Sport - Tennis

Connors’s word of advice for Sania

PUNE: Tennis icon Jimmy Connors, in India on a mission to set up a sports resort in collaboration with the Pune-based Solaris, advised Sania Mirza to focus on winning tennis matches, assuring her that other things would fall in place.

“A player should only think of winning and other things will follow automatically. Once a player begins focusing on things other than tennis, success becomes difficult,” Connors said.

“In my life, I just thought of winning and the rest followed,” he said, adding that he had seen Sania play and was sure she would regroup in world rankings.

“Women’s tennis has gone up by leaps and bounds, players are more powerful now than earlier and it needs more than hard work to be at that level,” he said.

Solaris has signed an MoU with international estate management company, Saville, for a project being planned in the Mumbai-Pune-Goa region, informed Jayant Pawar, founder and director of Club Solaris.

The sports resort, to be constructed on an area of 200 acres, will house a residential tennis academy, an 18-hole PGA signature golf course, a five-star hotel, a health spa and 100 villas.

Connors, on his first visit to India, said: “Creating champions is not just about hitting balls but also providing other opportunities and I’m sure that the academy will provide Indian players these opportunities.

“Despite having good friends on the tour — like the Amritraj brothers and Ramesh Krishnan — I’ve never been to the country. I look forward to successfully taking this academy forward.

“I’ve been choosy when it comes to putting my signature on anything — balls, racquets shoes...I’m happy to be part of this academy and would like to put in all effort to see it succeeds,” Connors said.

A regular on the Seniors Tour, Connors even came on to the courts and hits a few balls with junior tennis players.

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