Sania Mirza has once again insisted that she is more than happy with her current mixed doubles partner Mahesh Bhupati and that partnering with Aisamul Haq Qureshi of Pakistan is "not possible". The Pakistani had split up with India's Rohan Bhopana only recently and currently plays his mixed doubles tennis with Czech Republic's Andrea Hlavackova.
“I’m playing quite well with Bhupathi in grand slams so I don’t think I need to change anything right now,” said Sania who is ranked No.8 in the world in doubles world rankings, when questioned about the matter, “We’ll partner each other in grand slams and playing with Aisam right now is not possible.”
Efforts of the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) to bring Sania to tennis court in Pakistan also suffered a major blow as the Hyderabadi ruled out any chances of her playing in Pakistan. PTF had hoped that the 25-year old could be a part of exhibition matches as well as short training session on her various visits to the country.
“I haven’t asked for a huge paycheque in order to feature in charity matches in Pakistan. But as far as competitive matches are concerned, there are, unfortunately, no international tournaments taking place in Pakistan for obvious reasons so there’s no chance I can play there.”
Meanwhile, after going through her third surgery in the last five years, Sania also said that she has given up the singles game.“Tennis, and the surgeries, takes a lot out of you. I realized at the start of the year that, keeping my physical state in mind, it was impossible for me to pursue a singles and doubles career. Ever since I’ve given up on my singles career, my performance in doubles matches has been really good. I even reached a career-best seventh in the world and that’s why I’ve decided to concentrate solely on doubles tennis.”
In order to be eligible to participate in the Olympics, Sania needs to stay in the top-10 buy the June 11 cut-off date and being the only Indian in the women's game who is in the top-300 she said that she is 'ready to give it her all'.