Mirza advances to sweet 16

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As of 1 pm ET, this is the lead story on the U.S. Open’s home page (thanks, Sania spazz):

7-6, 6-4: she rides lions, not wings. It’s the furthest Mirza has come in any major tournament to date. Congrats! She’ll face her most difficult test yet in the next round, Maria Sharapova. I nominate myself for the après tennis

The Beeb has the play-by-play. For snarky commentary, we turn to the ToI:

Eighteen companies offered her sponsorship deals worth one million pounds in the span of a week, when she was still ranked No 134… As one leading sports journalist pointed: “Sania Mirza’s serve won’t win any awards for design, and her toss is so high you can have a cigarette waiting for it to come down. She is a few biryanis heavier that an elite athlete can afford to be, and her acceleration on court is more Ford than Ferrari… But no big deal; this you can teach an 18-year-old. What you can’t is chutzpah, and toughness, and Sania Mirza has both.” [Link]

One expert’s prophetic guess:

Mirza goes for forehand winners like an alley cat to a wounded mouse… It’s all power, all the time… Both serve well, but Mirza still needs to improve her conditioning… just the chance of getting a shot at Maria Sharapova in the next round is enough to fire up these two to go to the wall in an attempt to win this contest and get to play on a show court against the blonde princess. Mirza wants it more… [Link]

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26 thoughts on “Mirza advances to sweet 16”

  1. She’s probably not going to beat Maria on Monday, unless Maria is having a bad day, but Sania is gonna be a top-ten player. No doubt.

    Go Sania!

  2. super cool! i hope she makes it. she’s made it this far so that’s definitely a great sign. thanks for keeping us posted.

  7. i think she feels guilty about it though, during the on-court interview after her round 2 win they asked her what it means to be muslim but still wear short skirts/play sports and she said something like (paraphrasing) “everyone makes mistakes, religion is about forgiveness”, it was a little bizarre

  10. i think she feels guilty about it though, during the on-court interview after her round 2 win they asked her what it means to be muslim but still wear short skirts/play sports and she said something like (paraphrasing) “everyone makes mistakes, religion is about forgiveness”, it was a little bizarre

    I wish they wouldnt ask her such stupid questions and just let her play her game and not put her under pressure like that

  11. This Sports broadcaster just doesnt get it!!!!

    They better get used to seeing her play quality tennis ..wearing skirts! ….or wait did they think that in the land of sepia mutineers, skirts are just being embraced as a fashion wear.

  12. Breathing a quick prayer David placed one of the smooth stones in his sling, drew back his hand and slung the stone quickly straight into the forehead of the giant, dinting his brow deeply. The giant fell face down onto the ground. David quickly ran to his form, grasped the gaint’s sword from its sheath, stabbed the gaint with the sword and then cut off the giant’s head.

    BRAVO Sania.

  13. Looks like there is a post-match interview on USOpen.org.

    Sachin Tendulkar gifted her a car for winning the juniors title!

  16. Yeah…they’re doing the whole I-know-someone-who-played-on-court-with-Sania-Mirza-at-XYZ-club/gymkhana thing in Delhi. You know you’ve arrived when Dilliwallahs do that.

  17. “her round 2 win they asked her what it means to be muslim but still wear short skirts/play sports”

    I cant believe this fucking idiot reporters asking an 18 year old about devout this and that … WTF ?? What do they expect for an answer ?? They expect a fatwa against her ? what is the point of puting an 18 year old in an awkward position.

  18. Btw, isn’t there another desi girl playing at the US open? Neha Uberoi is it? Haven’t heard much about her.

  19. The interview after the second round was plain stupid. For more reasons than asking an 18 year old “Indian” about Islam and clothes. Surely the pack has not heard of Zeenat Aman from 35 years ago. Wont be surprised if there is more of that nonsense as we approach the encounter with Maria. Other than the clothes, it was this totally irrelevant “manhole cover all across NYC” reference to India that preceded the interview. HUH?

  20. Delhi??? She is Hyderabadi dude.That’s why the reference to biryani.

    As an aside – I knew many girls in Hyderabad from conservative muslim families who would go to school in burqas and be wearing miniskirts inside.

    People are the same everywhere I suppose.Stuff isnt all black and white.

  21. After looking at the video,I would make a guess that she goes to Nasr’s. Can anyone confirm?

    I remember the girls at Nasr’s wore the shortest skirts as compared to St Anne’s,Rosary Convent, HPS,BVB etc 🙂

  23. well, i’m glad she isn’t wearing some islamic version of the tennis get-up…

    When I was in India in Jan-Feb, she did say something to the effect of vowing “never to play tennis in a catsuit.”

  24. I am sure they eat biryani in Delhi, but Hyderabadi biryani is famous and is usually used in reference to the city.