Sania Mirza on Sunday made history as she become the first Indian female tennis player to achieve the world number one ranking in doubles. The Hyderabadi added yet another feather in her hat as she won the WTA Family Circle Cup with Swiss partner Martina Hingis, in Charleston.
Sania Mirza on Sunday made history as she become the first Indian female tennis player to achieve the world number one ranking in doubles. The Hyderabadi added yet another feather in her hat as she won the WTA Family Circle Cup with Swiss partner Martina Hingis, in Charleston.
The top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair beat the Aussie-Croatian pair of Casey Dellacqua and Darija Jurak 6-0, 6-4 on Sunday to win the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Family Circle Cup in just 57 minutes in the lop-sided final of the USD 731,000 clay court event.
Sania took 470 points from the win to take her tally to 7965 as she jumped past Italy's Sara Errani (7640) and Roberta Vinci (7640) to sit atop the rankings table.
Lets take a quick look back at her ' five memorable wins' that made Sania Mirza an International Tennis superstar:
1) Afro-Asian Games 2003
Mirza burst on to the international tennis scene in 2003 by winning the 2003 Wimbledon Championships Girls’ Doubles title and also reached the semi-finals and quarter finals of French Open (Rolland Garros) and US Open respectively. That was not all as the Indian Tennis' poster girl grabbed headlines for her splendid show at the Afro-Asian Games where she won four gold medals.
2) Australian Open 2009
After breaking in to the top 30 of WTA rankings in 2006-07, Mirza lost her way and form due to a string of injuries and poor performances. However, it took her nearly four years after becoming a professional tennis player that she won her first Grand Slam, partnering Mahesh Bhupathi in the 2009 Australian Open beating France's Nathalie Dechy and Israel's Andy Ram 6-3, 6-1.
3) French Open 2012
Just when everyone thought that the 2009 Australian Open win was a fluke, Mirza proved her critics wrong again, winning with Bhupathi again at the 2012 French Open defeating Santiago González of Mexico and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik of Poland 7–6 (7/3), 6–1 in the final
4) US Open 2014
The year 2014 will certainly go down as one of the most successful year(s) for Mirza as a tennis professional. Having been sidelined owing to her poor performances she was looked at just another athlete representing the nation. However, her resurgence to form started with the US Open where she reached the semi-finals in doubles with Zimbabwean partner Cara Black and went on to win the mixed doubles title 6–1, 2–6, [11–9] with Bruno Soares against American-Mexican pair of Abigail Spears and Santiago González
5) Asian Games 2014
While the other top tennis stars of the country chose to stay away from the 2014 Asian Games citing importance to ATP tournaments, Sania Mirza led the hopes of Indian tennis at Incheon. Along with Saketh Sai, Sania Mirza went on to win her second Mixed doubles title at the Asian Games that came eight years after she won with partner Leander Paes at Doha Games in 2006.
Mirza was the proud recipient of Arjuna Award in 2004. The recognition did not stop at this as the young sportswoman was recognized by the Government of India for her outstanding contribution to Indian Tennis.
She was just a 19-year-old when she was conferred upon the Padmshree Award in 2006 for her remarkable contribution to Tennis. Mirza was the the youngest sportspersons to receive the honour.
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