Sania Mirza
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Contents |
A profile
The Times of India, Jul 12, 2015
Here are the ten things to know about Sania's illustrious career:
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.
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.
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.
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.“
