Sania Mirza - Out of Bangalore Open

Sania Mirza the darling of Indian tennis is in troubled waters yet again. Her decision to not participate in the upcoming Bangalore Open is debatable. It is good for two reasons. Firstly a new talent, once again from Hyderabad , Prerna Maitreyi will get the much needed exposure who might as well turn out to be Sania’s successor or the second representation from India (like the many Russian women players in the present circuit). Secondly because it seems very evident that all these controversies seem to be taking toll on her performance (which is very bad), though her performance in the recently concluded Australian was, to say the least, formidable. She can now sit back and concentrate on other world tournaments where she has a lot to prove and also recuperate from her injuries. My advice to her would be that during this time out she stay home and carefully analyze the William sister’s games as they are currently the best and the most powerful players , and learn a lot out of their technique and also their fitness and playing strategies.

It was a bad decision because it appears as if she hasn’t got the guts to face the hardships of being a sports person or a celebrity and another point of view would be that she is intimidated by the William Sister’s. It is a very remote possibility but such deductions are bound to come up. I hope Globosport the company which manages Sania has taken the right decision in advising her not to play this tournament.

India being a country where sometimes even the most trivial of issues tend to be bloated beyond proportions, Globosport and Mahesh who owns it must also advice Sania in terms of her behavior off court and of the various subtleties. The recent incident where a big hue and cry was raised when a picture was taken showing Sania’s bare feet facing the Indian flag is one such example. What’s appalling is the fact that people tend to be so merciless and lack pragmatism when it comes to issues such as these. It is quite evident that she didn’t do it on purpose, and for that matter no Indian who has even a little respect towards his country would do something like that.The dress issue which she faces being a muslim is something that she will have to deal with as long as she plays tennis.

I hope that people take a more rational approach and look at the wider perspective and not escalate everything. She is the only Indian woman to represent India in world tennis and she is also the only Indian player to reach to a world ranking of 29. Now isn’t that something to be proud of? So keep all these trivial things aside and encourage our pearl from Hyderabad and wish and pray that someday in the near future she would be in the top ten and eventually become the First Indian woman to rank #1 in Tennis.