Sania Mirza

Sania Mirza

Country (sports)	India
Residence	Hyderabad, India
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Turned pro	2003
Plays	Right (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$ 1,435,879
Singles
Career record	202–105(64.6%)
Career titles	1 WTA, 12 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 27 (August 27, 2007)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	3r (2005, 2008)
French Open	2r (2007)
Wimbledon	2r (2005, 2007, 2008, 2009)
US Open	4r (2005)
Doubles
Career record	149–76
Career titles	8 WTA, 4 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 18 (September 10, 2007)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	3R (2007, 2008)
French Open	3R (2006)
Wimbledon	QF (2008)
US Open	QF (2007)
Mixed doubles
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	W (2009)
French Open	2R (2007)
Wimbledon	3R (2006)
US Open	QF (2007)
Last updated on: June 15, 2009.

Sania Mirza

Medal record
Women's Tennis
Asian Games
	2006 Doha	Mixed Doubles
	2006 Doha	Singles
	2006 Doha	Team

Sania Mirza (Template:Lang-ur); born 15 November 1986), is an Indian tennis player. She started her tennis career in 2003. In 2004 she was awarded the Arjuna award by the Indian Government.

Early life

Mirza was born to a sports journalist, Imran Mirza and her mother Nasima in Mumbai. She was brought up in Hyderabad in a religious Muslim family. Mirza began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003. She was trained by her father, as well as her other family members. She went to Nasr school in Hyderabad and later graduated from St. Mary's College.

Career

In April 2003, Mirza made her debut in the India Fed Cup team, winning all three singles matches. Mirza won the 2003 Wimbledon Championships Girls' Doubles title, teaming up with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.

Mirza is the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with a career high ranking of 27 in singles and 18 in doubles. She holds the distinction of being the first Indian woman to be seeded in a Grand Slam tennis tournament. Earlier in 2005, she had become the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the 2005 U.S. Open, defeating Mashona Washington, Maria Elena Camerin and Marion Bartoli. In 2004, she finished runner-up at the Asian Tennis Championship. In winning, with Mahesh Bhupathi, the Mixed Doubles event at the 2009 Australian Open, she became the first Indian woman to win any grand slam event.

In 2005, Mirza reached the third round of the Australian Open, losing to eventual champion Serena Williams. On February 12, 2005, she became the first Indian woman to win a WTA singles title, defeating Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine in the Hyderabad Open Finals. As of September 2006, Mirza has notched up three top 10 wins; against Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Martina Hingis. At the 2006 Doha Asian Games, Mirza won the silver in the women's singles category and the gold in the mixed doubles partnering Leander Paes. She was also part of the Indian women's team that won the silver in the team event.

In 2006, Mirza was awarded a Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour for her contribution to Tennis.

Mirza had the best results of her career during the 2007 summer hardcourt season, finishing eighth in the 2007 U.S. Open Series standings. She reached the final of the Bank of the West Classic and won the doubles event with Shahar Pe'er, and reached the quarterfinals of the Tier 1 Acura Classic.

At the 2007 U.S. Open, she reached the third round before losing to Anna Chakvetadze for the third time in recent weeks. She fared much better in the doubles, reaching the quarterfinals in mixed with her partner Mahesh Bhupathi and the quarterfinals in the women's doubles with Bethanie Mattek, including a win over number two seeds Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur.

She represented India at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, in the women's singles and doubles events. In singles, she retired in the round of 64, while she was trailing 1-6, 1-2 against Iveta Benešová of Czech Republic. She teamed up with Sunitha Rao for the doubles event. They got a walk-over in the round of 32, but lost to Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina by 4-6, 4-6, in the round of 16.

Mirza received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from MGR Educational and Research Institute University in Chennai on 2008-12-11.Her niece, Sonia Baig Mirza, studies there.

2008

Mirza reached the quarter-finals at Hobart as No.6 seed, where she lost to Flavia Pennetta in three sets. She reached the third round at the Australian Open as No.31 seed, where she lost to No.8 seed Venus Williams 7-6(0) 6-4, having led 5-3 in the first set. She was runner-up in the Australian Open mixed doubles partnering Mahesh Bhupathi. Sun Tiantian and Nenad Zimonjić) won the final 7–6(4), 6–4.

She withdrew from Pattaya City because of a left adductor strain.

Mirza reached the 4r at Indian Wells as No.21 seed, defeating No.9 seed Shahar Pe'er en route, but lost to No.5 seed Daniela Hantuchová.

At the 2008 Wimbledon Championships, as No.32 seed, Mirza was defeated by qualifier Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, 6-0, 4-6, 9-7, having had several match points.

Mirza was eliminated in the first round of the 2008 Beijing Olympics when she retired in her match against Iveta Benešová because of a right wrist injury. Throughout 2008, Mirza was plagued by a slew of wrist injuries, requiring her to withdraw from several matches and the Roland Garros and US Open Grand Slams.

2009

Sania picked up her maiden Grand Slam title in the 2009 Australian Open. Partnering with Mahesh Bhupathi, she won the mixed doubles title beating Nathalie Dechy (France) and Andy Ram (Israel) 6-3, 6-1 in the final in Melbourne. She then entered the Pattaya Women's Open Tournament in Bangkok where she reached the finals after a string of good performances. She lost the finals to Vera Zvonareva 7-5, 6-1. She made the semis in doubles in the same tournament.

Sania then competed in the BNP Paribas Open where she lost in the second round to Flavia Pennetta. She then participated in the Miami Masters and lost to Mathilde Johansson of France in the first round. Mirza and her doubles partner Chia-jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei made the semifinals of the doubles event. Sania also crashed out in the first round of the MPS Group Championships but won the doubles title with Chuang. She crashed out in the first round of Roland Garros, losing to Kazakhstan's Galina Voskoboeva. She also lost in the second round of the doubles (with Chuang) and mixed doubles (with Mahesh Bhupathi) She participated in the 2009 AEGON Classic and reached the semifinals, losing to Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 3-6,6-0,6-3, who eventually won the title.

Mirza defeated Anna-Lena Gronefeld in the first round of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships. She then fell to #28 Sorana Cirstea in the second round.

Career finals

Singles

Wins (1 WTA/12 ITF)

Has reached 4 finals; winning 1 at the 2005 Hyderabad Open.

Sania Mirza at the Hyderabad Open in 2006

Sania Mirza at the 2007 Australian Open, during her first-round womens doubles match

Doubles

Wins (12)

Legend: Before 2009	Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam tournaments (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (0)	Premier Mandatory (0)
Tier II (2)	Premier 5 (0)
Tier III (3)	Premier (0)
Tier IV & V (2)	International (1)
ITF Circuit (4)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	January 7, 2002	Manila, Philippines	Hard	Radhika Tulpule	Yan-Hua Dong Yao Zhang	6–4, 6–3
2.	Mar. 3, 2003	Benin City, Nigeria	Hard	Rebecca Dandeniya	Franziska Etzel Christina Obermoser	6–3, 6–0
3.	Feb. 22, 2004	Hyderabad, India	Hard	Liezel Huber	Ting Li Tian Tian Sun	7–6, 6–4
4.	Aug. 15, 2004	London, Great Britain	Hard	Rushmi Chakravarthi	Anna Hawkins Nicole Rencken	6–3, 6–2
5.	Oct. 10, 2004	Lagos, Nigeria	Hard	Shelley Stephens	Surina De Beer Chanelle Scheepers	6–1, 6–4
6.	February 19, 2006	Bangalore, India	Hard	Liezel Huber	Anastassia Rodionova Elena Vesnina	6–3, 6–3
7.	September 24, 2006	Kolkata, India	Carpet	Liezel Huber	Yulia Beygelzimer Yuliana Fedak	6–4, 6–0
8.	May 14, 2007	Fes, Morocco	Clay	Vania King	Andreea Vanc Anastassia Rodionova	6–1, 6–2
9.	July 22, 2007	Cincinnati, U.S.	Hard	Bethanie Mattek	Alina Jidkova Tatiana Poutchek	7–6(4), 7–5
10.	July 29, 2007	Stanford, U.S.	Hard	Shahar Pe'er	Victoria Azarenka Anna Chakvetadze	6–4, 7–6(5)
11.	August 25, 2007	New Haven, U.S.	Hard	Mara Santangelo	Cara Black Liezel Huber	6-2, 6-2
12.	April 12, 2009	Ponte Vedra Beach, U.S.	Clay	Chuang Chia-jung	Kveta Peschke Lisa Raymond	6–3, 4–6, [10–7]

Mixed Doubles (1)

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	Partnering	Opponents in Final	Score/Final
2009	Australian Open	Mahesh Bhupathi	Nathalie Dechy Andy Ram	6–3, 6–1

Singles performance timeline

Sania Mirza at the 2007 Australian Open

Singles performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the 2009 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, which will end on March 23, 2009.

Tournament	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	Career SR	Career W-L
Australian Open	A	3R	2R	2R	3R	2R	0 / 5	7–5
French Open	A	1R	1R	2R	A	1R	0 / 4	1–4
Wimbledon	A	2R	1R	2R	2R	2R	0 / 5	4–5
U.S. Open	A	4R	2R	3R	A		0 / 3	6–3
Grand Slam Win-Loss	0-0	6-4	2-4	5-4	3-2	2-3	18-17
Year End Ranking	206	33	66	31	99		N/A	N/A

• A = did not participate in the tournament
• Q = Qualifying round loss

Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-8 (quarter finals up to finalist).

Controversy

As a Muslim, she has garnered criticism from some Orthodox Islamic groups, as her attire allegedly did not conform to Islamic dress codes. According to one report published September 8, 2005, an unnamed Islamic scholar had issued a fatwa, saying that her attire is contrary to what is permitted by Islam. A further report published the next day on this fatwa elaborated that Mirza was unfazed by the comments. There were rumors that Jamiat-ulema-e-Hind had threatened to disrupt her tennis matches. But the group rejected such rumors, saying that they don't stop anyone from playing, although they found her clothing offensive. Nevertheless, the Calcutta police tightened security measures to protect her. Mirza's doctor received threatening letters demanding that he cease to treat her since she was allegedly dishonoring Islam. Sania Mirza, a Shia Muslim from Vijaynagar, also attracted a response from The All-India Shia Muslim Personal Law Board. The Board disapproved the edict issued by some Muslim clerics on dresses worn by Mirza while playing and asked them not to meddle in [the] sports arena. . Mirza is a practicing Muslim who prays fives times a day, and fasts during Ramadan.

After Mirza spoke at a conference on safe sex in November 2005, Islamic groups claimed "she is detached from Islam" and that she is a "corrupting influence on the youth." Mirza clarified her stance by saying that she was opposed to pre-marital sex.

In 2006, some newspapers reported that Mirza declined from playing with an Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe'er for fear of violent protests from India's Muslim community. However a year later (i.e. in 2007), she teamed up with Pe'er for the 2007 WTA Tour of Stanford, California. Mirza said in January 2008 that she considered quitting the sport because of undue controversy surrounding her actions.

Mirza was pictured resting her feet during a press conference at the 2008 Hopman Cup, with an Indian flag in close proximity. She faced possible prosecution under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act after a private citizen complained. Mirza protested that, "I love my country, I wouldn't be playing Hopman Cup otherwise", and said that she meant no disrespect. On February 4, 2008, Mirza said that she would stop appearing in tennis tournaments held in India, starting with the 2008 Bangalore Open the following month, citing the series of controversies and upon advice by her manager.

Personal Life

Sania Mirza is engaged to Sohrab Mirza, a business man from Hyderabad, whom she knew from her school days. However they are unlikely to marry anytime soon as Sohrab plans to pursue higher studies and Sania wishes to continue with her tennis career.

References

Sources

• Sania Mirza at the Women's Tennis Association

1. India Today dt. September 19, 2005 - Cover Story titled Sania Mania.
2. ^ Sania Mirza gets Padmashri,January 26, 2006
3. Sania Mirza Searches for Additional Base
4. Sania Mirza Gets a doctorate

External links

• Sania Mirza at the Billie Jean King Cup