Sania Mirza may be just what this game—and maybe this world—needs: An attractive Muslim woman from India who paints her toes, wears belly sweats, and a diamond-studded nose ring. And this is coming from someone who’s pretty respectful of conservative religion (at least when its adherents don't advocate blowing up train stations at rush hour), and just as likely to describe himself as a “Christian” as an American, or a tennis nut.
Sania survived a Grandstand slugout with surprisingly resolute Mashona Washington yesterday, 6-4 in the third. The best adjective for Sania's game is “explosive.” It was a joy to watch her pull the trigger on one wristy forehand after another, the ball coming off the strings with the kind of pop you get out of a slingshot. She doesn’t get quite as much velocity with the two-handed backhand, but that stings plenty, too. Her serve is adequate but, given her live arm, she ought to be able to get more out of it.
After some training-room help for cramps and a careful application of make-up, she sat with USA Today’s Doug Robson and me to talk about herself. Born in Mumbai, Sania grew up and still lives in Hyderabad, a city known for its pearls and handcrafted bangles. Her father was a cricket nut as a youth, but he lost both his parents when he was 21. He dropped sports and became a successful builder.
Deep thinker that I am, the first thing I asked Sania about was the ring gleaming in her nose.
“It’s more of a fashion statement than a cultural one,” she admitted, with a laugh. “The stud is more the cultural statement, a lot of women in India have it. It's less showy.”
Flashy game, a thing for bling.
Muslims are freely mixed in with the predominantly Hindu Indians, and everyone on the subcontinent these days seems to be nuts about tennis. As a result, Sania doesn’t leave the house much, and takes along bodyguards when she does. Sania is a liberal Muslim. She’s devout (she tries to pray five times a day, but admits she usually hits the snooze button instead of answering the 5 A.M. call to prayer), but is indifferent to the most conservative mandates, including those that pertain to dress and veiling. She says, “The important thing is to be a nice person and believe in God.”
Sania is witty and engaging, delightful in conversation (her English is even better than my Urdu!). You don’t get the sense that, like a Martina Navratilova or a Maria Sharapova, she’s on a mission to become an American (nice as it would be to claim her). She's well-mannered and polite, and she would be more than happy to step on the court with you, anytime, and proceed to drill holes in your forehead with her blazing groundies, maybe reach down into your throat and pull your lungs out, stomp on them, and then shake hands:
*
Thanks! Great Match! As-salaam Alaykum
... (That’s the short version of the most common greetings among Muslims: May the Peace of Allah be With You. It's kind of like our Have a Nice Day!)*
Mirza has been tearing up the tour this year, breaking down many of the subtle borders of the game. She’s the first Indian woman to reach the third round at a Grand Slam (Australian Open, this year) and the first to win a WTA tournament (in one of those life-imitating-art scenarios, it was the tournament in her hometown). She’s been on fire most of the year, vaulting 284 places to her current high of No. 42—the best ever by an Indian woman. And don’t expect her to go away anytime soon.
“She’s fearless, and that’s not an Indian trait,” says Prajwal Hegde, a friend and correspondent for the Times of India. “At Wimbledon, she had a very close match with Svetlana Kuznetsova. She got fined during it for racquet abuse. So she showed up at the press conference in a T-shirt that said, ‘Well-Behaved Women Don’t Make History.’”
Here’s another thing I like about her. According to Hegde, Mirza has had a long-time sponsorship and patch deal with a firm named GVK (it's part of the group that owns and operates luxury hotels). Nike came sniffing around, hoping to get her under contract—but Nike said she couldn’t bring the GVK deal with her.
She politely told Nike thanks, but she was going to dance with the one who brung her—GVK.
In case you’re wigging out these days because your kind wants to get pierced in some spot that wasn’t meant to have a hole in it, it may comfort you to learn that Sania’s got nine drilled in one ear alone, plus the nostril.
She’s got no interest in a tattoo, though. This is a pretty conservative girl who says: “I’ve always admired Steffi Graf, since I was a kid. I still do. She had a great career, she had kids, she seems to be happy. She’s the perfect example.”