Ask Sania!

I was watching the U.S. Open Tennis today. I love seeing talented newcomers getting their ‘place under the sun’ by defeating well known players. Today two teenagers, Melanie Oudin (USA) and Petra Kvitova (CZE), caused major upsets by defeating top ranked players. Both these youngsters have the talent to become big tennis stars. However, talent alone does not assure one's stardom in tennis. Ask Sania Mirza of India, who crashed out of the tournament two days ago with a humiliating 6-0; 6-0 loss. I remember what a big name ‘Sania’ was at the 2006 U.S. Open. She had a few good upset wins that year. In addition, her ‘exotic dark good looks’ and nice personality created a huge fan base for her in USA. Although unseeded, she was the tennis player most requested by the news media for interviews that year. Then what happened? Well, Sania Mizra became a big box office draw in India. Everybody wanted a piece of her, starting with Bollywood, politicians, advertisers, so on. She became a big celebrity who could hardly go anyplace without people mobbing her. Of course, she made a lot of money sponsoring products and showing up for big events. (I remember her once getting into trouble for speaking about premarital sex at an international conference attended by world leaders). Anyway, her tennis started to suffer with these distractions (a wrist injury did not help matters). She stared losing in early rounds, and gradually faded from the sights of American fans. This time there is hardly a mention of her in the press. Nobody cared about her except for the die-hard tennis fans of Indian origin, like me.