Sania says she is close to her best

NEW DELHI - India’s all-time best women’s tennis player Sania Mirza says she is close to her best, and the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games gave her confidence, raising her hopes to go one better at next month’s Asian Games.

Sania told a media conference at the Main Press Centre Monday that her wrist is holding up and that though she missed the gold, she is satisfied with her showing at the Commonwealth Games.

It has been a rather eventful year for Sania, whose chronic wrist problem acted again during the Dubai Open in February and put her out of action for six weeks. She utilised the break to work on her fitness and marry Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik.

The Indian, seeded second here, was favoured to win the gold against top seeded Anastasia Rodionova of Australia, but she lost out in the final-set tie-breaker.

It is tough when five out of nine months you are out of the game injured. But my body and, most importantly, my wrist is doing fine and I have been able to stay injury free. I feel game wise I am getting better and better and I need to play more matches to be match fit, Sania said.

It was a very good tournament (Commonwealth Games) for me. I got two medals. I know I missed on gold, but it has a lot to do with luck than tennis,” she said.

“When you are 7-6 in the last set, it is not how well or badly you played, I dont know anything I could have done anything different in the last set. It was a great final match for the spectators, hopefully Asian Games will be different. I still have a couple of tournaments to play before the Asian Games, which is one of my priorities.

The Indians were expecting to win at least four-five gold medals at the Delhi Games in tennis, but had to be content with only Somdev Devvarman’s in the mens singles.

The showing in doubles has been specially disappointing with gold medal favourites Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi settling for bronze and Doha mixed doubles gold medallists Sania and Paes losing in the quarter finals.

Yes, Leander and I had the best chance of winning the mixed doubles, but thats how tennis is. Leander had played a match before and he told me he was cramping. But I think we have done well. I think we should celebrate the fact that we won four medals, that Somdev won a gold, Sania said.

The cramped scheduling of the matches was a problem for the players in muggy conditions, but Sania said it cannot be used as an excuse for losing.

Scheduling was such that we had to play two matches in a day without much of a gap. Yes, it could have been a bit better, but as a player I cant make this an excuse and blame it for our losses. We have to adjust.

The 23-year-old Hyderabadi admitted the state of womens tennis in India is poor, but hoped after the Commonwealth Games the new facilities will be put to better use.

It is unfortunate that Nirupama (Sanjeev) had to come out of retirement to play in the Games. Poojashree is the only young prospect we have, Sania said.

Nirupama was holding the flag when I came out of the blue. Someone has to come up as I wont be playing forever, neither will Leander or Mahesh… Hopefully, people will take advantage of the new facilities and infrastructure and a lot more young girls will take to tennis.

The moths under the lights were bothersome for both the players and the spectators, but Sania chose to make light of it.

Indeed, the moths were quite big, I dont know where they came from. Yes, it could be a bit distracting, but you try to ignore them when you are on court, she said.

Sania said the big turn-out for the final and their backing had bolstered her confidence and performance.

It was choc-a-block final. It was the best turnout in all these days, Somdevs match Sunday was also packed. The crowd was extraordinary and inspired me to play better. They were losing and winning every point with me, she said.