India’s Sania Mirza has been dragged into a series of controversies at home so she decided to boycott all Indian tournaments, including March’s Bangalore Open.

Firstly the 21-year-old Mirza was criticized for her tennis clothes which were termed un-Islamic by religious Muslim groups (of course, Mirza was wearing regular tennis outfits, not those like Bethanie Mattek’s). Then, she had to apologize to mosque officials in her hometown for shooting an advert on its premises after a complaint of trespass was filed against her to the police. The most recent problem Mirza faced, and the one that even made her consider retiring from tennis, happened in January, when she was allegedly showing disrespect to the Indian flag (see the photo). Because of this last incident, Mirza may even end up in jail.

The tournaments are definitely at loss because India's youth icon Mirza will bypass them. But who can blame her, she went through a lot! However, I must notice she seems surprisingly strong, especially if we take into account she’s only 21. She dealt with all the incidents very well. (source: Reuters, photo via Freedom Express)

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Defending champions Russia beat Israel 4-1 to reach the Fed Cup semifinals which will be held in April.

Russian world number seven Anna Chakvetadze secured the tie after seeing off Israel's Tzipi Obziler 6-4 6-2.

Dinara Safina and Elena Vesnina completed the victory by beating Shahar Peer and Obziler in the dead doubles rubber 6-0 1-6 6-4.

Earlier, Maria Sharapova crushed Israel’s number one Shahar Peer 6-1 6-1 to give the Russians a 2-1 lead. Sharapova was not at all surprised that Peer, ranked 17th in the world, managed to win only two games. "I have a good past record against her and I was not surprised… I hit a very powerful flat ball and she is more defensive, so it does not surprise me," said the Australian Open champion.

On Saturday, Sharapova beat Obziler to level the tie after Peer had overcome Dinara Safina. (via Reuters, photo via Fed Cup)

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Teenager Sabine Lisicki stunned former world number one Lindsay Davenport 6-1 7-5 to give Germany a surprise 1-0 lead over the United States.

The 130th-ranked teenager produced one of the biggest upsets in the history of Fed Cup defeating the former Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open champion in straight sets. Previously, Davenport had won 25 of 27 singles matches in the team competition.

"Lindsay is such a great champion and I just beat her," said excited Lisicki after the biggest victory of her career.

"We're 1-0 up and I think nobody thought that it would be that way," added the 18-year-old German, who reached the third round of last month's Australian Open after winning three qualifying matches.

Isn't this Davenport's first big loss since her comeback? (source: Guardian Unlimited, photo via Union Tribune)

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The day has finally come that Maria Sharapova plays the Fed Cup. The truth is she practically had to give her shear for the Fed Cup because otherwise she would have been left off Russia’s Olympic team. Anyway, defending champions Russia are in Israel now, playing against the home team, and currently the result is 1-1.

Israel’s No.1 tennis player Shahar Peer had given her country the lead with a 0-6 6-2 6-2 triumph over Dinara Safina, but Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova leveled with a 6-0 6-4 win over Tzipi Obziler.

Sharapova was stylish, as always, sporting a nice Nike outfit in her country's red and white colors. Btw, not everyone looked this good in red and white, check out Nika Ozegovic.

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Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic gave Serbia a 2-1 victory over Romania today in Fed Cup in Budapest. Serbia was the favorite, having two top 5 players in their team, but the victory over Romania was hard fought. Doubles were deciding the winner, and all the three matches played were three-setters.

Firstly, world No.2 Ana Ivanovic beat world No.150 Monica Niculescu 5-7, 6-4, 7-5. Then, Jelena Jankovic lost her singles match against world No.112 Sorana Cirstea 3-6, 6-3, 4-6. As the result after singles was 1-1, the teams had to play doubles to decide the winner.

In the deciding match, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic played against Monica Niculescu and Sorana Cirstea. The match itself was extremely difficult, and was even interrupted by one incident. The incident happened when a man from the Romanian Tennis Association got into fight with the security when Ana and Jelena had a break point at 4-3 in the second set. He started approaching the chair umpire and the Serbian box, and the fight started when the security tried to stop him. The match continued despite the incident, and the Serbian duo won 2-6, 7-6, 7-6. Who would have expected such a battle! (source: B92)

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