The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Gabriel Urpi to coach Sania

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 24, 2007
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Gabriel Urpi to coach Sania

NEW DELHI: Sania Mirza will attempt to arrest her stumbling steps in singles on return from a knee injury, with the guidance of Gabriel Urpi, the former coach of Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, at the French Open.

The renowned Spanish coach is currently working with Flavia Pennetta of Italy and multiple Grand Slam doubles champion and former World No. 1 doubles player, Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain.

Meanwhile, Sania may not be able to partner Mahesh Bhupathi, as planned for the French Open as the two with their current doubles rankings of 37 and 25 may not be able to get an entry into the mixed doubles event at Paris.

Having been away from the circuit for two months, Sania has also struggled to find a regular doubles partner on the Tour. Thus, she will be playing with a third partner in her third tournament on return, with Eva Birnerova of Russia at the French Open. She had a successful start with Vania King of the U.S. in Morocco, when she won her fourth doubles title and her first on foreign soil; and is playing as the top seed with Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei in the tournament this week in Istanbul.

She may have returned to the circuit on a solid note, but experts feel that it would take another two months for Sania to get into her best physical shape to face the grind of the professional circuit.

Physiotherapist, Heath Matthews, who has been working with Sania for the last few months is happy with Sania's progress after orthoscopy, but feels that she would need six more weeks to be able to fully work on her foot speed. — Special Correspondent

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