Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Singles
US Open 4R (2005)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games 1R (2008)
Doubles
Wimbledon W (2015)
US Open W (2015)
Mixed doubles
Career titles 3
US Open W (2014)
Contents
[hide]
1Early life
2Tennis career
o 2.12001–2003: Success on the Junior ITF circuit
o 2.22004–2005: Success in WTA circuit and Grand Slam tournaments
o 2.32006–2007: Top 30 breakthrough
o 2.42008–2009: Grand Slam Mixed Doubles Championship
o 2.52010: Struggles and injury
o 2.62011–2012: Doubles specialization
o 2.72013–2014: Top 5 doubles breakthrough
o 2.82015: Number 1 WTA Doubles Ranking, Wimbledon and US Open Doubles Champion
o 2.92016: Australian Open Champion, split with Hingis
o 2.10Olympics representation
3Playing style
4Awards and recognition
5Personal life
6Social contribution
7Controversies
8Career statistics
9Grand Slam finals
o 9.1Women's doubles: 4 (3–1)
o 9.2Mixed doubles: 7 (3–4)
o 9.3Girls' doubles: 1 (1–0)
10Autobiography
11See also
12References
13External links
Early life[edit]
Sania Mirza was born on 15 November 1986 to Hyderabadi Muslim parents Imran Mirza, a
builder, and his wife Naseema, who worked in a printing business. Shortly after her birth, her
family moved to Hyderabad where she and younger sister Anam were raised in a religious Sunni
Muslim family. She is the distant relative of former cricket captains Ghulam Ahmed of India,
and Asif Iqbal of Pakistan.[12] She took up tennis at the age of six. She has been coached by her
father and also Roger Anderson.
She attended Nasr School in Hyderabad and later graduated from St. Mary's College. Mirza
received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the MGR Educational and Research
Institute University in Chennai on 11 December 2008.[13] She is also a very good swimmer.
Tennis career[edit]
2001–2003: Success on the Junior ITF circuit[edit]
Sania Mirza began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003. She was trained
by her father. Mirza won 10 singles and 13 doubles titles as a junior player. She won the 2003
Wimbledon Championships Girls' Doubles title, partnering Alisa Kleybanova. She also reached
the semifinals of the 2003 US Open Girls' Doubles, with Sanaa Bhambri, and the quarterfinals of
the 2002 US Open Girls' Doubles. On the senior circuit, Mirza started to show early success as
she made her debut in April 2001 on the ITF Circuit as a 15-year-old. Her highlights of 2001
include a quarterfinals showing in Pune and a semifinal finish in New Delhi. As the 2002 season
began, she turned around a season of early losses to winning three straight titles; her first in her
hometown Hyderabad and the other two in Manila, Philippines.
In February 2003, Mirza was given a wildcard to play in her first ever WTA tournament, at the AP
Tourism Hyderabad Open, in her hometown. She lost the tough first round encounter to
Australia's Evie Dominikovic in three sets. The following week, at the Qatar Ladies Open, she fell
to Czech Olga Blahotová in the first qualifying round. She had a good result representing India
on the Fed Cup, winning three straight matches. She helped India win a bronze medal in the
mixed doubles event of the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, partnering Leander Paes. In addition,
Mirza picked up four gold medals at the 2003 Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad.
Her next tournament was the DFS Classic, where she defeated Alona Bondarenko and Shenay
Perry to reach the third round, where she was overpowered by Meilen Tu. She also reached the
quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters and the third round of the Acura Classic, falling to Patty
Schnyder and Elena Dementieva, respectively. She reached the second round of the US Open,
losing to Francesca Schiavone. In September, she reached the semifinals of the Sunfeast Open,
losing to eventual champion and top seed Martina Hingis. She also won the doubles title there
partnering Huber. Mirza made the quarterfinals of the Hansol Korea Open (defeating top seed
Hingis en route) and the Tashkent Open. In December, Mirza picked up three medals at
the Doha Asian Games – Gold, in mixed doubles and Silver in women's singles and team.
In 2006, Mirza notched up three top ten wins against Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and
Martina Hingis.[14]
Mirza started 2007 strongly, making it to the semifinals of Hobart, the second round of
the Australian Open, semifinals in Pattaya, and the quarterfinals in Bangalore. At the French
Open, Mirza lost the battle against Ana Ivanovic in the second round. She also fell in the second
round at the Wimbledon Championships to Nadia Petrova. Mirza had the best results of her
career during the 2007 summer hardcourt season, finishing eighth in the 2007 U.S. Open
Series standings and reaching her highest singles ranking of world No. 27.
She reached the quarterfinals in San Diego, the semifinals at Cincinnati, and made it to the final
at Stanford. She also won the doubles event in Cincinnati with Shahar Pe'er. At the US 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 won four
doubles titles in 2007.
Mirza began her year at the ASB Classic in Auckland. She won her first round match
against Stefanie Vögele, but was crushed by 4th seed Francesca Schiavone in the second
round. Mirza then suffered two first-round losses at the Moorilla Hobart International and
the Australian Open. In February, Mirza competed in the Pattaya Open as the 6th seed, but was
upset by Tatjana Malek. She then played in the Dubai Tennis Championships but suffered a first
round defeat to Anabel Medina Garrigues. Mirza was forced to withdraw from the Sony Ericcson
Open, the BNP Paribas Open and the Family Circle Cup due to a right wrist injury. This injury
also caused her to pull out of the French Open.
She returned at the Aegon Classic, where she lost in the second round to Tamarine
Tanasugarn in three sets. Mirza then fell in the qualifying at Eastbourne and also lost in the first
round of Wimbledon; however, she did manage to finish runner-up at the Aegon GB Pro-Series
Wrexham. Her bad form continued, as she lost in the second round of the Odlum Brown
Vancouver Open and qualifying rounds of both the Cincinnati Masters and the Rogers Cup.
Mirza won her first round match against Michelle Larcher de Brito at the 2010 US Open, but she
went down against 20th seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round.
In September, Mirza competed in the Guangzhou International Open where she made her first
quarterfinal of the season. She then lost in the first round of the Tashkent Open, the qualifying
draw of the BGL Luxembourg Open, and the first round of the OEC Taipei Ladies Open. In
doubles, Mirza won in Guangzhou (with Edina Gallovits) and finished as a runner-up
in Taipei (with Hsieh Su-wei). In October, she represented India at the 2010 Commonwealth
Games as the 2nd seed. She defeated Brittany Teei (Cook Islands), Marina Erakovic (New
Zealand), and Olivia Rogowska (Australia) before losing to Australia's Anastasia Rodionova in
the final. In doubles, she partnered with fellow Indian, Rushmi Chakravarthi, losing in the
semifinals to Australians Anastasia Rodionova and Sally Peers. Mirza
and Chakravarthi compatriots Poojashree Venkatesha and Nirupama Sanjeev to win the bronze
medal.
In November, she represented India at the 2010 Asian Games. The unseeded Indian
defeated Chan Wing-yau in first round. Next she defeated 6th seed Zhang Shuai in straight sets
to enter into quarterfinal. In quarterfinal Mirza won against 2nd seed Tamarine Tanasugarn to
move in semi final, where she was defeated by 3rd seed Akgul Amanmuradova and won Bronze
Medal in singles. In Mixed Doubles she partnered with India's Vishnu Vardhan losing in the finals
to Chan Yung-jan and Yang Tsung-hua and won Silver Medal. In December, she went to Dubai
to compete at the Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge. Coming unseeded, she won the tournament,
defeating Ksenia Pervak, top seed Julia Görges and Evgeniya Rodina en route, and 2nd
seed Bojana Jovanovski in the final.
Mirza at the 2011 French Open, where she reached the finals in Doubles alongside Vesnina
Ranked at No. 141, Mirza kicked-off her year with the ASB Classic in Auckland. She needed one
more win to qualify for the tournament, but lost in three sets against Sabine Lisicki. In doubles,
she partnered Renata Voráčová of Czech Republic and reached the semifinals, but lost
to Katarina Srebotnik and Květa Peschke. Going into the Australian Open, Mirza lost in the first
round against Belgium's former world No. 1 Justine Henin in a tight three-setter, having won the
first set 7–5 she went down 3–6, 1–6 in the next two. She continued her partnership with
Voráčová for doubles but lost in the first round as well.
She received wildcards to play in the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Qatar Ladies Open.
She made the second rounds of both events, falling to Ayumi Morita and Jelena Janković,
respectively. She also was the quarterfinalist in doubles at both, with Russian Elena Vesnina. At
the Premier Mandatory events in March, Mirza made the second rounds in both. In doubles, she
won her first Premier Mandatory title at Indian Wells, with Vesnina, defeating Bethanie Mattek-
Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy.
Mirza participated at the Premier-level Family Circle Cup in Charleston. In singles, she made her
first Premier quarterfinal since San Diego in August 2007. In doubles, Mirza won the title with
Vesnina: the Indo-Russian duo beat Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy in the final for the second
time this season. Mirza won her 11th WTA Tour Doubles Title and second of the year.
Next, she also competed at the Mutua Madrid Open, losing in the first round against doubles
partner Elena Vesnina. In doubles, with Vesnina, she managed to go up to the third round. Mirza
took part in the Sparta Prague Open, but had to retire in her first round match against Aleksandra
Krunić due to a back injury. Next she played at Strasbourg, but suffered a first round lost Alizé
Cornet.
Mirza breezed through the first round of the French Open where she beat Kristina Barrois in
straight sets. Then in Round 2, she lost to 12th seed Agnieszka Radwańska. In doubles, Mirza
had what was probably the greatest highlight of her career- reaching the finals of a Grand Slam
and she ended up runner-up with Vesnina losing out to Andrea Hlaváčková and Lucie
Hradecká.[15]
During the grass-court season Mirza lost in the first rounds of the singles and doubles
competition at the 2011 Aegon International. Playing at the All England Lawn Tennis Club she
came up with her personal best performance by reaching her first semifinals
at Wimbledon alongside Vesnina losing out to Květa Peschke Katarina Srebotnik. En route they
beat 13th seeds Daniela Hantuchová and Agnieszka Radwańska in the round of 16 and the
Spanish duo of Nuria Llagostera Vives and Arantxa Parra Santonja in the quarter final clash. In
singles she lost in the first round to Virginie Razzano in a close three-setter.
Sania Mirza during her first round match with Virginie Razzano at Wimbledon
She then could not cross the first round hurdles in her next five attempts in singles including
the US Open where she lost yet another tight three setter to Israel's 23rd seed Shahar Pe'er. On
two occasions Mirza scored two wins in qualifying rounds, defeated Heidi El Tabakh at Rogers
Cup and Vania King at Cincinnati. She however continued her good run in doubles competition
as she won the title at D.C. partnering Yaroslava Shvedova defeating the 2nd seeded Olga
Govortsova and Alla Kudryavtseva in the finals.
Partnering Vesnina, Mirza entered Southern California Open but the duo had to withdraw from
their first round match against Elena Bovina and Zheng Jie while leading 5–2 in the first set.
Playing at Rogers Cup the pair lost to the future world No. 1 Italian duo of Sara
Errani and Roberta Vinci in three sets. At the Flushing Meadows Mirza and Vesnina lost in the
pre-quarters to the Czech duo of Iveta Melzer and Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, having
beaten Samantha Crawford and Madison Keys, Vitalia Diatchenko and Olga Savchukin straight
sets in their previous encounters. After playing on the singles circuit regularly throughout the year
Mirza also re-entered the top 60 in singles ranking in 2011.
Mirza kicked off her 2012 season ranked 104th at the ASB Classic in Auckland. She lost a first
qualifying match against Coco Vandeweghe. As for doubles, she partnered Elena Vesnina and
made it to the semifinals, losing to Julia Görges and Flavia Pennetta. Her next tournament was
in Sydney where she played doubles only alongside Roberta Vinci, but lost in round one.
Going into the Australian Open, Mirza was overpowered by Tsvetana Pironkova in the first round.
In doubles, Mirza reached her third Grand Slam semifinal, partnering Vesnina, where they fell to
Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva. For the mixed doubles event, Mirza played alongside
compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi and reached her 4th Grand Slam semifinal.
Mirza then represented India at the Fed Cup in Shenzhen, China where they were facing Hong
Kong. In singles, she defeated Zhang Ling. Partnering with Isha Lakhani, the pair beat Chan
Wing-yau and Zhang in three sets. With this performance, India advanced to the Fed Cup
Asia/Oceania Zone Group I for 2013. Mirza then played at the PTT Pattaya Openwhere she won
her first WTA main draw match since the 2011 French Open – coming from a set down to
upset Ayumi Morita (ranked 47 spots higher). In second round she beat Anne Keothavong to
enter in quarter-final, where she lost to Hsieh Su-wei. In doubles with Australian Anastasia
Rodionova she won her 13th WTA title: they defeated the Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-
ching and Chan Yung-jan.
Mirza then went to Doha to play at the Qatar Ladies Open where she had to withdraw from the
singles qualifying event, due to playing Pattaya doubles final. She lost in the second round of
doubles with Elena Vesnina. Then, in Dubai, she was beaten by Aleksandra Wozniak in the first
qualifying round. In doubles, Mirza and Vesnina were runners-up against No. 1 seeds Liezel
Huber and Lisa Raymond. Mirza then lost a tough three set encounter to Eleni Daniilidou in
Round 1 of the BMW Malaysian Open.
Playing doubles at the Premier-line up of Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston, Mirza reached the
final, lost in round one and made the quarters, respectively. She also reached round two of
singles in Indian Wells. She then would begin the European Clay Court Season at Estoril, where
she was the semifinalist in doubles (with Anastasia Rodionova). She lost in round 2 of doubles
in Madrid and also in Rome. Mirza returned on the singles circuit in May at Brussels where she
won three good matches – including her first 'double bagel' – in the qualifying competition, where
she beat Lesia Tsurenko, who was ranked 87 spots higher than her. She also won the doubles of
the same event with Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
She then participated in the French Open in the Women's doubles (with Mattek-Sands) and the
French Open mixed doubles (with Bhupathi). In the doubles she suffered a first round shock
defeat but found great success in the French Open mixed doubles where she and Bhupathi won
the crown by defeating Santiago González of Mexico and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik of Poland in the
final on 7 June 2012.[16]
Mirza and her partner Yaroslava Shvedova crashed out of the Aegon Classic with a straight-set
defeat against Iveta Benešová and Alla Kudryavtseva.[17] Mirza then would go on to falling in the
qualifying singles and first round doubles at the 2012 Aegon International.
Mirza and her American partner Mattek-Sands advanced to the third round of the women's
doubles competition at Wimbledon, where they fell to the Williams sisters.[18] On 26 June 2012,
Sania Mirza was awarded a wild card entry hence confirming her participation in women's
doubles event of the London Olympics.[19] On 17 July 2012, Mirza and her partner Bethanie
Mattek-Sands were ousted in the first round of WTA Premier event in the US.[20]
Mirza, partnering Rushmi Chakravarthy in the Women's doubles competition at Olympics, bowed
out, losing to Chinese Taipei in a tight match.[21] She also lost in quarterfinals of mixed doubles
with Leander Paes to Belarus in a tough encounter. At the Premier Mandatory events Montréal
and Cincinnati, partnering Mattek-Sands, Mirza reached the quarterfinals and lost in round one of
doubles, respectively.[22]
In October 2012 the prize purse for female winners of the "Fenesta Open National Tennis
Championship" was increased to be equal to that of male winners at Mirza's suggestion to All
India Tennis Association president Anil Khanna.[23] Khanna also announced that "From now on
we will see to it that all national tournaments have the same prize money for both categories
women and men."[23]
Mirza and Black next competed in the Qatar Total Open and lost to the pairing of Anastasia
Pavlyuchenkova and Nadia Petrova in the quartefinals. The pair lost in the first round of
the Dubai Tennis Championships to Andrea Hlaváčková and Lucie Šafářová. They reached their
first WTA Tour doubles final of the year at the BNP Paribas Open but lost to Hsieh Su-
wei and Peng Shuai. Mirza and Black reached the semifinals of the Sony Open Tennis in Miami
before losing to wildcards Martina Hingis and Sabine Lisicki. They finished runners-up to Errani
and Vinci once again in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. They won their first title of the year at
the 2014 Portugal Open, defeating Eva Hrdinová and Valeria Solovyeva in the final.
Mirza and Black recorded three consecutive quarterfinal finishes in the subsequent clay
tournaments, namely the Mutua Madrid Open, the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, and the French
Open. In the mixed doubles event at the 2014 French Open, Mirza and Horia Tecău lost in the
second round to Tímea Babos and Eric Butorac. Mirza began grass season playing in the Aegon
Classic. She and Black lost to Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears in the semifinals. At
the Aegon International, they reached the quarterfinals before losing to Chan Hao-
ching and Chan Yung-jan. The pair next competed at the Wimbledon Championships and lost in
the second round to the unseeded pairing of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Šafářová.[24]
Mirza and Black next competed in the 2014 US Open and lost to the pairing of Martina
Hingis and Flavia Pennetta in the semifinals. Mirza played the mixed doubles in the US Open
pairing with Bruno Soares and went on to become the 2014 US Open Mixed Doubles
Champions, thereby winning the third Mixed Doubles grand slam in her career.
Sania Mirza won a gold and bronze at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. She
paired with Saketh Myneni to beat China's Hsien Yin Peng and Chan Hao-ching and win gold in
the mixed doubles tournament. She also won a bronze medal in Women's doubles tournament,
where she paired with Prarthana Thombare.
Black and Mirza won their biggest title together at the WTA Finals defeating Hsieh Su-
wei and Peng Shuai in the final It was the heaviest defeat ever witnessed in the end-of-season
competition's doubles final which dates back 41 years to 1973, the year the WTA was founded.
Black and Mirza survived matchpoints in both their previous encounters against Květa
Peschke Katarina Srebotnik and Raquel Kops-Jones Abigail Spears coming through in third set
tiebreaks. This final would be the duo's final match as a team.
"It was great – we saved the best for the last. I think today was our best match. One of our best
matches at least, and one of our best matches we played against them." Mirza told reporters
after the win. "To end this way, we couldn't have asked for a better start or end. It kind of sums
up our partnership", she added. She added that Black was her great friend "But I've also found a
great friend in her. Almost like an older sister to me. I'm the oldest in my family, so I learned a lot
from her on and off the court."
Sania Mirza participated in the International Premier Tennis League starting on 28 November
2014, playing with the Micromax Indian Aces alongside tennis legend Roger
Federercountryman Rohan Bopanna top Serbian Ana Ivanovic and Frenchman Gaël Monfils.
She played all the Mixed Doubles matches alongside Bopanna and partnered Federer who
visited the country for his first match there in the New Delhi leg, much to her personal and fans'
delight.[25] Mirza won the majority of her matches and played a key role for the Indian Aces to win
the inaugural edition of the IPTL 2014.[26]
Mirza attained the No.1 ranking in April and was seeded No.1 at the French Open with Martina Hingis
Mirza began her 2015 season ranked No. 6 in the doubles rankings. She started a new
partnership with then world No. 5 Hsieh Su-wei from Chinese Taipei after Cara Black decided to
go for a limited 2015 season.[27] The pair started their season at the 2015 Brisbane
International as the top seeds and reached the semi-finals losing out to 4th seeds Caroline
Garcia and Katarina Srebotnik in the super tie-breaker after having won the first set.
Mirza paired up with former partner and good friend American Bethanie Mattek-Sands for
the Apia International and went on to win the tournament for her 23rd career title (5th with
Mattek-Sands) beating the highly fancied 2nd seeds Martina Hingis and Flavia Pennetta in the
quarters and top seeds Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears in the finals,[28] but lost in the
second round at Melbourne. She also re-entered the Top 5 in the rankings. Mirza also reached
the finals of Qatar Ladies Open 2015 at Doha alongside Hsieh. The pair lost to Americans
Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.[29]
Mirza then ended her partnership with Hsieh Su-wei and paired up with Swiss legend Martina
Hingis.[30] The pair entered Indian Wells as the top seeds and went on to win the titles in their
debut. They beat opponents including former world number ones Lisa Raymond and Samantha
Stosur. Hingis and Mirza didn't lose more than four games in any set. After cruising through the
first set of the final, they fell behind in the second set but won the next four games to beat second
seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in straight sets. They also won the Miami masters
event, again beating the same opponents.[31] Mirza jumped two places on the Ranking table to be
ranked at her career best No. 3 in the Doubles Rankings.[32]
The duo then entered the Miami Open and went to beat the same opponents in the finals making
it their second title in as many tournaments. The pair did not lose a single set at the tournament,
making the set score 20–0 for their newly formed partnership. Before reaching the finals at Miami
the pair beat Elena Bogdan and Nicole Melichar, Gabriela Dabrowski and Alicja
Rosolska, Anastasia Rodionova and Arina Rodionova, and 7th seeds Tímea Babos and Kristina
Mladenovic.[33] They overcame Vesnina and Makarova in the finals in straight sets.[34]
Mirza and Hingis won Family Circle Cup's double title in April 2015 defeating Casey
Dellacqua and Darija Jurak and with the title win Mirza became the first Indian to be ranked world
No. 1 in WTA's doubles rankings.[3] It was Mirza and Hingis' third successive title win and they
have not lost as a single match since joining forces. "It's a dream for every kid to be No. 1 one
day." Mirza said after her win. And on reaching No. 1 in Charleston she added "No tournament
has been as special to me as the Family Circle Cup and no tournament will ever be as special to
me, because I became No. 1 here."[35] They were routed in the first round at the Porsche Tennis
Grand Prix. They reached the finals of Italian Open but lost to the team of Tímea Babos and
Kristina Mladenovic. They lost in the quarterfinals of French Open to Bethanie Mattek-Sands and
Lucie Šafářová where the duo were the top seeds. Mirza was also given the top seeding with her
partner Bruno Soares in the Mixed Doubles event. In spite of this, the pair lost in just 56 minutes
against the unseeded Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Jean-Julien Rojer in the first round.[36]
For the grass court season, Mirza was seeded No. 1 in the Birmingham Premier level event and
partnered with Casey Dellacqua. However, the team crashed out of the WTA Aegon
Classic following a straight set defeat in Birmingham on 18 June 2015.[37] They lost to unseeded
pair of Zheng Jie and Chan Yung-jan in the opening round.[37] Sania Mirza and her doubles
partner Martina Hingis were beaten in the semi-finals at the WTA Aegon International doubles in
Eastbourne. The top seeds lost to the fourth seeded French-Slovak combine of Caroline Garcia
and Katarina Srebotnik in 81 minutes.[38]