Sania Mirza

Sania Mirza (; born 15 November 1986) is an Indian professional tennis player. A former doubles world No. 1, she has won six major titles – three in women's doubles and three in mixed doubles. From 2003 until her retirement from singles in 2013, she was ranked by the Women's Tennis Association as the Indian No. 1 in singles. Throughout her career, Mirza has established herself as one of the most known, highest-paid, and influential athletes in India.

In singles, Mirza had wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva, and Marion Bartoli, as well as former world-number-ones Martina Hingis, Dinara Safina, and Victoria Azarenka. She is the highest-ranked Indian female player ever, peaking at world No. 27 in mid-2007. However, a major wrist injury caused her to shift to doubles. Mirza has achieved a number of firsts for women's tennis in India, including reaching the one million-US$ mark in career earnings (currently over US$7.2 million), winning a singles WTA Tour title, and winning a major title, as well as qualifying for (and eventually winning) the WTA Finals in 2014 in doubles partnering Cara Black, and defending her title the following year partnering Martina Hingis. Mirza plans to retire from professional tennis after the 2022 season.

She is one of only two Indian women to win a WTA Tour title, and the only one to be ranked within the top 100 in singles. Mirza is the third Indian woman in the Open era (after Nirupama Mankad and Nirupama Sanjeev, and the second in singles after Sanjeev) to contest and win a match at a major, and the first to advance past the second round. With 43 titles, Mirza has won more WTA doubles titles on the tour than any other active player. In addition, she has spent 91 weeks as the world No. 1 in doubles. In 2005, Mirza was crowned the Newcomer of the Year by the WTA, and in 2015 she and Martina Hingis were the Doubles Team of the Year, going on to earn a 44-match winning streak, one of the longest in history. Mirza has also won a total of 14 medals (including six golds) at three major multi-sport events, namely the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the Afro-Asian Games.

Mirza was named one of the "50 Heroes of Asia" by ''Time'' in October 2005. In March 2010, ''The Economic Times'' named Mirza in its list of the "33 women who made India proud". She was appointed as the UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia during the International Day To End Violence Against Women on 25 November 2013. She was named in ''Time'' magazine's 2016 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Early life

Sania Mirza was born on 15 November 1986 in Mumbai to Hyderabadi Muslim parents Imran Mirza, a sports journalist, and his wife Naseema, who worked in a printing business. Shortly after her birth, her family moved to Hyderabad where she and younger sister Anam were raised in a religious Sunni Muslim family. Anam is married to cricketer Mohammad Asaduddin, the son of former India national cricket team captain, Mohammad Azharuddin. She is the distant relative of former cricket captains Ghulam Ahmed of India, and Asif Iqbal of Pakistan. She took up tennis at the age of six. She has been coached by her father and also Roger Anderson.

She attended Nasr School in Hyderabad. She later graduated from the St. Mary's College, Hyderabad. Mirza also received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the Dr. M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute in Chennai on 11 December 2008. Apart from tennis, Mirza is also particularly good at cricket and swimming.

Tennis career

2001–2003: Success on the ITF Junior Circuit

Sania Mirza began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003. She was trained by her father. Mirza won ten singles and thirteen doubles titles as a junior player. She won the 2003 Wimbledon Championships girls' doubles title, partnering Alisa Kleybanova. She also reached the semifinals of the 2003 US Open girls' doubles, with Sanaa Bhambri, and the quarterfinals of the 2002 US Open girls' doubles.
On the senior circuit, Mirza started to show early success as she made her debut in April 2001 on the ITF Circuit as a 15-year-old. Her highlights of 2001 include a quarterfinal showing in Pune and a semifinal finish in New Delhi. As the 2002 season began, she turned around a season of early losses to winning three straight titles; her first in her hometown Hyderabad and the other two in Manila, Philippines. Sania Mirza clinched the women's gold medal in tennis in 2002 National Games of India in Hyderabad at the age of 16 years.

In February 2003, Mirza was given a wildcard to play in her first ever WTA tournament, at the Hyderabad Open, in her hometown. She lost the tough first round encounter to Australia's Evie Dominikovic in three sets. The following week, at the Qatar Ladies Open, she fell to Czech Olga Blahotová in the first qualifying round. She had a good result representing India on the Fed Cup, winning three straight matches. She helped India win a bronze medal in the mixed doubles event of the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, partnering Leander Paes. In addition, Mirza picked up four gold medals at the 2003 Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad.

2004–2005: Success in WTA Tour and Grand Slam tournaments

At her hometown event, the Hyderabad Open, Mirza was a wildcard entrant. She put up a good fight against the fourth seed and eventual champion, Nicole Pratt, in round one, but lost in three sets. She won her first WTA doubles title at the same event, partnering Liezel Huber. She then received a wildcard to compete at Casablanca, Morocco, but suffered a first-round defeat by eventual champion Émilie Loit.

On the ITF Circuit, Mirza ended runner-up at the Palm Beach Gardens Challenger where she fell to Sesil Karatantcheva. Mirza won six ITF singles titles in 2004. Going into the 2005 Australian Open, she defeated Cindy Watson and Petra Mandula in the first and second rounds, respectively, to reach the third round where she was beaten in straight sets by eventual champion Serena Williams. In February, Mirza became the first-ever Indian woman to win a WTA Tour title, by winning her hometown event, the Hyderabad Open, defeating ninth-seeded Alona Bondarenko in the final. At Dubai, she upset in round two 4th seed and reigning US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the biggest quarterfinal of her career. In the second round of the Wimbledon Championships, she lost to Kuznetsova in a tight three-setter.

In August, she reached the third round at the Stanford Classic, falling to Morigami. Mirza reached her second WTA final at the Forest Hills Tennis Classic, falling to Lucie Šafářová. Mirza became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the US Open, defeating Mashona Washington, Maria Elena Camerin and Marion Bartoli, before losing to top seed Maria Sharapova, in the round of 16. At the Japan Women's Open, Mirza reached semifinals with wins over Vilmarie Castellvi, Aiko Nakamura and Vera Zvonareva, before being overpowered by Tatiana Golovin. Thanks to a successful 2005 season, Mirza was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year.

2006–2007: Top 30 singles breakthrough

Mirza was seeded at the 2006 Australian Open (the first female Indian to be seeded in a Grand Slam event), only falling to Michaëlla Krajicek. Next she fell to Camille Pin at the Bangalore Open, but won the doubles title partnering Huber. She played at the Dubai Tennis Championships but lost to Martina Hingis. At the Indian Wells Open, she reached the third round but lost to Elena Dementieva. She also lost in the first round of the French Open Grand Slam to Anastasia Myskina.

Her next tournament was the Birmingham Classic where she defeated Alona Bondarenko and Shenay Perry to reach the third round, where she was overpowered by Meilen Tu. She also reached the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Open and the third round of the Stanford Classic, falling to Patty Schnyder and Elena Dementieva, respectively. She reached the second round of the US Open, losing to Francesca Schiavone. In September, she reached the semifinals of the San Diego Open, losing to eventual champion and top seed Martina Hingis. She also won the doubles title there partnering Huber. Mirza made the quarterfinals of the Korea Open (defeating top seed Hingis en route) and the Tashkent Open. In December, Mirza picked up three medals at the Doha Asian Games—gold, in mixed doubles and silver in women's singles and team.

In 2006, Mirza notched up three top-ten wins against Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Martina Hingis.

Mirza started 2007 in strong fashion, making it to the semifinals of Hobart, the second round of the Australian Open, semifinals in Pattaya, and the quarterfinals in Bangalore. At the French Open, Mirza lost the battle against Ana Ivanovic in the second round. She also fell in the second round at the Wimbledon Championships to Nadia Petrova. Mirza had the best results of her career during the 2007 summer hardcourt season, finishing eighth in the 2007 US Open Series standings and reaching her highest singles ranking of world No. 27.

She reached the quarterfinals in San Diego, the semifinals at Cincinnati, and made it to the final at Stanford. She also won the doubles event in Cincinnati with Shahar Pe'er. At the US Open, she reached the third round before losing to Anna Chakvetadze for the third time in recent weeks. She fared much better in the doubles competition, reaching the quarterfinals in mixed doubles with her partner Mahesh Bhupathi and the quarterfinals in the women's doubles with Bethanie Mattek, including a win over number two seeds Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur. She won four doubles titles in 2007.

2008–2009: Grand Slam mixed-doubles championship

Mirza reached the quarterfinals at Hobart as the No. 6 seed and lost to Flavia Pennetta in three sets. She reached the third round at the Australian Open as No. 31 seed, in which she lost to No. 8 seed Venus Williams having been up a break in the first set. She ended runner-up in the Australian Open mixed doubles partnering Mahesh Bhupathi, where they lost in straight sets to Sun Tiantian and Nenad Zimonjić.

She had to withdraw from the Pattaya Open because of a left abductor strain. She reached round four at Indian Wells as the No. 21 seed, defeating ninth seed Shahar Pe'er en route, but lost to No. 5 seed Daniela Hantuchová. On grass, Mirza was crushed in the second round of Birmingham by Marina Erakovic. At the 2008 Wimbledon Championships, as the No. 32 seed, Mirza was defeated by qualifier María José Martínez Sánchez in round two, having had several match points.

Mirza represented India at the Beijing Summer Olympics but was eliminated from singles when she retired during her match against Iveta Benešová because of a right wrist injury. For doubles, she got a walkover through the first round with Sunitha Rao, but lost in the second to the Russian duo. Throughout 2008, Mirza was plagued by a slew of wrist injuries, requiring her to withdraw from several matches including those of the French Open and US Open majors.

Mirza started her year by playing at the doubles event of the Hobart International. Partnering Francesca Schiavone, they reached the quarterfinals. At 2009 Australian Open, she won her first-round match against Marta Domachowska, but she fell against tenth seed Nadia Petrova in round two. In doubles she lost in the first round partnering Vania King. But in mixed doubles, Mirza picked up her first Australian Open Grand Slam title. Partnering with Mahesh Bhupathi, she beat Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram in the final.

She then entered the Pattaya Women's Open and reached the final after a string of good performances but lost to Vera Zvonareva. She made the semifinals in doubles in the same tournament. Mirza then competed in Indian Wells where she lost in the second round to Flavia Pennetta. She then lost to Mathilde Johansson

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