Sania Mirza (born November 15, 1986) is an Indian tennis player. Mirza was born to a sports journalist Imran Mirza and Nasima in Mumbai. She was brought up in Hyderabad. Mirza he 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 and was sponsored by the industrialist GV Krishna Reddy. She went to Nasr school in Hyderabad.And later joined St.Mary's college for her graduation.

Sania Mirza's Biography

Birth Date: 15 Nov 1986 Birth Place: Mumbai, India Residence: Hydrabad, India Nationality: INDIA Height: 5'7 1/2" (1.53m) Weight: 130 lbs. (59kg) Plays: Right Handed (Double Handed Backhand) Favourite Surface: Hard Coach: C.G.K. Bhupathi Age Began Tennis: 6 Personal Interests: Swimming, Music Other Information: Ambition in tennis: To be in the Top 20 of the World. Favourite player: Steffi Gra

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 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.

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 an impressive 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

Sania Mirza (born November 15, 1986, Mumbai, India resides in Hyderabad, India) is a professional female tennis player from India. Coached by her father, Imran Mirza, Sania began playing tennis at age six. She turned professional in 2003. She became the first and only Indian woman to reach the 4th round of a Grand Slam tournament at the 2005 US Open. She is now the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India (She had a rank of 42, her highest ever, by end of August 2005). Her original goal was to enter the top 100 by the end of 2005, but she revised it to entering the top 50 after good performances at the beginning of the year. (She may have also been helped by the fact that she has very few points to defend for this year and thus, it has been an upward journey in rankings.) As of July 2005, she ranked 5th among Asian women. Her year-end rank in 2004 was 206.

"My mother took me to a coach, who initially refused to coach me because I was too small," said Mirza. "After a month, he called my parents to say he'd never seen a player that good at such a young age." [From WTATour interview] She is 5 ft. 7 in. tall.

She has earned a large fan following in India as she is one of the very few young women from the country to have done well at the highest levels of sport. In 2005, she was awarded the Arjuna award in tennis for the year 2004. She has defeated two top 10 players, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova. She is a devout Muslim, who began playing tennis at the age of six.

Sania won the Wimbledon Championships Girls' Doubles title in 2003, teaming up with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia. She got a wild card entry to the 2005 Australian Open and created history by becoming the first Indian woman to enter the third round of a Grand Slam tournament. She lost in the 3rd round 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.

In her Wimbledon Championships debut, Mirza won her first match at the 2005 event, defeating Akiko Morigami of Japan in three very tight sets, 6-3, 3-6, 8-6. However, she was narrowly defeated in the second round by Svetlana Kuznetsova (a player whom she had defeated earlier in the year for her first top ten victory) 4-6, 7-6, 4-6.

Watching her performance in Acura Classics, legendary Pancho Segura, Ecuador-born American player who roamed the courts in the 1940s and 50s, felt that Sania's hard-hitting game resembles that of Romanian tennis legend Nastase. Segura said that Sania has a natural way of hitting the ball and she hits it hard. These qualities remind him of Ilie Nastase.

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.^[1] A further report published the next day on this fatwa elaborated that Mirza was unfazed by the comments ^[2] Large numbers of Muslim clerics protested her attire, accusing her of being a "corrupting influence on the youth."^[3] She has been widely attacked and vilified in Islamist circles, including a cleric named Haseeb-ul-hasan Siddiqui who said "The dress she wears on the tennis courts…leaves nothing to the imagination, She will undoubtedly be a corrupting influence.".^[4] Islamist groups such as Jamiat-ulema-e-Hind allegedly threatened to disrupt her tennis matches, following which the Calcutta police had to tighten security measures to protect her.^[5] Mirza, a Muslim from Banjara Hills, also attracted a response from the Major Shia Organization in India, 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.

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 clerics and their opposition to the existence of Israel.^[3] 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.^[6] 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