Sania Mirza

By Rohit

Category: sports

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Sania Mirza is a woman tennis player from India. She was born on November 15, 1986 in Mumbai. She grew up in Hyderabad and under her father’s tutelage she began holding the racket at a very early age. The year 2003 saw Sania turn professional.

Career, so far:

2003: Sania clinched the 2003 Wimbledon Championships Girls’ Doubles title, pairing Alisa Kleybanova from Russia.

2004: She got the second place at the Asian Tennis Championship.

2005: i) She became the first-ever Indian woman to land at the fourth round of any Grand Slam tournament, at the U.S. Open.

ii) In February 2005, she defeated Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine, to become the first-ever Indian woman to clinch a WTA singles title in the Hyderabad Open Finals.

iii) This year also saw Mirza reach the third round of the Autralian Open before she lost to the ultimate title-winner Serena Williams.

2006: i) Sania won the gold in the Mixed Doubles category teaming up with Leander Paes, at the Doha Asian Games. She secured the second position in the Women’s Singles category winning the silver in the Games and also was a proud member of the Indian Women’s Team that clinched the silver in the team affair.

ii) By the end of 2006, Sania achieved three grand victories over top players like Martina Hingis, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova.

2007: i) The summer hard court events of this year brought out the best outcomes of her career. She ended up in the eighth place in the 2007 U.S. Open tournament. She managed to enter the third round, but lost to Anna Chakvetadze soon after. Her Doubles performances were however more impressive, qualifying to the quarterfinals in the Women’s Doubles pairing Bethanie Mattek and the quarterfinals in the Mixed Doubles teaming up with Mahesh Bhupathi.

ii) She qualified to the quarterfinals of the Tier 1 Acura Classic.

iii) She won the Doubles at the Bank of the West Classic teaming up with Shahar Pe’er.

iv) Sania was the runner-up at the Singles event at the Bank of the West Classic.

v) 2007 also saw her till-date best performance in the French Open Singles when she managed to reach the second round.

Some other important achievements of Sania have been:

a) Reached the final of the 2008 Australian Open in the Mixed Doubles category, teaming up with Mahesh Bhupathi.
b) Reached the third round of the 2008 Australian Open in the Singles category before losing to Venus Williams.
c) Clinched the Doubles title with Italian Mara Santangelo at the 2007 Pilot Pen Tennis tournament, defeating the top-seeded pair Cara Black and Liezel Huber.
d) Defeated Martina Hingis in the second round of the 2007 East West Bank Classic.
e) Secured the Doubles title at the 2007 Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open, partnering Bethanie Mattek, and beating Alina Jidkova and Tatiana Poutchek. Mirza-Mattek was the top-seeded pair in the tournament.
f) Reached the semifinals of the 2007 Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open in the Singles category, before been beaten by the top-seeded and the ultimate title-winner Anna Chakvetadze.