She is the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India -
ranked 31 in singles and 109 in doubles by mid-October 2005. Her
original goal had been to enter the top 100 by the end of 2005, but
she revised this to entering the top 50 after good performances at
the beginning of the year. As of October 2005, she also ranked 2nd
among Asian women. Her year-end rank in 2004 was 206.
She became the first Indian woman to reach the 4th round of a Grand
Slam tournament at the 2005 US Open, defeating Mashona Washington,
Maria Elena Camerin and Marion Bartoli. In 2004 she finished runner
up to Na Li at the Asian Tennis Championship. The Asian Tennis
Championship traditionally gains a wild card into the Australian
Open the following year. After Na Li qualified for the Australian
Open on her own merit, Mirza received a wild card entry to the 2005
Australian Open. Mirza reached the third round, 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.
Sania won the Wimbledon Championships Girls' Doubles title in 2003,
teaming up with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.
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Accolades
Time Magazine Cover
Mirza has earned a large fan following in India, as she is one of
the very few young women from that country to have done well at the
highest levels of sport. The media termed the phenomenon Sania
Mania. She reportedly has sponsorships to the tune of U.S. $ 0.35
million per brand per annum. In 2005, she was awarded the Arjuna
award in tennis for the year 2004. The Government of India honoured
her with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in 2006. She
has defeated two top 10 players, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia
Petrova.
Watching her performance in Acura Classics, tennis legend Pancho
Segura, Ecuador-born American player who roamed the courts in the
1940s and 50s, felt that Sania's hard-hitting game resembled that
of Romanian tennis legend Ilie Nastase - Segura said that Mirza had
a natural way of hitting the ball and that she hit it hard, like
Nastase.
Mirza is also the first Indian sportswoman to feature on the cover
of Time magazine (South Asian edition) and was included in its 2005
list of Asia's 50 heroes. She also won the WTA's Most Impressive
Newcomer award for the year 2005.
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