Sania Mirza

Let sani (a) ty prevail
Akshay A. Kalbag
Tennis has changed in general, and in keeping with these changes in the sport, women’s tennis is also currently undergoing many drastic changes.
Gone are the glorious days of muscular Martina, sexy Steffi and gorgeous Gabriela, who had the game to match their good looks. Along the way came the American duo of Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati and the Spanish pair of Arantxa Sanchez–Vicario and Conchita Martinez, but none of these could capture the imagination of male tennis fans as much as the current crop of women tennis stars do.
When Steffi’s career ‘graf’ (sorry, graph) was showing an upward curve, a deranged fan of the German stabbed her main rival, Monica Seles, during one of their matches. Navratilova is still an active player on the mixed doubles circuit, and her India partner, Leander, has also realized that it ‘paes’ (sorry, pays) to play alongside the veteran champion.
While Capriati shows indifferent form whenever she attempts to make a comeback, Sanchez–Vicario and Martinez have already retired a few years ago. Among the current top seeds, Lindsay Davenport tries to focus her attention on the games, while an injury forced ‘Swiss Miss’ Martina Hingis out of competitive tennis pretty early in her career. Her comeback from premature retirement now ‘hingis’ (sorry hinges) on her fitness. Sabatini (who even had a fragrance named after her) elevated tennis to the status of Argentina’s second most–loved sport after soccer. She made her countrymen aware of the fact that they could now sit up, take notice of and even idolize another sporting sensation besides Diego Maradona.
For the current generation of female tennis stars, the Williams sisters are the torch–bearers, and they are now leading the way both on the tennis court as well as on the ramp.
Women may or may not be from Venus, but women’s tennis definitely starts from Venus Williams and her sister Serena. Apart from winning several Grand Slam titles between them, they have a keen sense of style, and can carry off whatever they wear both on and off the court, be it a simple t–shirt and skirt or a catsuit and a pair of boots. Both the Williams sisters have the physique to carry off anything they wear, and anything the two toned siblings don becomes a style statement.
Russian Anna Kournikova enjoyed a brief career as a tennis player (?), but made more waves on the ramp, in a music video and as the sports personality (?) with the most number of websites devoted to her and the maximum number of Google searches on the Internet. She also gradually lost interest in the game, and found her ‘rhythm divine’ in the arms of her hero, the Spanish pop hunk Enrique Iglesias. The one–time tennis tsarina, who never won a single Grand Slam title in her career, married the singer, who earned worldwide fame with his hit number ‘Bailamos’.
A number of other Russian beauties soon emerged onto the tennis scene (but fortunately, unlike Anna, they’re still active tennis players.) Some of these are Anastasia Myskina, Elena Dementieva and the 2004 Wimbledon champion, Maria Sharapova. To use a pun again, men who ‘love all’ of them are not at ‘fault’ at all, because all these lovely lasses from Russia are equally at ease serving up an ace on the tennis court as they are while catwalking down a ramp.
Europe has its fair share of female tennis champs too. The Belgians are a ‘hardenned’ (sorry, hardened) lot who turn up in ‘clijsters’ (sorry, clusters) to the tennis stands hoping that both Henin and Kim are not Justine (sorry just in) and just out. The French hope that their own champs, Amelie and Mary, pierce through the competition and win tennis’ version of the Oscars, that is, the Grand Slam tournaments. The French supporters pray that when their Mademoiselles are on fire, it does not end up in (Maure) smoke.
Leading the glamorous brigade closer to home is the Indian teenager, Sania Mirza. The nineteen year–old girl has already got a taste of the big, (Hydera) bad world of instant fame and all that comes with it, including endorsements. She is already one of the highest–paid female athletes in India and is the brand ambassador for a leading brand of tea and petrol.
Let’s hope all this hype and hoopla generated by the media about Sania does not go to her head (she is still at an impressionable age) and wean her away from tennis and into a more glamorous career in the movies a la her fellow Hyderabadi and famous namesake, model–turned–actress Diya Mirza.
But that holds true not only of Sania, but also of Venus, Serena, Sharapova, et al. I sincerely hope that sani (a) ty prevails in women’s tennis, and this ‘Grand Glam’ does not take away their focus from the real objective, that is winning Grand Slams. Let’s hope that nobody else chooses to go the Kournikova route to instant fame and stardom, and that all these women create a racket only on the tennis court, unlike Anna.