Sania Mirza slipping
to seven places to 70th position in the Women Tennis Association (WTA) singles
ranking on Monday came as a no surprise. The tennis star is recuperating from a
wrist injury that has forced her to pull out of the US Open this year.
This has come as a
sharp contrast to last year’s performance when she reached a career-rank best
ranking of 26 in the world. But this year, Sania, who underwent a knee injury
last year, has been struggling with a wrist injury. Doctors advised surgery to
her right hand and as a result she missed the French Open. But she recovered
for the Wimbledon. She, however, lost toNedia Petrova of
Russia in the second round.
“Wrist injuries are
very painful. You can’t execute your shots,” says Vasudeva Reddy, the former
National champion.
The injury is also
hurting Sania. Her main weapon is the forehand. It requires good power to
execute the shot. It does hurt Sania when she plays this shot. It was different
last year. Although she was hampered by knee injury, she could move around the
court and execute her shots fluently.
Imran Mirza, Sania’s
father, feels her ranking may slip further.
“She may even slip
to 100 by the end of the year. It is sometimes easy to garner points but very
difficult to defend the points. Last year, she had a couple of very good wins,
including some top seeded players,” he said. She will miss a couple of
tournaments and that will not do good to her ranking.
Sania had reached
the final at Stanford and also made it to the two semifinals at Hobar and
Pattaya. She had a couple of quarterfinals. She started off very well this year
too, with a good performance at the Australian Open. She made it to the mixed
doubles final with Mahesh Bhupathi and also became Asian No. 1. But she has
tumbled out of the tournaments with first or second round defeats after the
wrist injury. This has seen her slip in the ranking.
She has to fight
hard to regain the 2007 rankings. But all is lost now but it will be a
Herculean task for Sania.