149 Facts About Sania Mirza

Sania Mirza is an Indian former professional tennis player.

In singles, Sania Mirza had wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva, and Marion Bartoli, as well as former world-number-ones Martina Hingis, Dinara Safina, and Victoria Azarenka.

Sania Mirza is the highest-ranked Indian female player ever, peaking at world No 27 in mid-2007.

Sania Mirza has achieved a number of firsts for women's tennis in India, including reaching the one million-US$ mark in career earnings, winning a singles WTA Tour title, and winning a major title, as well as qualifying for the WTA Finals in 2014 in doubles partnering Cara Black, and defending her title the following year partnering Martina Hingis.

Sania Mirza is one of only two Indian women to win a WTA Tour title, and the only one to be ranked within the top 100 in singles.

Sania Mirza is the third Indian woman in the Open Era to contest and win a match at a major, and the first to advance past the second round.

In doubles, Sania Mirza won 43 titles and spent 91 weeks as world No 1.

In 2005, Sania Mirza was crowned the Newcomer of the Year by the WTA, and in 2015 she and Martina Hingis were the Doubles Team of the Year, going on to earn a 44-match winning streak, one of the longest in history.

Sania Mirza has won a total of 14 medals at three major multi-sport events, namely the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the Afro-Asian Games.

Sania Mirza was named one of the "50 Heroes of Asia" by Time in October 2005.

Sania Mirza was appointed as the UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia during the International Day To End Violence Against Women on 25 November 2013.

Sania Mirza was named in Time magazine's 2016 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Sania Mirza was born on 15 November 1986 in Mumbai to Hyderabadi Muslim parents Imran Mirza, a sports journalist, and his wife Naseema, who worked in a printing business.

Sania Mirza is the distant relative of former cricket captains Ghulam Ahmed of India, and Asif Iqbal of Pakistan.

Sania Mirza has been coached by her father and Roger Anderson.

Sania Mirza later graduated from the St Mary's College, Hyderabad.

Apart from tennis, Sania Mirza is particularly good at cricket and swimming.

Sania Mirza began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003.

Sania Mirza won ten singles and thirteen doubles titles as a junior player.

Sania Mirza won the 2003 Wimbledon Championships girls' doubles title, partnering Alisa Kleybanova.

Sania Mirza reached the semifinals of the 2003 US Open girls' doubles, with Sanaa Bhambri, and the quarterfinals of the 2002 US Open girls' doubles.

Sania Mirza clinched the women's gold medal in tennis in 2002 National Games of India in Hyderabad at the age of 16 years.

In February 2003, Sania Mirza was given a wildcard to play in her first ever WTA tournament, at the Hyderabad Open, in her hometown.

Sania Mirza lost the tough first round encounter to Australia's Evie Dominikovic in three sets.

Sania Mirza had a good result representing India on the Fed Cup, winning three straight matches.

Sania Mirza helped India win a bronze medal in the mixed doubles event of the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, partnering Leander Paes.

At her hometown event, the Hyderabad Open, Sania Mirza was a wildcard entrant.

Sania Mirza put up a good fight against the fourth seed and eventual champion, Nicole Pratt, in round one, but lost in three sets.

Sania Mirza won her first WTA doubles title at the same event, partnering Liezel Huber.

Sania Mirza then received a wildcard to compete at Casablanca, Morocco, but suffered a first-round defeat by eventual champion Emilie Loit.

Sania Mirza reached her second WTA final at the Forest Hills Tennis Classic, falling to Lucie Safarova.

Sania Mirza became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the US Open, defeating Mashona Washington, Maria Elena Camerin and Marion Bartoli, before losing to top seed Maria Sharapova, in the round of 16.

At the Japan Open, Sania Mirza reached semifinals with wins over Vilmarie Castellvi, Aiko Nakamura and Vera Zvonareva, before being overpowered by Tatiana Golovin.

Thanks to a successful 2005 season, Sania Mirza was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year.

Sania Mirza was seeded at the 2006 Australian Open, only falling to Michaella Krajicek.

Sania Mirza played at the Dubai Tennis Championships but lost to Martina Hingis.

Sania Mirza lost in the first round of the French Open Grand Slam to Anastasia Myskina.

Sania Mirza reached the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Open and the third round of the Stanford Classic, falling to Patty Schnyder and Elena Dementieva, respectively.

Sania Mirza reached the second round of the US Open, losing to Francesca Schiavone.

Sania Mirza made the quarterfinals of the Korea Open and the Tashkent Open.

In 2006, Sania Mirza notched up three top-ten wins against Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Martina Hingis.

Sania Mirza started 2007 in strong fashion, 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, Sania Mirza lost the battle against Ana Ivanovic in the second round.

Sania Mirza fell in the second round at the Wimbledon Championships to Nadia Petrova.

Sania Mirza had the best results of her career during the 2007 summer hardcourt season, finishing eighth in the 2007 US Open Series standings and reaching her highest singles ranking of world No 27.

Sania Mirza reached the quarterfinals in San Diego, the semifinals at Cincinnati, and made it to the final at Stanford.

Sania Mirza won the doubles event in Cincinnati with Shahar Pe'er.

Sania Mirza fared much better in the doubles competition, reaching the quarterfinals in mixed doubles 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.

Sania Mirza reached the quarterfinals at Hobart as the No 6 seed and lost to Flavia Pennetta in three sets.

Sania Mirza reached the third round at the Australian Open as No 31 seed, in which she lost to No 8 seed Venus Williams having been up a break in the first set.

Sania Mirza ended runner-up in the Australian Open mixed doubles partnering Mahesh Bhupathi, where they lost in straight sets to Sun Tiantian and Nenad Zimonjic.

Sania Mirza had to withdraw from the Pattaya Open because of a left abductor strain.

Sania Mirza reached round four at Indian Wells as the No 21 seed, defeating ninth seed Shahar Pe'er en route, but lost to No 5 seed Daniela Hantuchova.

At the 2008 Wimbledon Championships, as the No 32 seed, Sania Mirza was defeated by qualifier Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in round two, having had several match points.

Sania Mirza represented India at the Beijing Summer Olympics but was eliminated from singles when she retired during her match against Iveta Benesova because of a right wrist injury.

Sania Mirza started her year by playing at the doubles event of the Hobart International.

Sania Mirza then entered the Pattaya Women's Open and reached the final after a string of good performances but lost to Vera Zvonareva.

Sania Mirza made the semifinals in doubles in the same tournament.

Sania Mirza then competed in Indian Wells where she lost in the second round to Flavia Pennetta.

Sania Mirza then lost to Mathilde Johansson in the first round of the Miami Open.

Sania Mirza lost in the first round of the MPS Group Championships but won the doubles title with Chuang.

Sania Mirza again lost in the first round at Roland Garros, to Galina Voskoboeva.

At Wimbledon, Sania Mirza defeated Anna-Lena Gronefeld in the first round, before falling to No 28 seed Sorana Cirstea in the second.

Sania Mirza lost in the second round of the doubles and mixed doubles.

Sania Mirza managed it all the way to the final at the Vancouver Open but was beaten by Stephanie Dubois.

Sania Mirza lost in the second round of the doubles event to Shahar Pe'er and Gisela Dulko.

Sania Mirza then went to Japan, where she qualified for the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo but lost in the first round to Zheng Jie.

At Osaka, Sania Mirza won against fifth seed Shahar Pe'er and Viktoriya Kutuzova and in the quarterfinal, she defeated second seed Marion Bartoli by retirement.

Sania Mirza moved on to the semifinal, where she lost to Francesca Schiavone.

Sania Mirza began her year at the Auckland Open where she won her first-round match against Stefanie Vogele, but was crushed by fourth seed Francesca Schiavone in the second round.

Sania Mirza then suffered two first-round losses at the Hobart International and the Australian Open.

Sania Mirza then played in Dubai but suffered a first-round defeat to Anabel Medina Garrigues.

Sania Mirza was forced to withdraw from the Miami Open, the Indian Wells Open and the Family Circle Cup due to a right wrist injury.

Sania Mirza returned at the Birmingham Classic, where she lost in the second round to Tamarine Tanasugarn in three sets.

Sania Mirza then fell in the qualifying at Eastbourne and lost in the first round of Wimbledon; however, she did manage to finish runner-up at the GB Pro-Series Wrexham.

Sania Mirza won her first round match against Michelle Larcher de Brito at the US Open, but she went down against 20th seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round.

Sania Mirza then lost in the first round of the Tashkent Open, in the qualifying draw of the Luxembourg Open, and the first round of the Taipei Ladies Open.

In doubles, Sania Mirza won in Guangzhou and finished as a runner-up in Taipei.

Sania Mirza defeated Brittany Teei, Marina Erakovic, and Olivia Rogowska before losing to Australian Anastasia Rodionova in the final.

Sania Mirza lost in the early rounds of the Australian Open and its warm-up tournaments.

Sania Mirza made the second rounds of both events, falling to Ayumi Morita and Jelena Jankovic, respectively.

Sania Mirza was the quarterfinalist in doubles at both, with Elena Vesnina.

Sania Mirza participated at the Premier-level Charleston Open in South Carolina.

In doubles, Sania Mirza won the title with Vesnina: the Indo-Russian duo beat Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy in the final for the second time this season.

Sania Mirza won her 11th WTA Tour doubles title and second of the year.

Sania Mirza took part in the Sparta Prague Open, but had to retire in her first round match against Aleksandra Krunic due to a back injury.

Sania Mirza breezed through the first round of the French Open where she beat Kristina Barrois in straight sets.

In doubles, Sania 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 Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.

On two occasions Sania Mirza scored two wins in qualifying rounds, defeated Heidi El Tabakh at Rogers Cup and Vania King at Cincinnati.

Sania Mirza kicked off her 2012 season ranked 104th in Auckland.

Sania Mirza lost a first qualifying match against CoCo Vandeweghe.

Sania Mirza then represented India at the Fed Cup in Shenzhen, China where they were facing Hong Kong.

Sania Mirza then went to Doha to play at the Qatar Ladies Open but had to withdraw from the singles qualifying event, due to playing Pattaya doubles final.

Sania Mirza lost in the second round of doubles with Elena Vesnina.

Sania Mirza then lost a tough three set encounter to Eleni Daniilidou in round one of the Malaysian Open.

Sania Mirza reached round two of singles in Indian Wells.

Sania Mirza lost in round two of doubles in Madrid and in Rome.

Sania Mirza won the doubles of the same event with Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Sania Mirza then participated in the French Open in the women's doubles and the French Open mixed doubles.

Sania Mirza defeated Lisa Whybourn in the qualifying round one, before losing to Andrea Hlavackova in the next round.

On 26 June 2012, Sania Mirza was awarded a wildcard entry hence confirming her participation in women's doubles event of the London Olympics.

Sania Mirza, partnering Rushmi Chakravarthy in the women's doubles competition at Olympics, bowed out, losing to Chinese Taipei team in a tight match.

Sania Mirza lost in quarterfinals of mixed doubles with Leander Paes to Belarus in a tough encounter.

At the Premier Mandatory events of Montreal and Cincinnati, partnering Mattek-Sands, Sania Mirza reached the quarterfinals and lost in round one of doubles, respectively.

Sania Mirza kicked off her 2013 season with a title Brisbane alongside Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the first tournament itself.

Sania Mirza then formed a brief successful partnership with Zheng Jie from China winning a title at New Haven and reaching the semis at US Open losing out to Australians Casey Dellacqua and Ashleigh Barty.

Sania Mirza then partnered Cara Black for the rest of the season and the pair won their first title in their first outing at Tokyo.

Sania Mirza partnered different players during 2013 and won five WTA titles.

Sania Mirza began 2014 playing with Cara Black in the Sydney International where they lost in the first round to Ajla Tomljanovic and Jarmila Gajdosova.

Sania Mirza was more successful in the mixed doubles event, reaching the final partnering Horia Tecau of Romania.

Tecau and Sania Mirza lost to Kristina Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor in the final.

Sania 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 title in her career.

Sania Mirza won a gold and bronze at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.

Sania Mirza paired with Saketh Myneni to beat China's Hsien Yin Peng and Chan Hao-ching and win gold in the mixed doubles tournament.

Sania Mirza won a bronze medal in women's doubles, pairing with Prarthana Thombare.

Black and Sania Mirza won their biggest title together at the WTA Finals defeating Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai in the final.

Sania Mirza participated in the International Premier Tennis League starting on 28 November 2014, playing with the Micromax Indian Aces alongside tennis legend Roger Federer, countryman Rohan Bopanna, Ana Ivanovic and Gael Monfils.

Sania Mirza 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.

Sania 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.

Sania Mirza began her 2015 season ranked No 6 in the doubles rankings.

Sania Mirza 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.

Sania Mirza paired up with former partner and good friend Bethanie Mattek-Sands for the Sydney International and went on to win the tournament for her 23rd career title beating the highly fancied second seeds Martina Hingis and Flavia Pennetta in the quarterfinals and top-seeds Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears in the finals, but lost in the second round at Melbourne.

Sania Mirza reached the finals of Qatar Ladies Open at Doha alongside Hsieh.

Sania Mirza then ended her partnership with Hsieh and paired up with Swiss legend Martina Hingis.

Sania Mirza jumped two places on the ranking table to be ranked at her career best No 3 in the doubles rankings.

Sania Mirza was given the top seeding with her partner Bruno Soares in the mixed doubles event.

Sania Mirza partnered with Barbora Strycova in late 2016 and some parts of the 2017 season.

However, Sania Mirza struggled to find a committed partner to play with in the 2017 season, which resulted in her falling out of the top 5.

Sania Mirza missed the first few tournaments of the 2018 season, including the Australian Open, citing a knee injury she sustained in October 2017.

In early February 2018, Sania Mirza said the same injury would keep her out of competition for a further two months.

In late 2018, Sania Mirza announced she hoped to return to professional tennis in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Sania Mirza played at the 2020 Summer Olympics with Ankita Raina, but lost to Ukrainian Pair of Lyudmyla Kichenok and Nadiia Kichenok in the first round.

Sania Mirza reached the semifinals at the WTA 1000 Qatar Open and the Italian Open as well as the French Open third round, partnering Lucie Hradecka.

Sania Mirza started the season at Adelaide International with Anna Danilina where they lost to top seeds Storm Hunter and Barbora Krejcikova in three sets.

Sania Mirza is an offensive baseliner with very powerful groundstroke and is known for setting up good attacks with the sheer velocity of her groundstrokes.

Sania Mirza is a great returner of serve finding many return winners during matches.

Sania Mirza goes for winners, which means she goes for many angles.

Sania Mirza's second serve and relatively poor mobility are often quoted as her big weaknesses.

Sania Mirza was named in the Time magazine's 2016 list of 100 most influential people in the world.

In October 2018, Malik announced on Twitter that Sania Mirza had delivered a baby boy and named him Izhaan Sania Mirza Malik.

In 2014, Sania Mirza was the brand ambassador for the Indian state of Telangana to promote the interests of the then newly created state.

Sania Mirza was announced the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia.

Sania Mirza is the first South Asian woman to be appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador in the organization's history.

In 2006, some newspapers reported that Sania Mirza declined to play doubles with Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe'er for fear of protests from India's Muslim community.

On 4 February 2008, Sania 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.

Sania Mirza accused the All India Tennis Association of using her as 'bait' to keep Paes happy as she wanted to play with Bhupathi, with whom she has won 2 grand slams.

Sania Mirza was referred to as "Pakistan's daughter-in-law" and unfit to be a representative of an Indian state after she was appointed the Telangana state's brand ambassador.

Sania Mirza was summoned by the tax department for non-payment of service tax on the payment received, however she responded that the 1 crore given was training incentive, and not towards becoming state's brand ambassador.

In July 2016, Sania Mirza published an autobiography titled Ace Against Odds chronicling her journey to the top.