Sania Mirza is the current youth icon in India. Coming from Hyderabad, this teenager is creating history in Indian tennis by becoming the first ever Indian to break into the top-50 WTA rankings.
She also became the first Indian woman to win a WTA tourney when she lifted the Hyderabad Open trophy in February 2005.
Still not out of her teens, Sania Mirza has got a huge fan following, both inside and outside the country.
Having trained under C.G.Krishna Bhupathi (father of another famous Indian tennis star, Mahesh Bhupathi),
Sania's ambition is to one day become one among the top-20 in the world. At the rate in which she is going currently, that day is not far off.
Mirza is the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with a career high ranking of 27 in singles and 7 in doubles.
She is the first Indian female player to surpass US$1m in career earnings; first Indian to win a WTA Tour title of any kind; and, by winning the 2009
Australian Open – Mixed Doubles Event, became the third Indian, male or female, to win a Grand Slam title (the first two being Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes).
Mirza has also won the 2012 French Open – Mixed Doubles Event (her second Grand Slam title).
Career
Mirza has won one WTA singles title so far, at Hyderabad in 2005. She has won two Grand Slam titles:
the mixed doubles event at the 2009 Australian Open and the same event at 2012 French Open.
She was also the runner-up on two other Grand Slam occasions: the mixed doubles event at 2008 Australian Open and the women's doubles event at Roland Garros 2011.
Mirza is the third Indian woman in the Open Era to feature and win a round at a Grand Slam tournament (the first one being Nirupama Vaidyanathan at the 1998 Australian Open and the second being Shikha Uberoi at the 2004 US Open.) She is the first Indian woman to be seeded in a Grand Slam tennis tournament and the first Indian woman to win a WTA title (singles or doubles).
|