Mirza Watches Helplessly as the 2007 Wimbledon Championships (and Three Devastating Losses) Pass Her By
This past week at Wimbledon left fans of Sania Mirza frustrated and defeated, much like the Indian tennis star herself.
In her first loss on June 28, Mirza fell to Russian player Nadia Petrova in a singles match-up. Mirza believes that the strength of Petrova’s serves was the biggest obstacle that she faced in the match, commenting in a press conference afterwards that, “I felt on the whole I didn’t attack. I felt like I was on the defensive all the time. I was always three feet behind the baseline and I should have been on the baseline.”
In her interactive blog, the 20-year old wrote that: “The Russian has one of the biggest serves in the game and when it is functioning well, she is a very dangerous player to handle…I reckon Petrova has a chance of going the distance if she continues to serve like this.”
Undeterred by this initial disappointment, fans were still hopeful for Mirza’s doubles pairings. In the women’s event, Mirza was paired with Israeli Shahar Peer for the first time in two years. Religious issues tore the girls apart previously, with radicals enraged that Mirza, a Muslim, was paired with a Jewish player.
The girls insisted that their reunion at Wimbledon was not politically motivated, with Mirza stating that: “We are playing doubles together, period. I have a good forehand, she has a good backhand. That’s all we care about at this point.” Despite their athletic compatibility, Mirza and Peer lost to top seeds Lisa Raymond of the U.S. and Samantha Stosur of Australia in the second round.
In her final possibility for Wimbledon victory this year, Mirza’s partnership with mentor Mahesh Bhupathi in mixed doubles showed promise. The couple beat David Skoch and Janette Husarova easily in two sets (6-3, 6-4), but eventually fell to Marcin Matkowski of Poland and Cara Black of Zimbabwe.
The games continue on in London throughout the week, with India’s chances for a title now resting solely on the shoulders of Leander Paes.
July 8th, 2007 at 3:13 am
I know this comment has nothing to do with this post. And, I apologize for it. I was browsing and found a link in this site about wife swap. The article was posted back in 2005 and the comments ran well into the next year. Can we get some kind of an updated article on the same subject posted again?
July 9th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Dear Siva, thank you for your comment. The wife-swapping post created a lot of interest among Boulevard India readers who wrote many, many comments in response, about one thousand of which we published (hundreds of additional comments remained unpublished for various reasons, mostly having to do with taste). We are not currently planning on revisiting wife swapping, but we could be persuaded otherwise.