Sunitha dreams of Sania team

The All India Tennis Association plans to ask for a women’s doubles wild card at the Beijing Olympics, and a partnership...

The All India Tennis Association plans to ask for a women’s doubles wild card at the Beijing Olympics, and a partnership with Sania Mirza at the event is something Sunitha has been considering very seriously. She and her French partner Aurelie Vedy were the runners-up in last week’s $50,000 ITF tournament in Delhi, but she is not figuring in the doubles this week.

“My partner went back to France, and I did try to play with a couple more girls, but one of them pulled out and the other wanted to concentrate on singles.

But it doesn’t make much of a difference since the points I could have made in doubles this week would not really have affected my ranking much,” said Sunitha.

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“I do hope to play doubles with Sania, though, and we have discussed it together. We’ll have to co-ordinate our schedules so that we can play a few tournaments before the Olympics also.

“This year, doubles has become more important to me all of a sudden for the same reason, and I will have to push up my ranking higher. I hope the association backs my chances to play,” said Sunitha, whose doubles ranking is currently 128, second best in the country to Sania’s at 25.