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Life Isn't Always BeautifulMirza's Political Struggles; Linetskaya Returns Happier and An IsraeliBy Matthew Cronin, TennisReporters.net
Mirza was happier discussing her impressive 6-4 6-2 win over Iroda Tulyaganova and how she reacted to her foe’s up-and-down attack, but when asked how she’s been coping with the whirlwind of accusations, she offered, with a wry smile, “it’s been very, very tough.” As Sania says, she’s a superstar within India, and not necessarily out of it, but the size of her celebrity as that nation’s most significant female athlete has grown out of proportion, so much so that that private citizen filed a formal complaint against her after viewing a photograph taken at the Hopman Cup in Perth, where she is sitting barefoot near India’s national flag. The maximum punishment for the alleged offense is a three-year jail term. Imagine that. There you are , trying to relax, putting your sore bare feet up and watching a match and not even noticing which flags are where nearby and then all of a sudden, someone informs you that a person you don’t know wants you to do jail time. That’s someone doesn’t care about Mirza, nor understand the true meaning of national flags and has gone way beyond the bounds of civilized behavior. “It’s not part of being a superstar, its part of being and Indian superstar,” Mirza said with a laugh. But the 21-year-old has been struggling with her place in the world and wondering whether being a high level player whose every step is watched is worth it. There she is, trying quite hard to prove that she can be legitimate top 20 player without a lot of foot speed, and she has to deal with one off court salvo after another. "I think a lot of thoughts went through my head in the last couple of weeks," Mirza said. "One of the thoughts was that, but I wouldn't say it was serious enough that I am going to quit right now." Mirza said she would not do anything to disrespect her country, but some members of her country are clearly disrespecting her career. A year hasn’t gone by when bad political or religious actors haven’t taken a shot at her. Would the same thing happen to a male Indian tennis player? I doubt it. So now, just one win away from likely facing Venus Williams in the third roound, her head is spinning. "It's not easy to deal with things like that off the court," she said. “Obviously there are some misunderstandings happening. I am not super-human, so it does affect me a little bit. I am not a politician here, to outsmart people and try to fight. That's not what I am trying to do - I am trying to play tennis, I am 21, and I am trying to do the best I can.” Mirza said that before she got on court against Tulyaganova, she wasn’t sure whether she would be able to focus. But she did, and played smart contest. "However I try and block it out, it's still at the back of my mind,” she said. But under the circumstances, I am just glad I came through the first round.” Should Sania consider spending more time out of her beloved homeland, maybe buying a home elsewhere or picking another training locale? Maybe, but she won’t do it. Neither will Anna Chakvetadze, but the Russian, who was mugged in December, said she might consider moving out of Moscow to somewhere else in Russia. For more on Chakvetadze reaction to the mugging and her state of mind go to foxsports.com/tennis. There’s some Novak Djokovic in there, too.
The once troubled Evgenia Linetskaya is back, competing in her first Slam since the 2005 US Open. She went down 7-6 (8), 6-0 to Anne Kremer in the first round and clearly is lacking in conditioning and is a bit rusty, but the one she can still rip it off the ground. The Russian and her parents took Israeli citizenship six months ago and she now playing and training under that flag, although she can’t play Fed Cup until 2009. Recall that Linetskaya's father, Simon, and her former coach, Joe Guliano, were tossed off the tour at the end of 2005. Her dad was arrested in San Diego in August of '05 and accused of physically abusing Evgenia, and then in the fall, Guliano was accused by Linetskaya and some other players of abusing them and was handed a lifetime suspension. Simon was given a two-year suspension. After upsetting Amelie Mauresmo at Indian Wells in the spring of '05, the Linetskaya cracked the top 40, but it all went down hill from there. Somehow, after Linetskaya separated from her dad and coach, she managed to play a few matches in the fall of '05, but had lost her form and confidence. In 2006, she went down to Australia in January and played three matches, losing them all. Then last year, she played a few ITF events, but kept getting injured. During many of those off periods, the 21-year-old was soul searching. But now she’s made up with her parents and said that the incident made their relationship stronger. “There were things together-- injuries, my relationship with my parents and the coach that put a lot of pressure that I didn’t want to try because there were a lot of negative things connected with the tennis," she said to a handful of reporters of her time away. “It was really hard for me and first I could not get it right and thinking it was my fault and then life went on and new things came up. I just looked around and saw that life is beautiful.”Linetskaya is writing poetry again, likes living in Israel quite a bit and seems at peace with herself and had a good deal to say about her recovery process over the past few years. “It didn’t feel nice when you are on top and are dropping but it depends on your attitude,” she said. “Life isn’t just about tennis and there are a lot of things around and when I stopped playing it opened my eyes to a lot of things outside of tennis. It gave me more knowledge of life. Sometimes I had thoughts I would do something else, but I always thought that tennis was something I had a feeling for. Even when I was doing something else I had thoughts of tennis coming into my head. I wanted to come back and it’s something I needed to do. I missed the feeling of the game.” Linetskaya’s parents are renting an apartment in Tel Aviv and trying to find some work. She says that her father will no longer be organizing things for her on the tour, but hopes that her parents will one day come to watch her play again. She’s only 21, but very much her own woman now, which she wasn’t before. “I learned there are a lot of things that I can cope with myself without relying on different people because before, I was always searching for help around me. Then I found the source and power is inside of me and I can change a lot myself. I found that attitude is very important because sometimes there are things you see negatively and they snowball, but once you change your attitude and look from a different point of view and think positive about your life, things get positive.” When asked whether she was still angry with Guiliano, she replied: “I don’t think about him. I don’t where he is and what he's doing.”Linetskaya has gone back to Russia to see her grandmother and pets and brought one cat back with her to Israeli, where she also bought a rabbit and took in a stray cat. She lit up when discussing her pets. “The cat loves the rabbit and he loves her and is always trying to make love with her,” she said. Due to a left wrist injury, she’s only been playing for a few weeks, but came to Australia anyway because she thought that her entry exemption was about to expire. Then she found out that it won’t until July. She’s entered Pattaya City and is planning on playing a few more small events before she enters the bigger tournaments again. “My tennis goal stay the same, I want to be No. 1 and win the Grand Slams,” she said. The level is there, it just needs time.” © TennisReporters.net 2008
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