Sania Mirza
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
A profile
The Times of India, Jul 12, 2015
Here are the ten things to know about Sania's illustrious career: till mid-2015
1. Sania Mirza now has title at all Grand Slams - Wimbledon (2015 - Doubles), US Open (2014 - Mixed doubles), French Open (2012 - Mixed doubles) and Australian Open (2009 - Mixed doubles).
2. Sania Mirza had come close to winning a women's doubles Major in 2011 when she reached the French Open final with Elena Vesnina but ended up runners-up.
3. The pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hings is ranked Numero Uno in the world and they were also the top seeds at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships.
4. Sania Mirza had become India's first woman player to win a Grand Slam when she won the Australian Open with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi in 2009.
5. The 28-year-old Sania Mirza won her first women's doubles Major title 12 years after turning professional.
6. It was 12 years ago, in 2003, when as a 16-year-old Sania became the first Indian girl to win a Grand Slam when she triumphed in the doubles' event at Wimbledon, partnering Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.
7. Sania Mirza has also won a total of 14 medals, including 6 golds, at three major multi-sport events, namely the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the Afro-Asian Games.
8. Sania Mirza is the highest ranked female player ever from India, reaching World No. 27 in singles in 2007 but a major wrist injury forced her to give up her singles career and focus on the doubles circuit.
9. Sania Mirza was awarded the Arjuna award in 2004 while in 2006 she was awarded a Padma Shri, India's fourth highest honour for her achievements as a tennis player.
10. Sania Mirza is the first South Asian Woman to be appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador of UN Women, in the organization's history, for South Asia.
Shoaib Malik
2010, the romance
The Times of India, Jul 03 2016
Edited excerpts from `Ace against Odds' courtesy HarperCollins India
Sania: The bride who came in from the back door In a new autobiography, the World No 1 doubles player gets candid about her cross-border shaadi It was in the beautiful little city of Hobart in early 2010, that my life went through a dra matic twist. That evening, my dad, trainer Len and I walked into an Indian restaurant located on the waterfront. A little later, former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik entered, looking for a table, and came towards the corner where we were sitting. He said hello and then approached our table to pay his respects to my father. I had met Shoaib earlier, though very briefly .A journalist had introduced us in the gym of a hotel in New Delhi, a few years back when Pakistan was playing a series in India.
When Shoaib expressed interest in watching me play the next evening, I arranged some tickets for him. He came, accompanied by a couple of his teammates. After the match, my father invited the boys for dinner and while the others had a prior engagement, Shoaib accepted the offer.
We stayed in touch on the phone while travelling for our matches to different cities in Australia. The first thing that drew me towards him was his simplicity . He seemed totally unaffected by his fame. Soon we were talking about almost everything under the sun and realized that we got along rather well.
A couple of months later, Shoaib asked me to marry him. He is not a dramatic person and his proposal was as simple as it can get. He told me that regardless of when it happened, he wanted to marry me. I liked this side of him a lot, as I am a no-fuss person myself.
Many months later, when we were finally married and enjoying a pleasant evening together, I wondered out loud to him, `Imagine if you hadn't come to that restaurant that day. We would have never even met.' That's when he told me it wasn't entirely by chance that he had stepped into the restaurant in Hobart that fateful evening.
One of his teammates, who was already in the restaurant, had called Shoaib to tell him that I was dining there. Shoaib, who had earlier decided against eating out, came rushing. He said, `This time I was determined to get your number.' We still joke about it, knowing it wasn't just `chance' that brought us together.
The decision to get married came naturally to me. I was relatively conservative when it came to marriage. I didn't think it was important for us to date for a long period before deciding. Also, it was getting more difficult for us to keep our relationship under wraps. We did manage for a while though, which is why when it became public, it was a shock to everyone.
I was conscious of the fact that Shoaib belonged to a country which had serious political differences with us. But I had grown up on the tennis circuit where I shared close friendships over the years with people of diverse religions, races and backgrounds from scores of different countries across the globe.I think this experience has broadened my horizons to the extent that I can comfortably embrace relationships on a personal level beyond these constraints. As athletes, you forget such boundaries.
Our plan to keep things under wraps till Shoaib reached India did not quite work out. Murmurs about the impending wedding broke out in the media a few days before his arrival.
Shoaib arrived in Hyderabad from Dubai on 4 April. He did his best to avoid being recognized, but he completely forgot that the bag he was carrying had `Pakistan Cricket Team -Shoaib Malik' emblazoned on it in bold letters! The moment my uncle saw this, he literally jumped on the bag to ensure that nobody noticed what was written on it. And that's pretty much how the madness unfolded over the next few days, in this most tiring, emotionally sapping, frustrating, and sometimes hilarious period of our lives.
The situation took an ugly turn when a woman made allegations against my would-be husband and certain sections of the media on both sides of the border took it upon themselves to discuss threadbare the intricate details of our personal relationship. It would not be wrong to say that for almost two weeks the media went berserk. About two hundred newsmen armed with cameras and microphones, files and pens, camped outside our house and hounded every guest and family member as they entered or left.
On one of those days, amidst all the madness, my father got a frantic call from a relative who sounded hysterical. `Is Sania wearing a green T-shirt?' he questioned. When my Dad answered in the affirmative, he almost screamed, `Draw your curtains! News channels are showing her live right now!' I did not see sunlight for about ten days. All the windows, even the small vents in the bathrooms, had to be covered. A contingent of the press even tailed my father when he went to the mosque for Friday prayers. A couple of them stealthily followed him inside and had the audacity to pull out a small, hidden microphone to ask him ridiculous questions even as he was praying.
Filth and muck began to be thrown around publicly . A section of the media tried to raise a storm about the fact that Shoaib was living with us in our house before marriage. How could he stay with the prospective bride in her house? Was that even allowed under Islam? Many within the family had started to worry if the wedding would actually take place. Some of them advised us to postpone it.Shoaib would have none of it. He said, `I came here to get married to you and I am not leaving until we get married.' Finally, on 12 April 2010, a boy from Pakistan married a girl from India for love amidst an unprecedented media frenzy . As I headed for the biggest occasion of my life, dressed in my bridal finery, my personal car was chased by an army of media men in vans, all the way from my house to Hotel Taj Krishna, where the guests had already gathered for the nikah. To avoid any untoward incident, I was made to enter from the service door at the back of the hotel and through the kitchen area. This was probably another first in the annals of wedding history! Once we were safely inside, the ceremony went off beautifully . It had been a trial by fire but the drama ended on a happy note.
When Roger Federer’s gesture touched Sania Mirza’s heart
He is inarguably the greatest tennis player of all time but what makes Roger Federer, a reverred sportsperson, a legend is his “warmth and care” for colleagues, which even touched Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza’s life on a couple of occasions.
In her autobiography ‘Ace against Odds’, Mirza mentions about two separate incidents when the 17-time Grand Slam singles champion inquired about her well-being after she was dragged into unnecessary controversies, and a hilarious episode involving her best friend and the Swiss.
In 2008, a case was registered against Sania for allegedly disrespecting Indian national flag with her feet up in the players’ box while watching teammate Rohan Bopanna play.
Sania recalls in her book: “When the case was filed against me for alleged disrespect to the national flag, Roger Federer was among first to inquire about the situation and welfare when I reached Melbourne for the Australian Open.”
That was not the only time Federer inquired about Sania’s well-being, as he did the same after the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai.
Sania writes: “He (Federer) also surprised me many months later with a message of concern when Mumbai was tragically struck by terrorist attacks on November 26, 2008. I think this is what makes Roger very, very special because apart from being a legend, a genius and the greatest ever exponent of his craft, he remains warm, caring, accessible, untouched by fame, and a thorough gentleman.”
While these were a couple of touching gestures, there was a hilarious incident which indirectly involved Federer.
During the 2007 Wimbledon, Sania was joined by her childhood friend Rucha Naik and a funny incident took place.
Sania fondly recalls that in her book.
“My best friend from school, Rucha Naik, had joined me for the grass court season in England and it was fun to have her around. She was graduating with a degree in fashion marketing from the University of Lancaster. Rucha was no sports enthusiast and had very little interest or knowledge of tennis, but she was a friend, I loved and cared for. Perhaps that’s why she is one of my best friends.
“I cannot forget the first time she came into the Players’ Lounge at the Wimbledon. Roger Federer walked upto our table at some point and joked with me.
“What is this guy’s name and who does he think he is?” Rucha said rather indignantly as soon as Roger had left the table,” Sania recollects.
“‘Oh, he is just a nice guy who hangs around here at tournaments and plays a bit of tennis, I said wickedly,'” says Sania remembering the incident. (PTI)
2014
Sania, who was 27 in 2014, won:
the mixed doubles crown at the US Open
a gold and a bronze medal at the Asian Games, and
a title in Japan.
She also made it to the final in Beijing.
Above all, in Oct 2014 she won her biggest prize yet in women’s doubles: the WTA Finals -in Singapore. She partnered veteran Zimbabwean Cara Black to the title in her maiden appearance at the event.
Sania and Black ran through their opponents, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai of China — the second seeds and defending champions —winning 12 straight games. They won 6-1, 6-0 in just under an hour.
Sania became the first Indian woman to clinch this title. She shared $500,000 with Black. Sania also became the first Indian, man or woman, in almost four decades to win the season finale. The first and only previous Indian to win the title was Vijay Amritraj in 1977, when he won the men’s event alongside American Dick Stockton.
Sania put the win on a par with her Grand Slams (three mixed doubles titles).
After winning Sania said, “This title is for India, my country.” She added, “This tournament is tougher than a Grand Slam because you are up against the eight best teams in the world,” the superstar pro said. “In a Grand Slam, you have a chance to play yourself in and you are guaranteed of not meeting a top team until the quarters.”
Partnership with Cara
Sania and Cara (born: 1979, and 35 in 2014) started their partnership with victories in Tokyo and Beijing (in late 2013), and finished with the WTA victory.
2015
2015: World No. 1 in doubles
On 12 April 2015 Sania Mirza and partner Martina Hingis achieved World number one rank in doubles after winning the Family Circle Cup title at the WTA. This accomplishment makes Sania the first and only Indian female tennis player to ever achieve the top spot till then. The Family Circle Cup was Sania’s third consecutive title win with Swiss tennis star Martina Hingis propelling the duo to rank one.
2015: US Open
Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis combined power with some sharp play, to clean out the Kazakh-Aussie combine of Yaroslava Shvedova and Casey Dellacqua and clinch their maiden US Open women's doubles title in Sept 2015. The top-seeds from India and Switzerland, claimed their second successive Grand Slam crown, after triumphing in Wimbledon in July, winning 6-3, 6-3 in 70 minutes against the fourth seeds. The champions, the world no.1 pairing pocketed $570,000 for their effort.
2015: Wimbledon
Source: The Times of India
1. The Times of India, July 12, 2015, Jamie Alter
2. The Times of India, July 12, 2015
Sania Mirza, history maker at Wimbledon
The women's doubles final saw at SW19 with the pair of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza having come from behind to win the title. It is, by all means, a momentous achievement for the women's game in India and has put Sania on a pedestal atop which no Indian woman has stepped before.
The country's most successful female tennis player has gone where no compatriot had before. Paired with Hingis, the former world No 1 who was forced into temporary retirement in 2002 at the age of 22, the Hyderabad star rallied back from a shaky start to beat the formidable Russian pairing of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.
In what was an intense match spanning two-and-a-half hours at Centre Court, including a 15-minute hold-up as the retractable roof was closed shut, Sania and Hingis overcame some dominant tennis from the No 2 seeds who were more powerful for the majority of the gripping contest. Sania was broken in the first game and Hingis in the 11th, and the pair lost the first set - the first time in the tournament that they had done so. To win from here was spectacular.
After victory, Hingis reflected on what it felt like to wait 17 years to add a fourth Wimbledon title. "It feels like another life," said the 34-year-old. "But 17 years, usually you're lucky to win it once or happy to be out here and play on the Wimbledon grounds. It's above my expectations."
Sitting next to her, Sania had reason to feel like she'd been waiting a long time to get her hands on the trophy. For it was 12 years ago, in 2003, when as a 16-year-old Sania became the first Indian girl to win a Grand Slam when she triumphed in the doubles' event at Wimbledon, partnering Alisa Kleybanova of Russia. "It means everything to be here today," she said. For Hingis, it was second title in as many days, having won the women's doubles with Sania. Overall it was 18th Major title for the Swiss and third in mixed doubles.
Hingis was back on court less than 24 hours after that win with Sania but showed no sign of fatigue. She served well and was terrific at the net, complementing the Indian Pro.
The road since then had been bumpy, but in 12 years since turning pro she has made India proud on several occasions. While her singles career never reached the heights Sania would have liked, in the doubles' category she has soared.
In 2009, Sania became India's first woman to win a Grand Slam, lifting the Australian Open with Bhupathi. In 2011, she came close to winning a women's double title in 2011 when she partnered Elena Vesnina to the French Open final, but in 2012 the Sania-Mahesh Bhupathi pairing won the French Open and then in 2014 Sania added the US Open crown with Bruno Soares. Now, a Wimbledon championship. Sania Mirza won the women's doubles and Saumit Nagal won the junior boys doubles trophy.
That this achievement came three months after Saina Nehwal became the first Indian woman shuttler to be world No 1 after her India Open Grand Prix Gold triumph is a shot in the arm for female athletes in the country. "I hope this inspires a lot of girls back home, that we can become Grand Slam champions," Sania said at the post-match presentation.
Hingis does not have much time to relax because later on Sunday she will pair up with Paes, 42, for the Wimbledon mixed doubles' final. It could prove to be a bumper tennis weekend for India should Hingis and Paes emerge winners tonight against Austria's Alexander Peya and Hungary's Timea Babos, but what Sania and her partner have achieved will resonate louder than anything that pairing is able to do. This is a big day for the women's game in India.
2015: Winning the Guangzhou Open
The Times of India, September 27, 2015
Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis maintained their impressive run as they clinched their sixth women's doubles title of the year by winning the Guangzhou Open. The top seeded pair produced a dominant performance to claim a comfortable 6-3, 6-1 win over the Chinese duo of Shilin Xu and Xiaodi You.
Oct 2015: Wuhan Open women's doubles trophy
The Times of India, Oct 04 2015
Seventh title of the year for unstoppable Sania-Hingis duo
Ace Indian tennis star Sania Mirza continued her superb run with Swiss partner Martina Hingis as the duo clinched its seventh title together by winning the Wuhan Open women's doubles trophy here.
Without dropping a set all tournament, the top-seeded pair eased past the Romanian team of Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and nine minutes for the title. “Title number 7 #SanTina @mhingis #WuhanOpen,“Sania tweeted accompanied by a picture of the duo with the trophy . The Indo-Swiss pairing has seven WTA doubles titles together this year -Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Wimbledon, the US Open, Guangzhou and Wuhan. They have won their last three tournaments and their last 13 matches without dropping a single set. Sania's partnership with Martina has helped her become the first Indian women's player to take the top spot in the doubles rankings.
Oct: China Open trophy
The Times of India, Oct 11 2015
Sania & Hingis continue hot streak, lift China Open trophy
Extending their incredible unbeaten record, Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis today lifted their eighth trophy of the season and fourth in a row, winning the WTA China Open. The top seeds faced stiff resistance from sixth seed Taipei girls Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan before winning 6-7 (9), 6-1, 10-8 in the final which lasted one hour and 40 minutes.In the match tie-breaker, the two pair were going neck and neck and the score was 7-7 at one stage but Sania and Martina won three of the next four points to clinch the issue. It was fourth title in a row for the Sania-Martina pair. In a remarkable run, they have dropped only two sets in their last 17 matches in four tournaments.
November 2015: Wins WTA finals with Hingis
Other achievements
The Times of India, May 9, 2015
She is the first Indian woman to claim the No.1 position in the world individual doubles ranking. The bighitting Hyderabadi won three WTA titles last year including the prestigious WTA Finals climbing to a high of 5. This season she has already won four doubles titles --the last three with Martina Hingis in Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston. The Steffi Graf and Brad Pitt fan, who also won the 2014 US Open mixed doubles title with Bruno Soares, is looking forward to many more weeks at the top.
2015
M.P. accuses Sania of demanding jet, make up
The Times of India, Dec 03 2015
Ramendra Singh
MP dumps Sania after her demand for jet!
Madhya Pradesh sports department dropped the idea of inviting tennis star Sania Mirza as chief guest for its annual sports awards function after state government refused to meet her demand for a chartered jet and makeup personnel. Sports minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia made the disclosure during a lunch hosted in honour of awardees of 2015.
Instead of inviting Sania, sports minister invited senior badminton coach Pullela Gopichand to attend the function. Gopichand is also the technical advisor of the MP badminton academy .
Yashodhara Raje wanted Sania to attend this year's function and due to her unavailability the award function could not be held on August 29. “I was in touch with her for past few months.I was shocked when I received a list of demands from her,“ the minister said.
She said: “She has undoubtedly made India proud but her demands were unacceptable. She wanted MP government to arrange Rs 75,000 worth make-up kit and a chartered jet with five business class tickets.“
She said, “When I asked her manager that Sania is not a Bollywood star and she was invited to motivate budding players, her reply was that even Sania is a big star today.“
Citing her inability to give in to such demands she said, “We are accountable to public money . We can't spend money on anyone's personal make-up kit.“
She claimed she received the list of demands just four days before the function. “Everything was set as I was given the date of November 28 by her. I had even directed department officials to make necessary arrangements to organise the event. However, her demands forced me to drop her name and I said no to her,“ she claimed.
Sania’s clarification
The Times of India, Dec 04 2015
Sania denies asking money to attend function
Indian tennis star Sania Mirza refuted media reports that she demanded money to attend the Madhya Pradesh Sports Awards ceremony, saying that she only asked for a private jet to save time. Sania denied asking for Rs 5 lakh to attend the event in a statement issued by her official agency KWAN.
“We had been directly dealing with the concerned persons in order to facilitate Ms Mirza's visit for the event in which she was very keen to participate. It was to take place in Bhopal on 28th November 2015 and we are well acquainted with the negotiations that were under way ,“ said the statement from KWAN which was tweeted by Sania.
“There was never any demand for an amount of Rs.5 lakh on this occasion made by the Agency, as suggested by the media reports.“
Partnership with Hingis
The Times of India, Sep 15 2015
Prajwal Hegde
Sania & Hingis: A fire & ice combo
When Sania Mirza is teeing off from the back of the court and Martina Hingis is all over the net, if they weren't so pleasing to watch -a gentle breeze combining with cyclonic winds, calming and devastating all at once -you'd want to call their performance machinelike. In their charge to the US Open women's doubles title, the world No.1 pair lost just 26 games, six of them in the final against the KazakhAussie combine of Yaroslava Shvedova and Casey Dellacqua.
Hingis pinned their success to their combined power. “The way Sania was playing the last three-four matches was incredible,“ she said. “She was hitting bombs from the baseline and I was able to pick it up and hit some good volleys. That's what works best for us. We felt like there was a little bit of nervousness, especially today , but I know I have the same support and trust that I have for her shots and for her game. It's building up every time we step out on the court together.“
Sania, who has played with a number of partners, trying and testing, looking for the right combination, rued that the duo hadn't come together earlier. “We started playing in March in America and we won three out of three. That rarely happens,“ the Indian ace said. “We hit it off and now we have become friends. We were more acquaintances before. I think it helps in tough moments like today , when you're struggling to close out matches.We trust each other on and off the court. That helps us through tough moments on the court. We try to help each other out if the other one is struggling. If both of us are not struggling then we win tournaments!“ “We are happy to win our second Slam together,“ said Sania. “We didn't think when we started playing this was going to happen so soon. We are the No. 1 team in the world, so we have to keep building on this.“
Hingis said, given their march to six titles this year, two of them in Grand Slams, the duo was playing with confidence. “The only match I felt a bit lame was against the Chan sisters,“ she said. “Every time in the beginning against them it is the same thing, but we managed to get through those difficult moments.With Sania in the Grand Slams, the big events, she peaks unbelievable.I can manage the volleys at the net.She sets me up great. We have our strategies and when she puts some volleys in it's a bonus; when I hit some winners from the baseline or I win some points that's like even extra bonus.“
Hingis pointed out that increasing number of singles players are playing doubles, even if they aren't finding success at first. “Flavia (Pennetta) won the singles title on Saturday, but we beat them in the semifinals. And it was like 4 and 1,“ she said. “So it's not like the women's singles players don't play, but only sometimes they are successful, like Sara Errani or Vinci.“
August 2016: Poor results end Hingis partnership
PTI | Aug 11, 2016 Poor results in recent times led to split: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis
Sania and the Swiss great began their partnership in March 2015 with a bang, winning three titles on the trot -- at Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston.
• Sania became World No 1 in partnership with Martina when they won the Charleston event.
• The pair clarified the split would not affect their personal relationship in any way.
In an unexpected development, Sania and Hingis decided to end their partnership that took the tennis world by storm last year when they won nine titles including the 2016-end WTA championship .
- After three Grand Slam victories and eleven WTA doubles titles together, we have mutually agreed that we would each be open to playing with other players for the remainder of the season. Perhaps, because of our great past results, we have had very high expectations from our partnership and unfortunately did not get the results we desired recently. We would like to clarify that it was a totally professional decision based purely on our recent results. The professional decision has not and will not in any way affect the wonderful personal relationship that we continue to share. We also look forward to defending our title in the year-end WTA Finals in Singapore in October for which Santina has already qualified. We hope that this puts to rest some of the fabricated stories that have been doing the rounds in some sections of the media. Best Sania and Martina
Rohan Alvares, Dec 21 2016 : The Times of India
The `divorce' with Hingis especially came as a surprise, despite the fact that the duo was struggling to replicate the magic that illuminated a good part of the partnership. The timing of it particularly caught many off guard, bang in the middle of Mirza's Olympic quest. It sparked the rumour mill to life, making the need for clarity essential, Mirza said. “It was the first day we were going to play in Rio. Somehow the news had leaked out. We had actually split three days befo re that in Montreal. We had a conversation right after our match in Montreal, literally in the locker room.
“We both felt we were missing that magic we had for that year and a half,“ she said of the period which yielded three Grand Slam titles, 11 WTA titles and a remarkable 41-winning match streak.
“We made that decision and we decided to keep it low for a couple of days. We were actually going to announce it after the Olympics which was the original plan.
“One or two people leaked it and all kinds of things were being said. As usual, people didn't want to find out facts about what was going on. That's why the timing felt bad even to us. It was not some big secret. That's why we had to come out (with a statement) before people started making up more rubbish Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis maintained that the decision to end their astonishing partnership+ was due to the failure to achieve the "desired results" and added they would play together one last time in the season-ending WTA Finals in October 2016.
There are more details of this partnership under ‘2015’ and ‘2016’ on this page
2016
January: Wins Brisbane International
The Times of India Jan 10 2016
Sania-Martina pair makes it 26 in a row
Brisbane
The world's top women doubles pair of Sania Mirza (India) and Martina Hingis (Switzerland) started the New Year on a brilliant note by clinching the title of the $1 million Brisbane International at the Queensland Tennis Centre here on Saturday. The top seeded pair took just an hour and 10 minutes to beat German wild card pair of Angelique Kerber, who lost the women's singles final earlier in the day to Victoria Azarenka, and Andrea Petkovic 7-5, 6-1 at the Pat Rafter Arena.
“Every match at the beginning of the season is a good match. It's great we already have this Brisbane title in our pockets and we're really looking forward to Sydney ,“ Hingis said after the match.
This is their 26th win in a row, first title of 2016 and 10th overall. They have now won six titles on the trot -the longest winning streak in the category since 1994 when Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva were on a 28 match-winning streak.
AZARENKA WINS FIRST TITLE IN TWO YEARS
Brisbane: Victoria Azarenka displayed the form that could lead her to a hat-trick of Australian Open titles this month by brushing aside German fourth seed Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-1 in the Brisbane International final on Saturday .
FEDERER TO PLAY MILOS IN BRISBANE FINAL
Brisbane: Swiss maestro Roger Federer reached his third successive Brisbane International final on Saturday when he crushed Dominic Thiem in a lopsided semifinal. Federer took just 60 minutes to down the eighth-seeded Austrian 6-1, 6-4 and said afterwards it was the best he had played all week.
RADWANSKA CLAIMS SHENZEN CROWN
Shenzen: Poland's top tennis star Agnieszka Radwanska celebrated her rise to the top four of the world rankings with a 6-3, 6-2 thumping of Alison Riske in the Shenzhen Open final on Saturday , her 18th WTA career title.
SPIRITED STEPHENS BAGS AUCKLAND TITLE
Auckland: Sloane Stephens ground down unseeded German Julia Goerges 7-5, 6-2 to win the Auckland Classic on Saturday , the American ending a busy day at the office with a confidence-boosting triumph ahead of the Australian Open.
Jan 15, 16: WTA Apia International title
The Times of India, Jan 16 2016
Sania & Martina are queens of Sydney
India's Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis reached the women's doubles final in the WTA Sydney International in Jan 2016 after winning their 29th match in a row. In the process, they surpassed the 28-match winning streak achieved by Puerto Rican Gigi Fernandez and Belarus' Natasha Zvereva in 1994. The world No. 1 pair came from behind to beat Romanian RalucaOlaru and Kazakhstan's YaroslavaShvedova 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 in a closelyfoughtsemifinal. Sania and Martina's next target will be 44 -the number of matches the dynamic Czech duo of Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova won consecutively in 1989-90. The record stands in the name of the legendary Martina Navratilova and her long-time doubles partner Pam Shriver, who were undefeated in 109 matches.
Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis' awe-inspiring run continued unabated as they lifted their second trophy of the season with the WTA Apia International title after clinching their 30th win a row. The triumph over Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic though was not without initial hiccups as the top seeds lost the first set meekly before eking out a 1-6, 7-5, 10-5 win in one hour and 13 minutes. The world number one team trailed 1-6, 1-4 at one stage but they yet again came out unscathed, levelling the second set 5-5 and then sealed it to stretch it to a Super tie-breaker. It was the 11th title together for the Indo-Swiss pair as continuing the good show from 2015 when they won 9 titles including the year-end WTA finale.
Australian Open 2016: Wins women’s doubles final, loses mixed doubles semi
The Times of India, Jan 30 2016
Martina Hingis walked into the post-championship press conference alone. The 3 5 ye a ro l d w a s asked about her feelings, following the 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 win over 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 win over the Czech pair of LucieHradecka and Andrea Hlavackova in the final of the Australian Open, achieved alongside India's heavy-hitting Sania Mirza just moments earlier. “I feel lonely without my partner,“ the Swiss quipped. On blow-hot, blow cold Friday evening in Melbourne, Sania and Martina, nicknamed `Santina', coasted to their 36th straight win and third successive major crown, leaving them one short of a Grand Slam sweep. The champions, disbealief writ large across their faces, l after a Hradecka forehand sailed d wide on their fourth championg ship point, rushed to embrace, . reiterating the power of two, the foundation of their partnership.
Sania, whose play swung be tween stout and sharp in the onehour-49-minute final, was back on court shortly after for the mixed doubles semifinals, where she and Croat Ivan Dodig fell to Russian Elena Vesnina and Brazil's Bruno Soares 5-7, 6-7 (4-7). The Indians busy schedule meant the Swiss took on the media alone. Top seeds Sania and Hingis took home $635,000 for their titlewinning run. The Hyderabadi, who won the mixed doubles here with Mahesh Bhupathi in 2009, had also made two other finals in the mixed event in Melbourne.
The fancied pairing started slowly, clearly hungover from Thursday's quarterfinal clash where they played each other in the mixed doubles ¬ Hingis partnering Leander Paes and Sania in tandem with Dodig. It was a match where plenty was riding for the two Indians involved ¬ not points but pride, not success but supremacy .
“The mixed doubles took a lot out of both of us (Martina and me), it wasn't easy, especially given that we played it before a major final,“Sania told TOI from Melbourne. “ After we came off the court and we went to our lockers, which is two lockers away from each other... Funny we haven't spoken about this. Tina came over and hugged me and there were tears in both our eyes. That was a tough one for both of us. But the victory was in the way we came out today , together, as a team.“
Wimbledon: loses mixed and women's doubles
India's Sania Mirza and Croatia's Ivan Dodig, top-seeds in the mixed-doubles, crashed to a 6-4, 3-6, 5-7 loss to the British wildcard combine of Neal Skupski and Anna Smith.
Then the Sania-Hingis duo crashed out of the Wimbledon quarter final.
August: WTA world Number 1 doubles ranking
Aug 23 2016 : The Times of India Sania takes doubles pole position
Sania Mirza upped her big hitting game to take sole possession of the WTA world number one doubles ranking. The Indian teamed up with Czech Barbora Strycova to clinch the WTA Premier event title in Cincinnati on Sunday . In the final, Sania and Strycova, playing together for the first time, beat Swiss Martina Hingis and American Coco Vandeweghe 7-5, 6-4.
The 29-year-old will occupy the top spot in the rankings and her former partner Hingis, with who she held the no.1 position jointly , dropped to the second place.
Hingis came to Cincinnati after claiming the silver medal in the Olympics, partnering with Timea Bacsinszky . In the final on Sunday , Hingis and American Vandeweghe went ahead 5-1 before Sania and Strycova battled back to close out the match in straight sets.
“The biggest quality we both have that we discovered together, is that we both fight no matter what the score is,“ Sania said. “During the whole week when we were down we were just fighting. That's how we felt today .“
“It's not a easy because we are still good friends. The first we tournament we split and we come and we have to play each other,“ she said.
Connecticut Open: won with Monica Niculescu
Sania Mirza received a doubles title victory at the Connecticut Open with Monica Niculescu of Romania here. Sania and Niculescu capped off their newly rekindled doubles partnership with their first title together with a straight set victory over the duo of Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine and Chuang Chia-Jung of Taiwan in the final. The Indo-Romanian pair won 7-5, 6-4 in the summit clash that lasted one hour and 30 minutes. After pocketing a tough first set 7-5, Sania and Niculescu won a tightly contested second set 6-4 en route to lifting the trophy. The last time Sania and Niculescu partnered up was way back in 2010, where they joined forces to reach the quarterfinals at the Western and Southern Open. They played that one tournament together before calling time on the partnership. Sania recently parted ways with Swiss Martina Hingis after a hugely successful partnership.
Pan Pacific, Cincinnati won; US Open lost with Barbora Strycova
Sep 25 2016 Mirza-Strycova duo prevails
Toray Pan Pacific Final Ends As One-Sided Affair With Straight Sets Win
India's Sania Mirza and her Czech partner Barbora Strycova posted a comfortable straight-set win over unseeded Chinese pair of Chen Liang and Zhaoxuan Yang to lift the Toray Pan Pacific Open title here on Saturday. The second seeded Indo-Czezh com bination had an easy outing against the Chinese duo as they took just 51minutes to down their rivals 6-1, 6-1 in the final of the women's doubles event.
This is Sania and Strycova's second title in three tournaments since they have paired together. In August 2016, Sania and Strycova won the Cincinnati Open title with a 7-5, 6-4 win in the final against Martina Hingis and Coco Vandeweghe.
However, Sania and Strycova were ousted from the US Open after losing to Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic.
80 weeks as No.1; 4th best in world history
Sania Mirza completes 80 consecutive weeks as World No.1, TNN |The Times of India: Oct 19, 2016
- Sania Mirza completed 80 consecutive weeks as World No.1
- The 29-year-old Hyderabadi, became the first Indian woman to hold the No.1 ranking after winning the Volvo Car Open
- Mirza had pipped Hingis to take the sole possession of the WTA doubles number one ranking in August 2016
[In mid October 2016] Indian tennis star Sania Mirza's 'numero uno' status in women's double ranking hit a marvellous 80 consecutive week and she let the world know about the achievement via twitter.
To put this achievement in to perspective, only three other women's doubles players have held on to the top spot at one go more than Mirza, and they are Martina Navratilova (181 weeks), Cara Black (145)and Liezel Huber (134).
The 29-year-old Hyderabadi, who became the first Indian woman to hold the No.1 ranking after winning the Volvo Car Open in Charleston with 8885 points while her former partner Hingis is at 8560 points.
After holding the women's doubles top slot for jointly with Hingis, Mirza finally pipped her to take the sole possession of the WTA doubles number one ranking in August this year when she teamed up with Barbora Strycova to beat and Coco Vandeweghe in Cincinnati Open final.
Sania, who along with Swiss Martina Hingis, formed a formidable combine, dubbed Santina, won 13 titles in a 12-month period, their streak of 41 successive wins was snapped in St Petersburg in February. In the next six months, the duo won just one title in Rome on clay, triggering the split in August.
Oct 30, 2016
WTA Finals: Defending champions Indian star Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis lost a hard-fought semi-final to crash out of the WTA Finals.
2017
Jan: three finals and one title
Jan 07, 2017
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza won the Brisbane International women's doubles title, but ended up losing the World No 1 crown to her partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Jan 12, 2017
Sydney International: Sania Mirza-Barbora Strycova made it to the final of the WTA Apia International with Czech partner Barbora Strycova, in Sydney.
Kumaraswamy K, SANIA-DODIG LOSE IN MIXED DOUBLES FINAL, Jan 30 2017 : The Times of India
In Jan 2017 Sania reached three finals (all in Australia) and won one title.
Mirza and Croatian Ivan Dodig played well below their second-seed tag and were run over by American Abigail Spears and Colombian Juan Sebastian Cabal 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and four minutes in the mixed doubles final of the Australian Open.
Mirza went out in the third round in the women's doubles partnering Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic, but the pair also reached back to back finals in Brisbane and Sydney in the lead-up the year's first major.
Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold
Fit-again Saina Nehwal lifts Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold, Jan 22, 2017: The Times of India
HIGHLIGHTS
The top-seeded London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina triumphed 22-20, 22-20 in a 46-minute clash.
This was Saina's 23rd title overall and the first after last year's Australian Open.
The two were meeting for the first time in the circuit and Saina was on the backfoot in the opening game.
SARAWAK (Malaysia): Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal notched up her first title after a career-threatening injury by claiming the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold with a hard-fought victory in the summit clash.
Up against 18-year-old Thai Pornpawee Chochuwong, the top-seeded London Olympics bronze-medallist triumphed 22-20, 22-20 in a 46-minute clash. This was her 23rd title overall and the first after last year's Australian Open. The 26-year-old world No.10, who had been desperately looking for a title that boosts her confidence after recovering from a knee surgery last year, was squaring off against a rival ranked more than 50 places below her at 67th. The two were meeting for the first time in the circuit and Saina was on the backfoot in the opening game when Chochuwong reeled off four consecutive points to grab the early initiative.
Chochuwong maintained the advantage going forward and was placed 11-5 at the break. However, Saina narrowed the gap to make it 10-13 before drawing level at 19-19 and then saving a game point. Chochuwong could not handle the pressure thereafter as Saina drew from her experience to clinch the opening game after a 20-minute slog.
In the second game as well, Chochuwong was quicker off the blocks with a 3-0 lead but this time Saina did not leave it for too late and took the lead at 7-5. The Thai teenager, however, drew level at 8-8 and 11-11 but Saina did not allow her to clinch the momentum.
Brand ambassador for Telangana
2017/ Evades service tax
Mahesh Buddi, Service tax rap on Sania, Feb 10, 2017: The Times of India
Tennis star Sania Mirza has been served summons by service tax sle uths for alle gedly evading tax on the `1 crore she recei ved from Telangana government for being the `brand ambassador' of the youngest state in the country .
She has been directed to appear in person or through an authorised agent on Feb 16.The tennis star cannot go abroad now without of ficial permission. On July 22, 2014, CM K Chandrasekhar Rao had anointed Sania as the brand ambassador and also handed `1 crore cheque to the tennis ace to promote Telangana.
Subsequently , the CM rewarded her with `1 crore on Sept 11, 2014, for winning the US Open mixed-doubles title.This reward for US Open win was non-taxable but service tax sleuths said that Sania has to pay about `20 lakh for the amount she has received for being the brand ambassador.
2020
Comeback marred by injury
Prajwal Hegde, January 24, 2020: The Times of India
MELBOURNE: Sania Mirza walked onto court in her comeback Slam, the Australian Open, on one leg and hope. The 33-year-old, severely limited, with an injured right calf, which became glaring as the match progressed, particularly when she was moving to the right or when she served, was forced to retire from the contest. Sania, playing a major after 27 months, paired with Ukraine's Nadiia Kichenok, threw in the towel at 2-6, 0-1 in the women's doubles clash after 33 minutes of action against the Chinese combine of Xinyun Han and Lin Zhu. The Indian, who came on court, with her calf strapped, took a medical time-out after the first set, when the strapping was fortified. But she clearly couldn't continue. The Indo-Ukrainian duo won just 16 of the 50 points played.
Sania, who returned to the Tour last week in Hobart, where she clinched the title with Kichenok, strained her calf during the final on Saturday. "It got quite bad in a couple of games," she said of the injury. "It was a bit of a bad strain, but I got a few days off. I tried whatever I could to get on the court. It felt ok when I got on the court, but it was tough to move to the right. It was spasming every time I moved in that direction."
"As a tennis player, you want to compete. It is a Grand Slam. If it was any other tournament, you'll take a call, you don't want to risk it, but at a Grand Slam you want to try to do everything you can. It's a tough call," Sania, a multiple-time doubles and mixed doubles major winner, said. "If it had worsened in the last five days I wouldn't have stepped on court."
The Hyderabadi, whose 15-month-old son was at the tournament crèche when she took the court, said she didn't want to do greater damage to her leg. "Instead of being out for a couple of weeks, I'd be out for six weeks if I aggravated it," she said. "The last time I tore a muscle was in the final of the Australian Open mixed (in 2017), it was an abdominal muscle. Something about my muscles and Melbourne."
Sania said she couldn't pin the injury to any one thing, except that she played four straight matches on her triumphant return in Hobart. "The body doesn't react the same way anymore," she said. "It could've been anything, playing all those matches, the wind, the cold. It was really cold in Hobart. It was freezing in the quarters and semis. But when I strained it in the final, the weather was the warmest. You don't really know how it happens.
"The timing is unfortunate. When you play professional sport, injury is part of it."
Sania will be seen in action on the WTA Tour in February in Dubai and then Doha, most likely with Caroline Garcia.
Comeback: wins doubles title in Hobart
In a dream start to her second innings after a two-year break, Sania Mirza lifted the WTA Hobart International trophy with partner Nadiia Kichenok after edging out Shaui Peng and Shuai Zhang in the final.
The unseeded Indo-Ukrainian pair pipped the second seed Chinese team 6-4 6-4 in one hour 21 minutes.
Playing her first tournament after giving birth to son Izhaan, the 33-year-old Sania has begun well in the Olympic year as she warmed up for the Australian Open in style.
It is Sania's 42nd WTA doubles title and first since Brisbane International trophy in 2007 with American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Sania did not compete on the WTA circuit in the entire 2018 and 2019 seasons to start a family with Pakistani cricketer husband Shoaib Malik.
Sania and Nadiia began by breaking the Chinese players in the very first game of the match but only to drop serve in the next.
The two pairs played close games towards the end and at 4-4, 40-all, Sania and Nadiia got the crucial break, earning the opportunity to serve out the set.
There was no twist in 10th game with Sania and Nadiia comfortably pocketing the first set.
The second set could not have started better for them as they broke the Chinese rivals to take early lead and consolidated the break with an easy hold.
The game of the Chinese was falling apart as they dropped serve again in the third but broke back immediately to repair some damage.
Sania and Nadiia were now feeling the heat at 0-30 in the sixth game but Peng and Zhang let them hold serve for a 4-2 lead. The Chinese though kept fighting and made it 4-4 with another break in the eighth game.
The Indo-Ukraine team raised its game when it mattered as it broke Peng and Zhang for one final time in the ninth and served out the match in the next game.
Sania and Nadiia split USD 13580 as prize money and eared 280 ranking points each for their winning effort.
Fed Cup Heart Award
Prajwal.Hegde May 12, 2020: The Times of India
Bengaluru: If there’s one thing Sania Mirza’s return game has shown in the first three months of 2020, it’s heart.
The 33-year-old, back on the road after a difficult pregnancy, won her first tournament on her comeback in January. A few days later, she hobbled out of the Australian Open in tears, a calf injury severely restricting her movement. The three-cm tear had healed by the time she was back on court in late February, but she struggled to get going in WTA tournaments in Dubai and then Doha.
Unfazed, Sania soldiered on, preparing for India’s Asia-Oceania Group 1 Fed Cup engagements. With her 18-monthold son Izhaan in the stands, the Indian star won her three doubles clashes, playing alongside Ankita Raina, as she powered an inexperienced side that included Rutuja Bhosle, Sowjanya Bavisetti and Riya Bhatia to the playoffs for the first time.
It’s only fitting then that she walk away with the Fed Cup Heart Award (Asia Oceania Group 1), carrying a cash prize of $2,000 to be donated to a charity of the Indian’s choice, which is the Telangana Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
The Award, instituted in 2009, gives fans a chance to vote for players who have represented their country with distinction, shown exceptional courage on the court and demonstrated outstanding commitment to the team.
“It’s an honour to win the Fed Cup Heart Award as the first Indian,” said Mirza, who was also India’s first Heart Award nominee. “I dedicate this award to the entire country and to all my fans and thank everyone for voting for me. I hope to bring more laurels to the country in the future.”
2021
Cleveland
Sania Mirza And Christina McHale Sail Into Women’s Doubles Final.
2022
Wimbledon mixed doubles
Sania Mirza and Croatia’s Mate Pavic tuned their partnership into a well-oiled unit to put out fourth seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Aussie John Peers 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 and make the Wimbledon mixed doubles semifinals.
Sania, who has won mixed doubles titles in the other three Grand Slams, hadn’t made it past the quarterfinals on Church Road
Sania Mirza and Croatian Mate Pavic led their Wimbledon mixed doubles semifinal by a set and a break but were unable to bring it home against the No. 2 seeds — Briton Neal S kupski and American Desirae Krawczyk. Skupski, who was tended to by the trainer early in the second set after he was broken for the second time in the match in the opening game, manag ed to turn things around for the British-American pairing.
Sania and Pavic lost momentum after the medical time-out and went down 6-4, 5-7, 4-6
A summing up
Jac Gladson sums up
JAC Gladson , February 22, 2023: The Times of India
From: JAC Gladson , February 22, 2023: The Times of India
From: JAC Gladson , February 22, 2023: The Times of India
Around the time the world was concerned by the fallout of Y2k, the sporting fraternity in Hyderabad was abuzz with excitement. The arrival of new talent is usually greeted with much mirth and cynicism in Indian circles but there was little of that in this case. Instead, the sporting circles were excited about a talented girl who would go on to leave an indelible mark on tennis courts the world over.
Much in the manner of coming, seeing and conquering, Sania Mirza had arrived and also walked into the sunset of her career following a 6-4, 6-0 defeat she and her partner, Madison Keys, suffered to Veronika Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova at the Dubai Open.
Thirty years had lapsed in between. Twenty of them on the professional circuit with Sania racking up quite a few firsts and achieving what many can only dream of.
It is never easy to be the first, to find your way in uncharted territory, and come up trumps. There were detractors too. There were remarks about tennis changing her complexion, too. Her parents were also taunted “for wanting to produce another Martina Hingis.”
That Sania acquitted herself very well is a testimony to her grit to succeed against odds. That will, determination or steely resolve to succeed one sees in Hyderabadi sportspersons -- ask the Australians and they will recount how they loved to see the back of VVS Laxman. Sania perhaps knew her place in the sun!
Turning professional in 2003 and winning the junior Wimbledon girls’ doubles title was just the beginning of a long career full of twists and turns. Sania traversed a career path that rivaled cricket in her time for popularity and controversy.
Perhaps controversies without reason and before one could even say Alisa Kleybanova (her junior Wimbledon partner). From her attire to bold statements on her T-shirts and her outspokenness, every action and reaction of Sania was under the scanner.
If it mattered, Sania disguised it well. Like on court, where she found her best expression, and as she loved to play her game, she went for broke with a stinging forehand that was the envy of many.
The Hyderabad Open title at Fateh Maidan in February 2005 at the expense of ninth-seeded Alona Bondarenko sparked huge expectations, coming as it did after her exploits in the Australian Open earlier that year, when she had lost to eventual champion Serena Williams in the third round.
Her good run continued as she reached the third round of the Stanford Classic and the final of the Forest Hills Classic to become the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam (US Open) -- where she lost to top seed Maria Sharapova.
At the 2006 Australian Open, Sania became the first Indian female seeded player. The 2007 summer hardcourt season was a standout for the Hyderabadi as she finished eighth in the US Open series standings and reached her career high singles world ranking of No. 27.
Sania also made amends for her runners-up finish in 2008 at the Australian Open mixed doubles final with Mahesh Bhupathi by winning it the next year but the game was taking a toll on her body and pain was constant.
Both her knees went under the scalpel and then her right wrist -- not in that order, though. Injuries come with the territory. Like they say, it’s fine to fall down but a crime not to get up, more so in sport, where constant reinvention is the name of the game.
Sania came up trumps there too with different partners. SanTina -- Sania and Martina Hingis -- proved to be the best. From No. 6 in her doubles ranking in 2015, Sania moved up to No. 3 and in April 2015 became No. 1 by winning the Family Circle Cup with Hingis.
Sania’s first Grand Slam women’s doubles title also came with Hingis when they won the Wimbledon final, coming back from the dead. The US Open and Australian Open titles followed. Their 41-match win streak in 2015-16 is second only to Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova’s 44.
But like all good things, the SanTina partnership also ended. Sania had 82 different partners in women’s doubles and 16 in mixed doubles. Tears will be shed copiously, and tributes paid because six Grand Slam titles, 43 doubles titles, three mixed titles, two gold, three silver, three bronze in Asian Games, a silver and bronze in Commonwealth Games and four gold medals in Afro-Asian Games don’t come easy.
Sania’s been there and done that -- a sporting and fashion icon who inspired many girls and women along the way. Making a winning return at Hobart International in 2020 post motherhood is a case in point.
There’s been a Sindhu after Saina Nehwal, but there’s been no other like Sania!
Her father-coach Mirza recalls
February 22, 2023: The Times of India
Sania Mirza’s father and coach Imran Mirza talks about the phenomenal career of his star daughter.
SANIA IN THE MAKING
In tennis, it is not possible to come up without a struggle despite the money you have. It is very risky, but we managed to find sponsors. We had to take a lot of nonsense from a lot of them funding her because she did not have a name then. They were doing it almost like a favour. There was a time when for a junior we needed around Rs 50 lakh per year for her travel. You cannot make it to the professional circuit without playing at the junior level, especially coming from India.
We have always been a sporting family. There are mostly cricketers in the family who played and enjoyed the game at various levels. We followed tennis also closely. I thought tennis would be a better choice for a girl. My wife put her in Nizam Club when she was six years old. Within a week I got a call from the coach that I need to come and watch her play.
For six months, I avoided. Then we were also struggling financially. I had to leave work. But when I did go, I could see it. I also used to cover sport at that time. Then it was not like she is going to win Wimbledon. It was more like she will become something in the state, get a rank in India. We enjoyed every moment, whether it was state ranking U-10, where she reached the final.
We completely removed parental pressure from her game. It was never about winning, always about enjoying the game. She kept on performing, we kept on encouraging her. At 14 she was the youngest to play junior Wimbledon and won a round there in 2001.
2023: The New York Times
Christopher Clarey, January 29, 2023: The Times of India
From: Christopher Clarey, January 29, 2023: The Times of India
“Keep fighting,” Serena Williams said to an 18-year-old Sania Mirza when they met at the net after a match at the Australian Open. That was in January 2005, and Mirza, strong-minded to begin with, took even more strength from the advice.
Mirza, who started playing tennis on courts made of cow dung, became the most successful women’s tennis player in India’s history at an early age but kept pushing for more, experiencing success above all in doubles and in inspiring women from South Asia and beyond to think bigger.
“I hope that I have been able to tell young girls and show young girls that they can achieve and do whatever they want in their lives, no matter how many odds are stacked against them and no matter how many times they are told they can’t do it, or it’s silly or it’s stupid,” Mirza said in an interview last week. “I hope that I have been able to bring that little mindset shift where becoming an athlete can be a career option for a young girl, and I mean the first option.”
On January 27, nearly 18 years to the day after that third-round defeat to Williams, Mirza reached the end of her Grand Slam journey: losing in the Australian Open mixed-doubles final with her compatriot Rohan Bopanna to Luisa Stefani and Rafael Matos of Brazil 7-6 (2), 6-2.
It was a fittingly big stage for a farewell: Rod Laver Arena on a sun-kissed afternoon, even if the stands were far from full. Doubles, even with Mirza in the mix, remains a sideshow to singles. Mirza, 36, and Bopanna, 42, certainly looked the part of veterans: Bopanna a bit heavier around the middle now with streaks of grey in his thick beard; Mirza with heavy white tape on her right calf and more tape on her left leg.
“I looked like a mummy,” Mirza said with a chuckle. “But the fact is, you have to accept that we are on the wrong side as a tennis player, of age at least, and you have to manage your body.” Injury delay
Mirza intended to retire at the end of last season but tore a tendon in her right forearm in August and found herself struggling to comb her hair. She decided to come back and then retire, which she will do so after playing two regular tour events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai next month.
“I was like, ‘Well, I can’t have this forearm dictate what I’m going to do,” she said. “This is part of my personality. It’s very difficult for me to accept being forced to do something, maybe anything. I just cannot be that person. If you tell me to have a cup of tea, I might like to have that cup of tea, but I want to have it on my own terms. That’s just who I am. And that goes into smaller things and bigger things in my life.”
One of the most touching moments of her final Australian Open was her four-year-old son, Izhaan, running across the big blue court into her arms after she and Bopanna won their semifinal.
Izhaan is old enough to have a memory of what Mirza has called her “last dance”, and though mothers are extending their careers more frequently on the WTA Tour — see Tatjana Maria, Victoria Azarenka and perhaps soon Naomi Osaka, Angelique Kerber and Elina Svitolina — parenthood is one of the reasons Mirza is ready to move on.
“It was very important to me that I be asked why I’m leaving and not when I’m leaving,” she said. “I would like to have a quieter life. I would not like to have this grind of doing this day in and day out and want to spend more time with my son, more quality time. I don’t want him to be a nomad travelling for 25 weeks a year.” She added, “And also my body. I’m pretty beat, and I would like to not feel pain when I wake up in the morning for a change and be pressed on and prodded on and have needles being put in.” Wild card Mirza, who married Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik in 2010, said this sitting in a small interview room in a building at Melbourne Park that, like so many structures here, did not exist when she first arrived in 2005 with a world ranking of 166. That was too low for direct entry but with the Australian Open eager to build its regional connections and identity, she received a wild card as the top eligible Asian player.
In her debut, she became the first Indian woman to reach the third round of a major in singles, losing 6-4, 6-1 to Williams, and reached the fourth round at the US Open later that year. She was a confident teenager with a big forehand and personality, but injuries and her limited mobility kept her from improving on those results in singles, peaking at No. 27 in the rankings in 2007. Instead, she used her strengths to become No. 1 in doubles, winning six Grand Slam titles, three of them in mixed.
Mirza became a major star in India — she has 10.9mn followers on Instagram (for comparison, Novak Djokovic has 12mn) — but not outside her region.
“What you forget is that Indians are everywhere,” she said with a laugh. “And it’s not just the Indian people; it’s also the people from the subcontinent: the Pakistanis and the Bangladeshis and the Sri Lankans. We are everywhere, and the fact is, when I go to a restaurant in Melbourne, and I walk there, I’m stopped here, too. But having said that, it obviously wasn’t as crazy as it was back home.”
In other countries, her tennis results would not have brought her the same level of recognition, but she has been a trailblazer even if no Indian women’s player has followed her all the way down that trail.
“I think Indians looked at her with a lot of pride and a lot of prejudice,” said Prajwal Hegde, tennis editor for TOI and one of the few women covering the sport worldwide. “That’s because of everything. She was a woman. She was outspoken. She was bold. She was daring.”
Sleeping giant
Since Mirza’s emergence, China has had a first women’s major singles champion as have Latvia, Denmark, Canada and Japan. But India has remained an outsider, despite its 1.4bn people and rich legacy of men’s tennis players like Ramanathan Krishnan, Ramesh Krishnan, Vijay Amritraj, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes. No Indian woman is ranked in the top 200 in singles this week. The sleeping tennis giant remains just that.
“I have been asked about who is next a lot, a lot,” Mirza said. “And I have always come up empty with that answer unfortunately.” She agrees that it comes down to structures and said that all the Indian players, men or women, who have risen high in the game agree that they have done it “despite the system, not because of it”.
For Mirza, “we are a cricketing nation, but we are not really a sporting nation”. But she intends to keep contributing to the tennis effort: through her eponymous academies in Dubai and Hyderabad.
But she is not quite done playing yet, even if her Grand Slam days are done, and on January 27, as she took to the microphone after her last final in Melbourne, she choked up but pushed on, flashing back to facing Williams. “That was scary enough 18 years ago,” she said. “And I have had the privilege to come back here again and again.” She did not quite go out a champion, but she has been one, on her own terms.
