The Hindu : Sport : Sania advances

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 21, 2005

Sport

Sport

Sania advances

Nirmal Shekar

A FIRST: Sania Mirza had a memorable debut in women's singles at Wimbledon on Monday by beating Japan's Akiko Morigami over three sets. The Indian won 6-3, 3-6, 8-6.- PHOTO: AP

London: There are times, these days, when Sania Mirza sounds a touch world-weary. A girl-woman who's had to grow up in a hurry in full public gaze in a nation starved of sporting heroes apart from the megastars of a billion dollar industry called cricket, the teenager from Hyderabad has struggled to come to terms with the expectations fuelled by fans' passion, something that has soared to stratospheric levels.

A dollop of anxiety crossed her face the other day when she spoke about how much was expected of her back home each time she played a tennis match. It was obvious that Sania, still very young and largely inexperienced in the sporting jungle, has not realised that the coveted package of celebrity and endorsements and public adoration is nothing but a trade-off. There is a price to pay for it — often quite a heavy price.

Seasoned stars wake up every morning fully aware of the price that needs to be paid. Men like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid do it without so much as a murmer and get on with the business of runs and wins, almost oblivious to the pressures. Sania, too, will perhaps learn to develop quite such a business-like attitude one day.

Phenomenon

Then again, Indian sport's fastest rising phenomenon of 2005 avariciously feeds on pressure on the court as much as she seems fazed by it off the court. This is precisely what makes her special, and it is what helped her past her opening round opponent, Akiko Morigami of Japan, at the Wimbledon tennis championships on Monday.

Making her debut on court No.17, where passers-by unacquainted with the peculiar dynamics of sports following in India and by Indians overseas might have assumed that an English player was in action, Sania played her best tennis with her back to the wall for a 6-3, 3-6, 8-6 victory in a little over two hours.

On a sun-splashed court hugged tightly by rows of Indian fans, Sania started confidently and twice came from behind in the decider before breaking Morigami's serve in the 14th game. Sania's backhand sailed over the baseline on her first matchpoint but she used her lethal forehand to close out the match on the second matchpoint.

"I expected a close match and that is what it turned out to be,'' said Sania who, at No.72, is ranked eight places behind Morigami . "I am happy with the way I played. Maybe a bit patchy but I was physically and mentally strong in the end when it mattered.''

It was obvious that the injury cloud has clearly lifted for the 18-year old Indian. The ankle injury which kept her out of action for a few weeks following the Hyderabad Open is now history and this was evident from the way she moved on court today, especially from side to side on the baseline, although she did venture up on the odd occasion.

Spectacular winners

Then again, when she did go for broke, Sania brought off spectacular winners on both flanks. She opened up a 5-1 first set lead with two service breaks but lost serve in the seventh game before winning the first set on her second chance on serve.

In the second, Morigami raised her game a bit and stayed close with Sania till midway before breaking to 5-3 and then serving out the set.

The momentum appeared to have swung all the way to one side when Morigami raced to 2-0 in the decider. But Sania fought back to 2-2 and then, again, came back from a break down to make it 4-4. The next six games were fiercely contested as fans moved to seat-edge and the cheers from Sania's supporters drowned out the chair umpire's calls.

Sania, of course, will need to carry all that improvement, and bring to the court a bit more, when she takes on the fifth seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetzova in the second round.

Surely, fans back home will be even more excited and expectations will continue to skyrocket. How was she going to deal with that?

"I can't control that. I can only go out and give my best each time,'' said Sania. "They probably expect a lot more than what I can do.''

Maybe, at 18, Sania herself is not quite sure of what she can do, how far she can go. That is the beauty of sport. As for expectations...well, they expect only when you start delivering, which a good thing. In a way, expectations act like a performance gauge, although the searing heat of fans's passion often produces a glitch in the meter's circuitry.

Smooth sailing

Meanwhile, the defending men's champion Roger Federer raced past Paul-Henri Mathieu of France, winning 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 on the Centre Court to stretch his grass court-winning streak to 30 matches. Also a facile winner was the Australian third seed Lleyton Hewitt who beat Christophe Rochus of Belgium 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

We'll leave the last word to Federer, talking about pressure. "I think in the beginning it is the pressure which you feel more. And then once you get underway it is the confidence which totally dominates.''

That's true of all champions, good and great — they simply ride the pressure, shut it out, and then dominate with their awesome confidence.

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