India's Sania Mirza, who was given an Olympic wild card in doubles, is furious with how she has been treated in the politicking between the All India Tennis Association (AITA) and male players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. After Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna both refused to play with Paes, the AITA tried to placate Paes by guaranteeing he would play mixed doubles with Mirza if he consented to playing men's doubles with the inexperienced Vishnu Vardhan. Mirza just won the Roland Garros mixed with Bhupathi.
"As an Indian woman belonging to the 21st century, what I find disillusioning is the humiliating manner in which I was put up as a bait to try and pacify one of the disgruntled stalwarts of Indian tennis," she said in a statement. "While I feel honored and privileged to have been chosen to partner Leander Paes, the manner and timing of the announcement wreaks of male chauvinism where a two time Grand Slam champion, who has been India's number 1 women's tennis player for almost a decade in singles and doubles is offered in compensation to partner one of the feuding champions purely in order to lure him into accepting to play with a men's player he does not wish to play with! This kind of blatant humiliation of Indian womanhood needs to be condemned even if it comes from the highest controlling body of tennis in our country."
Mirza added that she is entitled to have her preferences, was upset with Paes' father for demeaning her, and with Bhupathi for "sacrificing the commitment he made to me to try and win an Olympic medal together for India.
"I have been fortunate to achieve a career best singles ranking of 27 in the world that has been only bettered by Vijay Amritraj (16) and Ramesh Krishnan (23) even amongst the men in the modern era," she added. "I have a career best doubles ranking of 7 in the world, which only Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have bettered. I am the only Grand Slam champion from India apart from Mahesh and Leander. I believe I can expect a little more respect from the National Tennis Federation than what has been accorded to me even if they did not think it necessary to send me a simple congratulatory message after I had won my second Grand Slam title three weeks ago. What is even more shocking is the manner in which facts have been misrepresented to the public at large to paint a totally wrong picture in an attempt to justify the breaking up of a team that won a second Grand Slam title only days earlier."