Saina Nehwal and Sania Mirza - The racquet queens from India
Good performances by Saina and Sania
Saina Nehwal's time at the top of the badminton world rankings was only for a week and it would have been still hers if she would not have pulled out of this week's Singapore Open Super Series, as the two other players in contention for the top spot, Li Xuerui and Carolina Marin had already pulled out of the competition.
But Saina Nehwal is not mourning about the situation as she pointed out in an interview she gave to NDTV after her victory in the India Open Super Series. "No. 1 is No. 1, nobody can take that away from me, doesn't matter what the duration is", Saina told the news channel.
The Hyderabadi sacrificed her chance of retaining the No. 1 position in the Singapore Open so that she can come back strongly. Saina has always been cautious in her choice of competitions and avoids overburdening herself with excess pressure and overexposure. Thus, the decision seems to be in sync with her philosophy and the way she approaches the game.
The biggest achievement of Nehwal is the fact that she is one of the rare non- Chinese badminton players to clinch the top spot in the world rankings. But the tag of World No. 1 is the prime drive for many athletes and when they come close to achieving it, it is extremely difficult to not concentrate on that single goal. Saina’s fellow athlete from Hyderabad, Sania Mirza knows all about this feeling.
Road to the World No. 1 ranking
Sania Mirza created history on Sunday by becoming the first Indian female tennis player to climb to the world number one ranking in women’s doubles , following her title victory at the WTA Family Circle Cup with partner Martina Hingis. Previously at No. 3, which was her career best individual ranking in doubles, the glamorous tennis star was only two wins away from achieving the World No.1 ranking.
With two victories in two tournaments, Mirza has been forging an impressive partnership with Swiss veteran Hingis which seems set to dominate the circuit in the coming days. The top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair was too much to handle for Casey Dellacqua and Darija Jurak who were defeated 6-0, 6-4 in just 57 minutes in an extremely one-sided final of the $ 731,000 clay court event. Sania took 470 points from this win to take her tally to 7965 as she jumped past Italy's Sara Errani (7640) and Roberta Vinci (7640) to achieve the world No.1 ranking.
Inspiration for Indian athletes
She is also at a unique position to become the top ranked women tennis pair with Hingis as they are only 115 points behind the current top ranked pair of Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova. The calculations can be quite tough for even a tennis fan, but the fans will be keeping their fingers crossed that she can complete yet another first in Indian tennis - becoming the first Indian woman to become the World No. 1.
Experts have been quite critical of Sania for not performing according to her potential in singles, but the fact remains that she is the most popular Indian woman tennis player of all time. She has even proven them wrong by establishing herself in the doubles circuit and now she stands at a point where she can write a whole new chapter in India’s illustrious sports history. Sania is already the winner of 3 Grand Slams (all in Mixed Doubles), 25 WTA titles (24 of which have come in doubles), multiple Asian and Commonwealth Games medals, but this will be the biggest moment of her sporting career.
Sania Mirza and Saina Nehwal has both solidified their position in their respective sports and this can be a huge inspiration for Indian women athletes to take a step forward to fulfill their dreams.