Sania Mirza declines Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi’s offer – Tennis News
Indian tennis star, Sania Mirza, has once again said she is not interested in pairing up with Pakistan’s top player, Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi for mixed doubles events.
Currently ranked 14th in the world doubles ranking, Aisam has shown his interest to make combination with Sania at international events several times.
However, the Indian national has said she is comfortable with her current partner, Mahesh Bhupathi. It is pertinent to note that Aisam’s ranking is better than Bhupathi, who is at 15th spot in the South African Airways
ATP Doubles Rankings.
Talking to the reporters, Sania said, “I’m playing quite well with Bhupathi in Grand Slams so I don’t think I need to change anything right now.”
Both players have a hero’s status in their respective countries for their achievements at the international circuit. Aisam reached the 2010 US Open mixed doubles final with Czech, Kveta Peschke; and Sania won the title at 2009
Australian Open with Mahesh Bhupathi.
The 25-year-old is wife of former captain of Pakistan’s cricket team, Shoaib Malik. Since her marriage, Pakistan Tennis Federation has asked her number of times to play charity matches in Pakistan or impart coaching to youngsters.
There were rumours that the much planned exhibition match did not take place because Sania had asked for huge fee. However, the Indian said that was not true and there are also no chances of her playing an international tennis
event in Pakistan in near future.
She said, “I haven’t asked for a huge pay cheque in order to feature in charity matches in Pakistan. But as far as competitive matches are concerned, there are, unfortunately, no international tournaments taking place in Pakistan
for obvious reasons. So there’s no chance I can play there.”
Sania, who rose to the 27th spot in the singles ranking in 2007 and became the first Indian woman to break into the top 30, shared that she has opted to stay away from singles events in order to concentrate on doubles
and qualify for Olympics.
Currently at 13th position in the doubles rankings, she needs to be in top 10 on the cut off date for Olympics qualification i.e. June 11, 2012.
She added, “Tennis and the surgeries take a lot out of you. I realised at the start of the year that it was impossible for me to pursue a singles and doubles career.”
Sania reached the seventh spot in doubles rankings at the start of this year but a couple of bad performances resulted in her getting out of the top 10.
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