It is not easy being the only hope of a nation. If that nation has more than a billion people, it gets all the more difficult. And, it can be turn into a nightmare if that nation is starved of sports icons.
Yet, Sania Mirza is cool and sportive when she is off the Tennis court. She is confident, quick and makes her opponent earn every point on the Tennis court. She holds her head high even when she faces a powerful opponent like Serena Williams. She is fiercely competitive and graceful even in defeat. These wonderful traits, combined with her good looks and style (nose ring!!) makes her the heartthrob of a nation that struggles to find one icon in a decade .
In many ways, Sania is doing to Women s tennis what Vishwanathan Anand did to Chess in India in the late eighties. She has popularized the game in this country and that is not easy, considering the insane craze for cricket. It needed a World Champion in Chess to take the attention away from an underperforming cricket team and start the trend of following Chess column. A diehard sports fan in India would get up in the early hours of the morning to watch a cricket match in Australia, but , now, Sania has set the trend of waking people up early in the morning to watch her US open matches.
Sania s serve is famous for the tossing – the joke being that it could come in the way of flights if she plays in New York. She fires aces and has excellent return of serve. She can cover the court quickly and her forehand is her strength. All these are the right ingredients to break into the top 10. But, she has a long way to go. She needs to work on being more consistent with her winners and cut down her unforced errors. Also, the journey from World No 42 to World No 9 will be tougher than 100 to 42.
In a nation where world class sports icons belong to the endangered species, Sania is indeed a personality who is immensely popular. Her critics are harsh on her appearance in commercials, but let us remember that Tennis coaching is expensive and is borne by the player, unlike cricket where there is a coach appointed by the board. Also, what is wrong in making more money? She has worked hard for to earn the popularity and recognition and she deserves to be paid for being a recognized face in a populous country!! A caution would be not to get carried away by the media hype, but this gifted young girl has demonstrated repeatedly that she has a balanced head above her shoulders and is mature enough to handle the attention she gets in the right spirit.
The least we can do is to stand by her through her ups and downs in Tennis. After all, she is only 18 and she has made women s tennis pay attention to India !! More than that, she has managed to wean away the craze from cricket and generated interest in Tennis. This is a bigger achievement than her titles and rankings.
Like I said, it is not easy being the hope of a nation with a billion people !!