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Sania Mirza is an icon for Indian tennis and women all over the world. She is one of the most popular female athletes in the world courtesy of being the most successful female Indian tennis player of all time.Having taken up tennis at the age of 6, Sania has gone on to astonish the world by achieving the near impossible and despite making her debut more than a year ago, she still carries the torch for women’s tennis in India. Owing to her achievements, she has been conferred with the Arjuna Award (2004), Padma Shri (2006) and more recently, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2015.Time and again, she has made brought glory to the country and continues to do so even now. Here are 5 times when the 28-year-old made us feel proud to be an Indian:
#1 Breakthrough in the Top 30
In 2006, Sania Mirza became the first Indian female to be seeded in a Grand Slam when she started her campaign at the opening Slam of the year – the Australian Open, but, she lost in the second round to Michaella Krajicek. She ended the year on a positive note by picking up three medals in the Asian Games in Doha – Mixed doubles gold, silver in women’s singles and team. This rounded off a brilliant year for her individually as she beat Svetlana Kuznetsova, Martina Hingis and Nadia Petrova.
In 2007, she finished 8th in the US Open Series, which propelled her to a career best ranking of 27 in women’s singles. This was the highest ranking attained by any Indian woman tennis player.
#2 2009 Australian Open mixed doubles title
She partnered fellow Indian Mahesh Bhupathi for the Australian Open in 2009. Ahead of the tournament one half of the defending champions, Sun Tiantian, decided to withdraw from the event and her partner Nenad Zimonjic was forced to change his partner, which resulted in his first round loss.
With a new champion to be named, Sania and Bhupathi took the bull by its horns and beat Andy Ram and Nathalie Dechy comfortably in the final (6-3, 6-1). They lost just 1 set throughout the tournament, against the Canadian pair of Aleksandra Wozniak and Daniel Nestor.
#3 UN Women Goodwill Ambassador
In 2014, the tennis icon was announced as the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia. In the process, Sania Mirza became the first South Asian woman to be appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador in the organization’s history. Her aims as a Goodwill Ambassador were to raise awareness about gender equality and bring to an end violence against women and girls across the region.
Sania’s path-breaking career has made her a role model for many children, especially girls in a country where the sex ratio is extremely skewed in favour of men.
She deemed it an honour to serve
“It is an honour to serve UN Women as the Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia. It inspires me to work harder towards a level playing field for women. Gender equity in sports as well as using sports to advocate for gender equality in communities is essential,” she said after the announcement.
#4 World No. 1
Sania started 2015 ranked 6 in the doubles rankings. She partnered with Hsieh Su-wei and teamed up with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands before switching back to the Chinese Taipei tennis player, with who Sania reached the final of the Qatar Ladies Open in 2015.
After her loss in the final of the Qatar Ladies Open, Sania started a partnership with Swiss star Martina Hingis and won the title in their debut tournament – Indian Wells. After winning the 2015 Family Circle Cup’s doubles title, the Mirza-Hingis duo rose to rank 1 in the WTA doubles rankings. The 28-year-old became the first Indian to be ranked No. 1 in the WTA doubles rankings ever.
#5 2015 Wimbledon and US Open double
In their second Grand Slam ever, Mirza-Hingis beat Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 to win the prestigious Wimbledon title. In the third set, the Indo-Swiss pair were trailing 2-5, but they won the next 5 games in a row which gave the Indian her first women’s doubles Grand Slam title and the Swiss her tenth.
Continuing their brilliant form, Mirza-Hingis entered the final Grand Slam of the year, the US Open, seeded first. They steamrolled their way through the title, without losing a single set throughout the tournament. Their victims in the final were Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova, who were handed a 6-3, 6-3 loss at Flushing Meadows.
