When tennis legend Sania Mirza recently announced that 2022 would be her final season on tour, lovers of the sport were stunned. Sania hanging her racket will be a big loss to the game. But as she prepares to walk into the golden sunset, she can look back at a highly satisfying career with achievements that no other woman tennis player in the country can match and not many in the world can boast of either.
Winning six Majors, becoming World No 1 and partnering Switzerland’s Martina Hingis in what will go down as one of the most decorated women’s doubles teams globally in recent times are among some of the greatest achievements of her sparkling career. But Sania’s legacy goes beyond numbers and rankings and titles.
As legendary tennis coach Nandan Bal once mentioned, his first impression of Sania was that she was special, not because of her service or her power from the baseline but because of the attitude she displayed on the court. She was a fighter and possessed amazing mental toughness right from the beginning. It has been her trump card since she played her first professional event, an ITF $10,000 meet at New Delhi in September 2001.
Sania’s legacy has been one of a kind. Spurred on by her achievements, many girls picked up tennis as a career option. Sania must pat herself on the back for the career she has managed to have despite her injuries and other societal odds. She has achieved almost everything that is there to achieve on a tennis court. She is unlikely to regret the few titles that she could not win, because she always gave it her best shot.
Of course, her career statistics say a lot. Career-high doubles ranking: 1, Career-high singles ranking: 27, Titles: 43, Prize money: $7.03 mn, Doubles W/L: 511/230, Year-end wins: 2 (2014, 2015), Grand Slam wins: 6 (women’s doubles 3, mixed doubles 3), Women’s doubles: Australian Open (2016, Martina Hingis), Wimbledon and US Open (2015), all with Martina Hingis, Mixed doubles: Australian Open (2009, Mahesh Bhupathi), French Open (2012, Bhupathi), US Open (2014, Bruno Soares).
Sania won her first doubles title in 2004 in Hyderabad. She was the WTA’s Newcomer of the season the subsequent year. She had her best singles Slam performance when she reached the third round of the Australian Open in 2008.
But it is important to see her achievements beyond what is portrayed by those figures. In India, she has been synonymous with tennis as much as women’s empowerment. Thousands of girls around the country worship her not just because of what she has achieved on the tennis court, but also due to the examples she has set over the past two decades, especially in the way she has conducted herself and lived her life on her own terms. Having shown Indian women how to be confident, how to have the courage of conviction, and how to take pride in their achievements, Sania has proved to be a champion not just in tennis but in life at large.
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