Sania Mirza: The Indian Queen of Tennis

In 2005, Sania became the first Indian woman ever to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the US Open. The same year, she became the first Indian woman to win a WTA title. She won the Australian Open mixed double, her first Grand Slam title in 2009 with Mahesh Bhupati.

There are a few names that come to mind when one says Tennis in India. Mahesh Bhupati, Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna amongst others can be one's guess but out these, the name that stands out is most of the time, Sania Mirza. She made a mark in the Tennis and ruled the Indian Tennis scene for more than a decade. After winning multiple titles to her name, she became a household name with immense popularity and a bubbly personality to go with it.
Born in Mumbai, Sania moved to Hyderabad at a pretty young age and started practising there itself. Tennis wasn't a mainstream sport in India like cricket, much averse to that, it is played by people in a very small number. Due to this, the coaching for Tennis was steep too high which Sania's family couldn't afford so to make up for this, her father started coaching her himself.

Sania had a natural talent for Tennis and it was at full display the day she was partnered with Leander Paes in mixed doubles at Asian Games in 2002. Still a teenager, Sania displayed her instincts and left a mark on the game and the spectators. They clinched a bronze medal there and with this, her professional Tennis career kickstarted.

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In 2005, Sania became the first Indian woman ever to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the US Open. The same year, she became the first Indian woman to win a WTA title. She won the Australian Open mixed double, her first Grand Slam title in 2009 with Mahesh Bhupati. The pair added a second title to their name at the 2012 French Open after which she doubled up with Burno Soares to win the 2014 US Open. These achievements helped her move up to the world ranking number 1 in doubles, another feat no Indian woman had ever achieved before. That year she played with Marina Hingis and bagged her maiden women's double Grand Slam at Wimbledon.

Having made her Olympic debut in 2008, it was Rio 2016 when she came the closest to winning in the Olympics alongside Rohan Bopanna. They stood at 4th position in the mixed double, after losing to a formidable partnership of Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram in a closely contested match. In total, Sania won 6 Grand Slam titles, more than any Indian women had ever won.

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Sania got married to Pakistani Cricketer Shoaib Malik in 2010, 8 years after which she gave birth to a lovely child whom they named Izhaan Mirza Malik. Due to this, she had taken a maternity break from Tennis but returned in style, winning the doubles at the 2020 Hobart International.

One of the reasons to make this comeback was to tell women that you can follow your dreams, she said. "Just because you have a baby, you don't have to sacrifice your entire life. You can still be a good mother [while working],"Sania said.

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Awarded with prestigious titles such as the Padma Bhushan and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Sania Mirza's achievements have helped cultivate a wide and ever-growing interest in tennis in India.

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