Our Tennis queen Sania Mirza will be lead of the four-member Indian team in the Fed Cup Asia Oceania group to be held in China from Jan 30 to Feb 4, All India Tennis Association announced on Monday.

Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza expressed disappointment over seven top women track and field athletes flunking dope tests but said that they should be handed stringent punishment if found guilty.

Seven out of the eight who tested positive in one of the country’s worst doping scandals were women athletes, including double Asian Games gold medallist Ashwini Akkunji, and Sania said they should not be held guilty until proven.

“Being a sportsperson myself, I think any of these athletes should not be accused of doing anything wrong until proven. But if they are proven guilty, of course they should be punished,” she said at a function at the Indore tennis club.

Sania rued that the country does not have any up and coming woman player to take her place and feature in the Grand Slam events once she retires.

“I don’t see a great future in women’s tennis in the country. After me, I don’t see any other woman tennis player who can feature in big tournaments,” Sania said

Sania Mirza rose 14 spots to stand at 106 with 628 points, in women’s singles rankings released by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), on Monday.

The tennis star, this week, suffered a 6-0, 6-1 defeat against Serb Jelena Jankovic during the second round of the Qatar Open, in Doha.

Somdev Dev Varman stood at No. 93 after slipping 14 points with 555 ranking points, in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking chart.

He bowed to Roger Federer 6-3, 6-3 in the opening round of the Dubai Championships, earlier this week.

In men’s doubles, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi maintained their position at No. 5, with 6,520 points.

India begins its Fed Cup campaign on Wednesday staring at an uphill battle after being drawn with China, Uzbekistan and Thailand.

Sania Mirza will lead India’s challenge but the team is not likely to have much success against better opponents with Australian Open finalist Li Na (China), Mirza’s conqueror in the Asian Games semi-finals Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzbekistan) and Tamarin Tanasugarn (Thailand) all likely to prove too much for India.

India is grouped in Pool A along with the Na Li-led China, Akgul Amanmuradova’s Uzbekistan and Tamarine Tanasugarn’s Thailand. Pool B is comparatively lighter with Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan and Chinese Taipei. The format of the competition with the number two players clashing first, followed by the number ones, is not going to make things easier for the Indians.

Sania, 24, who has climbed to No. 135 in the rankings this week, was candid about India’s chances. “It is going to be extremely tough for us since we are grouped with top teams like China, Uzbekistan and Thailand.”

Sania Mirza overcame a fighting Vitalia Diatchenko in a tough three-setter to storm into thethird and final round of women’’s singles qualifying event ofthe Australian Open here today.

The 24th seed Indian scored a 6-4 6-7(9) 6-3 in one hour46 minutes in the second round.

The 145th ranked Sania will next face Canada’’s StephanieDubois.

Sania dropped her serve twice in the opening set butsaved five other and managed to convert three of the six breakchances she got.

The second set was more closely fought as the Russiangirl raised her game and went all out against Sania.

Diatchenko earned 10 break points and converted three ofthem, same as Sania, but the set was decided through atie-breaker in which the Russian prevailed.

Both the players struggled with their first serve and itall boiled down to who could cash more on the mistakes of therival.

Sania dropped her serve twice but converted four of the six chances to seal her berth in the final round.

Sania Mirza maintained her unbeaten run while also aiming for a rare double in Dubai, this time taming top seed Julia Goerges 6-1, 7-6 (8) to enter the semi-finals of the 13th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge at the Habtoor Grand Resort and Spa.

Watched by her cricketer husband Shoaib Malek, Sania was unstoppable as she ran through the opening set 6-1. However, she seemed to falter a bit in the second as Goerges banked on a couple of breaks to power to a healthy 5-0 lead. But the Indian pulled back admirably to win the next five games to tie the score and then go on to win the tie-breaker 10-8.

Mirza now runs into eighth seeded Russian Evgeniya Rodina in the first semi-final to be played at 1.30 pm today, while fifth seeded Serbian Bojana Jovanoski will take on the fourth seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain in the lower half of the draw.

Sania was later scheduled to team up with Czech girl Vladimira Uhlirova and face the American duo of Lindsay Lee-Waters and Megan Moulton-Levy for a possible place in the doubles final as well.

Charm is SRK’s middle name, and no one can stay unaffected by it. Sania Mirza was hosting the Sahara sports award function with Shah Rukh when the actor good-humouredly asked her about her marriage and romance. In response, Mirza asked him to play love guru and give some romance tips to her shy husband Shoaib.

“Shah Rukh’s strength is the way he talks and he also romances in a very charming way in his films.  So, I asked him to share some tips with Shoaib and teach him a few romantic lines so he would talk more. It was all done in good humour and Shah Rukh was pulling our leg all through the act,” said Sania.

Shah Rukh also made Sania and Shoaib shake a leg with him at the function.

SRK also tried to get Sania and Shoaib’s love story out of Shoaib’s mouth but Shoaib refused to divulge any details.

Shah Rukh called Shoaib on stage and asked him to repeat some romantic dialogues as Sania had insisted.

Tennis ace Sania Mirza and her husband, Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, inaugurated a state-of-the-art tennis academy on Thursday.

The tennis academy has come up on the premises of the international cricket stadium, set up by the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA).

Sania Mirza inaugurated the academy in the presence of Jharkhand’s Chief Minister Arjun Munda.

Mirza said she hoped that the state would produce eminent sportspersons like Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni after more such sports facilities came up.

Munda said that the tennis academy would provide a platform for upcoming sportspersons in the region.

The turf for the tennis court has been imported from New Zealand and the entire academy has come up at the cost of rupees 4 million.

Sania Mirza and husband Shoaib Malik also played a friendly match with the onlookers.

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza has consented to be present at the inauguration of the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA)’s Tennis Academy at the upcoming International Stadium Complex, in Ranchi.

The inauguration is to take place on October 27 and Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda is expected to be the chief guest on the occasion.

The presence of Sania, who won a silver in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games, is not only expected to enthuse young tennis talent in Jharkhand but is sure to help the JSCA, headed by Amitabh Choudhary, develop future stars for the country.

Sania Mirza  entered the main draw of the US Open, beating Columbia’s Catalina Castano in the final qualifying round on Friday.

Sania, ranked 160th, got the better of the 188th-ranked Columbian 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 after an hour and 48 minutes.

Sania saved four beak-points and broke Castano twice to race to race away with the first set.

However, the Columbian fought her way back, cashing in on both the break chances that came her way to take the second set.

In the decider, Sania saved four break-points and broke Castano twice to seal a berth in the main draw.

This is the first time since 2005 that Sania had to play in the qualifying round to enter a Grand Slam main draw because of dip in the rankings.

Her best performance at the US Open was a fourth round appearance in 2005.