Sunset Sania ?
Sania Mirza, despite some amazing qualities on the professional ground, needs to buck up fast.
Sania Mirza has dumped Bollywood actor Shahid Kapur for Telugu actor Navdeep Pallapolu. Adidas has introduced Sania Mirza’s signature collection. Some people felt offended when Sania Mirza wore a short skirt to play tennis and said pre-marital sex was not all that bad.
These are a few of the things you might get to know if you searched Google news using Sania Mirza as the key words. And yes, somewhere down the order, you will find bits about her plummeting ranking.
At 22, Steffi Graf had won 10 Grand Slam singles titles. But Graf was an exceptional, once-in-half-a-century kind of player. So, let’s look at former Spanish player Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. All of 169 cm (that’s half an inch above 5’6”) and 56 kg, Sanchez-Vicario had modest talent, but worked hard to win the French singles title at 18. By 22, she had played in two other Grand Slam finals and seven semi-finals.
By the age of 22, the careers of most women tennis players get defined. You get a fair idea where they will end up.
Sania Mirza, who turns 22 on November 15, is moving away from her best performances with every passing year. Her best year yet was her first on the professional circuit, 2005, in which she reached the third round at the Australian Open, fourth at the US Open, and won her maiden and only WTA title.
Mirza’s career-high singles ranking was 27, which she touched on August 27, 2007, and the best doubles rank 18 (September 10, 2007). Since then, she has been on a downward journey, falling in the latest rankings to 98 in singles and 56 in doubles. This year, Mirza has won only 11 singles matches and lost 12. In doubles, she has won 11 and lost 9. It’s true that she has been plagued by injuries, but that is the bane of every sporting life. Other than the opponents, sporting success is about battling injuries.
Fortunately, she does not suffer from the usual Indian disadvantage of physique. She is a good 4 cm taller than Sanchez-Vicario and a kilo heavier. Besides, unlike the Spanish girl, Mirza has a standout shot: the forehand, which can match the best in the business.
Unfortunately, she has remained a one-trick pony. Her first serve remains a feeble link in a chain that also has other weak links, most notably the poor court coverage. Despite three years on the professional circuit, Mirza remains some distance from the global standards of fitness.
Mirza has achieved more, much more, than any other Indian female tennis player. But a low benchmark need not necessarily result in a low ambition.
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