Revision as of 14:54, 12 July 2015

12 April 2015: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis after winning the Family Circle Cup title

Sania Mirza

Sania Mirza

2014

The Times of India

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.

Graphic courtesy: The Times of India

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.

Other achievements

The Times of India, May 9, 2015

The 28-year-old 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.

Wimbledon: 2015

Switzerland's Martina Hingis and India's Sania Mirza pose with the winner's trophies after beating Russia's Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the women's doubles final of the Wimbledon 2015 in London. (AFP Photo)

The Times of India, Jul 12, 2015

Jamie Alter

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.

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.

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.