Since its inception this website has been a big fan of Sania Mirza. We love the fact that Indian tennis finally has a good player on the woman’s tour and with the game to challenge the best players in the world. Unfortunately, Mirza has always found herself in the news for needless controversies and it looks like this time things have gone too far. Sania has just withdrawn from the Bangalore Open, a tier II event carrying a prize money of $600,000 and has subsequently decided to boycott all Indian tournaments.

Over the past three years, the list of the number of controversies Sania has found herself in has grown at a very fast rate. The controversies include

1. Criticism by Mullahs of her short skirt. (Attire contradicts Islam and is supposedly a corrupting influence on the youth)

2. Her partnership with Israeli player Shahar Peer- again kicked off a controversy cause the same old Mullah’s didn’t recognize the state of Israel.

3. Her support of a South Indian actress over the latter’s comments on pre-marital sex. (which led to two days of protests by the Rahul-Priyanka Youth Brigade)

4. The shooting of an advertisement featuring her in a mosque in Hyderabad; a commission filed a lawsuit against her and the ad agency for illegally trespassing the mosque.

And now..

The insane flag controversy:

Somehow, the above image led to some attention seeker filing a law suit against her under the ‘Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act’. Under the terms of the act, a person can be thrown into prison for three years for insulting the country. Looking at the image it is clearly obvious that her feet are some distance away from the flag!

Ironically, the “disrespect to the national flag” issue cropped up when Sania was representing India at the Hopman Cup along with Rohan Bopanna. The thought that Sania choose to play for the country rather than play at the Sydney International and gain valuable WTA points seems to have missed the idiot who has filed this lawsuit. Whats worse, the Indian media, continues to oversell the story.

Needless comments by Paes

Indian tennis legend Leander Paes stated that there is nothing above playing for one’s own country in front of home fans and that Sania should not have skipped the Bangalore event. Couldn’t Leander apply the same “reasoning” for himself and played the Chennai Open? Tennis is an individual sport and that is the way it has been. While representing one’s country is something all players in general savor, putting unnecessary expectations on them is completely unwarranted. The pressure Sania has to deal with in India is much more than even what Tim Henman had to endure in England.

While her decision to skip the tournament has surprised and shocked many, it has come at the right time. She has been subjected to enough harassment and it is high time she stops being a publicity-generating machine for activists and news channels across the country. Her withdrawal from the Bangalore Open and tournaments in India has drawn a lot of attention from the global tennis community and it certainly has not done anything constructive for Indian tennis!

The Future:

Right now, after attaining the status of Asia’s top player, Sania has to work diligently toward her goal of entering the top 20. To do that she has to compete hard against super-talented youngsters like Agnes Szavay, Agnieszka Radwanska, Victoria Azarenka, and Alona Bondarenko. Sania has the game to do it and its just a question of staying fit and being able to get consistent results over the season. Whether the media, the fans and the mullahs let her be remains to be seen.