LET'S NOT HYPE YOUNG TALENT

BY BISWADEEP GHOSH

Any tennis lover would have seen it coming. A miracle that transferred the skills from one player to the other had to occur while the two were locking horns on the court. But if not, Sania Mirza would have been defeated by Venus Williams anyway. There was no miracle, and Sania was outclassed.

Those who follow the game closely could sense another defeat for Sania, and this time at the hands of the Czech Republic youngster Nicole Vaidisova. Vaidisova is slightly younger than Sania, and she is one of the most talented youngsters in the circuit. Sania played reasonably well but, at the end of the day, the bottomline was a victory in straight sets for the young Czech girl.

Does this mean that we should abandon all our expectations from Sania, whose success has metamorphosed the face of Indian women's tennis? It does not, but what it does indicate is that we need to give little less attention to this girl as long as she is not doing something really remarkable. Declaring her the sportsperson of the year, showering countless accolades for being world number 34, publishing her pictures virtually every day, making sure that she gets more endorsements than bigger performers just because she is pretty and young: these are not good for Sania.

I had made a passing reference about this concern in a column of mine, but let me explain why I think so. Just how old is Sania? Born in November 15, 1986, means she is less than 20. At her age, many women tennis players had scaled the sort of heights Sania is yet to. When 19, a prodigy like Tracy Austin had defeated Martina Navratilova to win the US Open. So, somewhere, and just because Sania is the first Indian woman to make a mark, we have been guilty of hyping her.

Also, since she is just a 19-year-old kid, it is important to think how she might be feeling while encountering such adulation. Nobody should fault her if she spends some time indulging in the paneygyrical odes that are being composed on her. In this situation, if she says that she will play the game the way she does, it could be because she is guilty of ignoring her flaws because of how the nation perceives her.

But the fact is: Sania's game is promising, but she has some serious weaknesses which she needs to overcome to become a top ten player in women's tennis. If she continues to play in her present style, which is flamboyant but error-ridden, she might beat an Elena Dementieva when the latter is off-colour on the court. But if she herself experiences a bad day, she might lose to someone ranked 100 seeds below her because the latter is less flashy but more consistent.

Hyping somebody ahead of time is a typically Indian characteristic. When Baichung Bhutia came to the limelight, he was talked about as if he was India's Maradona, and obviously because our football standards are pitiably low. But, today, we all know that Baichung is the best player only in the context of a bad Indian football team. In a place like say, England, he will find it very difficult to even find a place in a decent club squad.

When music composer A R Rahman made his first impact with Roja, he was hailed as the great saviour of Hindi film music. But, a few films later, the very people who had praised him to the skies started saying that he was repetitive. When Yuvraj Singh played a couple of special knocks after his entry in the Indian cricket squad, critics went on and on about good he was. But, after a few bad innings and his subsequent exit from the team, the same guys launched scatching attacks on his easy-go-lucky approach and inability to play spin bowling at the outset of his innings.

Here, the idea is not to say that we should not praise youngsters when they make a mark like Sania has. But it is equally important to ensure that their flaws are spoken about as well because, as talents, they all have weak areas that need constant attention and polishing. We must stop viewing such youngsters as phenomena and talk about them as people with tremendous potential who have the ability to improve as well.

Also, one major need is that we must make sure that they are not compelled to be under the spotlight all the time. For, they can work on their craft only if they are left on their own. Personally, I would hate to see the day when the world might speak of Sania as another Anna Kournikova. But if that happens, who will responsible for her decline? Not Sania alone, that's for sure.

(The copyright of this column rests with The Maharashtra Herald, Pune)