Sania flatters to deceive again...
Sania Mirza, once again fell to a lesser opponent, after beating a much fancied one in the earlier round. Just as I expressed some hope of her reviving her season, just as she was about to silence her critics about her talent or the lack of it, she fell to Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain in the quarter finals of the Korea Open.
The 19-year-old Indian, who beat top seed Martina Hingis in the second round, lost to doubles specialist Pascual 7-6 4-6 7-6. After taking the first set to the wire, Sania bounced back to take the second set raising hopes of another fight back. But Pascual, the hard-hitting doubles specialist, managed to peg Sania back, taking the third set 7-6. Sania, who recently moved up to 59 in the world, will surely gain a few places, courtesy her win over Hingis.
To her credit, Sania went down guns blazing. And also she deserves to be lauded for coming back to beat Hingis the way she did, the second set score read 6-0, and this after going down rather tamely in Kolkata the week before. And having traded breaks in the first set too. This win will surely do a world of good to her confidence.
All she needs to focus on now is her fitness, which is the source of all her problems this season. She needs to work on her fitness levels and she will be fine.
Sania, Grand Finals et al.
Well after capitulating to Martina Hingis in the semi-finals of the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata last week, Sania Mirza has come back very well by beating her in the Korea Open. It does speak volumes about her talent that she beat Martina, but she has to improve her fitness to be in contention week after week, especially while playing top ranked players. She did mention after her match that she felt the fittest ever during this match. Hopefully she will focus more on her fitness henceforth.
And in Australia it is Grand Finals time again. With Brisbane Broncos taking on Melbourne Storm on Oct. 1st at Telstra Stadium in Sydney, this is the first Grand Finals not to feature a New South Wales team. For once, I thought, the Broncos will have more fans supporting them than the opponents in Sydney, but curiously Sydneysiders have put their support behind Melbourne.
To be fair to Storm, they did beat the Broncos twice this season, but that was before the Broncos were the force they are now in this premiership battle.
Broncos are physically bigger and will surely use that to their advantage, but Storm has had the best defense in the league and is known to be strong in the second half of the game. Broncos play their rugby like the Brazilians play their soccer with flair and that is why they are such a treat to watch.
Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett says game-breakers like the Broncos' Justin Hodges and Melbourne's Greg Inglis will be the key players in Sunday's NRL grand final. Bennett will attempt to win his sixth grand final with the Broncos at Telstra Stadium on Sunday.
Melbourne’s Dally M player of the year and Grand Final skipper Cameron Smith is expecting a battle to keep his Brisbane rival Shaun Berrigan quiet in Sunday night’s NRL Grand Final but don’t expect him to match the Brisbane hooker’s inspirational run to the try line from the win over the Bulldogs. The Melbourne skipper has had a look at the Brisbane comeback against the Bulldogs and says it will make them keep their intensity up for 80 minutes on Sunday night. While both teams have star players capable of busting the game wide open Smith is wary about the in form Brisbane skipper Darren Lockyer.
The Broncos have an unbeaten streak of five Grand Finals wins from as many appearances since 1992. Storm has a clean record in Grand Finals having won the only time they made it to the Grand Finals in 1999.
Either way it’s going to be a great game and the fans will be here to see quality football and that’s what they’re going to get.”
