Sania Mirza is unperturbed at the prospect of losing her number one individual doubles ranking as she prepares to begin her campaign at the WTA Finals in Singapore. Mirza, who has been ranked number one for 80 weeks, a stretch extending back to April 2015, can be displaced if she fails to win the event. Three players - top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic besides Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who is paired with Lucie Safarova - can potentially overtake her at the end of the tournament.
"Nobody remains number one forever," Mirza told ESPN from Singapore. "When I got to number one last year in April it was huge, it was a dream come true and honestly I didn't really think I would stay there for 80 weeks. It has been an amazing journey to be at the top for this long. But even if I lose the number one ranking, that's not going to change anything. I will just be inspired to come back and work harder because I try and win every tournament that I play, that's how I have looked at my whole career. I don't look at the numbers, I think they just take care of themselves."
Ready or not - here we come �������� @WTA @mhingis #SanTina pic.twitter.com/6sRrna02BG
- Sania Mirza (@MirzaSania) 25 October 2016
Mirza will be rejoining forces with Martina Hingis in Singapore after having split with her following an early exit at Montreal in July. The pair had already assured themselves of a spot in this elite field of eight teams by continuing their sparkling run from 2015 into the early phase of this year. They won their first four tournaments of the year including the Australian Open, their third consecutive Grand Slam title. However, once their streak of 41-straight match wins - the third best run in the history of women's doubles - was ended in Doha in February, the pairing endured a slump of sorts.
Team SanTina, as they came to be called, won only one of their next ten tournaments and took the decision to part ways. Mirza teamed up with Barbora Strycova and has enjoyed an upswing in fortunes towards the latter half of the season, collecting titles in Cincinnati and Tokyo besides another one with Romanian Monica Niculescu in New Haven. However, Mirza insists combining forces once again with Hingis hasn't been "awkward" or difficult in any way.
"We got here a few days earlier deliberately because we wanted to practice and feel that chemistry again and it has been really good," she said. "We have been practicing together and its been going really well. We are looking forward to playing together, the chemistry doesn't really go anywhere, if you have it you just have it."
Mirza and Hingis will start the tournament as defending champions, having scorched the field last year on their way to the crown. Mirza, in fact, won the season ending championships, regarded as the biggest tournament on the circuit outside of the four Grand Slams, in 2014 as well, with Zimbabwe's Cara Black. Like the previous couple of years, she expects support from the large Indian diaspora in Singapore, though Mirza says playing conditions this time around are slightly different.
"This year the court seems slightly slower and the ball is bouncing quite low," she said. "The last couple of years too it was slow but it was bouncing a bit more. But being indoors there is no wind to deal with and it isn't too hot or too cold. I like playing indoors."
Unlike the singles that is played in a round-robin format with the eight players divided into groups of four, the doubles draw is a knockout competition. Mirza and Hingis open up against the Chan sisters from Taipei, a team Mirza describes as "very tough", having encountered them several times over her career. She insists however that the prospect of a hat-trick of titles in Singapore isn't burdening her with any additional pressure.
"You are going to win matches and you are going to lose," she says. "I like playing in Singapore, I have had such good results here. The format is different to last year so the margin of error is obviously lesser. This is the best of the best, literally if you look at the draw any team can win the tournament. That's good for tennis, but every match is going to be tough.
"It has been an amazing year, I can't ask for a better year. I won a Grand Slam, won eight tournaments and I am back at the WTA finals and I have been number one all year. Eight tournaments is a lot by any standards."