Sania Mirza born November 15, 1986 is an tennis player. She was born in Mumbai and now lives in Hyderabad. Coached by her father Imran Mirza, she began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003. She was the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with career high rankings of number 31 in singles and 24 in doubles. She is now ranked 45th in singles and 23rd in doubles as of January 29th 2007.

She became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the 2005 US 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 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, Sania has notched up three top 10 wins against Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Martina Hingis.

Sania won the Wimbledon Championships Girls' Doubles title in 2003, teaming up with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.


Sania has been an advocate and a role model for women's empowerment, on a scale of public visibility never seen before. True to her phenom-credentials she has diligently been media-savvy and has clearly shown a determined face in spite of all the criticism. Many point out that her handling of the dress-fatwa issue has been non-confrontational, something political bigwigs have been fast to exploit.