Early life
Mirza was born to Imran Mirza, a sports journalist and his wife Nasima in Mumbai, India. She was brought up in Hyderabad in a religious Shia Muslim family.[2][3][4] Mirza began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003. She was trained by her father and other family members. She attended Nasr school in Hyderabad and later graduated from St. Mary's College.[5][6]
[edit]Career
In April 2003, Mirza made her debut in the India Fed Cup team, winning all three singles matches. She also 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 is the first Indian woman to be seeded in a Grand Slam tennis tournament. She was 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 winning, with Mahesh Bhupathi, the mixed doubles event at the 2009 Australian Open, she became the first Indian woman to win a Grand Slam title.
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 honor for her achievements as a tennis player.[7]
Mirza had 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.
Mirza received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the MGR Educational and Research Institute University in Chennai on 2008-12-11.[8] Her niece, Sonia Baig Mirza, studies there.
[edit]2008
Mirza reached the quarter-finals at Hobart as No. 6 seed. 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 where they lost 7–6(4), 6–4 to Sun Tiantian and Nenad Zimonjić.
She withdrew from the Pattaya Open 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 María José Martínez Sánchez, 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 including those of the Roland Garros and US Open Grand Slams.
[edit]2009
Mirza picked up her first Grand Slam title at the 2009 Australian Open. Partnered 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.
Mirza 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. Mirza lost in the first round of the MPS Group Championships but won the doubles title with Chuang. She lost in the first round at 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 Magdaléna Rybáriková of Slovakia 3–6,6–0,6–3, who eventually won the title.
Mirza defeated Anna-Lena Grönefeld in the first round of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships. She then fell to #28 Sorana Cîrstea in the second round. She competed in and won the Lexington Challenger event, defeating top seed Julie Coin of France in the final. She also reached the final of the ITF event in Vancouver but lost to Stéphanie Dubois of Canada. Playing in the U.S Open, she defeated Olga Govortsova in the first round but lost 6–0, 6–0 to 10th seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy. She also lost in the second round of the doubles event (partnering Francesca Schiavone) to Shahar Pe'er and Gisela Dulko.
Mirza successfully qualified for the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo but lost in the first round to Zheng Jie. Mirza won the first set but could not hold the lead, eventually losing to the Chinese player 7–5, 2–6, 3–6.
At Osaka, Mirza won her first round match against 5th seed Shahar Pe'er 3–6, 6–3, 6–4. Mirza then defeated Viktoriya Kutuzova 6–4, 6–3 and in the quarterfinal she defeated 2nd seed Marion Bartoli 6–4, 2–0 by retirement. Bartoli conceded her match and Mirza moved on to the semifinal to meet 4th seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy.
[edit]Personal life
In 2009, Sania Mirza got engaged with a childhood friend Sohrab Mirza, however this engagement did not last long.[9] Mirza married Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik on April 12, 2010.[10][11] The wedding was held in Hyderabad, India while the walima reception was held in Sialkot, Pakistan. The online attention the wedding generated made Mirza the most searched woman tennis player in 2010 according to Google Trends. [12] The couple plans to settle down in Dubai.[13]
[edit]Controversy
The short tennis clothes she has to wear in the court has drawn criticism from some Muslim religious groups, with Mirza being a practising Muslim who prays five times a day, and fasts during Ramadan.[4] According to one report published September 8, 2005, an unnamed Muslim scholar had issued a ruling, saying that women's tennis attire is not suited to Islam.[14] Jamiat-ulema-e-Hind rejected rumors about disrupting her game saying that they do not stop anyone from playing, although they found female tennis players' dress code objectionable. Nevertheless, Calcutta police tightened security measures to protect her.[15]
After Mirza spoke at a conference on safe sex in November 2005, some groups said she was detached from Islam and that she was a "corrupting influence on the youth." Mirza clarified her stance by saying that she was opposed to pre-marital sex.[16]
In 2006, some newspapers reported that Mirza declined to play doubles with an Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe'er for fear of protests from India's Muslim community.[16] However, when she teamed up with Pe'er for the 2007 WTA Tour of Stanford, California, there was no reaction.
Mirza was pictured resting her feet and showing the soles of her bare feet as she watched compatriot Rohan Bopanna play in the 2008 Hopman Cup, with an Indian flag in front.[17] She faced possible prosecution under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act after a private citizen complained. Mirza protested, "I love my country, I wouldn't be playing Hopman Cup otherwise."
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.[18]
[edit]Career finals
[edit]WTA Tour singles finals 4 (1-3)
Outcome No. Year Tournament Location Surface Opponent in Final Score in Final
Winner 1. 2005 Hyderabad Hyderabad Hard Alona Bondarenko 6-4, 5-7, 6-3
Runner-up 1. 2005 Forest Hills Forest Hills Hard Lucie Šafářová 3-6, 7-5, 6-4
Runner-up 2. 2007 Stanford Stanford, USA Hard Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 6-2
Runner-up 3. 2009 Pattaya City Pattaya City Hard Vera Zvonareva 7-5, 6-1
Sania Mirza at the 2007 Australian Open, during her first-round women's doubles match
[edit]Doubles
[edit]Wins (13)
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 (2)
ITF Circuit (4)
No. Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponents in the final Score
1. January 7, 2002 Manila, Philippines Hard Radhika Tulpule Dong Yanhua
Zhang Yao 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 Li Ting
Sun Tiantian 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 Květa Peschke
Lisa Raymond 6–3, 4–6, [10–7]
13. September 19, 2010 Guangzhou, China PR Hard Edina Gallovits Han Xinyun
Liu Wan-ting 7–5, 6–3
[edit]WTA Mixed Doubles
[edit]Finals (2)
Outcome Year Championship Partnering Opponents in Final Score
Runner up 2008 Australian Open Mahesh Bhupathi Sun Tiantian
Nenad Zimonjić 7–6(4), 6–4
Winner 2009 Australian Open Mahesh Bhupathi Nathalie Dechy
Andy Ram 6–3, 6–1
Sania Mirza at the 2007 Australian Open
[edit]Singles performance timeline
To help interpret the performance table, the legend below explains what each abbreviation and color coded box represents in the performance timeline.
Terms to know
SR the ratio of the number of singles tournaments
won to the number of those tournaments played W-L player's Win-Loss record
Performance Table Legend
NH tournament not held in that calendar year A did not participate in the tournament
LQ lost in qualifying draw #R lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(RR = round robin)
QF advanced to but not past the quarterfinals SF advanced to but not past the semifinals
F advanced to the final, tournament runner-up W won the tournament
NM5 means an event that is neither a Premier Mandatory nor a Premier 5 tournament.
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 French Open in Paris, France, which ended June 6, 2009.
Tournament 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Career SR Career
Win-Loss
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open A 3R 1R 2R 3R 2R 0 / 4 7–4
French Open A A 1R 2R A 1R 0 / 3 7–3
Wimbledon A A 1R A 2R 2R 0 / 3 7–3
U.S. Open A 4R 2R 3R A 2R 0 / 3 6–3
SR 0 / 0 0 / 2 0 / 4 0 / 2 0 / 3 0 / 2 0 / 12 N/A
Win-Loss 0–0 2–2 9–4 5–2 4–3 1–1 N/A 21–12
Olympic Games
Summer Olympics A Not Held 1R NH 0 / 1 4–2
Year-End Championship
WTA Tour Championships A A A A A 0 / 0 0–0
WTA Premier Mandatory Tournaments
Indian Wells A A 4R SF A 4R 0 / 2 10–3
Miami A A 2R QF A QF 0 / 3 8–3
Madrid Not Held 2R 0 / 1 1–1
Beijing Not Tier I 0 / 0 0–0
WTA Premier 5 Tournaments
Dubai Not Tier I 1R 0 / 1 0–1
Rome A A A A A 1R 0 / 1 0–1
Cincinnati Not Tier I 0 / 0 0–0
Montreal/Toronto A 3R 1R A A 0 / 2 2–2
Tokyo A A A 2R 1R 0 / 2 1–2
Former WTA Tier I Tournaments (currently neither Premier Mandatory nor Premier 5 events)
Charleston A A A 3R A NM5 0 / 1 1–1
Moscow A A 1R A 1R 0 / 2 0–2
Doha1 Not Tier I SF Not
Held 0 / 1 4–1
Berlin A A SF 2R A 0 / 2 5–2
San Diego1 A A A A Not
Held 0 / 0 0–0
Zürich1 A A A A Not
Tier I 0 / 0 0–0
Career statistics
Tournaments Won 1 0 0 0 1 0 N/A 2
Runner-up 0 1 1 0 0 2 N/A 4
Overall Win-Loss 6–1 23–14 40–21 23–13 29–15 21–10 N/A 127–632
Year End Ranking 80 57 21 29 23 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).
1As of 2008, Doha is a Tier I tournament, replacing San Diego and Zurich.
2 If ITF women's circuit participations are included, overall win-loss record stands at 272–89.
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