Sania S(a)lam

For the first time in recent history, Indians are looking forward to a Grand Slam with hope. Sania Mirza has arrived at the Grand Slam scene and she becomes the first Indian Woman to ever play in the third round of any Grand Slam tournament. Agreed, there are 63 others who have made it that far and the finals and the cup are taking things too far. But with a country of a billion blistering barnacles, it feels great to see a shark now and then. No, no. We are not trying to do a "Mera Bharat Mahan" with our chests puffed up. So many sites and blogs have been doing it already. So let us just stick to the basics.

Women's tennis used to be hot one point of time. And when i say, am not talking 'Madras Hot' here, we are talking the real 'Sahara Hot' here. The Quintessential Drooler's Favorite, Steffi Graf. Evert had gone by then, and this blonde german was setting the courts on fire with her forehands and a few harried housewives' patience off it. There was this one time when steffi lost the first round in wimbledon against an unknown Lori Mcneil. After that match, till date, Lori Mcneil has never been heard of, save in some quizzing circles. The only reason i can think of is the multitude of curses and hexes that would have been thrown in her direction. Considering the number of cursers i know personally, Lori Mcneil should be happy staying in one piece. Atleast steffi won all that was there to win, but the story of Gabriella Sabatini was probably even more spectacular. A regular loser at the fourth round or earlier, the popularity of Sabatini rose to such mind boggling levels that our "Page 3"s were filled with rumours of Sabatini and Shastri and later, of their break up. No clue if Sabatini and Shastri knew all this, but lot of school kids used to talk about it :-D.

Life was peaceful and everyone was busy with building fan sites for Mary Pierce and Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova. Like a pair of violent tornadoes ripping apart a populated sub-urb, in walked The Williams Sisters. One is never sure what hits them in the eye when they see them. Is it their game or is it the splash of colors which they got exclusively designed ?? Govinda and Ramarajan would hang their faces in shame. At exactly the same point, everyone else in the circuit either got tired, or more likely, scared and almost all the grand slam events would be Williams-Fests. The sisters running amuck in the court, with the father doing his antics in the players' pavilion. Women's Grand Slam finals were hardly watched and the time of tennis-hungry men was coming to an end.

Just like Nirvana saved the world from glam rock, there came an influx of stars who are watchable on and off court. No, not Anna Kournikova. She was neither. Heck, she got reduced to posing for Sahara Airlines of late. We are talking The New Face of Tennis. Kim Clijsters, Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and the subject matter of this whole blog, Sania Mirza, if i may say, with that new nose-ring she has got. They dont just look pretty, as a bonus they beat the Williams Sisters right at the start of the open, thus saving so many people from heartburn. If Sania can do it tonight, she just doesnt make India proud. She'd throw us back to the heydays. Bowlfull of pakkodas, bottle full of sauce, house full of friends and eye full of candy. Go Sania !!