The WTA rankings are a non-stop treadmill. Once on it, you have to keep the same pace, or accelerate, or be dumped off. So if Sania is to stay in the Top 30 or top 40, she’ll have to do exactly what she’s done in the past 12 months, and then some. The complicated WTA system rewards consistency and is unrelenting on the top stars. Not only do they have to defend points gained the previous year, they will find bonus points — which one gets for beating a higher-ranked player - harder to come by. To begin with, Sania must make the final of the Kolkata WTA; and in february successfully defend her Hyderabad title. Here’s how the past 12 months have been for Sania: September ’04: Ranking 285, WTA Pts: 25 ITF, Lebanon • beats No. 2 seed Bahia Mouthtassine (Ranked 162) • beats No 5 seed Kyra Nagy (Ranked 192) October: Ranking 258, WTA Pts: 57 • Won two ITF, Lagos, Nigeria events December: Ranking 194, WTA Pts: 36 ITF event at Palm Beach, USA • beats Anna-Lena Groenfeld (Ranked 75) January 05: Ranking 166, WTA Pts: 70 Australian Open • beats Petra Mandula (Ranked 84) February: Ranking 134, WTA Pts: 117 Hyderabad Open • beats No. 4 seed Jie Zheng (Ranked 61) • beats No. 8 seed Maria Kirilenko (Ranked 82) • beats No 9 seed Aloyona Bondarenko (Ranked 102) in Final March: Ranking 97, WTA Pts: 102 WTA Dubai Open • beats Jelena Kostanic (Ranked 36) • beats No 4 seed Svetlana Kuzetsova July: Ranking: 64, WTA Pts: 146 pts WTA Tier-III event at Cincinnati • beats Anna-Lena Gronefeld (Ranked 35) August: Ranking: 42, WTA Pts: 178 pts WTA Tier-I event at San Diego • beats Nadia Petrova (Ranked 9) • Also reached final of WTA Tier-IV, Forest Hills
