The participation of Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova (already out of the tournament but her chewing brand 'Sugarpova' being sold like hotcakes) have surely brightened the festive mood and spirit of the tennis fans at this year's China Open, being staged in Beijing to coincide with the week-long National Day Holidays. But another highlight of the tournament was the partnership of India's Sania Mirza with home favourite Shuai Peng in the women's doubles before they were knocked out by the top-seeded pair of Martina Hingis and Taiwanese partner Chan Yung-Jan in the semi-finals on Saturday.
India's Sania Mirza (left) and Shuai Peng of China during their China Open match in Beijing. Pic/AFP
Border tension
Interestingly, the Indo-Chinese duo has been playing together for a while since Mirza's break-up with Hingis and her subsequent failure to win a Grand Slam title with different partners. However, the recent border stand-off between the two neighbours has certainly brought the tennis partnership under the spotlight.
Considering the latest geopolitical developments, it was quite interesting that an Indian tennis player, who is married to a man from her country's cross-border arch-rivals and China's all-weather friend Pakistan, teamed up with a Chinese player to play in their backyard. The number of Indians (including me and a couple of journalist friends), who were present at the Lotus Court of China's National Tennis Center to watch Sania's semi-final match, were less than the number of games one needs to win a set in tennis.
Although the third seeded pair bowed out in the tie-breaker in a nail-biting semi-final but it was quite an experience watching the Indian and her Chinese partner, also a former World No. 1 in doubles and a Grand Slam doubles winner like her Indian counterpart, playing in tandem as a team and giving high fives to each other after each point. "It's a good display of zhÅÂÂng yìn yÇÂÂuyì (China-India friendship in Mandarin)," remarked my fellow Indian journalist, describing the importance of the match.
Cheer for Sania
Moreover, it was really heartening to experience the local spectators clapping, and occasionally cheering, after every point Sania was winning for her partnership. However, the icing on the cake was when the Hindi title song of Bollywood blockbuster Dangal was being played loudly inside the stadium by the organisers during the break between the games and the Chinese crowd spontaneously cheering to the song from one of their favourite movies of the year.
Eventually, the hot favourites bit the dust in Beijing but they have underlined that the spirit of sports transcends beyond the borders, emphatically highlighting zhong yin youyi.
