Won’t kill myself for Olympic gold: Sania

BEIJING: India’s doubles world number one Sania Mirza has promised to take a measured approach to next year’s Olympics, promising “I’m not going to kill myself !” if she fails to bring home a gold medal.

Excitement over the Rio de Janeiro Games is already ramping up with high speculation over who will team up with Mirza as she seeks to win a rare Olympic gold for India.

Mirza and her new partner Martina Hingis have cut a swathe through the doubles circuit this year, winning Wimbledon and the US Open among eight titles altogether including the China Open on Saturday.

“It would be amazing. As players we do want that, but we also have four Slams a year,” she said.

“So it’s not like a lot of other sports where they get one opportunity every four years -- we kind of get opportunities every four months.

“So it would be amazing, it would feel like probably I’ve won everything then if I win that Olympic medal. But if I don’t, I’m not going to kill myself. I mean life goes on.”

YUKI BHAMBRI ENTERS PRE-QUARTERS

TASHKENT: India’s Yuki Bhambri advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the $1,25,000 Tashkent ATP Challenger tournament after registering a straight-set win over Estonian Jurgen Zopp here on Monday.

The fourth seeded Indian posted a 6-4, 6-2 win over the Estonian in a contest that lasted an hour and 17 minutes at the Olympic Tennis School. Yuki will next take on Nikola Mektic of Croatia.

MURRAY REPLACES FEDERER AT 2ND SPOT

LONDON: Scottish Andy Murray jumped to second place, while Swiss maestro Roger Federer went down to the third spot in the latest Association Tennis Professionals (ATP) world singles rankings, released on Monday. Serbian star Novak Djokovic, who recently won China Open in Beijing, held on to his No.1 place with 15,785 points.