Sania Mirza’s Singles Ranking Climbs Back to 59, Sunfeast Win Boosts Doubles Ranking to 26
The Sunfeast Open, held in Kolkata, has been the needed balm to Sania Mirza’s WTA ranking, which had been suffering from early exits in recent singles competitions. Sania’s Singles ranking leapt 11 places to 59 by virtue of her appearance at the semifinals of the Sunfeast.
Her performance in doubles has been consistently strong in the recent past, a promise kept in Kolkata’s Open, where Mirza and her partner Leizel Huber of South Africa won the Sunfeast title. Though this win only bumped up Sania’s WTA Doubles Rating by two spaces, it places her at a career-high of 26th best in the world. The joint win also advanced Leizel’s ranking by three points, to stand at 18.
Although less successful than her Doubles performance, Sania’s singles matches were still worthy of pride. After masterfully opening with a win of 6-0, 6-4, against countrywoman Rushmi Chakravarthi, the Hyderabadi teenager won against German Sandra Kloesel 7-5,6-3. Mirza’s early game showed some weaknesses with sloppy serves, which were fortunately mirrored by rival Kloesel, and fortunately countered by a few searing wins from Mirza.
The delightful surprise in Mirza’s Sunfeast performance was her defeat of Aravane Rezai of France in a thrilling game ending 6-4, 7-5 in Sania’s favour. Rezai was seeded at fourth, one place above Sania, and also held four WTA places over Mirza’s former ranking. In both sets, Mirza and Rezai were tied at 4-4, but both times Mirza pulled ahead in a heartthumping clincher.
And if Martina Hingis’s graceful triumph over Mirza, 6-1, 6-0, seemed even more effortless than Sania’s win in the first round, one must concede that Hingis, formerly ranked no. 1 in the world and now at no. 9, went on to win the entire singles competition. Hingis’s defeat over first-time finalist Olga Poutchkova of Russia was hardly more complete at 6-0, 6-4, and it marks the Swiss tennis star’s second WTA title this year.
It is a triumph for Mirza to have gotten to the match that was so widely anticipated, especially after her second-round elimination in the Sunfeast last year. Sania had understandably high praise for Martina, calling her “a great athlete and a great mover on the court. There are only a few girls as fit as her on the Tour.” She also dubbed her “a natural athlete,” saying, “she makes the game look effortless.” Hingis returned the admiration to Mirza, saying to the cheering croud, “She is a great player. She has a great future. I hope to play against her in future.”
Indian men held their ground in the doubles competition, too, with both Leander Paes sticking to his no. 9 WTA ranking, and Mahesh Bupathi not slipping from no. 25. The other women did not fare as well as Sania, with Shika Uberoi plummeting from 193 to 232, and Ankita Bhambri and Isha Lakhani suffering slight drops from 360 to 369 and 390 to 391, respectively. Rushmi Charkravarthi did not drop from 454, despite her early loss to Mirza.
The true triumph for Sania and for her fans, however, was the doubles title that she garnered with partner Huber. The pair sailed past their opening opponents, Indians Archana Venkatraman and Ragini Vimal 6-2, 6-4. Their supremacy persisted throughout the match, entering the final with a win 6-3, 6-2 over Algelique Widjaja and Hana Sromova. They won the Sunfeast with a final match against Ukraine’s Yulia Beygelzimer and Yuliana Fedak, executing an equally deft two-set match with an ending score of 6-4, 6-0.
Despite these successes, Sania has remained focused and critical of her game, pushing herself towards an even better performance. She said that she was “not happy” with her performance in the opening match, pointing to “a lot of mistakes.” Sania continually attributed her doubles success to Leizel, bowing to her partner in the final match after the elder player scored with a particularly blazing forehand.
After all, it’s hardly a mistake that all three WTA doubles titles that have come to Sania were the result of a partnership with Huber, and the younger player self-consciously fashions herself as her partner’s student. “She hates me for saying this in public, but Liezel is truly my mentor. I have learnt so much from her. She has taught me how to carry myself,” glowed the Indian tennis star. But it seems to be a mutual admiration society. “You guys should be excited about the fact that she is only 19 and having won three doubles titles already and has such a promising career,” said Huber. “For me its an honour to play with her, specially in her home country.”