Sania Mirza`s nightmare year

There has been a lot of talk over the past couple of years: whether Sania Mirza is all media hype and little substance, that she’s glamour, glitz and good looks but her on-court performances don’t match the build-up.

Much as she has tried to counter this she has had her critics who keep pointing out to her record. And if anything her steep fall in the rankings would give her detractors a lot of ammunition.

In the latest WTA chart she has slid to as low as 91. It is not that she has been playing badly; the fact is that she’s hardly been playing at all and that’s her problem.

At the moment there is the risk of Sania moving out of the top 100 for the first time since 2004 and that was the year when she first starting making headlines, forcing people to sit up and take notice, not only of her good looks but also her game based on attacking ground strokes.

This has clearly been her worst year, thanks to a combination of poor form and injuries. But when you are playing at the international level you have to posses a high level of fitness, and one wonders whether Sania is in the zone as far as this very important aspect of the game is concerned.

Sania withdrew from the just concluded US Open due to injury and in one week dropped 21 places. She started the year ranked in the early 30s and at Wimbledon was seeded No. 32 - the first time an Indian woman was seeded at the premier tournament.

However, she did her cause no good by losing in the second round to a player ranked No. 101 in three sets – after having four match points. Earlier, she had pulled out of the French Open following a capsule tear on her right wrist. She underwent surgery after injuring her wrist during a tournament in Indiana Wells in March. She missed her first Grand Slam after playing 13 majors in a row but her withdrawal from the US Open really hurt her rankings.

It must also not be forgotten that she made an early exit at the Beijing Olympics due to the niggling wrist injury. She was forced to concede her opening round match to Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic after trailing 1-6, 1-2. Compounding her problem is the fact that has also seven positions in her doubles ranking dropping to 44th place.

Sania has been advised rest by her doctor after undergoing intensive tests and one does not know when she will return – if at all with there being a little over two months left in the season. It’s certainly been a year to forget for Sania. In fact more than her inconsistency and injuries the issue that divided the tennis fraternity in the country right down the centre was her decision to skip the prestigious Bangalore Open in March.

It certainly was unexpected to put it mildly. Even though she has had more than her share of controversies during her career, hardly anyone would have expected her to skip a WTA event being played in her own country. After all she was in good form as her showing in the Australian Open confirmed – she lost to the higher ranked Venus Williams in two hard fought sets – and her only WTA title has come her way when she was playing in her hometown Hyderabad in 2005.

Obviously the dramatic decision could not have been a sudden one and there was plenty of thought involved before Sania decided that the pressures of playing at home were just too much.

Right from the time she announced her arrival on the big stage she has been in the news for both the right and wrong reasons. A sportsman or woman cannot attract attention only for the right reasons always, and over a period he or she learns to take the rough with the smooth, the downs with the ups but Sania has felt she has been receiving a raw deal particularly when playing at home.

Sania obviously was rattled by a court case which alleged she showed disrespect to her national flag, an offence punishable by jail. For all, her popularity she has had to pay a price and has been at the centre of a number of controversies. Soon after rising to prominence she faced an edict from a radical Muslim group who decreed that her playing attire was unsuitable.

A couple of years ago she made some comments about pre-marital sex that did not go down well with certain groups and when queried about this by the media an upset Sania walked out of the press conference. Then late last year she apologised to Muslim officials in her hometown Hyderabad following a police complaint for trespass after she shot an advertisement film in a mosque.

A couple of days after opting out of the Bangalore tournament Sania in an interview with a news agency that she was forced to skip the tournament as she was not in the right frame of mind to do justice to her ability. `This is the first time in my career that I have not entered an international tournament being played in India for genuine personal reasons. If I played in this state, I would have let my fans down.`

Sania is of the view that no sportsperson in India had undergone such turbulence and she obviously felt she was being singled out for whatever reason. But even away from home when she is not under the same pressure, she has hardly played to her potential. Her showing at Wimbledon is a case in point.

The fact remains that she has to first get fully fit and then play the kind of tennis that endeared her to the fans at home during the short period when she seemed bound for greater things. Otherwise even the media hype around her will grind to a halt.