India’s Sania Mirza admitted she considered quitting after becoming engulfed in another controversy back home this month but played on due to her love of her country and the game.

Sania, who breezed through the Australian Open first round with a straight sets victory over Iroda Tulyaganova, said she had now accepted that off-court rows were simply part of being India’s highest profile tennis player.

In the event, it was remarkable that the 21-year old from Hyderabad managed to shut out the off-court events of the last few weeks — particularly the national flag issue — to get on with her business on court in the Australian Open championship on Tuesday.

This place gives Sania a healthy, joyous adrenaline surge; and not without reason. For, it was here that the famous journey began three years ago when, as a wild card, she won two rounds before losing to Serena Williams.

After three eventful years that saw her become one of the most easily recognisable Indian athletes, Sania would much rather concentrate on her tennis — if only they would let her!

A High Court lawyer has even gone so far as to file a case for her arrest (without bail) and a three-year jail sentence.

The initial hearing is due to be held this week under something called the “Prevention Of Insult To The National Honour Act”, citing “disrespect” to the national flag. India’s predilection for red tape, taught to them by the Imperial British, but since refined to gargantuan levels, means that by the time the case gets to court she will probably be a grandmother, but it’s a bit of worry nonetheless.

The sight of the flag may have been responsible for her going 1-3 behind early on to Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan, but she rallied to win comfortably enough in straights sets, 6-4, 6-2. The No 31 seed did admit, though, that staying focused was becoming quite a feat when all the attention was on her feet.

When she first started out on the pro circuit at the age of 18, the length of her skirts prompted some religious mullah to issue a fatwa, which was a bit of a handicap to her chosen profession given that fashion in women’s tennis apparel has moved on, not to mention up, since Suzanne Lenglen’s knickers were covered by several petticoats and a skirt which picked up chalk from the baseline.

Sania’s skirt yesterday was no more than a pelmet, although she did offer a compromise by wearing underwear that resembled a pair of bicycle shorts. She was taking more of a chance with her choice of top though, which flew up over her navel every time she launched herself into a serve.

When Sania, who is Shia Muslim, first bared her thighs on a tennis court, people took to the streets to burn effigies of her, although this in itself is such a common event in India that it more or less doubles the smog levels. It’s most prevalent after a game of cricket, and there is barely an Indian batsman in history who hasn’t had an effigy of himself set on fire.

Sania, who apparently records more hits on the Google internet site than even a cricketing icon like Sachin Tendulkar, only narrowly escaped another fatwa last month by issuing a written apology for filming an advertisement close to a mosque, so one way ar another she keeps putting her foot in it.

Sania confessed that all the fuss back at home had affected her to the extent of wondering whether it was worthwhile carrying on playing, but she would have had to have been mentally away with the pixies to have been bothered by yesterday’s opponent.

Sania, on the other hand, could be facing yet another fatwa for her behaviour immediately after leaving the court, when she walked up to a man and – shock, horror – kissed him.

True, it was the lightest of pecks on both cheeks, and she was merely greeting her coach, but back home in Hyderabad, some bearded Indian cleric may already be demanding the death penalty.

Sania, who has previously ran afoul of Muslims for wearing short skirts and sleeveless tops on court, said she had thought about quitting when the flag row first flared.

“It does play on you mind,” she said. “I’m not a politican here trying to outsmart people and fight, I’m trying to play tennis and I’m 21 and I’m trying to be the best I can be. A lot of thoughts went through my head in the last couple of weeks, one of the thoughts was that (quitting).”
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