Sania Mirza joined the tennis selection row on Tuesday when she slammed the All India Tennis Association (AITA) over the controversy surrounding her selection for the London Olympics.India's top-ranked women's player Sania Mirza joined the Olympics tennis selection row on Tuesday, slamming the All India Tennis Association on her selection for the London Games.
Sania Mirza, who got a wild card entry for the Olympics, indicated she has no problem in partnering Leander Paes in the mixed doubles event in London but hit out at the AITA for using her as a "bait" in the selection row.
Ending days of speculation, Sania Mirza was on Tuesday awarded a wild card entry along with Rushmi Chakravarthi for the women's doubles tennis event at the London Olympics.
Top seeded India's Rushmi Chakravarthy clinched the singles title defeating Magda Okruashvili of Georgia in the final of the Federal Bank International women's tennis tournament in Angamaly (Kerala) on Saturday.
The pair of Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthi bowed out of the women's doubles tennis competition at the London Olympic, losing to the Chinese Taipei pair of Su Wei Hsieh and Chia-Jung Chuang on Saturday. The Indians fought their way back after losing the first set tamely, but were beaten 1-6, 6-3, 1-6 in 91 minutes.
Sania Mirza was on Monday named to spearhead the four-strong Indian challenge in next month's Fed Cup, where the country will strive to get back to Group I in the Asia/Oceania zone.
They have not played together after winning a bronze medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games but Rushmi Chakravarthi feels she and Sania Mirza have enough individual experience behind them to again gel well as a team at the upcoming London Olympics.
Sania Mirza will lead the Indian campaign in the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group II competition as selectors on Sunday named a six-member squad, which also has fast rising talent Poojashree Venkatesh.
Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthy grabbed one more gold for India in the women's doubles tennis final of the Afro-Asian Games.
Top seed Rushmi Chakravarthi of India bagged the doubles crown partnering Poojashree Venkatesha and later stormed into the singles final in the Federal Bank ITF Women's Tennis tournament in Angamaly (Kerala) on Friday.
Tennis players Sanaa Bhambri and Rushmi Chakravarthi feel only Indian citizens deserve to hold the tri-colour in international sporting events, an opportunity that has been denied to them by foreign passport holders of Indian origin in the past. The duo got a place in the Fed Cup team at the expense of Sunitha Rao and Shikha Uberoi -- both US citizens -- who were rendered ineligible for selection due to the new government policy.
Ashutosh Singh won the men's national championship while Isha Lakhani completed the title hat-trick.
Second seed Isha Lakhani and No 4 Rushmi Chakravarthi of India crashed out in the quarter-finals, in the Mother's Recipe US $10,000 ITF women's Futures Tennis Tournament on Thursday. On a dramatic day of upsets and a disastrous one for India, qualifier Moe Kawatoko of Japan shocked favourite Lakhani 7-5, 7-5 in an absorbing contest that lasted 100 minutes, while No 8 seed Chun-Yan He of China upset Chakravarthi 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) in 105 minutes.
Ankita Bhambri faltered at the final step, losing to Tamaryn Hendler of Belgium in the final of US $25,000 ITF event in Lagos on Sunday. After losing the first set, Bhambri staged a strong comeback to level scores but could not continue the momentum in the deciding set to lose 3-6, 6-2, 3-6.
The Indian lass proved too good for Australia's Dubravka Cuback in the ITF tournament in England.
The left-handed Mumbai player, seeded eighth, beat former national champion and doubles partner Rushmi Chakravarthy 6-1, 6-1 in the quarter-finals of the US $25,000 NECC-ITF Women's Tennis Tournament.
Marinne Giraud upset top seed Rushmi Chakravarthi 7-6(1), 6-2 in the Mumbai ITF final.
Sunitha, a Florida-based US citizen ranked 181 in the world, played brilliantly making good use of her flowing forehands to progress to the next stage with a 6-4 2-6 7-5 win over Russian eighth seed Manasieva Vesna.
Tara Iyer advanced to the quarterfinals while the rest of the Indians crashed out of the Asian Tennis Championships.
India were on Saturday relegated to Group II of the Asia/Oceania zone after their humiliating 0-3 defeat against Chinese Taipei in the Fed Cup play-off tie here.
The Indian team badly missed Sania Mirza as it made a horrendous start to the Fed Cup, losing 0-3 to New Zealand in their opening Group I tie of the Asia/Oceania zone in Perth on Wednesday.
The second seed fell to compatriot Geeta Manohar 1-6, 1-6 in the first round of the Mumbai ITF
However, second seeded Sai Jayalakshmi failed to make it in the ITF Futures tournament.
The two players registered contrasting victories in the qualifiers to make it to the main draw of the Sunfeast Open.
India's Shikha Uberoi bowed out of the Sunfeast Kolkata Open, losing to Hana Sromova in another first round match.
The second seed demolished qualifier Minori Takemoto of Japan in the ITF Women's Futures tournament.
Rushmi Chakravarthi beat back Wilawan Choptang 7-6 (6), 6-2 win while Shruti Dhawan beat Thassha Vitayaviroj 3-6, 6-1, 6-2
Ankita Bhambri and Rushmi Chakravarthy are the other two members of the team that will be coached by Enrico Piperno.
However, Sonal Phadke and Megha Vakaria were shocked in the women's doubles semi-finals.
Vijay Kannan, Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthy easily won their quarter-final matches in the individual events at the Afro-Asian Games.
The victory gave the unseeded Sekar a berth in the quarter-finals of the ITF tournament.
The British qualifier will meet Isha Lakhani in the final of the NECC-ITF tournament.
They won their semifinal matches in contrasting fashion today to set up the title clash in the Bhavana Swarup ITF Women's tennis tournament.
The top two seeds cruised into the last eight in the Bhavana Swarup ITF tournament.
The sixth seeded Indian was beaten by unseeded Diana Julianto of Indonesia in the first round in the ITF Futures tournament.
The Indian youngster beat unseeded Thai girl Chattida Thimjapo 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the ITF tournament in Mumbai.
The Indo-Japanese pair was beaten by the Hungarian-Ukrainian combination of Melinda Czink and Yulian Fedak at the Sunfeast Open.
While seventh seed Bhambri faced some resistance from Poonam Reddy at the Sunfeast Open on Saturday.
Top seed Chia-Jing Chuang and India's No. 2 seed Rushmi Chakravarthi crashed to lesser-known opponents in the quarter-finals of the ITF Women's Futures tournament.
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