Sania Mirza

Sania Mirza was engaged to be married to a wealthy businessman named Sohrab Mirza in 2009, but the wedding was cancelled the same year.

On April12, 2010 Mirza got married to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik. The couple has no children.

Sania Mirza was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra on 15 November 1986 to Imran Mirza and his wife Naseema Mirza. Her father was engaged in the construction business while her mother was in printing business. She has a younger sister.

The family moved from Mumbai to Hyderabad not long after Sania Mirza’s birth and it was in Hyderabad that she started learning lawn tennis from her father from the time she was only six year old. Mirza attended Nasr School in Hyderabad.

She graduated from St. Mary’s College but her real goal was to become a professional tennis player and to that end, she started taking part in tournaments in India. In 2001, she started playing in the ITF tournaments and the following year she won three titles to cement her credentials as an upcoming player. The following year she won a Bronze Medal in the Busan Asian Games in the mixed doubles.

She turned into a professional in 2003 and started playing in major tournaments. Subsequently, she won the Girls’ Doubles title at the Wimbledon Championships and the US Open Girls’ Doubles semi finals the same year. The same year, she also won 4 gold medals in the Afro-Asian games held in Hyderabad.

From 2004 onwards, she started to taste success in the WTA circuit and won a doubles title at the AP Tourism Hyderabad Open. Additionally, she won 6 singles titles in the ITF circuit as well. However, the following year, she performed particularly well in the Grand Slams as she reached the 3rd round of the Australian Open women’s singles tournament, 2nd round at Wimbledon and 4th round at the US Open. She was adjudged the ‘WTA Newcomer of the Year’ for the season.

In 2006, she became the first female from India to be seeded at a Grand Slam when she was seeded at the Australian Open, but she could not go far in the tournament. Other than a few notable wins, she could not go much ahead in singles event but at the US Open the following year she reached the quarter finals of both the women’s doubles as well as the mixed doubles events.

2008 was a year in which Sania Mirza suffered a wrist injury and her game suffered, as she pulled out of French Open and US Open tournaments. She did not participate at the Beijing Olympics as well but the following year she won her first Grand Slam, ‘Australian Open Mixed Doubles Title’ with Mahesh Bhupathi. Over the next few years, she kept struggling with the wrist injury due to which her game suffered.

Following a long string of poor results and first round exits in singles events, Mirza started concentrating more on doubles events in 2011 and the same year, she and her partner Elena Vesnina reached the final of the French Open. The following year, the duo of Mirza and Vesnina reached the semi finals at the Australian Open and won the French Open mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi.

Mirza was awarded the Arjuna Award from the Government of India in 2004.

In 2006, Mirza was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India. It is the 4th highest civilian honour in India.

In 2015, she was honored with Rajiv Gandhi KhelRatna Award and a year later she was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s 3rd highest civilian honour.