Mirza Doesn't Play Doubles With Pe'er to Avoid Inflaming Muslims

For goodness sakes, it's just tennis - can't we leave all the politics out of it?

From Ynetnews: Indian tennis star refuses to play with Israeli

Indian female tennis player Sania Mirza, 19, who is ranked 39th in the world, announced that she would not play with Israeli up and coming tennis star Shahar Pe’er in the doubles tournament of the Bangalore Open for fear of violent protests by India’s Islamic community.

The two friends were prevented from cooperating in last month’s Australian Open for the same reason.

Mirza Hopes to Play With Peer Again

The article's about how Sania Mirza has now decided to disregard criticism from some religious idiots and play doubles with Shahar Peer again, but I like her quote about her retooled game this year:

"The second year is tougher. People know your weaknesses more. That's why I'm changing my serve now because people were taking advantage of it. It couldn't get worse, so it had to get better."

From Reuters: India's Mirza hopes to partner Israeli Peer again

India's Sania Mirza is hoping to renew her doubles partnership with Israel's Shahar Peer despite protests from some Muslim and Jewish groups.

Mirza, whose poor recent form has seen her slip from a career-high ranking of 31 at the end of 2005 to 45th, said she would have played with Peer at this week's Pacific Life Open, but the Israeli player had already booked a partner.

"You shouldn't mix up sports with anything else," the 19-year-old told Reuters at the March 8-19 tournament in Indian Wells.

Sania Mirza and Aisam Qureshi: Just Friends

Pakistani tennis player Aisam Qureshi stirred up a bit of a tempest in a teapot when he casually mentioned that he and Sania Mirza are good friends. So he was later forced to clarify that when he said that he and Sania were good friends, he meant they were...good friends.

From the Times of India: Just good friends

Sports has a way of transcending boundaries. So when Pakistan's top tennis player Aisam Qureshi is linked to our own tennis wunderkind Sania Mirza, eyebrows are bound to be raised.

And when we questioned Aisam, he hastened to clarify, "See, this is all because of a statement I made in Pakistan that Sania are I are very good friends, and that is the only truth." ...