05 February,2023 08:23 AM IST | Mumbai | Alan Wilkins
Mirza and Hingis at Wimbledon
At the outset, I must lay out my stall and remind those of you reading this article that it was my unbridled privilege to work alongside one of India's great icon athletes - Vijay Amritraj - for the best part of 20 years, during which time we covered Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the US Open. Roland Garros was not a property of the TV Network that Vijay and I worked for in those days, ESPN Star Sports (ESS).
Vijay's knowledge of the sport in virtually any facet you care to mention is extraordinary. I soaked up every minute of sitting alongside him. When it came to commentating on a match involving Sania Mirza, of course it became a more personal affair, simply because of the India connection. My involvement in those years with the broadcasting of cricket in India with ESS gave me an insight into the sheer volume of numbers who would be watching TV, watching every move in a tennis match involving Sania. Simply put, in India, Sania was box office.
It wasn't a case of putting more into the commentary by way of personal information (a commentator in any given sport should do their homework), but there was an element of having to make it âmore personal' for our television audience. And no, it wasn't a bespoke commentary just because Sania was plying her craft on a
television network across the vast country of India, but it was an occasion that felt "elevated" when Sania was on court.
Sania's career numbers stack up to a life in tennis that put her into a rare echelon of female tennis athletes. World Doubles Number One player, six Major titles - two of them with Mahesh Bhupathi - and arguably her finest achievement was attaining the world ranking of 27 in the WTA Singles, the highest ever for an Indian female tennis player.
If I may indulge personally for a moment, I loved the tennis that Sania played with her partner, Switzerland's Martina Hingis, with whom she formed a fearsome Doubles pairing, forging a 44-match winning streak, one of the longest in history. In 2015 they were the "Doubles Team of the Year".
It may have been the weight of Sania's ground strokes - her forehand was a feared weapon - allied to the artistry of Hingis, but there was an added dimension that compelled you to watch their tennis matches. They both smiled through every point in the match; they both exuded the sheer thrill of being on court; They expressed themselves in a heart-rending way that put smiles on faces on those of us watching. All we had to do was add the words to the theatre being played out on court. And that - sitting alongside Vijay - was a privilege for me.
Alan Wilkins, a former English county cricketer, is a popular sports broadcaster
