The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Chance for Sania to enhance reputation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 19, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Chance for Sania to enhance reputation

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, APRIL 18. It will be a new challenge and a new responsibility. It will be a good chance for the 17-year-old Sania Mirza to enhance her reputation, when she opens the campaign for India in the Asia-Oceania group `I' tennis tournament to be played at the DLTA Complex here from Monday.

She had won the bronze medal with Leander Paes in the Asian Games two years ago, and she had won the WTA doubles title more recently back home in Hyderabad.

She has played very good matches against some of the best players in the region in the last few years. Lest we forget, Sania had also won the Wimbledon junior doubles title last year.

"No one is unbeatable. There is no world No.1 in any of these teams. I will concentrate on my matches and play the best that I can,'' said Sania, even as she hastened to clarify that she was not overconfident.

Well, confidence is her middle name, and without that Sania will be like any other player.

She knows that every match would be difficult, and is ready to play her role, while captain Enrico Piperno chose to keep the cards close to his chest.

Though he does not have the services of Isha Lakhani and Megha Vakharia, the Indian captain will have the option of playing Sania both as a No.1 or No.2, thanks to the format.

With Rushmi Chakravarthi as the best ranked Indian at 371, Sania at 411 gains the flexibility to play at any position.

"We are playing Chinese Taipei tomorrow. Ankita had played a close match against the Taipei No.1 Chia-Jung Chuang a week back here. The Taipei team is coming only tonight, whereas we have been training here for a week. Hopefully we will start with a win,'' said Sania, who herself had played a three-setter against Emilie Loit, a top-50 player from France, in a $110,000 tournament in Morocco about a fortnight back.

With India clubbed with the second-seeded Indonesia, the third-seeded Korea, apart from Uzbekistan and Chinese Taipei, it is going to be a tough test for Sania and company, but the Hyderabad girl said that the only thing she feared was the windy conditions as has been the case at the DLTA the past few days.

Among others, Indonesia has the 19-year-old Angelique Widjaja, who has two singles and two doubles titles to her credit from the WTA Tour.

Uzbekistan has Akgul Amanmuradova, the 19-year-old girl who has hardly lost a match in India on the professional circuit, be it in the $10,000 or the $25,000 Challenger tournaments. She has collected a few titles here.

The No.2 players of these countries, Wynne Prakusya and Ivanna Isroilova are very talented players themselves, with a good record.

Korea has Yoon-Jeong Cho and Mi-Rao Jeon ranked 205 and 230 respectively, and its other two players Jin-Hee Kim (302) and Kyung-Mi Chang (325) are better ranked than the best Indian players.

"Group `II' was not difficult last time, but it is going to be very tough in group `I'. The good thing is, Sania is a much better player now, and can trouble anyone,'' said Piperno.

The other group looks easy, as the top-seeded Thailand, with the 54th ranked Tamarine Tanasugarn in its fold, has been clubbed with the fourth-seeded New Zealand, apart from a depleted China and a team with unranked players, the Philippines.

"We can't underestimate any team. Of course, we are looking forward to the play-off,'' said the Thai captain, Vittaya Samrej.

"We were lucky last time, as we had lost to Thailand in the round-robin league, and Thailand lost to Chinese Taipei. We will try our best this time too'', said the Indonesian captain, Suzanna Anggarkusuma, who was supposed to be the fourth player, but was replaced by Maya Rosa in a bid to further strengthen the team.

Indonesia and Japan had made it to the World Group play-off last time, and it was Japan that succeeded in joining the elite, by beating Sweden 4-1, while Indonesia lost to Germany 2-3.

The Chinese captain, Zhi Lin clarified that the top players in her country were focusing on the Olympics, to be held in Beijing in 2008, and thus were not available for this tournament.

"The other group is empty! We have a good team, but it should be 50-50 in most of the matches,'' said the cautious Korean captain, Jin-Soo Lee.

The Kiwi captain Pavlina Nola said that the only advantage in her group was that her players would get an additional rest day because of there being only four teams, as compared to five in the other group.

The top two teams from the two groups will figure in the play-off and the two eventual winners will make it to the World Group play-off to be staged in July.

The bottom two teams from group `I' will be relegated to group `II', and the top two from group `II' will be promoted to group `I'.

Matches will be played from 4.30 p.m. on Monday. While the first two sets will be decided on a tie-break, the third will be an `advantage' set, even in the mandatory doubles.

The President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam made the draw at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the morning.

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