One of the thrills of playing at the top tennis centres of the world is to see the Indian flag go up whenever I`m participating in these events. That… - Sania Mirza

She had become headline news in her homeland since her return from Melbourne, where in January she had reached the third round of the Australian Open, the first time that an Indian woman had progressed so far in a grand slam event.

India is the country that produced such cultured male players as Vijay Amritraj and Ramesh Krishnan, and she might have been expected to place as much emphasis on old-style craft as crunch. In fact, her all-out aggression, underpinned by the sort of destructive forehand that was the signature of her role model Steffi Graf's game, makes her a very contemporary player indeed. To become a top-10 player, she has to work on her mobility and add some dimension to a game that is too dependent on the weighty forehand.

The honour and respect that a country earns by being represented at mega-sporting events like the Grand Slams has to be seen to be believed, experienced to be fully understood.