Beyond a point, it does not matter to the champions what is in the media

Sania Mirza has quietly made the doubles final in $2,369,000  Toray Pan Pacific Open on Tokyo, without the Indian media making much note of it.

The US Open semifinalist, partnering Cara Black, one of the finest doubles players in the women’s circuit, may perhaps be tested by her former mentor and partner, Liezel Huber, but the edge will be with Sania and Cara.

It may be easy to say that Sania should find a good partner and stick to her for more profitable ventures in the circuit, but she knows the issues better on a daily basis, and tries to capitalise on the opportunities.

After Nirupama Sanjeev, our former women’s champion who has written a brilliant book, ‘The Moonballer’, that should serve as a guide to every aspiring woman tennis player in the country, had commended the blog for a comprehensive coverage of Indian tennis news, I realised the mistake only when my knowledgeable colleague pointed out that Sania was actually playing well in Japan where his heroine Venus Williams was hogging all the attention. How did I miss Sania, of all people ! Well, blame it on the indifferent media.

CGK Bhupathi, father of Mahesh Bhupathi, had asked me to write for the tournament souvenir of one of the early WTA events in the country, ‘’on your favourite subject Sania’’, when the young girl was threatening to break into the big league.

Well, I had left the stars like Sania, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Somdev Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna for the agencies to take care, and was concentrating on the relatively lesser lights who were trying to make the breakthrough, even at the junior level. However, when you want to follow the game fully in the country, you do it thoroughly, and am indeed happy to keep track of our stars, even when they are not playing the Grand Slams !

Of course, when one first set eyes on them, Leander, Sania and company were all juniors who broke through spectacularly into the big league as they had the right foundation and a great attitude. It is good to look at them all over again, even as you keep searching for the spark and the unflinching attitude in the others who are slogging it around the world, with fire in the belly and stars in their eyes !

Sania Mirza at her professional best in Tokyo

TOKYO, SEPT. 27:

Sania Mirza and Cara Black, two of the finest doubles players, without a seeding raced to the final with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over the Wimbledon champions Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Shuai Peng of China in the semifinals of the $2,369,000 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Japan on Friday.

In the final, Sania and Cara were scheduled to face another unseeded pair of Hao-Ching Chan of Chinese Taipei and Liezel Huber of the US. Sania will be looking for her fourth title of the season, and 18^th of her career, and Cara, her 56^th title.

The Indo-Zimbabwean combination, with 12 Grand Slam doubles and mixed doubles titles between them, had earlier beaten the fourth-seeded Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

The start was rough, but Sania and Cara had prevailed 2-6, 6-0, 10-7 against Kristina Mladenovic of france and Flavia Pennetta of Italy in the first round.

The winner will get 900 WTA points and $122,000 and the runner-up $66,200 and 620 WTA points.

Leander Paes bows out in the semifinals in Bangkok

BANGKOK, SEPT. 27:

The second-seeded Leander Paes and Daniele Bracciali of Italy were beaten 6-3, 6-4 by the third-seeded Jamie Murray of Britain and John Peers of Australia in the doubles semifinals of the $567,530 Thailand Open ATP Tour event on Friday.

After the US Open triumph, it was an early exit for Leander, playing with a new partner, but the champion focuses on the big events, and will be getting ready for the year-end World Doubles Championship.

The effort was worth 90 ATP points and $8,870.

Somdev Devvarman bows out in the semifinals in Kuala Lumpur

KUALA LUMPUR, SEPT. 27:

The fine run of Somdev Devvarman and Rik De Voest of South Africa came to an end as Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina beat them 0-6, 6-2, 10-7 in the doubles semifinals of the $984,300 Malaysian Open on Friday.

After such a good start and victory against the second seeds, it was a disappointment, but the super tie-break has always been a lottery, that can reward as much as it can punish.

The 90 ATP doubles ranking points may not be of much interest to Somdev, ranked 98 in singles, but his share from $13,570 should be handy.

Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan loses singles semifinals, wins doubles title

BUJUMBURA (BURUNDI), SEPT. 27:

The second-seeded Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan lost the semifinals 6-7(3), 6-7(5) to the fourth-seeded Lukas Jastraung of Austria in the $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament on Friday.

However, seeded No.2 in doubles with Yannick Mertens of Belgium, Jeevan won the doubles title with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Mark Fynn of Zimbabwe and Hassan Ndayishimye of Burundi.

It was Jeevan’s eighth career doubles title and fourth this season.

Ramkumar loses doubles final

SEVILLA, SEPT. 27:

The second-seeded R. Ramkumar and Matwe Middelkoop of the Netherlands were beaten 6-2, 6-3 in the doubles final by the fourth-seeded Eduard Esteve Lobato and Oriol Roca Batalla of Spain on Friday.

Ankita Raina loses quarterfinals in $25K event

FERGANA (UZBEKISTAN), SEPT. 27:

The eighth-seeded Ankita Raina was beaten 6-1, 6-3 by Anastasiya Vasyleva of Ukraine in the quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament on Friday.

Incidentally, it was the third successive quarterfinal appearance in the $25K events for the 20-year-old Ankita, who had made the two other quarterfinals in back to back events in Belgium in August.

She had lost in the semifinals of the $10,000 event in New Delhi to the eventual champion Bhuvana Kalva and was not at her physical best while losing the first round in China in a $50,000 tournament. Ankita has planned to train for a few weeks before returning to the circuit with renewed energy and zeal.

Rishika Sunkara in semifinals in Egypt

SHARM EL SHEIKH (EGYPT), SEPT. 27:

The top-seeded Rishika Sunkara beat qualifier Viktoriya Bogoslovskaya of Russia 7-6(2), 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament on Friday.

In the semifinals, Rishika who entered the tournament on a wild card, will play the third-seeded Giulia Bruzzone of Italy.

In the doubles semifinals, however, the top-seeded Rishika and Ipek Soylu of Turkey were beaten 3-6, 7-5, 10-6 by Viktoriya Bogoslovskaya and Evgeniya Svintsova of Russia.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran in semifinals

SHARM EL SHEIKH (EGYPT), SEPT. 27:

The eighth-seeded Prajnesh Gunneswaran led 6-1, 3-0 when his opponent the fourth-seeded Ivan Nedelko of Russia retired in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament on Friday.

In the semifinals, Prajnesh will Karim-Mohamed Maamoun of Egypt.

Indian boys beat Argentina in Junior Davis Cup

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 27:

Sumit Nagal won both his singles and doubles matches to help India
beat Argentina 2-1 in the third and last league match of group ‘A’ in
the Junior Davis Cup World Group under-16 tennis competition in San
Luis Potosi, Mexico, on Thursday.

Having lost to the top-seeded Russia and the seventh-seeded Spain
earlier, India missed the bus to fight for better positions, and was
reduced to competing for the ninth to 12th places in the 16-team
competition.

India was scheduled to face Norway in the first play-off.

The results (league): India bt Argentina 2-1 (Garvit Batra lost to
Franco Capalbo 4-6, 4-6; Sumit Nagal bt Agustin Torreano 6-4, 6-3;
Sahil Deshmukh and Sumit Nagal bt Juan Pablo Ficiovich and Agustin
Torreano 4-6, 6-3, 6-0).