Weakness-obsessed Sania ignored her strength, feels Bob Brett

New Delhi, Sep 7 (UNI) Second season in the circuit is traditionally the toughest time for a player but Sania Mirza's less-than-impressive form this year perhaps has something to do with her obsession to improve the grey areas at the cost of her strength, feels legendary coach Bob Brett.

Here to conduct a three-day workshop, Brett told reporters, ''People at times get obsessed with the weaknesses and tend to ignore developing the natural strength. For Sania, she is technically a better player now than she was two yeara ago. Her service has improved as has her backhand. But I think she didn't work on to further improve her forehand.'' Brett, however, felt that Sania, his former pupil, still has a good forehand and the Hyderabadi player has the potential to move up the rankings ladder.

''Having said that, she still has one of the best forhands in the world and there are other tremendous aspects of her game. I'm hopeful she would move up in the coming years,'' said the legendary coach, whose lists of wards include Boris Becker, Goran Ivanisevic, Mario Ancic and Nicolas Kiefer, among others.

''I think she has to strike a balance. I mean she should go for the winners but at the same time, she has to keep patience,'' he analysed.

Brett, however, defended Sania's fall from her previous rankings and said it's never easy to defend the points in the second season.

''It's historically always difficult in the second year because opponents start to identify your weaknesses and give you little opportunity to use your strength.

''When Sania first came to me - Mahesh Bhupathi had sent her -- she was ranked 480 and I told that without much difficulty, she could be among the top 30. And then I met her in Canada when she was ranked 31st and I said my prediction was slightly wrong,'' Brett recalled.

''But one has to remember that it's easier to move from 480 to 30 than break into the top 20 from the 30th place. You have fewer people ahead of you and you have to beat them,'' he explained.

The celebrity coach also said that consistency is the key word for any player.

''I remember her match against Maria Sharapova in the US Open and she had reached the fourth round in her fairytale event. She was the princess there, the Cinderalla of the tournament. But Sharapova, being the wimbledon Champion and one of the top three players, put in a consistently better performance to beat her,'' he explained.

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