The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Doubles is essentially a team game, says Ruano-Pascual

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 23, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Doubles is essentially a team game, says Ruano-Pascual

Amitabha Das Sharma

I owe a lot to my partner Suarez, says Pascual

KOLKATA: Good understanding and belief in partner's abilities are the keys to success in doubles, feels Virginia Ruano-Pascual. The top-ranked doubles tennis player in the women's section said she was able to remain on top because of the brilliant rapport with her Argentine partner, Paola Suarez.

Pascual celebrated her 32nd birthday in style on Wednesday as she, partnering India's Sania Mirza, made the quarterfinals of the Sunfeast Open. She could not hide her joy while speaking to The Hindu. "I am very delighted to celebrate my birthday in India. It is very different this time."

The seasoned Spaniard said unlike singles, doubles game has all the attributes of a team game. "It essentially is a team game and it is more about cerebral synchronization with the partner,'' she said.

Pascual said she owed it a lot to her regular partner Suarez for the doubles success. Like any relationship the understanding with the partner in tennis too takes time to mature, said Pascual. "We started playing nine years ago. Mutual understanding has helped us mature our relationship. Our beginning was not so good but we kept on working on our faults,'' she said.

Record beckons

The duo is all set to enter into the record books also. Having reached nine straight Grand Slam finals together, Pascual and Suarez are very near to breaking the record set by Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver. "It is quite a wonderful feeling. We are quite aware of the fact. Paola is recovering from an injury and I hope she will start playing from next year."

Agreeing that success graph of the Spanish women has hit a trough, she said that the tennis federation in her country should work out the right programme to tap the young girls with the potential. "I think the tennis federation in Spain should work more with the young girls,'' she said.

Putting her impressions about the top Indian woman in world tennis, Sania Mirza, she said, "She (Sania) is a very composed player. She has a good backhand, good forehand and her service is also strong. But to stay on top in tennis she needs to play consistently. She had the kind of game, which can put her within top 10.''

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