looks like she got married

congrats to her :)

she got married ages ago! Think the name change was a bit delayed. Im sure jayakris can fill us in!

i guess she was some time ago
most girls in India get married pretty young

Oh no, she was not married early or anything. Actually for the last couple of decades or so, it has been very rare to find any marriages before 20 in India. More like 23 to 26 trhese days for women.

Anyway, Niru got married May 23rd this year. Married to Sanjeev Balakrishnan, a software engineer in the bay area. He is the brother of the fastest Indian sprinter for the last few years (not so fast by world standards :-)), Rajeev Balakrishnan, I believe. Sanjeev himself may be an athlete but I am not sure.

She told me a few months back that she was probably going to stick to the same name and was not planning to change the name. She said that if she were to change, she would pick his first name which is shorter (many Indian last names are not family names but are just father's name, so it is fine to pick either if you want to change the name).

Where did you see the name listed as Nirupama Sanjeev, TBE?

Jay

Gosh, imagine if she had kept her current last name and added Sanjeev's last name like Hillary rodham clinton or Arantcha sanchez-vicario...

Nirupama Vaidyanathan-Balakrishnan !

Talk about aceman running into all kinds of trouble formatting the draws! :-)

Jay

her name is on the WTA rankings as Nirupama Sanjeev

last week it was Vaidyanathan

but Sanjeev is hist first name or?:confused:

its his 1st name like Jayakris said

so is that common to take the first name of the husband in India

Thanks for the info Jayakris

Hasn't she retired? I mean she has only played the US Open and the Asian Games since in 11 months..one would think she's done..or was she injured?

She had some shoulder-neck nerve problems which required her to take a 6 months break. Then she got married and spent an
extra 2-3 months off the court. Now she is being a bit careful to decide whether she is ready to use up the 6 or 7 places where she will get injury protected entry (with a ranking around 200). She swears that she is not retired and that she will be back. She played at the Asiad last two weeks but was quite out of form. Might take some work for her to return but she might do it.

By the way, she is one of the very best TV commentators I have ever heard (she does grand slam commentary for Asia net which gets to most of Asia). I hope she does not quit playing just yet. Quite a talented player, though things never seemed to click on all cylinders for her.

Jay

Jay, I'm sorry but I don't agree on her being one of the very best commentators.

Actually, its quite common for women in the Southern-most states of India to take on their husband's 1st names as their surname.

The children also take their father's first name as their surname.
My neighbour's name is Bernadette Alexander but her dad's name is Alexander Bartholemeu! A bit confusing at first :)