By IANS
New Delhi : Former Indian tennis great Vijay Amritraj Thursday joined the critics’ bench on Sania Mirza’s recent decision to withdraw from the next month’s Bangalore Open to evade controversies, terming the 21-year-old Hyderabadi’s move as ‘strange’.
Amritraj, who is here to witness the India-Uzbekistan Davis Cup tie, said the tennis ace has all qualities to break into top 20. However, in order to achieve that she needed to have a careful approach towards her physical fitness.
“It is a strange kind of thing. She is a great player and she is in great form. I have seen her play at the Australian Open and she looked in great touch. She played very well against Venus Williams,” Amritraj said.
Sania opted out of the Tier II Bangalore event citing petty controversies that have been following her since her breakthrough 2005 season as the reason for the pull out.
However, media reports suggested a dispute over appearance money is the main reason for her withdrawal from the Bangalore tournament, which will also feature the Williams sisters – Venus and Serena.
Amritraj was of the view that, for Sania, it would have been an added advantage to play Venus in front of the home crowd.
“I always believed that Venus is one top player Sania has the capability of beating. There is nothing like playing in front of the home crowd, but at the end of the day it entirely depends of her scheduling of tournaments,” he said.
The US-settled Indian further said that at the end of the day there should not be any regrets in an athlete’s mind when he or she quits the game, citing his own example to illustrate the point.
“I am of the view that an athlete should not have any regrets when he or she is done with the game. I played tennis for long, but when I ended my career I didn’t have any regrets. I didn’t miss the game,” Amritraj said.
Earlier, Indian Davis Cup team’s non-playing captain Leander Paes had criticised the Hyderabadi, saying nobody is above the game and Sania should be very careful while dealing with controversies.