Anup’s Home Page

New Delhi: Sania Mirza made a successful return to the courts with a facile win in the $200,000 WTA Tour event in Istanbul on Tuesday. Fifth seed Sania, who had been out of the circuit for three weeks to rest her troublesome lower back, defeated wild card Ipek Senoglu 6-3, 6-1, according to information received here.Sania, is placed at the bottom of the top half of the draw which features top seed Anastasia Myskina.

New Haven: Hyderabadi teenager Sania Mirza has committed to play in the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament, starting here on August 31.Elated to have the star Indian in the draw, organisers of the 600,000 dollar WTA Tier II event said charismatic Sania would be playing here for the first time, along with world No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo, defending champion Lindsay Davenport and top-20 players Elena Dementieva, Anastasia Myskina, Daniela Hantuchova and Elena Likhovtseva.”Sania Mirza has incredible talent on the court and a unique flair off the court,” tournament director Anne Worcester said.”Fans have always enjoyed getting a glimpse of up-and-coming players at the Pilot Pen and Sania is definitely a budding superstar,” he added.Currently recovering from injuries which worsened after she took part in India’s Fed Cup campaign in Korea, world number 35 Sania is expected to return to court before the French Open.

KOLKATA: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has been swearing by investment ever since the Left Front romped back to power with 235 seats.In keeping with his sentiment, a host of industrialists from across the country have been invited for Thursday’s coronation. But guess who’ll be the belle of the ball: Sania Mirza, who isn’t remotely connected with industry.What’s even surprising is that it’s the tennis star who expressed her wish to be part of the ceremony. The state government was only too happy to oblige.Asok Bhattacharya, municipal affairs and urban development minister of the 2001-2005 Cabinet, said, “Sania has told me that she wants to participate in the historic occasion. We will have her flown from Hyderabad. We shall be extremely happy to have her here.”Official at Writers’ Buildings are excited at the “glam touch” to the industrialist-studded ceremony. One of them said, “Sania is a symbol of today’s youth. Her presence will send out a definite and positive message about the new government.” The other sports person who’ll grace the occasion is Sourav Ganguly. Also invited are a host of intellectuals – including professor M S Swaminathan (agriculture scientist), Irfan Habib (historian), P Sainath (columnist), N Ram (editor, The Hindu), Romila Thapar (historian), Jayati Ghosh, Prabhat and Utsa Patnaik (economists). Social activist Teesta Setalvad has also been invited.The tentative list of invitees was presented to Bhattacharjee on Monday afternoon, a few hours before he resigned as CM of the erstwhile government and staked claim to form a new one.

Sprite consumers, with loads of attitude, now have a new destination on the internet – ‘Sprite-itude’. This interactive zone in the online world is focused around the attitude of Sprite drinkers including – Sania Mirza.For the first time Sprite consumers get a chance to do their own thing on the internet- including creating their very own T-shirt slogan for Sania to wear. Other attractions include- a never before opportunity for consumers to make their own Sprite-itude mobile movie, play games online.According to Vikas Gupta, Vice-president, Marketing, Coca-Cola India, who is serving his notice period at Coke, “Sprite as a brand is all about puncturing pretensions, having a cut through attitude and stating facts as they are. The challenge was to capture and bring alive the same essence in the online world, that’s how the whole idea of launching Sprite-itude was conceptualized. This first of its kind online destination provides consumers with the freedom and the power to do their own thing. Something for which India’s latest tennis’ sensation – Sania Mirza is also know for.”http://www.myenjoyzone.com/sprite/sania/

New Delhi: Deutsche Bank has signed up cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar as its new brand ambassador and tennis star Sania Mirza as product ambassador to promote its recently launched retail banking products and services in India.Officials said the bank wanted to project stability and maturity through Gavaskar and youthful vigour through Mirza.Mirza, ranked 37, is the first Indian woman to claim a WTA tour singles title.�It gives me more pleasure to be their brand ambassador. And I think sharing a stage with Gavaskar is a great honour. I am looking forward to work with him in making the bank better,� Mirza said.�As an opening batsman, I recognise the value of having a solid partner and therefore I am delighted to partner such a respected global brand like Deutsche Bank,� Gavaskar added.Gavaskar held the world record of 34 centuries before compatriot Sachin Tendulkar broke it.The bank recently forayed into the retail segment and also announced plans to beef up its asset management business in India by bringing in its retail mutual fund brand DWS Investments, last week.

DESPITE taking a break from the circuit, Sania Mirza`s world ranking continued to improve for the second successive week when she climbed two spots to 37th place in the latest WTA Tour rankings.Sania, who is keeping off the courts to recover from injury, has 516.75 points and climbed at the expense of Mara Santangelo, who lost three places to settle for 38th position.There was good news for the Indian girl in the doubles rankings as well as she jumped one spot to reach number 37.Among other Indians, Shikha Uberoi climbed four places to reach 178 while Isha Lakhani gained three places to number 363. Ankita Bhambri lost three spots and finds herself in the 335 position.On the men`s front, Leander Paes climbed one spot to ninth while Mahesh Bhupathi dropped six places to 28th spot in the doubles rankings.