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Photo: P.V. SIVAKUMAR

It’s too much Sania Mirza backs out

Explaining her decision at a media meet in Hyderabad she saidthat the difficult decision was being taken on the advice of her managers at Globosport., which incidentally is run by Mahesh Bhupathi, a-ten time Grand Slam doubles champion.

Bhupathi, according to media reports, maintained that the Sania’s stand was not a permanent one, but felt “it was better for her not to play at home for some time.”

No one doubts that Sania had been under immense mental pressure and under the scanner for all wrong reasons. From her on court outfits to her alleged comments on pre-marital sex, from the location of an ad shoot to showing disrespect to the Indian flag during the Hopman Cup at Perth, the 21-year-old has had controversies flying at her faster than Venus Williams thundering aces.

Sania, who was seriously contemplating quitting tennis while she was in the thick of action at the Australian Open, must have felt enough was enough.Wiser counsel did prevail then and Sania gave a good account of herself at the Australian Open, reaching the third round in singles and entered the final of the mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi.

Nobody had really doubted her intentions of playing at the Bangalore Open. It was almost taken for granted that she would play at Bangalore, where she enjoyed a huge following and support whether she won or not.

Last year for instance, there were more people watching her practise on the outside court, than there were for matches on the main courts inside! Over 100 children turned up for a clinic organised by the KSLTA and most children came to soak in the Sania magic.

It is then perplexing as to why she should apprehend “problems” at the Bangalore Open. Bangalore has been a home away from home for her and she had often admitted loving her stay and training here. Sania’s statement that she won’t play in India for a while, but will play for India, doesn’t sound right. She owes it to the millions of fans at home to play in front of them. Not every fan can travel to Dubai or Miami to watch her perform. It was the Indian fans, who had made her an icon.

But then, nobody can really blame her, if she was not in the right frame of mind to play at home. Sania said: “I am a normal 21-year-old tennis girl, with certain aspirations.”

Maybe she feels that it is being destroyed in a swirl of controversies and issues which she simply is not in a position to handle. Well, that is the price of stardom that every Indian icon has to pay in this country.

Cricketers by now should be used to these dramatic swings of public opinion. The boys in blue were derided and their effigies burnt when they performed badly in the World Cup last year. The same fans, who idolised Dravid, Kumble and Sachin, showed no remorse reviling them. The very same Indian fans also took to the streets in celebration when India won the T20 World Cup and Dhoni and his boys were overnight heroes.

It is when this fame vanishes with defeat, that sporting heroes find themselves at the end of a dark alley.In Sania’s case, no one has blamed her for lack of on-court success. Every one acknowledges that Indian tennis owes a lot to this prodigy from Hyderabad and that the ideal approach would have been to allow her play her natural game and cope with her ups and downs in her career on her own. She is immensely capable of doing that.

By pushing her to fight off-court battles on trivial issues, without much support either from tennis fraternity or from fans, her absence from the Bangalore Open was was bound to happen.

One would not like to blame her for her decision, but at the same time, one wishes that she heeds to the pleas of her many fans rather than any one else. Bangalore is still Open for her.

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