any sania mania in pakistan?
Re: sania mania
I doubt it! News on Sania is probably censored in Pakistan, either that or everyone in there is probably too busy 'dissing' her for showing too much skin for a muslim girl on the tennis courts.
Anyway, news just in.....
Sania has got a wild card entry to play in the Dubai Open tournament which starts on Feb 28. The tournament will feature almost all of the top 30 players in WTA rankings.
Good luck Sania. You Go Girl!
MM
Re: sania mania
Today (Feb 28) Sania beat Jelena Kostanic 6-7 (7-2) 6-4 6-1 in her first round match at the Dubai Open. Sania, the first Indian woman to win a WTA Tour title this month on home ground at Hyderabad, will now face US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Sania said, "She (Kuznetsova) is a great player, but everyone is beatable and I am looking forward to a great match."
Venus Williams, one of the top seeds in Sania's half of the draw, was knocked out in the first round by Sylvia Farina Elia.
MM
Re: sania mania
yes we’re all sania maniacs. 
Re: sania mania
^ Uh oh..Ravage ki phat gayi.. 
She is cute..good for her. Maybe she can be a role model and get more women in South Asia to pick up a tennis racket. :k:
Re: sania mania
Fair game?
Why do the media go overboard when reporting the success of a member of the minority community, wonders ZIYA US SALAM in the light of Sania Mirza’s and Irfan Pathan’s success.
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2005/02/27/stories/2005022700390400.htm
Focus on their game. Why drag religion into sports? Sania Mirza.
THE Indian media looks desperate. Acts desperate too. It is almost impossible to talk of sports today without dragging religion into it. Blasphemous, did one say?
Ask Sania Mirza, now the toast of the country. Or Irfan Pathan who walked the same lane just the other day. We know that both of them hail from orthodox Muslim families, Pathan’s father was a muezzin in a mosque, Mirza’s parents were on a pilgrimage even as she was taking on Serena Williams. All thanks to an over-eager media keen to tell us the unknown, the unseen.
Yet, it has not always been that way. Not when Nirupama Vaidyanathan became the first Indian woman to win a match at a Grand Slam tournament — the Australian Open in the late 1990s. Nobody wondered in the print or electronic media about her religion. Whether she went to the temple? And just how much of her legs she showed on the tennis court? Did she wear saris off the court? And, by the way, did she consider herself an ambassador of the girls following her faith?
Changing yardstick
At least then the media did not burden you with such inane queries. It gloated over her success. Newspapers went to town with the accomplishments of the first Indian woman to win a Grand Slam match. Just the way it ought to be. She was graceful in receiving credit, keen to keep her feet on the ground.
Now, it seems the yardstick has changed. The tournament is the same — Australian Open — the sport is the same, and the feat is similar. If Nirupama was the first woman to enter the second round, Sania was the first to enter the third one!
But this time, we have been saddled with avoidable details, some innocent, others motivated. Some newspapers and channels have actually gone to town wondering how her community views her success? And whether they are appalled at the leg show on the tennis court. Is she regular with prayers? Does she fast in the month of Ramzan? And to what extent does Sania observe purdah?
A channel highlighted her religion in a story on her tennis feats, putting the youngster on the defensive. Many newspapers, including those from the Hindi and Urdu press, talked of how she hails from an orthodox family and still has to slip into salwar-kameez off the court. It surely was no coincidence that the media talked of her parents’ visit to Mecca and Medina just when the Australian Open was unfolding. It did not strike anyone that the coincidence was just that — a coincidence. Haj is an annual pilgrimage and just happened to be juxtaposed with the Melbourne classic this year.
Little space was devoted to the fact that a sporting success-starved nation suddenly had a youthful role model, an ambassador who could put India’s name on the tennis firmament.
Impolite queries
Not many talked of the sweat Sania shed in coaching, the pitfalls in finding sponsors. And the problems of ploughing a lonely furrow. Instead, they talked endlessly of what she wore off court, just what the moulanas had to say about her as a Muslim woman who should be covering her legs and the like!
Incidentally, not half the impolite queries have been reserved for Shikha Uberoi, the other rising star of women’s tennis. Incidental? If you must choose politeness over honesty.
By the way, Sania is not the only winner to be judged differently. Just at the beginning of the last cricket season, young Irfan Pathan was pigeonholed in a hotel in Sri Lanka to talk of just how devastating the Gujarat riots were! How it affected the minority psyche and the aftermath. The young man got by with giving answers intelligible only to himself. Thank God the same reporter did not go across to Nayan Mongia or Parthiv Patel asking them to appreciate the politics of Narendra Modi.
Why religion?
Incidentally, that brings us to the point: Why does the media go overboard when it comes to the success of a member of the minority community, particularly so in the case of a Muslim winner? If memory serves one right, we have never been told if Virender Sehwag goes to a temple or Harbhajan Singh to a gurdwara. Or the last time Leander Paes went to church. Or how often have their family members used air services to go abroad.
But we all have been subjected to details of Pathan’s life — how he offers prayers after play, how his father still returns to the same mosque everyday. Soon after his best haul in Test cricket, in a live interview on TV, Pathan was asked how much time does he have for religion, and the quote of the young man, almost a reluctant hero, “Praying makes me humble” was beamed all across. Fine and fair, one would say as far as Pathan is concerned but again, why drag religion into a cricket field?
Judge Pathan for what he does on the field. Hail him for the success, castigate him for his failures but, for heaven’s sake, do not bring religion into sport.
Ditto for Sania Mirza. Let her play tennis. Let her bring glory to the country. What sundry moulanas feel about her vocation or apparel is unimportant.
Her tennis, not her religion should make headlines. She is the ambassador of New Age India, let not any religion appropriate her. Sania Mirza today is not on the court as a representative of her community. Nor is she answerable for every action of hers in the light of diktats of her faith. Why should they have to carry the burden of others’ prejudices?
Sports may be a euphemism for war with rules but it is no crusade. No religion, no faith, just a belief in one’s own abilities.
Re: sania mania
Folks, Sania's on a roll. She is through to the 3rd round!
Sania Mirza continued her remarkable rise with victory over US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Dubai Championships on Tuesday.
The 18-year-old Indian, who is already a huge star in her home country, won 6-4 6-2 in front of a delirious crowd.
It was Mirza's sixth straight victory following her first WTA tournament win in Hyderabad last month.
Is Sania Mania picking up pace in Pak NOW?
MM
Re: sania mania
Sania has just beaten the former world no4 and US open champion. That is incredible and clearly not just a flash in the pan. Really pleased for her.
Hope she gets a decent coach.
Sania mania has reached the Dubai and the UK!
Re: sania mania
Go Sania! Go India!
Re: sania mania
Supeb Sania...
she has a very long way to go.....
Sania Mirza is MUSILM???
Re: sania mania
yes.
she says she prays five times a day
Re: sania mania
who is this sania mania that you speak of?
Re: sania mania
Within a matter of weeks she has gained a huge following in India with massive media coverage - sponsorship deals matched only by their top cricketers and patronage from all the top politicians (including president , Sonia ghandi , BJP leader etc ). This "film star " status and media coverage has been dubbed as Sania Mania.
Re: sania mania
well she bowed out in the q.finals but what a rapid climb! read somewhere she would climb atleast 44 ranks in ATP putting her around 55! best of luck Sania - all our prayers and encouragement for great ahievements! Whole of India is proud of you!
Re: sania mania
Its good that Sania prays five times....
Now Sania Mirza is ranked 77 in WTA Ranking.
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she prays 5 times a day + mixes in the mini skirt for good measure.... it was coming guys, some 1 had to speak their mind and stop this custom of 'behind' kissing.
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want to see pics people...I bet they will be termed as cleavage. No they are not doctored pics, but her pics in action from Dubai...!
Re: sania mania
Yeha man…put them up. . :k:
Re: sania mania
aight, watch Img 2 after a short while
Re: sania mania
Mal1k, nothing on Img2 yet, what’s with the hold up?
MM