Into the doubles top 5 rankings: Sania Mirza, the shining beacon of Indian women's tennis

Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi pose with the 2012 French Open mixed doubles winners trophy

The girl from Hyderabad – A ray of hope

When Sania Mirza made it to the fourth round of the 2005 US Open, becoming the first Indian woman to do so, an entire nation was brought to its feet. Never before had something like that been done and Indian tennis fans who had rested their hopes for so long on Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes had someone else to look up to. Women’s tennis was overshadowed by their men counterparts for long. Mirza was seen as a breath of fresh air.

What followed soon after was completely different from the plotted lines of expectations from her. Controversies kept waylaying her, her attention shifted on everything else except her game. Injuries took away substantial portion out of her active professional timeline forcing her to spend as much time in recuperation, as much as she spent on the tour.

It was only a couple of years ago that Mirza was able to finally regroup and rearrange her professional priorities and it wasn’t an easy task. Her singles’ timeline was almost in shambles, difficult to correlate that this was the same girl who had reached the pre-quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. All that seemed like a distant hazy memory as Mirza diverted her attention to solely doubles tennis to allow her physique much-needed respite.

Move to doubles pays off for the Indian

The decision paid off as Mirza thrived. Her partnership with some of the leading doubles’ specialists of the game, including a partnership with Mahesh Bhupathi, brought her titles rather than just consolatory match wins.

These days, Sania Mirza is no longer regarded to be a has-been as far as Indian women’s tennis is concerned. At most events, she and her partner – she’s partnering Cara Black this season – start out as favourites and on more than one occasion, they have lived up to their billing. The recently released doubles rankings reflect as much with Mirza rounding up the top-five doubles players consisting of the likes of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci who have taken the top spot.

Despite these obvious successes, yet I wonder, whether the nation has come to really appreciate the worth of her. Controversies still continue to persist. Her personal life, in the wake of her marriage with a Pakistani cricketer, is still looked upon with immense scrutiny. In her professional life, she has been used as an unwilling mediator to appease egotistic demands of some of her fellow professionals.

These incidents depict a serious misunderstanding of an athlete whom we ought to respect continually. And not just when the going is smooth and easy like now, in the light of her making it to the top-five of the doubles rankings, but most so under strenuous and tough times.

Sania deserves more from the fans

The pettiness that many in India show towards her, to the extent of branding her an infidel towards India on a few occasions, is quite cheapening. Despite the versatility of her professional successes, including winning two major titles, it’s as if there is a wait for her to make a mistake. After all that she’s gone through, the pain and the uncertainty of not knowing whether she would make it back professionally, these non-polite expectations are thoroughly uncalled for.

The lines between relevance and irrelevance have never been more blurred as they have been in the case of the Hyderabad girl when they shouldn’t be so. The turncoat nature that has been invariably cast towards Mirza has had repercussions, at times going beyond her as a player to the point of extending to the entirety of the sport in the country.

We never fail to acknowledge the changes that have been brought to the sport internationally. But we rarely acknowledge how immense Sania Mirza’s contributions have been to Indian women’s tennis. It’s high time that we give her, her necessary due for being an inspirational figure for revitalising of women’s tennis in India. She lifted it up and hoisted it before the whole world. Rather than paint an undeserving picture of her based on certain pre-conceived notions that neither align with the spirit of being a fellow countryman, nor with the intent of being a humanitarian respecting everyone.