Sports World - Tantalising Opinions

Sania Mirza capped a miserable October with a first round loss at the Zurich Open to Michaella Krajicek - her third straight career defeat to the Dutch player.

Wildcard Krajicek, ranked three places below the Indian at 33, breezed through the match 6-1, 6-4 in an hour and 16 minutes to ensure Mirza’s quick exit from picturesque Switzerland.

The result was Mirza’s 19th defeat as opposed to 30 wins on the WTA Tour this year and her ranking is likely to slide further.

It was also Mirza’s second opening round ouster in as many weeks - having also lost to Argentine Gisela Dulko at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow last week.

Krajicek, the half-sister of 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, had started off well - winning the opening game and then swiftly breaking Mirza’s serve. Mirza broke back in a game riddled with deuces but the 18-year-old from the Netherlands quickly recovered from that setback.

Krajicek, who has struggled with her form of late, unleashed her attacking game and a stronger serve to take the next nine games.

A spirited Mirza comeback in the second set saw her break Krajicek’s serve twice but the Dutch girl was in no mood to take the match into the decider. She broke Mirza’s serve for the sixth time to advance to the second round.

By the end of the match, Krajicek had blazed 6 aces as opposed to zero for Mirza although the Indian had a better first serve percentage (65 as opposed to 60).

In the doubles, the wildcard pair of Sania Mirza and home crowd favourite Patty Schnyder is pitted against China’s Shuai Peng and American Meilen Tu.

Mirza returns to the Tour next week at the WTA Generali Ladies Linz tournament at Linz, Austria.

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A brilliant run in the $50,000 ITF San Francisco Tennis Classic ended with defeat in the final for India’s Sunitha Rao. The eighth seed couldn’t keep the magic going against top seeded American Ashley Harkleroad and went down tamely 6-1, 6-2.

The loss was a disappointing one for Rao but it was still her best result for 2007 - gaining her $3,990 in prizemoney and 25 valuable WTA points. Her latest ranking shot ten places up to 175 and Rao is now within striking distance of her career-best ranking of 152 (achieved in July 2003).

The Florida-based player had started the year ranked 232 and had dipped as low as 278 in June before jumping 100 places in just four months. Rao had also been the losing finalist in a $25,000 ITF event at Tampa in July.

The San Francisco result had not been an unexpected one. Harkleroad, although now ranked just 92, is a former Top 40 player and not one to be taken lightly. Interestingly, Rao had won their previous encounter in the 2003 Australian Open qualifiers, albeit in three sets.

Rao, who will celebrate her 22nd birthday on October 27, also had luck on her side - she didn’t face anybody ranked higher than her in the four matches till the final.

In the latest WTA rankings (October 15), Rao led an army of Indian women moving up the list. Tara Iyer moved one place up to 358, Rushmi Chakravarthi gained two places to be ranked 368 and Isha Lakhani moved up three spots to 432.

But Indian number one Sania Mirza dropped one spot to 30, thanks to a first round exit at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

In the doubles, Mirza moved up one spot to 19, while Rao lost three places to be placed 141. The biggest loser of the week was Shikha Uberoi - who slid 43 places to 209.

Rohan Bopanna, the best Indian player in the men’s singles, was down nine places (260) while Prakash Amritraj slid two spots (270). The big gainer - no. 343 Karan Rastogi who moved up four places.

In the doubles rankings, Bopanna’s semifinal run at ATP Stockholm saw him jump seven places to 79 while Leander Paes(17) and Mahesh Bhupathi(21) retained their spots on the list.

Middle-level Indian players have a chance to earn valuable points at the men’s $15,000 India F9 Futures event at Bellary, Karnataka which kicked off on Monday.

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It’s been a reasonably good week for Indian tennis but not for Sania Mirza. India’s number one singles player floundered in the opening round of the Kremlin Cup - falling to nemesis Gisela Dulko in her third straight carrer defeat to the Argentine.

Her luck in the doubles was only marginally better. Partnering Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder, Mirza was ousted by the world’s best doubles pair - Cara Black and Liezel Huber - in the quarterfinals.

Be that as it may, ATP Tour veteran Justin Gimelstob had this to say about the 20-year-old in his SI.com column this week.

“Mirza has ignited a continent with her success. She is a cult figure in her native India, and can’t walk down the street without a full security detail. She possesses one of the biggest forehands in the game, and is attractive and charming. She’s also integral to growing the game in the Far East.”

As such the flag for Indian tennis was held high by Leander Paes. Just weeks before he ends his partnership with Martin Damm, the dynamic duo reached the semifinals of the BA-CA Tennis Trophy tournament in Vienna.

Paes and Damm even had two matchpoints before the fourth seeded Polish pair of Marciusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski advanced to the final with a 2-6, 7-5, 12-10 win.

Paes would be partnering Paul Hanley of Australia in 2008 and his reasons for splitting with Damm are purely professional.

“We have different goals next year…Martin wants to cut down on his tennis, while I want to play a full year, so we decided to get new partners,” Paes told The Telegraph from Vienna.

Also impressive this week was Rohan Bopanna whose semifinal appearance with Belgium’s Olivier Rochus at the ATP Stockholm Open is further proof he’s going to make it big in doubles. His stint as lucky loser in the singles draw had ended after he squandered a 4-1 lead to lose in straight sets to Spain’s Albert Montanes in the first round. But Bopanna made good in the doubles with a win over South Africa’s Jeff Coetzee and Dutchman Rogier Wassen.

It was only in the semis that second seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi got the better of the Indo-Belgian pair in straight sets - 6-3, 7-5.

On the ITF circuit, Sunitha Rao has made the quarterfinals of the $50,000 San Francisco event. Her match against Indonesia’s Romana Tedjakusuma wasn’t over when this report was filed but there’s a good chance the eighth seed will get through easily to the semis. Rao had routed Tedjakusuma in straight sets at a $25,000 tournament in Tampa, USA earlier this year.

Top seeds Rao and American Julie Ditty stumbled in their doubles opener - falling to an unseeded pair from South Africa.

Down Under in Rockhamption, eighth seed Tara Iyer made it to the second round before qualifier Robin Stephenson proved too strong for the Indian on the Australian hardcourts.

In domestic action, Bellary in Karnataka will play host to the $15,000 India F9 Futures event next week with most of India’s top singles players in attendance.

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The party time is over. India have lost the home series against the ODI World Champions in the ongoing Future Cup. I just hope India wins the next game. After a superb and immaculate performance by Andrew Symonds, Australia sealed the series with some good bowling and temperament when Sachin and Sourav were going well.
Being an ardent fan of Indian Cricket, i was hoping that India win win this game anyhow. They started well with the wicket of Clarke in first over. After the second wicket partnership Aussies lost the way and lost 3 quick wickets and score read 129/4. Then came the man who has been the most consistent performer for Australians in this series. Andrew Symonds spoke of his annoyance few days back at certain Indian cricketers and also at the manner in which he was heckled in Vadodara. In Nagpur, he channelised his ire to hit the Indians where it hurt most, and a glorious 82-ball century made sure that Australia get to good total on batting beauty.
India started well and Sachin and Sourav hit the boundaries regularly. Despite a good opening stand India lost the way in the middle and late flourish by Uthappa was also not sufficient to keep series alive. Australians played like true champions but India are themselves to be blamed for some lack of basics on the field.
Starting with the fielding India dropped couple of catches and that of two very crucial batsmen in opposition side. First Gilchrist was dropped by Dravid when he was on 4 and then he went to make on quick fired 51. The second chance was put down by Sreesanth of Andrew Symonds. He was on 2 then. He grabbed the chance and played a series winning knock for his side. The way Indians bowled at depth is the matter of serious concern. In all the matches Australians have scored almost 100 runs in last 8-9 overs and today too they scored 94 off last 9 overs. Apart from Zaheer none of the bowlers tried variations and yorker length. The main feature of Aussie innings was that apart from the boundaries they scored 85 singles, 20 twos, 3 threes. On the other hand Indians never looked for quick singles, doubles and forgot that they can take three runs as well. Ganguly was not interested in 2s and left quite a few 1s as well. In the end that what made the difference between the winning and loosing side.
These problems are not new to India but the problem is that they are not rectifying these. Unless and until they get the very basics of Cricket right we are not going to defeat the best team in the world. This is the time to set the things right at the grass root level.

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Doubles specialist Leander Paes teamed up with regular partner Martin Damm of the Czech Republic to beat Agustin Calleri of Argentina and Andreas Seppi of Italy in the first round of the BA-CA Tennis Trophy in Vienna.

Playing their first match since the defending champions were ousted in their US Open opener in August, second seeds Paes and Damm took nearly an hour-and-a-half to subdue their opponents 4-6, 6-2, 10-7.

Awaiting them in the quarterfinals is the American duo of Mardy Fish and Robby Ginepri.

Paes has been absent from the tennis scene for more than a month. He skipped the Kingfisher Airlines Open in Mumbai, ostensibly to play in Bangkok with Jamie Murray but the duo never showed up in Thailand. The two were also to play doubles as a pair in Tokyo last week but that didn’t happen either.

Arguably the best Indian doubles player ever, Paes has been at loggerheads with former partner Mahesh Bhupathi (probably the real reason for bypassing ATP Mumbai - a tournament promoted by Bhupathi’s company).

Paes, 34 will quit playing with Damm at the end of this season and is slated to team up with Australian Paul Hanley in 2008.

A good performance at Vienna should help Paes and Damm garner enough points to qualify for the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai. The duo are currently in fourth place in the ATP Doubles Race.

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