. She is harder to ace.
-Better court coverage. Still a little indisciplined, but much better. Better footwork, and she looks quicker too.
-More willingness to come to the net. I dislike drive volleys, but at least she doesn't need a map to find the net anymore.
-Better defence. The placement, and accuracy of her defensive lobs is excellent. Both deep, and utilises the corners well to turn defence into offence. She uses the mid-court extremely well in order to buy herself time to stay in points. She may be a ball-basher, but there's a smart tennis brain under all that cotton wool.
-Anticipation needs to improve, but she's better.
-Much better at hitting shots on the run, especially the crosscourt forehand. Her footwork into this shot is quite exceptional. The best in the game in fact.
-a semblance at showing some patience and constructing points. Still quite a way to go.
-Her slice backhand was just blah. Now its a real weapon.
-Better placement, and more variety in first serves. Needs to follow them up a little better.
-Better second serve
I think thats pretty good going for six months of work. Bear in mind that her game is not the same as it was last year. The losses are annoying, but when things are not going well, its hard to win the important points even in close matches. In six months, if she is still losing left and right then start panicking.

[jai_in_canada]

Boy, Colin, you put Pollyanna to shame.

[niraj2000]

move over sania...welcome saina

[BSharma]

move over sania...welcome saina

I will take a triple-dip ice cream cone over a single dip one. Go Sania, Saina and Joshna. Let the three of them and some more new ones flourish at the same time.

[PKBasu]

Just a quick comment on the difference (in global importance) between tennis and badminton. SE Asia is the part of the world that dominates badminton -- and, indeed, Prakash Padukone is still a name to reckon with in these parts. But so, I have found over the years, is Ramesh Krishnan (whose achievements in tennis were considerable, but nowhere near those of Prakash in his chosen sport).

Everything that Sania does is reported widely in the press in SE Asia -- with huge eagerness in Malaysia and Indonesia, but also widely in Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines. This morning I scanned the main newspapers of Singapore (Straits Times) and Malaysia (Sun) to find a write-up about Saina's great triumph yesterday in Pasig City (which was actually covered by cable TV in each country). But there is none. Some in this forum may not like it, but there is a huge quantum difference between tennis as a global sport and badminton. Even in the countries that specialise in badminton (of which Malaysia is certainly one), tennis is reported on far more avidly and widely than badminton is. Sania will remain a much more important global figure (as long as she is a top-100 tennis player) than Saina can be, (probably) even if Saina becomes the world's top badminton player. Of course, a really good PR consultant could change that for Saina, but she starts with a big disadvantage in terms of the visibility of her sport...

[sunitarao]

To some extent I agree with PKB.However,creating a hype is extremely important.Saina has also been signed by GLOBOSPORT AND IS FUNDED By Mittal Trust.Mahesh is a master of creating hype.I can assure you,just wait for few days.Saina will be all over Indian media.Sania is showing signs of stagnation.Mahesh needs some one new and Saina,at 16 years VERY WELL FITS IN THERE.

I AGREE WITH THE QUOTE MOVE OVER SANIA- SAINA IS THERE.