Sania Mirza World

The under-construction DLTA Complex is currently playing host to the women’s national championships, but strangely enough for a Monday morning packed schedule of first-round matches, all roads appeared to be leading to the serenely secluded courts at the back.

Regardless of their involvement in the day’s play, players, parents, and observers could be seen peering over each other’s shoulders and jostling for space just so they could get a peek at Sania Mirza and her fast-recovering forehand.

With mother Naseema watching, Sania traded a series of fierce forehands with Radhika Tulpule, the rallies interjected with good-humoured banter, and the new, improved, confident Sania was very much in evidence.

“A lot of people are surprised I’m playing again so fast, but I feel good to be on court again. It’s been nearly two weeks since I began hitting the ball, and I’m almost pain-free now. I feel fit, and I hope I stay fit. I feel like I’m improving by the minute,” smiled Sania.

The 21-year-old is in town for treatment on her right wrist from a doctor recommended by cricketer Yuvraj Singh, and will be here till Thursday.

Her mental tenacity hasn’t been left to doubt, as she has been soaking in the brickbats with equal aplomb since the early days of her career. The Olympics disappointment, though, was far too big a pill to swallow. “I was in depression after I got back. The Olympics performance was definitely the low point of my career. We weren’t sure what the problem was, so when I got back, we were all in a daze, rushing from one doctor to another trying to figure it out,” she said.

“But I’m a very positive person, and perhaps all this just had to happen. It is a long process, physically, mentally, but it is a process which has to take its course. I feel better after the treatment, and I know I look fitter,” she laughed.

The hardest part, though, was probably the inactivity. “I can’t sit idle for long. I would go crazy when it wasn’t possible for me to play, and going to the gym was the only option. I couldn’t even do upper body exercises, but I would hog the treadmill,” she said.

BANGALORE: Sania Mirza is back on the tennis court, cracking forehands - pain free. Only two months ago, scenes of the big-hitting 21-year-old making a premature exit from the Olympic Games in a pool of tears were flashed from Beijing. Sania was frustrated as much by the physical pain as with the hopelessness of her situation.

The situation then, was worse than spectators, fans and even connoisseurs had imagined. The pain was so bad that Sania couldn't even lift a fork, let alone wield a tennis racquet. However, the cure has been quick and almost miraculous, thanks to a 26-year-old physiotherapist who practices the nascent South Korean science of spiral therapy, which is cell regeneration.

Shortly after the Olympic Games, Sania was in a private hell, doctors
were clueless, the pain was bad and the forecast, dismal. That's when she got a call from star Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who urged the striking Hyderabadi to give physiotherapist Jatin Chaudhry's treatment a shot.

"Yuvi told me that there was this doctor who could cure me in seven to ten days," Sania told TOI. "The call came at a time when I was staring surgery in the face for the second time in six months and thinking, that's another year of my tennis gone. I had gone to the best doctors in the world, had surgery and nothing was working. Sometimes, I couldn't even feel my little finger, the pain was numbing. Yuvi told me that Jatin fixed his shoulder in ten minutes, and that it could work for me too.

After the Olympics, Sania's management team, headed by father Imran, had flown in top notch Aussie physiotherapist Amir Takla, who finally deduced the problem as a post surgery complication, possibly due to poor rehabilitation. Sania's joints are hyper mobile (excessively flexible), which is the reason why she cracks such a powerful, wristy forehand. However, post-surgery - in Miami in April - the scar tissue that had grown over the wound was too thick and it cost her mobility.

Takla was of the view that Sania needed to go in for another surgery in which the scar tissue could be scraped off so that the wrist would regain 100 percent mobility. He couldn't, however, guarantee that the wrist would regain full mobility even after surgery. But surgery, along with a cortisone shot, was her best option.
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Sania Mirza has recaptured her wiry frame and looks hungry, but she is in no hurry to return to the professional tennis circuit. “The season is over. I am happy with the recovery,” Sania said.

India’s best-ever woman tennis player, ranked 27 in singles and 18 in doubles around the same time last year, is in the Capital to seek the guidance of a doctor who has already won her confidence by speeding up the recovery of her wrist.

During the Olympics in Beijing in August, the 21-year-old Sania had been troubled by pain on her wrist that had undergone surgery earlier in the season. The pain was in a new part of the wrist and needed fresh diagnosis. She was forced to take rest and seek professional advice.

“It was tough to diagnose for the doctors. There was even a suggestion that it may require another surgery. We even feared that I could play only in December. (Cricketer) Yuvraj Singh suggested a doctor here, and I am glad that I have already been able to hit thrice in the last 10 days,” Sania said after a brief training session with former champion Radhika Tulpule, a member of the coaching panel for the Commonwealth Games, at the DLTA courts here on Saturday.

It is a nightmare for every sportsperson to go through spells of injury that prove stumbling blocks especially in the path of a successful career, and Sania herself may not have been quite enthused about slipping in the rankings during the long period of inaction.

Yet, it has been a blessing in disguise as she has worked hard on her fitness which is very evident, and is bound to pay dividends once she returns to the circuit.

“I don’t want to hurry anything. I am prepared to play even the Challengers by December to get ready for the next season. Everything depends on how well my wrist shapes up. Touch wood, things look to be on the right track,” said Sania, who restricted herself to a light hitting session, a few serves, apart from going through the strengthening exercises of her wrists with the support of her mother Naseema.

For the kids and parents present at the venue, who were busy with the National tennis championship, it was special to find Sania practicing in one of the courts.

Some ventured up to her enthusiastically and politely requested for a photo and the Hyderabad player obliged with her beaming smile.

Perhaps, it is time to win some goodwill! — Special Correspondent