The Hindu : Sport : Sania mania still on

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 13, 2006

Sport

Sport

Sania mania still on

Nandita Sridhar

KEEP THE SMILE GOING: Top-seeded Sania Mirza must be hoping that the overwhelming support from the fans will help her take home the top prize at the Bangalore Open. _ PHOTO: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

Bangalore : Sania Mirza would be whispering a quiet little prayer, hoping against hopes that none of her co-racquet wielders would refer to the 2005 Sania Mirza handbook on destroying tirelessly constructed games and building graveyards for seeds with a flurry of ferocious forehands.

Being the top seed, she automatically makes sure that the muzzle would reach for her racquet, but it also means that any rendezvous with the seeds would wait for later.

Her first match will be against, a German, Martina Muller, ranked 104. The two have never been seen on either side of the net in a WTA Tour singles match, and beyond mundane facts like the two inches that separate the two, nothing beyond that to please the statistically-inclined.

Seventh seeded Elena Vesnina looks to be Sania's first encounter of the seeded kind, provided no one else beats her in her own game of seed crushing.

Irrespective of what the tournament throws up, the city has simply gobbled up whatever little they could get of the top-seed. Her practice session at the KSLTA Signature Kingfisher Stadium drew as much crowds as certain matches in the tournament would, with a couple of young tennis (Sania rather) enthusiasts freeze-framing a few of her shots.

She eased her way out of make-believe trouble with her trademark forehands, though the backhand could look better.

Good show by Peer

But despite the Sania Open, sorry, the Bangalore Open's attraction resting on the racquet strings of the 19-year-old, the others would look to be more than mere name tags attached to the numbers. Second seed Shahar Peer and sixth seed Jelena Kostanic have done exceedingly well in the Pattaya Women's Open. Sania would know the importance of the winning habit, having lost to Michella Krajicek in the Australian Open after the latter had just clinched a title.

The old war horses Nicole Pratt and Tamarine Tanasugarn might have seen considerable rankings dips, but an occasional upset is never beyond their grasp.

Sania will hope that the Bangalore Open, which has a total prize-money of $ 1,75,000, does not follow the 2006 pattern, which clearly hasn't been benevolent to the girl from Hyderabad. Will it do to her, what the Hyderabad Open did in 2005?

Tough draw

With Rushmi Chakravarthi, Isha Lakhani and Ankita Bhambri ranked 370, 480 and 361 respectively, the draws were bound to frown on them. "It will be tough, she is a good player and I'm looking forward to it. I am feeling fit and the weather is great" said Rushmi who will meet Melinda Czink, who knows a thing or two on bting Indians, having got the measure of Sania in the Sunfeast Open.

In the doubles event, second seeds Sania and Liezel Huber will face Tzipora Obziler and Angelique Widjaja in the first round, while Ankita and Rushmi will meet Martina Muller and Silvija Talaja in the first round.

The draws were earlier made by Karnataka Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Qualifying results (second round): 1-Tatiana Poutchek (Blr) bt Marija Abramovic 6-4, 6-1; 5-Shiho Hisamatsu (Jpn) bt Remi Tezuka (Jpn) 6-1, 6-3; 2-Aleksandra Wozniak (Can) bt Eva Hrdinova (Cze) 6-4, 6-1; Alla Kudryavtseva (Rus) bt Nika Ozegovic (Cro) 7-6(6), 6-0; Napaporn Tongsalee (Tha) bt Kyra Nagy (Hun) 7-5, 7-6(5); Katarina Kachlikova (Svk) bt Suchanan Viratprasert (Tha) 6-2, 7-6 (3); Daniela Kix (Aut) bt Ryoko Fuda (Jpn) 4-6, 6-0, 7-5; 6-Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb) bt Seiko Okamoto (Jpn) 6-3, 6-3.

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