We may have to wait for good tennis players to emerge: Sania

Lucknow: Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza today urged the people of this cricket crazy nation to maintain patience as they wait for new promising tennis players to emerge. "We all know that the sports culture of the country is cricket and we might have to wait with some patience for more promising players to emerge," Sania told newspersons here. The 24-year-old is the lone Indian woman to have made a mark at the world tennis and she feels that the reason for such a dearth can be blamed on anything ranging from lack of funds, misfortune or lack of talent. "It is very difficult to find a reason for it," she added at the sideline of a function where the communications director of the Sahara Group, Abhijit Sarkar announced that the group was joining Sania as her sponsors. Sania, who recently won an ITF tournament in Dubai to end the year on a high, said that she had been fighting to regain her fitness, especially after her wrist injury continuously gave her trouble since the past over two years."But I have fully recovered now and have been performing well since the past 2-3 months," Sania said. When asked who she would prefer as her playing partner between Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, Sania said that it was a matter of pride to partner either of the two and she would like to continue playing with both of them in future. Sania also added that she would be looking to win maximum number of tournaments in the coming year. When she was asked to give her opinion on the standard of tennis in Pakistan, Sania, who got married earlier this year to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, said that since she has gone there only one or twice she would not be able to comment on that. PTI