Sania Mirza

Awards & Achievements

• 2002- Earned a bronze medal at the Asian Games in mixed doubles with Leander Paes
• 2003- Won her first Wimbledon Championship in doubles with her partner Alisa Kleybanova and also gained four gold medals at the Afro-Asian Games. The same year, she was ranked as India's No. 1 player both in singles as well as doubles.
• 2004- After winning the first WTA doubles title with partner Liezel Huber; she received the prestigious "Arjuna Award" by the Government of India.
• 2005- American news magazine "Time" named her amongst the "50 Heroes of Asia". She gave notable performances in the Grand Slam Singles tournaments.
• 2006- Received the fourth highest Indian civilian award "Padma Shri" by the Government of India
• 2014- Appointed as the Brand Ambassador of Telangana state of India
• 2015- Honoured with the "Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award" after winning a total of ten WTA titles with two Grand Slams
• 2016- Her name was inducted into the list of "100 most influential people in the world" by "Time" magazine. She also received the third highest Indian civilian award "Padma Bhushan".

One win, and you’re on top of the world. Lose in the first round of the next tournament: you’re back to reality.

Sania Mirza is one of the leading tennis player in India as well as the world, who has been ranked 1st in WTA Doubles ranking in 2015 after winning the WTA Family Circle Cup with a Swiss professional Martina Hingis. Sania was born on 15th November in the Mirza Family. Since her childhood, she was consummately interested in sports and started playing tennis at the tender age of six, after moving to Hyderabad with her family. She was introduced to tennis by her father with whom she used to practice initially and later on, learned under the tutelage of Roger Anderson. Not only this, Mirza has also groomed herself into a proficient swimmer.

After graduation, Sania made an astounding debut in 2001 by participating in the ITF Tournament. She clinched a bronze medal at the 2002 Asian Games in mixed doubles (with Leander Paes). The following year, she won the Wimbledon Girl's Doubles title with Alisa Kleybanova and gave an eye-catching performance in the semi-finals of the U.S. Open. The same year, she earned four gold medals at the Afro-Asian Games, at the age of 17. In 2004, Sania won 6 ITF singles titles following which, she was elected as the "WTA Newcomer of the Year".

In 2008, Sania faced a severe wrist injury due to which her singles performance suffered a lot, forcing her to quit the event and concentrate only on doubles. Sania did well at the Australian Open, winning the mixed doubles title with her longtime compatible partner Mahesh Bhupathi. Although Sania missed numerous opportunities because of the same injury, yet she worked hard on her doubles career that later paid her dirt. She achieved victory in various international tournaments and made a series of records, some of which she still holds and are hard to crack. Sania married to a prominent Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik on 2nd April in 2010.

In 2015, Sania won her first Grand Slam in Women's Doubles, partnering with Martina Hingis, keeping her winning momentum in the U.S. as well as the Australian Championships. The same year, she was bestowed with the Indian sports honour "Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award". With a total of 42 WTA titles (1 singles and 41 doubles), 18 ITF titles (14 singles, 4 doubles) and 3 mixed doubles titles, Sania has proved that she deserved to be enlisted amongst the finest tennis players in the world. Sania is a socially active, charismatic, mentally strong personality, born to inspire the world through her tennis shots. We are proud to have such a dexterous performer and wish her good luck for her bright future.

Everyone has attitude, and I think everyone should have attitude. But I know I have attitude, but that’s just, I think if you don’t have attitude, it comes only with self confidence. So if you don’t have self confidence, you won’t have attitude, and I think there’s a difference when you have attitude and when you have arrogance.

Credits: YouTube