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Indian
Origin Teen Britain's New Golf Sensation
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Sixteen-year-old
Kiran Matharu from Yorkshire is fast emerging
as the 'Sania Mirza' of British golf - the
media has already dubbed her the 'best woman
golfer in the country'. Daughter of Amarjit
Matharu, a barman in Leeds, Kiran this week
leaves for Texas to train under Butch Harmon,
the former coach of Tiger Woods. Sports
companies Nike, Ping and Red Bull are said
to be considering offering promotion contracts
to Kiran, who is already being compared
with American golf sensation Michele Wie.
Kiran is one of the rare Asian women playing
golf in Britain, but is confident of making
it at the international level. She will
play in the Curtis Cup next year, for which
she is the youngest member of the squad,
and then turn pro. A proud Amarjit told
the Observer: "To be honest, the amateur
game doesn't suit her because it's largely
match play and anyone can beat anyone on
a given day. She's a stroke player and in
the professional game that's what you have
to be good at. The cream will always rise
to the top over four rounds. "Know the qualities
you need to be the best: dedication, talent,
work ethic and temperament. She has all
of those. She's very determined inside but
she's not very aggressive." In a lengthy
profile of Kiran, the Observer reported
that her potential in gold has been endorsed
by leading names such as David Leadbetter,
Nick Faldo, Paul McGinley and Harmon. The
paper described her game thus: "Her practice
swing is a thing of artistic beauty. So
smooth, so relaxed, so natural. She bangs
the ball 260 yards down the middle of the
fairway without appearing to make any effort".
Unlike most of her England teammates, who
started at the age of five, Kiran was a
late developer. She started swinging a club
only because her father was trying to get
his handicap down. The paper reported that
while Amarjit was busy practicing at a pay-and-play
club in Leeds, his elder son, Haminder,
and Kiran were messing around. A pro spotted
Kiran and said he had never seen a girl
that good. She was 11 years and had never
set foot on a course. The pro thought she
could be playing for Yorkshire within six
months, so her father said: "I'd better
buy her some clubs." Within the next year,
Kiran came down from a handicap of 38 to
12. Kiran left school this summer. On her
first tryst with the game, she said: "I
wasn't really interested but I went along
to the range because dad and my brother
were going and I didn't have anything else
to do. If reports in the British media are
any indication, she will soon be the first
woman golfer of Indian origin to make it
to the top at the international level.
Courtesy:
Hindustan Times, October 25, 2005
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'Sania
Mirza is a Role Model'
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Sania
has discipline, tenacity, flamboyance and
talentShe is the first significant Indian
female athleteThe tennis star is an icon
After
making it to the cover of Time magazine,
Sania Mirza finds herself listed as one
of the ten people capable of changing the
world by London's intellectual weekly New
Statesman published on Monday. In a 742-word
article by Jason Cowley, the weekly says
it is difficult to believe that ``a slender
18-year-old Muslim tennis player from India
has the potential to change the world, but
it is equally difficult to overestimate
the effect Mumbai-born Sania Mirza, is having
on millions of young men and women, and
especially women. ``She is the first female
Indian tennis player to be ranked in the
world's top 40, indeed, she is the first
significant female athlete of any kind,
in a country where women have been typically
discouraged from taking up sport,'' the
article says. It notes that Sania has the
discipline, tenacity, flamboyance and, above
all, the talent to go much higher in the
rankings and, in so doing, inspire a whole
new generation of Indian girls to express
their hopes and ambitions through sport.
Sania is bracketed with the likes of Emir
of Qatar, who is showing the Middle East
a different route to modernity, Barack Obama,
America's fastest-rising political star,
current U.S. senator for Illinois, Anton
Zeilinger and Physicist and co-director,
institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum
Information, Vienna, Samira Makhmalbaf.
Recalling her recent tiff with Muslim clerics
over her dress code, the article says, ``at
home, in India, Mirza is a role model and
an icon, her fame locating her somewhere
between Bollywood and the mass adulation
that surrounds the Indian cricket team.
She is celebrated as much for her attitude
and fashion sense (she wears a nose-ring
and librarian glasses) as she is for her
talent. ``She evidently enjoys the attention
and delights in confounding expectations
of exactly how a young Muslim woman from
the subcontinent should behave. At Wimbledon,
she wore a T-shirt bearing the slogan: Well-behaved
women rarely make history; at the U.S. Open
in September, where she lost in the quarterfinal
to the Russian sensation Maria Sharapova,
her T-shirt read: You can either agree with
me, or be wrong'.
Courtesy:
The Hindu, October 18, 2005
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Sania
Mirza Bounces to 31 in WTA Rankings
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Sania
Mirza has jumped six places to climb to
a career-best 31 in the latest WTA rankings
after her semi-final appearance at the Japan
Open last week. Sania, who picked 311 points
last week in the $170,000 Japan Open, has
a total of 966.50 WTA points to her credit.
The 18-year-old had vanquished higher ranked
opponents including top seed Vera Zvonareva
in the Tier III Championship but ran out
of steam in the semifinals, losing to France's
Tatiana Golovin 2-6, 4-6. The only Indian
woman to win a WTA event, Sania had slipped
three places after her lacklustre performance
at the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata but she
more than made up for it by her show in
Japan. Sania's climb up the ladder continued
in the doubles also where she moved 14 places
to reach 114. Paired with Israel's Sahar
Peer, Sania had made it to the semifinal
of the Japan Open which saw her WTA points
go up to 343.50. In men's singles tennis,
Harsh Mankad moved seven places to reach
227 and remained the highest ranked Indian.
In doubles, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander
Paes fell one place each to lie in 13 and
15 places respectively.
Courtesy:
Hindustan Times, October 10, 2005
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City
Boy is a Hit in English Cricket
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Aditya
Mehta, an 18-year-old Mumbaikar has just
come back to his city after a very successful
stint with cricket in England. He has been
voted the Best Overseas Player in England.
He played in England for the entire year
representing Pottersbar Cricket Club in
the Middlesex county and made India proud
with his outstanding all round performance.
"I was interested in cricket since childhood.
I got my training from the Elf-Vengsarkar
Academy. In 2002, I played for the Don Bosco
High School in the Giles and the Harris
Shield Trophy and scored a century against
IES, in a semi final, ensuring a victory
to my school," said a satisfied Aditya.
"Playing in England was very exciting and
I learnt a lot there. The Englishmen taught
me punctuality and discipline. There we
were not allowed to argue with the umpires
or to abuse anyone," said Aditya. In May,
2003, Aditya first went to England and played
for the Pottersbar Cricket Club. "I had
scored 85 runs not out, against a county
team, under difficult weather conditions,
which was new to me. I was thrilled when
I was invited by the Pottersbar Cricket
Club to play as an overseas player," said
Aditya of his experience. In August 2004,
when Aditya was just 16, he proved himself
as an all-rounder, an opening batsman and
a leg spinner by scoring 715 runs with an
average of 42 runs including a ton and six
half centuries. He claimed 43 wickets in
17 innings, representing Pottersar Cricket
Club against various Middlesex counties
teams in England. He was also awarded a
gold medal by the Middlesex Cricket Club
Federation, for his overall best performance.
Courtesy:
The Asian Age, October 09, 2005
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In
another ace for teenage tennis icon, Sania
Mirza, she became the first Indian sportswoman
to feature on the cover of Time magazine
and is being included in its 2005 list of
Asia's heroes. In the list of heroes, Sania
shares the space with Chinese actress Zhang
Jingchu, South Korean footballer Park Ji
Sung and Japan's Ken Watanbe. The tennis
star, who has been described by the magazine
as a role model for women in the country
and the fastest rising star in the sport
this year, features on the cover of the
special issue of the magazine which would
hit the stands on Monday. Though the list
is led by people who saved lives and rebuild
families and communities after last year's
devastating tsunami, it also includes inspirational
figures in the field of arts and sports.
Sania is creating history in Indian tennis
by becoming the first ever Indian to break
into the top-50 WTA rankings. She also became
the first Indian woman to win a WTA tourney
when she lifted the Hyderabad Open trophy
in February 2005. The Wimbledon junior champion
also beat several top-10 players and became
the first Indian to reach the third round
of Australian Open and the prequarters of
the US Open. (Reuters Photo)
Courtesy:
The Times of India, October 03, 2005
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