Sania Mirza, the Hyderabadi girl, is today the lone women tennis star of India to hold on her own in the international tennis scene. Before the current USOpen, she was ranked 42 in the WTA ranking. Much have been written and spoken about her in India. She has been praised for her tennis skills as well as her grit and determination in the tennis court.

Today morning, in the wee hours I saw her match with Maria Sharapova, in the pre quarter final round of USOpen. And frankly speaking, I was disappointed. Though the pundits had put the match as a foregone conclusion as a win for the Russian, what I found most appaling was that the Indian girl did not even put any resistance. Sharapova defeated her easily 6-2, 6-1.

Sania seemed to play a very casual game more as if a practice match. There were too many errors committed by her. In a game, Sharapova went on to win from being down to triple-breakpoint in favour of Sania. In many games, Sania kept on committing errors even in her own serves and kept giving point to Sharapova.

This was the first time I was watching these two girls play. Even Sharapova’s game didn’t seem any spectacular - she was playing straight, and committed very few errors. In contrast Sania’s play style seemed too casual, as if she was just happy to be playing Sharapova (or perhaps reached the fourth round of USOpen - a first for Indian women much hyped in Indian media - though Sania had disclaimed that previously)!

Its commendable on part of Sania to be able to play and reach upto top 16 in the USOpen and also win some of the WTA tours or reach final of such tours. But its really worrying whether the Indian sportspersons are acclaimed heroes, for losing. There are many examples foremost of them - I remember how PT Usha was felicitated for coming fourth in Olympics, similarly was Milkha Singh, many decades back, who was even termed the flying Sikh. (though they did win in other tournaments, but the Olympic medal eluded them for individual performance). Sania has been given national awards, though she has not won a single Grand Slam, which are the true test of the tennis scene. Others like Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly and many other cricketers have been hyped over the years, and during those years they were playing real bad and getting out with poor scores.

I wouldn’t say that the sports scene is pathetic - what ails is politics and bad infrastructure. There are sportsmen and sportswomen who have excelled. Recently an Indian women (Anju Bobby George) won the long jump (6.65m) gold in the International Athletics meet. Similarly an Indian (Rajyavardhan Singh) won the Olympic Silver in shooting events.

One flip side also is that some of the sports are much more hyped and much money is invested through companies, and sponsorers. These are particularly cricket and tennis. I think the attitude needs to be changed. Also investment should come in other individual and team sports that have been neglected over the years. Just making a turf field is not enough - sportspersons needs to be given proper facilities in line of their western couterparts. More than that sports itself is in need of being acknowledged as a viable career option.

Another thing is that Indians should stop acknowlediging themselves as a non-sports people. It is often seen in the TV discussions where there are people proclaiming and being backed when it is said that Indians are non-sports people and more meant for softwares. I can only say genes can only be trained and muscles can only be trained - no one is inborn (read genetic) hero - as the Indian media seems to be making out in many of their programs.

As for Sania, more hard work and better luck next time…

Update Sept 10, 2005

In mixed doubles final match, M.Bhupathi/ D.Hantuchova defeated. K.Srebotnik/ N.Zimonjic, 6-4 6-2. Congratulations Mahesh and Daniela. Mahesh has once again done India proud in (mixed) doubles events.

Looking forward to future, where some Indian actually wins the singles title in a Grand Slam event.

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