Any seeded player can beat anyone in women's draw: Sania

Sania says it is unfortunate that star players such as French Open finalist Samantha Stosur of Australia are not coming to compete but asserts that players, who are in draw can play exciting tennis.

"Even Stosur lost in the first round of the Wimbledon. So any one of the eight seeded players here can beat anyone. Women's tennis is such, any player can beat anyone," Sania told PTI after a one-hour practice session under bright sun at the R K Khanna Tennis stadium here.

Stosur, as world number six, had lost to world number 80 Kaia Kanepi of Estonia at the Grass court Grand Slam after putting up one of her best performances on red clay.
Russian world number 65 Anastasia Rodionova is the top seed in the women's singles and next best is Sania at 131. And since there are only 28 direct entries, four top seeds have got a first round bye.

"It's good to have stars in a draw such as Stosur, (Lleyton) and Hewitt but what can you do. It's unfortunate Stosur is not coming," she said asking back "are you not excited to see the field?"

Talking about the players in the draw, Sania said she has not played for long against the Australian top seed and had recently beaten third seed British Katie O'Brien (ranked 152nd) in Guangzhou.

Asked about her fitness ahead of the competition, she said, "Little things are always there. But I am hoping, I will be up there by Monday. I won't mind taking painkillers to play if the need arises."

Initially, it was said that Sania will not compete in the women's doubles but now she has been paired with Rushmi Chakravarthy as India made two entries.

The other pair is of Poojashree Venkatesh and Nirupama Sanjeev, who was originally supposed to compete only in mixed doubles along with Rohan Bopanna. It means that Sania will compete in three events in the same tournament which could be very taxing but the Indian says she is ready for the grind.

"I want to give it a shot. After getting into the atmosphere of the Games, I felt inspired to try and give India another shot at a medal," she said.

Sania said representing the country in any event is a matter of great pride for her. "It's great when the national anthem is played whether it's the Fed Cup, Asian Games or Commonwealth Games. You want to do the best and try as hard as possible."

Sania hoped fans would flock to see the Indian stars, who are in terrific form and doing well.

"Did anyone expect Rohan Bopanna to lose that first singles 10-18 in the final set (of Davis Cup against Brazil). And then he won the fifth match. So anything can happen in tennis.

"People are following Indian players and media is also interested giving good coverage. So everyone I think is happy with tennis making a debut at the Games. Sania said she moved into the Games Village a couple of days back and found it ok.

"We are not there for much time. Most of the time we have to be outside so, all that we need is basic facilities which are there. The food was good. I enjoyed 'Dal-Chawal'.

"I was disappointed wrestling was not there in 2006 Games. I won gold at the Commonwealth Championships, and was a strong contender for gold in Melbourne," Sushil said.

Rajinder Kumar (55kg), Ravinder Singh (60kg), Sunil Kumar (66kg) and Dharmendar Dalal (120 kg) hold a lot of promise in the Greco-Roman style. Women's wrestling is making its debut.

Boxing is the other sport that has looked up since the 2000 Sydney Olympics where Gurcharan Singh reached the quarter finals. For all their success in the past two years, Indian boxers have managed just two gold medals -- Akhil Kumar (2006) and Mohammad Ali Qamar (2002) -- in Commonwealth Games but the sport has not been the same ever since Vijender Singh clinched the historic Olympic bronze in Beijing.

The strapping Vijender, with his good looks to go hand in hand with his box of tricks inside the ring, would spearhead the host country's challenge along with Akhil who would be defending his bantamweight crown won at Melbourne.

There are other talented boxers such as Suranjoy Singh (52 kg), Jai Bhagwan (60 kg) and Manoj Kumar (64 kg) who are poised to do well. The main challenge would come from English, Canadian, Australian and Nigerians.

The weightlifing arena has provided India with both euphoria - in the form of a bagful of medals and shame - by virtue of the country's participants testing positive for banned substances - over the years.

Even participating in the Games looked out of bounds for the country's lifters who have been repeatedly caught doping by the authorities and India are hoping these shameful acts are not repeated when they are hosting a multi-discpline sporting spectacle after 28 years.

In the racquet sports of badminton, tennis, table tennis and squash the country has good chances to win a few medals, including the yellow metal.

Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal, one of the country's leading gold medal hopes, looks well-set to clinch the women's singles crown -- the first if and when it happens for India. More medal heists are expected from the badminton court through mixed doubles specialists V Diju and Jwala Gutta.

In tennis, Sania Mirza looks well-set to clinch a gold with none from the East European nations -- to whom she has been losing of late -- in fray. She is also to partner veteran Leander Paes in the mixed doubles event.

Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are favourites for the men's doubles crown while Somdev Devvarman, the country's highest ranked singles player, and Rohan Bopanna should be among the front runners to get a medal, even a gold, in the absence of top players like Andy Lloyd and Lleyton Hewitt.

In table tennis, Achanta Sharath Kamal and the men's doubles pair of A Amalraj and Soumyadeep Roy would hope to defend their titles. In the last phase of preparations, the Indian players have again gone to the ping-pong powerhouse -- China -- for training and Kamal is brimming with confidence that it will stand them in good stead.

"I am very confident of retaining the singles title in the Commonwealth Games. I had started my mental preparation three years ago, because to win such a big event you need to formulate a long-term strategy, things do not happen overnight," said Kamal ahead of the competition.

In squash, the country would depend on the understanding between their two mixed doubles pairs -- Sourav Ghosal with Dipika Pallikal and Harinder Pal Sandhu with Joshna Chinnappa -- to clinch medals apart from the chemistry between Dipika and Joshna in the women's doubles.

In hockey, in which the men are aiming to win a medal for the first time and the women to regain the gold, things do not look rosy. The men are expected to face a tough challege from World Cup champions Australia, Pakistan, England and Malaysia in their quest to win a medal since the game made its debut in 1998 at Kuala Lumpur.

The women have done better --  a gold medal in 2002 followed by a silver four years ago -- but things remain a bit unsettled after the sacking of chief coach M K Kaushik a few months ago.
Athletics, the mother of all sports, is one area where India are yet to get a gold medal since Flying Sikh Milkha Singh's golden 440-yard (quarter mile) run in the 1958 Games.


Fifteen men and women bar bell handlers would be seen in action in the Games in the discipline which has provided the country with 93 medals, including 33 gold, since 1966 at Kingston, Jamaica.

The Indian tally from the lifting stage is third overall behind Australia (145) and England (105) and once again the lifters are expected to reap a huge medal haul at the same time being dope-free.

In 2002, two Indian lifters -- Sateesha Rai and K Madaswamy -- were caught doping and booted out of the Manchester Games. Four years later, the ignomity was repeated when two women -- Shailaja Pujari and B Prameelavalli -- tested positive for banned substances just before the Melbourne Games while Tejinder Singh and Edwin Raju were caught for doping during the event.

The Indian lifters' participation in the Delhi Games itself has been made possible due to the eleventh-hour bail-out by the CWG Organising Committee headed by Suresh Kalmadi.
The OC paid the last instalment of Rs 1.75 crore fine due to be paid to the International Weightlifting Federation following the six lifters flunking dope tests conducted by WADA last year. The total fine imposed by IWF was 500,000 USD.

The lifters are confident that they would win at least a dozen medals through 15 participants including eight men. Favourites to win gold medals are K Ravi Kumar (men's 69 kg), Soniya Chanu (women's 48kg) and Renubala Chanu, defending champion in women's 58kg.

"Most of our lifters are among top three in Commonwealth rankings and we are expecting 12-14 medals," said Indian Weightlifting Federation President Birendra Prasad Baisya.

Indian archers are targeting a rich medal haul on home turf without the challenge from world champions Korea and formidable China. "We have a strong side with a lot of experience. With home condition, we should get at least six gold medals with top places in men's and women's recurve section," chief coach Limba Ram said ahead of the competition.

With senior archers Olympians Tarundeep Rai and Dola Banerjee and cadet world champion Deepika Kumari in the ranks, the squad is a blend of experience and youth.
Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee make a strong men's recurve side with Rai, who has made the cut at the expense of Beijing Olympian Mangal Singh Champia.

The trio is high on confidence especially after their gold medal triumph in the World Cup Stage 4 in Shanghai with a record 224 score, highest so far by the men's side. In all, 24 medals are up for grabs but India's best bet is the recurve bow event.

Only a handful (1 gold, five silver and four bronze) medals have come off the track and field event for the country with women athletes being the lone medal winners in the last two Games.

Neelam Jaswant Kaur and Seema Antil bagged a silver medal each in discus throw in 2002 and 2006 while the women's relay team bagged the second place at Melbourne. A jumbo squad of 58 men and 52 women are being fielded by India in the discipline in which 46 gold medals are on offer.

But the returns for India do not look promising in the face of some top-class competition on the track even without some top crowd pullers.

Athletics has been hit the worst by star pull-outs with the likes of three-time world and Olympic gold medallist sprinter Usain Bolt, England's world champion triple jumper Phillips Idowu, Australia's women's discus world champion Dani Samuels, world heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis of England and 800m women world champion Caster Semeya staying away.

Among others who will not be in Delhi are Jamaicans Veronica Campbell-Brown (Olympic 200m champion), Shelly-Ann Fraser (Olympic 100m champion)) and former world sprint record holder Asafa Powell.

But despite the pull outs, the track and field lineup still features numerous accomplished athletes. A whopping 50 gold medals (24 for men and 26 for women) are up for grabs in swimming (including diving and synchronised swimming), but it would be a huger surprise if any metal comes India's way.

India's chances to attain medal standard in gymnastics, lawn bowls, netball, rugby sevens and cycling appear next to nothing though they are participating in all these discioplines.