The upcoming London Olympics may have changed a lot of equations in the world of doubles in tennis and shuffled the priorities of the sporting fraternity in general, but Sania Mirza was candid enough to say that it was too early to think about the quadrennial Games yet.
Training with the players assembled for the Fed Cup camp at the DLTA Complex, the 25-year-old declared that staying healthy going into the Games in July would be her top priority.
“Tennis players may have to peak 10 times before the Olympics as we play every week. We have three Grand Slams to think of before the Games,” she pointed out.
Mixed doubles may be her best bet for an Olympic medal, but she may have to push her singles ranking to the top 60 — or stay in the top 10 in doubles — for getting an entry in the first place; tough enough a prospect, considering that she will be defending a lot of singles points over the first six months of the season.
She may hence be forced to focus on doubles but if she does very well in that, she may not be able to play the singles qualifying events.
It is not clear at the moment as to who she will partner in the mixed doubles event in London.
On her part, Sania will move to Mumbai for two weeks of training with Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, before getting ready for the tournaments in Auckland and Hobart in the run-up to the Australian Open.
The knee surgery last month was a fall-out of non-stop tennis and Sania said that it was good to have a break at the end of a hectic season, packed additionally with the Commonwealth and Asian Games.
“Everything happens for the best,” Sania said.
