Contact Sania Mirza

Full Name:

Sania Mirza

• Sania Mirza crashes out of Wimbledon

  Hindustan Times - Found Jun. 26, 2009 India's number one Sania Mirza tumbled out of Wimbledon in the second round, losing 6-4, 6-4 to Romanian number 28 seed Sorana Cirstea on Wednesday. ...

• Sania Mirza 'below poverty line'

  BBC - Found Jun. 25, 2009 By Omar Farooq in Hyderabad Sania Mirza is ranked 85 in world women's tennis Indian tennis star Sania Mirza lives below the poverty line, if

• Federer settles in at Wimbledon as history beckons

  AFP via Yahoo! - Found Jun. 22, 2009 Also into the second round are India's Sania Mirza, who secured a 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 win over big-hitting German Anna-Lena Groenefeld, and Michelle... Federer off to a flier on new-look centre court - AFP via Yahoo! Fed settles in at Wimbledon as history beckons - AFP via Yahoo! Federer starts with easy win - Herald Sun Federer, Sharapova off to strong starts - Daily Telegraph Australia Explore All

  ABC Online

• The hype around tennis ace Sania Mirza may be bigger but ace ...

  NDTV - Found Jun. 30, 2009 The hype around tennis ace Sania Mirza may be bigger but ace shuttler Saina Nehwal clearly has the edge in terms of performance, feels badminton

• India in doldrums seeking next singles savior

  Reuters via Yahoo! - Found Jun. 20, 2009 ... grand slam kicks off Monday, however, India's only main draw singles action will be confined to Sania Mirza, currently the women's number 78... India in doldrums seeking next singles savior - Reuters India desperately seeking next men's tennis star - Sify India in doldrums seeking next saviour - SuperSport FEATURE - India in doldrums seeking next singles saviour - Reuters India Explore All

  SuperSport

• 'Sania Mirza' issued BPL ration card!

  Times of India - Found Jun. 13, 2009 HYDERABAD: Tennis star Sania Mirza may be a millionaire but her face appears on a ration card belonging to a below poverty line (BPL) family in the

• Sania Mirza ousted in doubles too

  Calcutta Telegraph - Found Jun. 27, 2009 Wimbledon: Out of the singles competition, Sania Mirza's doubles campaign also ended after she and her partner Chia-Jung Chuang suffered a straight ...

• Both Sania and I doing well in our fields: Saina

  Times of India - Found 12 hours ago HYDERABAD: Playing down badminton legend Prakash Padukone's comments that her achievements were greater than tennis star Sania Mirza's, ace Indian Playing down Prakash Padukone's comments that her achievements were ... - NDTV Explore All

• Saina better than Sania, says Padukone

  Sify - Found Jul. 1, 2009 Last Updated: 2009-07-01 18:22:42 MUMBAI: The hype around tennis ace Sania Mirza may be bigger but ace shuttler Saina Nehwal clearly has the edge in 'Saina's achievement bigger than Sania's' - Times of India Saina's achievement bigger than Sania's: Padukone - MSN.co.in Explore All

  MSN.co.in

• Paes wins battle of three Indians, beats Bhupathi-Sania

  Hindustan Times - Found Jul. 1, 2009 ... in a contest involving three Indians as he and his partner Cara Black defeated Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza to advance to the mixed doubles... Paes wins battle of three Indians - Asian Age Explore All

Sania Mirza extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Sania Mirza

Nickname(s)	Indian Ace, SICO, BICO, 1st Rd Specialist
Country	India
Residence	Hyderabad, India
Date of birth	November 15, 1986 (1986-11-15) (age 22)
Place of birth	Mumbai, India
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight	57 kg1
Turned pro	2003
Plays	Right (two-handed backhand)
Career 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 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
Career record	{{{mixedrecord}}}
Career titles
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.

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

Sania Mirza (Urdu: ثانیا مِرزا); born 15 November 1986¹), is an Indian tennis player. She started her tennis career in 2003. In 2004 she was awarded the Arjuna award by the Indian Government.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Career Notes 2.2 2008 2.3 2009 3 Career finals 3.1 Singles 3.1.1 Wins (1 WTA/12 ITF) 3.2 Doubles 3.2.1 Wins (12) 3.3 Mixed Doubles (1) 3.3.1 Wins (1) 4 Singles performance timeline 5 Singles performance timeline 6 Controversy 7 Personal Life 8 References 8.1 Sources 9 External links

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.²³ 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.⁴⁵

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.⁶

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 2008-12-11.⁷Her niece, Sonia Baig Mirza, studies there.

Career Notes

Mirza though India's top woman player has among the highest losing records in a professional tennis player's career history. In her home country she's known more for the hype surrounding her than for actual achievement. She's nicknamed 'SICO' - (storms in, crashes out), or 'BICO' - (breezes in, crashes out) for her frequent first and second round losses and cliched references to her performances in Indian media. There are regular articles in the Indian media about her predictable pattern of losing first round, doubles, and mixed doubles matches in quick succession - a topic of animated discussion on message boards.

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.

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

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.⁸ A further report published the next day on this fatwa elaborated that Mirza was unfazed by the comments. ⁹ 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.¹⁰ Mirza's doctor received threatening letters demanding that he cease to treat her since she was allegedly dishonoring Islam.¹¹ 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.^{citation needed}. Mirza is a practicing Muslim who prays fives times a day, and fasts during Ramadan.³

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.¹²

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.¹² 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.¹³ 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.¹⁴

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.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷

References

Sources

• Sania Mirza profile on the WTA Tour's official website

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

Preceded by Tatiana Golovin

WTA Newcomer of the Year 2005

Succeeded by Agnieszka Radwańska

v • d • e Women's Tennis Association: Top ten female Asian singles tennis players as of 15 June 2009 1. Zheng Jie (16 ▬) 2. Li Na (19 ▲) 3. Peng Shuai (36 ▬) 4. Ai Sugiyama (40 ▲) 5. Tamarine Tanasugarn (47 ▬) 6. Ayumi Morita (65 ▲) 7. Yaroslava Shvedova (76 ▼) 8. Sania Mirza (78 ▲) 9. Galina Voskoboeva (89 ▼) 10. Chan Yung-jan (109 ▲)

External links

• Sania Mirza at the International Tennis Federation
• Sania Mirza at the Fed Cup