Sania hoping for a good New Year

Hyderabad, Dec 27 (UNI) Fresh from her medal winning performance in the Doha Asian Games, tennis star Sania Mirza today said she hopes to erase the bad memories of her previous year with a good show this time in the month-long tour of Australia.

Talking to 'UNI' before leaving for Perth to represent India in the mixed Hopman Cup main draw, Sania said, '' I will start on a fresh note in 2007. I want to forget the bad year in 2006 with a good show in Australia.'' Asked about India's winning chances in the main draw of the Hopman Cup, Sania who is currently ranked 65 in the world, said ''It's a very tough draw. We are entering the main draw as underdogs.

Having the top pairs from around the world, it would be too much to expect a victory against them.'' Sania, partnering Rohan Bopanna had won the Asia-Hopman cup in November last here and qualified for the main draw. She is happy with her fitness level.

''My fitness has improved with Hieth Mathews, the South African trainer working with me for the past one and half months. I think my speed and strength are much better now,'' she said.

''The results showed in the Hyderabad leg of Hopman Cup and in Doha where I won a Gold and two Silvers. We are still working on the excercises for further improvement,'' she added.

Twenty-year-old Sania who began her journey in international tennis with a Junior doubles title at Wimbledon and turned pro in 2003, has more doubles victories than singles said, ''That may be because of fitness problems. In singles I need to cover the entire court where as in doubles it's not like that. With the improvement in my fitness levels, I am more confident that I can do better in singles too in the coming days.'' During the month long engagements in Australia, Sania will first stop at Perth for the Hopman Cup and move on to Hobert to play in tier IV USD 1,45,000 Moorilla Hobert International tournament where she has to play in the qualifying event beginning on January 5 if she is not given a wild card entry.

Sania will be taking part in singles and doubles in the Australian Open from January 15 at Melbourne. Besides singles she will take part in the doubles partnering the 27th ranked Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain.

Speaking about Anabel, Sania said ''Interestingly, I will be fighting against Anabel in the Hopman Cup, where the Spaniard along with Tommy Robredo is seeded second and are in Group B, Czech Republic and Croatia are the other two teams.'' ''We have our first match against third seeded Czech Republican pair of Lucie Safarova and Tomas Berdych on December 31 at 1100 hrs local time, our next match will be against Croatian pair of Sanja Ancic and Mario Ancic on January 3 at 18.30 hrs local time and the final Group-B match is against second seed Spanish pair of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Tommy Robredo on January 4 at 1830 hrs local time'', she said.

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