Power stroker Sania Mirza lost her third-round Oz Open match to Serena Williams, 6-1, 6-4, in 56 minutes. She was all nerves in the first set, which lasted just 20 minutes:

“I had butterflies in my stomach for two days. I couldn’t get to sleep last night. In the first set I was really tight…”

But she found her game in the second. Match point was an ace, the last of 12 Serena scorchers. Williams was a gracious winner:

“I was happy with the match today… I was getting girls who weren’t giving me any pace – but today she was giving me lots of hard balls… It was good to see someone from India for the first time do so well… she had a very solid game… and I see a very bright future for her.”

Here’s a shot-by-shot account. Mirza, who won Wimbledon in the junior doubles category, made $46K and is racking up endorsement deals in India.

The Times of India’s coverage was so fawningly nationalist as to be absurd. The same paper which called Mirza’s previous 50-minute win a cakewalk, treated her similarly rapid defeat like Wagner’s Ring cycle:

… it was plain that the Indian girl was stretching [Williams] to the limits of her game… Sania’s fitness was exceptional. She raced to chase down most balls hit into the corners and this really flummoxed Serena. At this level her physical training looks to be effective… In the sixth game she forced a visibly panting Serena on the back foot through power-hitting of her own…

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18-year-old Hyderabadi Sania Mirza beat her Australian Open opponent yesterday to become the first Indian woman to make the third round of a Grand Slam tournament. She won her first round 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 against Aussie Cindy Watson and her second round 6-2, 6-1 in an upset against Petra Mandula of Hungary.

The best performance by an Indian woman on the Grand Slam so far had been a second round appearance, by Nirupama Sanjeev… in the 1998 edition of the Australian Open… this is the first time any Indian had progressed this far in a grand slam since Leander Paes made it to the round of 32 at the US Open in 1998…

That’s the good news. The bad news is that she’s about to be fed to the wolves: her Friday matchup is against Serena ‘100 mph’ Williams.

In the tennis world, if you can read this, you’re already too late. Mirza started early:

“The coach at the club in Hyderabad was reluctant but after a month he went back to my parents and said he had never seen a six-year-old hit the ball so well…”

But she seems to lack a bit of self-confidence:

Most women players, especially from Europe and America, are tall and very strongly built… Sania looks fragile in comparison. When asked whether she could match the power play of Venus and Serena Williams, she says, “I am not awestruck. Undoubtedly, we Indians have a distinct disadvantage in that we are not built that way. I will have to work harder to win against them.”

The height issue is real, but the muscle concern is hogwash. It’s more about strength than about being ripped; they’re related but not identical.

Mirza entered the Australian Open as a wildcard. The last desi to hit one of the Williams sisters was Shikha Uberoi at last year’s U.S. Open. She walked out in front of the Transit of Venus with predictable results.

Update: We do not know how to get in touch with Mirza. Chances are pretty high that she doesn’t read this site.

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Golfer Vijay Singh may lose the services of the caddie that accompanied him during his record-setting year on the the PGA Tour.

Caddie Dave “Buddy” Renwick, who spent 18 months carrying Singh’s bag, complained that the world’s top golfer was unduly harsh on him, and rarely friendly.

“My heart just wasn’t in it, even at the end of last year when we were winning nearly every week. I just wasn’t getting the respect I deserve,” said Renwick to The Scotsman. “I never got a ‘good morning’ from Vijay. Or ‘good club’ after a shot. Or ‘have a nice night’ at the end of a day.”

What did Renwick get from Singh?

One million dollars…to carry a bag…select appropriate clubs…and travel to some of the most beautiful places in the world.

Kudos to Renwick for freeing himself from slavedriver Singh’s laborious death grip.

Luckily for the rest of us, this opens the door to a wonderful opportunity: Mr. Singh, even though my experience with golf has only come in miniature and video game form — for a million dollars — I will do your bidding, gladly accept a copious amount of abuse, and even throw in an interpretive disco dance for your amusement. My resume is on its way.

The Scotsman: Caddie sings a sad song

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Women’s sports in India are finding their toughest match taking place off-the-field and against an opponent that isn’t easily defeated — Helios, son of Hyperion and Theia (a.k.a. the sun).

The AFP reports that the captain of the Indian women’s cricket team says that the advancement of female sports is severely hindered by cultural aversion to dark-skinned brides.

“Most of the Indian men want to have a bride with a fair skin,” said captain Mamta Maben to the AFP. “Because of Indian men’s concept of beauty, so many talented players do not take up cricket because it is a gruelling sport and you are out in the sun for at least seven to eight hours.”

The much-maligned sun, which has been linked to everything from famine to skin cancer, replied with its usual foul-mouthed irreverence.

“I couldn‘t give a flying f**k about them Indian cricket b***hes. That’s right, I called them b***hes,” said the sun. “And once you puny humans destroy the ozone layer, you will all become my b***hes.”

What a jerk. Luckily, its comeuppance are in the works. Scientists expect the hot-tempered sun to burn out in 4-5 billion years. Then we’ll see who’s the b***h.

AFP/Yahoo!: Male desire for fair-skinned brides stumps women’s cricket in India
NASA: What keeps the sun burning?

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Vijay Singh won his first PGA Tour Player of the Year award on Monday, icing a season that saw the 41-year-old golfer capture nine titles and a record-breaking $10.9 million in prize money.

The Fijian national ends Tiger Woods’ five-year reign over the title, and is the first non-American to win the award in nearly a decade. Singh came ever-so-close to winning it last year, and felt he was more deserving of the honor, which is voted on by fellow tour players.

He rededicated himself to surpassing Woods atop the world rankings, and accomplished the goal in roughly half the expected time. The new focus supplemented a near-legendary work ethic and training regimen that once included hitting 1,000 balls a day.

So will winning the award invite complacency? Not a chance.

Singh told the Associated Press that he already has started a new workout program, “to take it a little higher.”

AP/Yahoo!: Singh wins PGA Tour Player of the Year award
Sepia Mutiny: Asians remain dominant in golf

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Last night’s edition of Fox 11 News in Los Angeles had a segment about a cricket club thriving in a most unlikely location — the much-maligned city of Compton.

Compton, which is widely-known for violent crime and as the birthplace of gangsta’ rap, plays host to one of Southern California’s most successful cricket teams.

Activist Ted Hayes founded the Compton Cricket Club as a way to offer kids an alternative to crime and gangs. “The idea of cricket is to teach people how to respect themselves and respect authority, so they stop killing each other,” said Hayes to Fox 11 News.

The club recently defeated their cross-town rival, yep, Beverly Hills, but lost in the next round, failing to capture this year’s L.A. County Cup.

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