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| Sunday, 24 August 2003 |
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India's claim to fame in Wimbledon From Roshin Varghese in Bangalore "I go out there to win," and that is the driving force which has made Sania Mirza a name to reckon with on the international tennis circuit. All of 16 and superbly confident, every delivery she makes is an ace - on the court or off the court. In her Calvin Klein jeans, belted tight around a diminutive waist, platform shoes and chunky gold chain she looks like just any teenager out for a spin in town. But no, after a strenuous training session, a non existent breakfast, she is rushing off to go live on radio in Bangalore. For after all she is India's only claim to fame in Wimbledon - no other Indian woman has had a win at the mecca of tennis, whether doubles or singles. And her doubles triumph has suddenly made the world sit up. But the tennis protege from Hyderabad, trains hard, lives a regimental life and travels regularly in pursuit of a coach for a win. Her current coach is none other than tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi's father, Krishna Bhupathi and so for a short few weeks, Bangalore it is for Sania. As for Bhupathi, she is a star who he is lucky to have got under his wing. Confident that one day she will win a Wimbledon singles title, he admits that he has not handled "a girl with so much talent". Equally realistic and free of ego hassles he acknowledges that a moment will come when Sania will move on to another coach and that he will be made redundant. So much so that he has already fixed up for Boris Becker's coach Bob Brett to watch Sania play end of the tennis season and decide whether she should train with Brett or not. For Bhupathi sees Sania as "national property". But for the past year and a half she has been under his tutelage and shuttles between Hyderabad and Bangalore bettering her game. Imran Mirza, Sania's father says, "I respect him as a technician, he has certainly strengthened her back hand and is now developing her serve." The triangular admiration committee - Imran Mirza, Bhupathi and Sania only have praise for each other. Bhupathi acknowledges that Sania's greatest strength is her "ability to retain what she learns. For most players 'muscle memory' is a big handicap which she doesn't suffer from. What she has learnt she can apply in a match situation". She has gone through a number of coaches and as she cleverly says "my level keeps on increasing" so to stick with the same coach hardly makes much sense. She certainly has learnt a lot since her infant days. At the age of six and a half, equipped with a tennis racket and shoes she was determined to make the most of her perfunctory coaching. In less than a week, the coach sent word to her father to come and watch her play. But it took all of six months before Imran Mirza saw her on the tennis courts and as he says, he was surprised because "she was something special". Imran Mirza, a cricketer himself and with an impeccable sporting lineage recognised her potential. (Sania's grand uncle is Ghulam Ahmed, a former Indian cricket captain and her grandfather too was a cricketer) Since then there has been no looking back for by the time Sania was eight she had beaten a 15 year old at a competitive game of tennis. Born with a silver spoon in her mouth where sponsors are concerned, Sania has had a combination of talent, luck and dedicated parents. For they have worked hard at raising the Rs. 40 lakhs she needs to stay on the international tennis circuit. Although there have been many wins in her short career, ironically at the junior level there is no prize money. A victory just means, a certificate, a cup and fame. In her own hometown, Sania has been able to get support from the GVK Reddy group of companies. GVK Reddy himself a tennis player, was invited to see her play and now for the last four and a half years has been faithfully producing the air tickets needed by the globetrotting Sania and companion, - either one of her parents. Fiercely protective of her, either parent accompanies her on her journeys, which translated means about eight to nine months in a year. Her father who runs a printing press and is also into real estate says "it is the kind of business where one can take time off, either my wife or I travel with her." So father and mother take turn staying at home in Hyderabad to look after their 9-year-old daughter and run the family business.On average, Sania runs through a pair of Adidas shoes a month, as many as ten tennis rackets a year and countless number of shirts and shorts. So generous sponsorship is the name of the game. A decidedly proud Andhra Pradesh government has opened the purse strings to give a whopping of Rs 15 lakhs during the last year and a half. Now that she has performed so well, everybody is patting themselves for having backed a winner. But the things are not always so honky-dory. Young she may be, but pragmatic beyond her years, for as Sania says the moment you lose a game, your accommodation, food allowances and everything else is cut off. Walk away from the courts with a defeat and within minutes all your perks are swept out of sight. "If you are scared of losing you can't win," is her belief. Although the only time she has had butterflies in her stomach has been when she and Alisa Kleybanova stepped out on the Wimbledon courts to win her now historic match. "It was a great feeling to win the tournament because both of us were unseeded and both of us were playing together for the first time." For as Bhupathi says, "Sania is really a singles player and her Wimbledon singles was lost because she lost focus for two and half minutes and by the time she pulled herself together she had lost the momentum of the game. Her doubles title was won 'by the way'." For the Class 12 student, life as an interior decorator is next best to being a tennis champion. Despite her hectic playing schedule she managed a first division in class 10 and is equally confident of doing well next year for her exams although she has hardly attended school this year. After that she wants to do what all the young aspire for "take a year or two off". For a child who has seen and travelled much, sightseeing is not of much interest as she "has seen it already" and visits to Wimbledon, Hamburg, Paris are just tennis courts to her. Lounging around at home, listening to rap and Hindi music, watching television, and a passion for non vegetarian food is a luxury she has hardly had with training sessions filling up her entire day. She hardly goes out and despite her win to her close friends "they still see me as Sania". But people who don't know her well think differently she admits. Well aware that by the time she celebrates her 25th birthday, she will be an old woman of tennis, Sania hopes to marry and quit the active circuit, but not before winning a Wimbledon championship. Unfazed by the stallion like build of the Williams sisters and the international competition, as she says, "I am still growing". And that she is, both in stature and strategy to take on the serve and volley world. |
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