Beautiful Women

Sania won the Wimbledon Championships Girls’ Doubles title in 2003, teaming up with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.

As of September 2006, Sania has notched up three top 10 wins against Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Martina Hingis.

At the 2006 Doha Asian Games, Sania 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.

She has stated that one of her best friends is fellow WTA tour player, Anna Chakvetadze.

Sania has been an advocate and a role model for women’s empowerment, on a scale of public visibility never seen before. True to her phenomenal credentials she has diligently been media-savvy and has clearly shown a determined face in spite of all the criticism. Many point out that her handling of the dress-fatwa issue has been non-confrontational, something political bigwigs have been fast to exploit. In India, Sania has been projected using a soft-approach by the State and Central governments by making her the posterchild of female empowerment; this has made Sania into a highly publicised and presentable personality.

While she initially caught the attention of the media and the public with her in-your-face no-holds-barred attitude with a penchant for t-shirts with strong punchlines, Sania’s drop in performance hasn’t kept pace with her attitude. While the pressure on the country’s premier sportsmen, its cricketers, is well known, Sania seems to be at odds with the media baiting her regularly for what it perceives to be Sania’s unmotivated approach to tennis. Sania has recently quipped that even though she probably would never win a Grand Slam in her career or may not even find herself in the top rung of the seeds, she is enjoying tennis and everything that comes with it. Indian national coach Enrico Piperno has commented that its high-time Sania got a proper coach who could help improve her game substantially to have any hope of winning titles. Many in the Indian tennis fraternity feel this has been the constant bone of contention between Sania and her coaches.

Sania’s clothing is provided by Lotto Sport Italia. Her racquets are provided by Head.

Sania Mirza (born November 15, 1986) is an Indian tennis player. She was born in Mumbai but brought up in Hyderabad. Coached by her father Imran Mirza, she began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003. She was the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with career high rankings of number 31 in singles and 24 in doubles. She is now ranked 48th in singles and 23rd in doubles as of January 29th 2007.

She became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth 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 at the Asian Tennis Championship. 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.

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