Sania Mirza has set a high standard for Indian tennis Sania Mirza has set the bar high for Indian tennis. It has been a phenomenal season for the 28-year-old from Hyderabad as she capped it with the year-end WTA Finals doubles title with Cara Black of Zimbabwe. The Asian Games gold with Saketh Myneni and the first time ever women’s doubles bronze medal with Prarthana Thombare were achieved as an after thought in the Korean city of Incheon, as Sania opted to take time away from the professional circuit to do her bit in the country’s hunt for medals. She had done it right from 2002 as a 15-year-old when she won the mixed doubles bronze with Leander Paes in the Busan Asian Games. Subsequently she had won a clutch of medals including the mixed doubles gold with Paes in Doha in 2006, the silver with Vishnu Vardhan in Guangzhou in 2010, apart from individual silver and bronze medals, not to forget the team silver. The goal for Sania, who won her third Grand Slam mixed doubles title with Bruno Soares of Brazil at the US Open, will be the No.1 doubles rank in 2015 and of course, a Grand Slam women’s doubles title with her new partner Su-Wei Hsieh. She may achieve both and set the bar higher for Saketh Myneni and company. Saketh himself has had a good year, as he won a Challenger title to join the country’s leading men, Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri. Despite the doubles success, as he had won the men’s doubles silver with Sanam Singh and paired nicely with Rohan Bopanna in Davis Cup ties, the big-serving Saketh with a fine pair of hands, is focused on his singles game. That should augur well for the Indian Davis Cup campaign, after the team had put up such a fantastic performance against the No.2 ranked Serbia in the World Group play-off in Bangalore. Yuki did fall short in the climax when rain had forced the contest to the fourth day in the decisive fifth rubber, but he did his part well by winning the individual and doubles bronze (with Divij Sharan) medals in the Asian Games on debut. He was a class act for a set against the eventual champion Yoshihito Nishioka in the semifinals before the Japanese stepped up his game to shut out Yuki. With Ramkumar Ramanathan graduating nicely to the Challenger level, and the left-hander Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, Sriram Balaji and Sanam Singh pushing hard from the ranks, it should be interesting to see how well the Indian men shape up in the season ahead. Throw in the talented Sumit Nagal, the 47th ranked junior boys in the world, backed by Mahesh Bhupathi for some seasons, apart from the talented Sasikumar Mukund, there is a lot to look up to. Though it is Sania who has set the tempo for Indian tennis on the whole, despite the 41-year-old Leander Paes being sharp as ever and Bopanna putting his explosive big game to good effect, the Indian women have not been able to take the cue from the progress of Sania, who had enjoyed a career-best singles rank of 27. The 294th ranked Ankita Raina has been playing good in a a lot of tournaments and has been able to assert her game in events at the $25,000 level. She played good in the Asian Games as well against quality opposition. But, the 21-year-old girl from Ahmedabad who trains with Hemant Bendrey in Pune, needs to have more faith in her game to jump to the next level. Prarthana Thombare also needs to break the shell to realise her potential, even though she was able to support Sania nicely, both in the Asian Games and the Fed Cup. In the wiry Karman Kaur Thandi, the Delhi girl who made the women’s final apart from winning the junior title in the national championship, there is an exciting talent. The tall Karman won the under-16 crown in the ‘Future stars’ event in Singapore when the stage was being set for the Year-end championship featuring the season’s best, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and company. Another athletic girl, Rutuja Bhosale, a former Asian junior champion, who is pursuing studies and tennis in the US, is a bright prospect. The country’s No.1 Ankita Raina saved three matchpoints to beat Rutuja in the third-set tie-break on way to her maiden title in a $25,000 event in Pune recently. That may give a hint of the potential in Indian women’s tennis. With multiple Grand Slam champion Mahesh Bhupathi stepping aside and being focused on his venture, the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) which saw Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Pete Sampras, Goran Ivanisevic, Lleyton Hewitt, Patrick Rafter, Marin Cilic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, play at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, along with a number of other champions, there is room at the top for new champions to make their mark for India.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 03:41:34 +0000
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