'Rankings Not A Reflection Of Standards'

Sania Mirza is on the cusp of rewriting tennis records once again afterreaching 31 in world rankings.

The 20-year-old Indian jumped four places after making her third finalappearance at Stanford, USA, on July 29 to get back to her career-best rankingthat she had attained two years ago.

Sania lost the summit clash of the $600,000 WTA Tour event 6-3 6-2 to AnnaChakvetadze, her third loss in as many matches to the Russian world no. 6, butthe performance put her one step closer to breaking into the top-30.

The Hyderabad-born breaching that barrier will end a 20-year drought inIndian tennis.

After Ramesh Krishnan who was ranked 23 in June 1987, no Indian player hasbeen in the top-30 so far.

Sania said her current ranking position reflected her playing standards moreaccurately than the 31 she had touched in 2005.

"Rankings are an indication of where you stand in the world. They arenot necessarily a fool proof accurate reflection of one's standing in relationto the rest of the players," Sania said from Stanford.

"I think when I was ranked 31 in 2005, I was lucky to be there due to afew good wins and a couple of good draws. I was probably playing top-70 tennisthen.

"I have now worked hard on some of my weaknesses and feel that mycurrent ranking is a better reflection of my level of tennis."

Being in the top-32 will also get her seeded at the Grand Slams. But Saniadid not want to get carried away by the hype about her ranking.

"It will be more of a personal achievement if I break into thetop-30," she said.

"As long as I keep improving and play good tennis, I feel that in thelong run, the rankings will take care of themselves."

Sania also has been doing well in doubles, winning the title at Stanford withShahar Peer of Israel by beating Chakvetadze and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus6-4 7-6 (5).

It was her second title in as many weeks and pushed her doubles rankings by10 places to 26.

Her father Imran Mirza warned that Sania had a tough task preserving herranking in the lead up to the US Open, starting on August 27, as she hasvaluable points to defend in the coming weeks.

"I don't encourage her to pay too much attention to these things. As amatter of fact, I will be delighted if she can maintain her rank until the USOpen draws because then she can be seeded," Imran said.

"However, she is losing 42 points next week and then 24 during theForest Hills week. So, hopefully, she will defend these points and retain herranking of under 32."

Sania will be playing the $1.3 million Acura Classic in San Diego this weekand she has been drawn to play her doubles partner and world no 18 Shahar Peerof Israel.

She is then expected to play in Los Angeles ($600,000 prize money) andToronto ($1.3 million) the following weeks.

But she has entered a $600,000 event in New Haven instead of the $75,000Forest Hills the week before the year's final Grand Slam.

Imran said his daughter's stupendous success in recent weeks was fast forcinghim to rework the strategy and scheduling for her.

"She is fast graduating past the Tier V, IV and III levels of WTA. It isnow possible to play more and more Tier II and Tier I events," he said.

One major reason behind her recent success, particularly her quick recoveryfrom a serious ligament injury in March, has been her improved level of fitness.

True, she admitted to fatigue while playing Chakvetadze in the Stanfordfinal, and there is still room for improvement on the fitness front.

After all, the Russian, like China's Jie Zheng in the Doha Asian Games finalin December, beat Sania when she was playing at her best.

But Sania refused to read too much into her losses.

PTI