Sania's father against ban on essential drugs

Ace tennis star Sania Mirza's father and coach Imran Mirza may take up the WTA's stringent ban on taking drugs even for minor ailments with the tennis body as he held that the restriction may affect players' performance on court.

Imran told media on Monday that Sania was suffering from fever when she played the doubles semifinals in the just-concluded Sony Ericsson International WTA tennis tournament here on Saturday.

''She could not take medicine even for cough as we feared it may contain banned substance... we did not want to take any chance during the tourament... I am thinking of taking up the issue with WTA authorities as it may affect players' performance on court. At least, the WTA can recommend some medicine for minor ailments like cough and common cold. In Grand Slam, there is no such ban... only the WTA has come up with such stringent measures,'' he added.

Sania was suffering from fever, cough and cold when she, partnering with Mara Santangelo of Italy, lost the doubles semifinal to Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia.

Asked about the super tie-breaker introduced by WTA in the decider, Imran said ''I am against it, it is not the correct way of deciding the winner. It has been introduced in men's tournaments, but for the first time WTA introduced it in this tournament. May be their intention is to finish off the game early.''

Giving credit to Russian Yaroslova Shvedova, who downed Sania in the quarterfinals, he said ''the match was a grand one and teenaged Shvedova's performance was superb, she really played well. Moreover, you cannot expect professionals to win all matches.''

Ranked 46, Sania's next tournament would be the Doha Open. ''We will not prepare for all these matches. Preparation will only be for Grand Slams,'' he said.

Sania's home campaign comes to an end

Sania Mirza partnering Mara Santangelo and seeded no2 went down 4-6, 6-3, 5-10 to Hsieh-Kudryavtseva pair to end her campaign at the Bangalore OPen. Two time doubles winner Sania Mirza will for the first time in the last three years return empty-handed without a title at India.

Sania had earlier lost in the singles to the Russian Shvedova 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-4, in the quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson International WTA tennis event, at the KSLTA Stadium, on Friday.
Shvedova played some aggressive tennis and served brilliantly to oust the second seeded crowd favorite from the Quarterfinals of the Bangalore OPen.

Sania Mirza later admitted that her opponent played much better tennis to win the match. "She served incredibly. The second serves were almost going over my head. I don't think I played a bad match today, she just played some amazing tennis,"

Sania Mirza through Sony Ericsson International Quarters

Heavy crowd favorite Sania Mirza playing infront of her home crowd overcame Belarusian Tatiana Poutchek in three sets 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. Sania will play unseeded Yaroslava Shvedova of Russia in the quarter finals.

Tatiana started the match on fire, while a nervous Sania spraying errors all around the court. Tatiana raced to a 5-0 lead with breaks in second and fourth games. At 0-5, Sania won her first service game to get on board, Sania won three consecutive games quickly for 3-5, but that was not enough and Tatiana successfully served out the set to win the first set 6-3.

In the second set, Sania started playing well and raced to a 5-2 lead, but lost 3 consecutive games and allowed her opponent to level the score to 5-5. Sania regrouped to win the next 2 games and set 7-5.

In the deciding set, Sania played much better and overwhelmed her opponent with solid ground strokes. Sania won the deciding set 6-2

"I was spraying everywhere in the first set and even at 5-2 in the second I didn't have the confidence. But I got back my rhythm only in the third set. It's hard to play at home," said Sania.

"I'm playing some of the top players and that's what keeps me going. It builds confidence and in the last six months I'm also working a lot on my fitness. Hope I play better tennis tomorrow when I take on young and talented Shvedova who has a big serve. But for the moment I'm still recovering from that first set," said Sania.

Sania didn't play her best today, but two semi-final appearances in the current year at Hobart and Pattaya City with a 9-3 win-loss record so far this year helped her to find out a way to win eventhough she is not playing her best.

Sania also won her doubles match on Wednesday playing with the top seed Italian Mara Santangelo. The top two seeds won their doubles match against A Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan and Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus

Sania-Mara pair won the match by 6-2, 7-6 (7-4).