By IANS
Melbourne : Sania Mirza, keen to leave all controversies behind, will go all out to improve her Grand Slam record, as she gets ready for the opening encounter of the Australian Open against wildcard entrant Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan here at the Melbourne Park Tuesday.
Playing now for almost three weeks in Australia, Sania has travelled from Perth to Hobart to Melbourne.
So, far the start of the season has not been good for the 21-year-old Hyderabadi as she has been involved in two big controversies – first for shooting an advertisement near the Mecca mosque in Hyderabad and then being accused of dishonouring the National flag by placing her feet while watching the Hopman Cup in Perth.
The controversies are obviously bothering Sania.
She had a mediocre outing at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) mixed team – the Hopman Cup – where she won one and lost two singles matches. Seeded sixth in the Tier IV Moorilla Hobart International, considered as a run-up to the first Grand Slam of the year – she reached the quarter-finals, but lost to against unseeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy.
Sania’s fitness is also a matter of concern, as she has been attacked by cramps repeatedly since last year, when she was out of the court for a long time due to an ankle injury.
However, the world No. 31 will now go all out to improve her previous best run in the Australian Open, which was a third round appearance in 2005. She lost in the second round in 2006 and 2007. Sania’s best performance in a Grand Slam was a fourth round appearance in the 2005 US Open.
This year she starts her campaign against 26-year-old Tulyaganova, who was among the top 20 players way back in 2001, but currently finds herself in the 317th position on the WTA charts.
If Sania wins her opening encounter, her possible opponent in the second round will be local challenge Sophie Ferguson, who is ranked 176 in the WTA chart. The first big hurdle will be a possible match with former World No.1 and eight seed Venus Williams of the US in the third round.