That’s the two-in-one glory of India’s latest world champion!

By Rajib Sen

Sania Mirza set to return serve

I am extremely proud and overwhelmed with joy,” said Soaib Malik (now 33), the all-rounder who captained Pakistan in all three forms of cricket and married Sanya Mirza, 28, in 2010. “It’s a matter of pride for Pakistan as she is my wife…” That sentiment from across the border echoed the applause that resounded across India with the news of Sania’s accomplishment of becoming the world’s No. 1 woman doubles tennis player. It’s an accomplishment to match only that of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati in 1999 in the men’s doubles. Earlier, Ramanathan Krishnan had collared the No 3 spot in 1959. No other Indian tennis player has equalled these players – though badminton star Saina Naiwal has.

That’s a huge achievement for someone who got onto the tennis court at the tender age of just six. She was barely an adolescent 16 when she turned professional in 2003. Trained by Roger Anderson and her father, builder Imran with the full support of her mother Naseema, this Hyderabadi, who was born in Mumbai, went on to stamp her name on the tennis courts like no Indian woman had before.

As a junior player, she won 10 singles and 13 doubles titles. Besides winning the 2003 Wimbledon Championships Girls’ Doubles title, as a partner of Alisa Kleybanova, Sania also reached the semi-finals of the 2003 French Open Girls’ Doubles with Sanaa Bhambri, and the quarterfinals of the 2002 US Open Girls’ Doubles.

Through a spectacular career, Sania has beaten several better-known international players –including Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva and Marion Bartoli besides reigning world’s No 1s like Dinara Safina, Victoria Azarenka and, ironically, Martina Hingis. The Swiss Miss, Martina (now 34) has been Sania’s partner through her final three tournament triumphs that earned the pair the No. 1 women’s team doubles ranking – Sania’s second title shortly after earning her own No. 1 WTA ranking as a doubles player.

While she won the No 1 spot with 7660 points a whole 20 points clear of the two Italians she displaced, Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci who were joint-No. 1s, to become the sole owner of that rank, the Mirza-Hingis combine rose from the No 3 spot at the start of that week to No 1 by replacing Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.

“It’s like a fairy tale!” she is reported to have enthused.

The team spirit

Actually, this is the result of a conscious career decision that big-hitting Sanias took in 2013. When she found that injuries to her wrist were not getting her anywhere in singles, she chose to concentrate on the doubles game alone.

“I took the decision to chase No 1 – and not sit there and let it come to me,” she explains. So she combined with some of the leading international female stars on the international circuit till she finally clicked with the legendary Martina Hingis who had been the world’s No 1 for an impressive 209 weeks and won five Grand Slam singles titles among 40 singles titles and 36 doubles before being forced by injuries to retire in February 2003. Yet, she came back and as recently as February 2015, helped India’s Leander Paes win the mixed doubles title at the Grand Slam season opener at the Australian Open.

With Martina by her side, Sania went on to win three consecutive tournaments in the USA – Indian Wells (a 5-0 washout of the opponents), Miami (4-0) and Charleston (3-0) to aggregate 470 points and pocket $ 39,000. “One of our best qualities as a pair is that no matter how we are playing,” Sania commented, “we keep fighting. We’ve had matches where we haven’t played our best, and we still come out winning, and that really helps me. We keep trying and keep believing in our abilities.”

After three straight tournament wins with Martina, she adds: “The last five weeks have been special. For this to happen over three tournaments is pretty amazing. Martina helped me in some very tough moments and it helps that she’s been there and done that so many times. She’s a great champion.”

Home triumphs

At her young age, Sania has cracked a number of national records: Besides being the highest ranked women’s singles Indian tennis player in 2007 when a wrist injury took her out of singles contention, her career earnings have exceeded four million dollars, winning a pro-level title as well as three major mixed doubles titles: the 2009 Australian Open, 2012 French Open and 2014 US Open besides qualifying for (and ultimately winning) the WTA Finals in 2014.

Add this: She is the third Indian woman in the Open Era to feature in and win a round at a Grand Slam tournament (which means reaching at least the last 16, the pre-quarter-finals). In addition, she has won as many as 14 medals (including six golds) at three major multi-sport events – the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Afro-Asian Games.

As India’s playing captain, Sania had the gratification of coming home to Hyderabad to lead the country in India’s Asia/Oceania Group II Fed Cup campaign for the team’s fight for promotion into the Asia/Oceania Group I.

Sania’s self-committed load doesn’t end there. She already writing her autobiography, tentatively titled, Against All Odds. Isn’t that typically Sania?