Second WTA title beckons Sania

In India, the land of spirituality, the WTA Bangalore Open has got to one of the most inauspicious starts. The showcase tennis event has been pulled down by a series of unfortunate and ambiguous events.

First, the star attraction, Serena Williams, pulled out because of an unnamed "flu induced illness"; then the politics of the state took over, with the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association, the organizers, deciding to show solidarity to Monday's bandh, called by Kannada organisations in protest against the Cauvery tribunal verdict.

The forced the opening day's play to be called off, perhaps something unprecedented in tennis history. Not only was the start of the tournament delayed by a day, but with trouble brewing near the Governor's bungalow the players could not go to the courts for a hit till six in the evening.

Nevertheless, after all the difficulties, when the US$ 175,000 Tier III tournament begins on Tuesday, it will all be about Sania Mirza, as most tournaments have tended to be recently. Only this time, the 20-year-old from Hyderabad, having made an impressive start to the season, looks ready to embrace title success once more.

The tournament has not only lost its glitter without Australian Open champion Serena Williams, but her withdrawal has opened up the draw, packed largely with Russian and European aspirants.

There isn't a single big name who can overrun competition (top seed Mara Santangelo of Italy is ranked 36); Sania is now armed with a sharper game, has climbed to 46 in the rankings and will have a huge advantage of playing on home turf. It was this same tournament, played in Hyderabad in 2005, where she tasted her first and only success.

The Indian ace now needs to add a second title to her Hyderabad triumph to break new ground.

Sania, the 2005 Newcomer of the Year, had a disappointing second year on the WTA circuit, as her one-dimensional game was left exposed. With the failures came the critics; and the weaknesses that were mere footnotes during the frenzied 2005 season were increasingly magnified every time she fell short of the expectations.

Though Sania hid it well under a veil of confidence, which sometimes borders on arrogance, the criticism hurt enough for her to get herself a new physical trainer and a fitter body. Just when she was being dismissed as a one-season wonder, she hit form at the Hopman Cup and the Doha Asian Games in December, where she won the silver medal in singles and team event, and a gold with Leander Paes in the mixed doubles.

The youngster has ridden the confidence wave since then, reaching the semi-finals of both the WTA events she entered this year. But the soft defeats at the Australian Open and the Hobart event in January show that she is still susceptible to an excess of errors.

Women's tennis lacks the depth of their male counterparts. With players out of top-20 being talented, but largely erratic, it generally comes down to who commits lesser errors on a given day.

Sania, who arrived in the garden city late on Sunday, will thus have to tighten her game and watch out for the dark horses in the race. Athens bronze medallist Alicia Molik and Hungary's Melinda Czink will be the frontrunners there.

Australian Molik, who was once ranked as high as No 8 in the world, has slipped to 97 after missing out on most of the 2005 season due to vestibular neuronitis, which affected her vision. The big-built 26-year-old has battled the ailment admirably but is not as threatening a player anymore.

Czink, in the same half as Sania, had stunned the Indian at the 2005 Sunfeast Open in Kolkata and is a dangerous fringe player.

Sania's toughest test may still come from top seed and defending champion Mara Santangelo.

The Italian, whom Sania defeated in straight sets in the quarter-finals in Pattaya last week, opens her campaign against a qualifier but has a tricky road ahead, as last year's runner-up Jelena Kostanic-Tosic, Molik and fifth seed Yuliana Fedak of Ukraine are in her half.

With none of the Indian players going beyond the second round qualifying, the home challenge will be restricted to Sania and the two wild-card entrants-Shikha Uberoi and another US-based Indian Tara Iyer.

The odds seem stacked in favour of the Hyderabadi lass; the question is whether she will recognize and capitalize on her best chance for a title win.

All the problems that it has had to face could then be dissolved into Sania mania.