Sania Mirza: One of India's greatest athletes

Sania Mirza was awarded the Khel Ratna by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee last week

Ranked doubles No. 1 in the world today, Sania Mirza boasts of the best career among Indian women in tennis.

She won her first WTA singles title at the age of 18 at her hometown event, the 2005 AP Tourism Hyderabad Open. Mirza’s steady rise in the mid-2000s signalled a bright future for Indian tennis.

Even after changing paths to concentrate on doubles, she continues to lead the pack. With 27 titles from 42 finals at WTA tournaments, she is head and shoulders ahead of most others. Only a handful of active players have managed better. Having many records to her name already has not deterred her from going for more.

In a country where cricket is the biggest sport, Sania Mirza has managed to establish herself as one of the country’s biggest female sporting stars along with Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom among others.

In recognition of her achievements, Mirza was awarded the Khel Ratna this year. Only the second tennis player to bag the Khel Ratna, this itself says a lot about Sania Mirza’s achievements. Here are some of her most significant laurels:

Winning medals at multi-sport events

Sania Mirza has several medals to her credit from her exploits at multi-sport events. Having started with the Afro-Asian Games, she won has medals in singles, doubles and mixed doubles at various events. It is not just with Bhupathi or Paes that she managed wins, but even with the younger, upcoming and little known players.

Among her partners from these events include Rushmi Chakravarthy, Vishnu Vardhan, Saketh Myneni and Prarthana Thombare. Having won various medals at the Afro-Asian, Asian and Commonwealth Games, she now looks to add an Olympic medal to the list.

A singles career that inspires many

Before quitting singles prior to the Olympics in 2012, Mirza established herself as one of the better players on tour. Winning her very first title in Hyderabad in 2005, at the age of 18, she quickly went up the rankings ladder. She also recorded her best ever result at a Grand Slam in the same year, reaching the fourth round at the 2005 US open and losing to top seed Maria Sharapova. These good performances resulted in her being named the WTA newcomer of the year in 2005. She achieved a career high ranking of no.27 in the year 2007. During her singles career,she managed to score wins against some of the biggest stars of the game, including Grand Slam Champions and former world no.1s. Apart from the weaknesses in her game, one major factor that stopped her progress was recurrent injuries. It was finally in 2012 that she decided to give up singles in order to pursue a career in doubles. Having enjoyed one of the best singles careers among both men and women, it remains to be seen if any other Indian could emulate or better her records in the near future.

On the verge of a career Grand Slam in Mixed Doubles

It was Wimbledon 2015 that gave her the biggest title of her career. In one of the following years, it could give her a new identity - winner of a Career Grand Slam. It began in 2009, when she created history by winning her very first Grand Slam title with Mahesh Bhupathi at the Australian Open after falling short of the title by just a win in the previous year. Since then, she has reached 3 other finals, managing to add another two titles and thus, winning one each at the Australian, French and US opens. With one more title, at Wimbledon, she will join the elite group of players, including Bhupathi, who have completed a career slam in mixed doubles.

WTA Championships : Ending a successful 2014 with a bang

Mirza and partner Cara Black won the BNP Paribas WTA Finals in Singapore in 2014

There could not have been a better way to end a highly successful year than winning the year-ending WTA Championships.

Mirza and Cara Black found it hard to crack the top two teams of the year repeatedly, but they ended their year and partnership on a high with the title at Singapore. By doing so, Sania became the very first Indian to win the Championships, preceding even Paes and Bhupathi, who are yet to clinch the its ATP counterpart.

World No.1 : A new beginning with the Swiss Miss

The partnership of Mirza and Hingis instantly gained popularity among the fans of the game.Their results from the first few tournaments together reflected the way in which both complemented each other on the court with their styles of play. With Mirza building up a slow rise in the top 10, the three titles that they won ensured that she reached the top of the rankings. In doing so, Sania Mirza became just the third Indian and the first woman to top the doubles rankings. Having reached the top spot on 13th of April, she still holds on to it.

Wimbledon 2015 : A title that was ‘won’

Mirza and her doubles partner, former World No 1 Martina Hingis won the Championships this year

It looked very difficult for Sania Mirza to respond to the rallies of Vesnina and Makarova at the Championships. Yet Mirza and Hingis played their best when it mattered the most.

In one of the best and longest finals in Women’s doubles at the Wimbledon, Mirza won her first Grand Slam trophy. This could rank as the best moment in her entire career so far. With every new milestone she achieves, Mirza is raising the bar for the other Indian girls to follow.

The future of women’s tennis in India

In 2005, when Sania Mirza burst into the tennis scene, female tennis players in India, though not ranked very high, were enjoying good results and decent ranking spots.

Sunitha Rao and Shikha Uberoi, who were then some of the country’s leading hopes apart from Mirza almost breached the top 100 rankings. The jubilation that ensued following Mirza’s rise did not match the rise in prospects among the women.

In fact, ten years later, today, the scene is not even as good as it used to be back then. Ankita Raina keeps moving around the top 200-250 in singles while the rest have been almost stagnant over the last few years, if not worse. In doubles though, there are some hopefuls. Raina has not been able to perform consistently. Even then, her singles performances have been better than her doubles results.

Prarthana Thombare, another similarly aged player, is on the rise in the doubles rankings. She won her first $25k tournament this year and has been relatively consistent in terms of results this year. After winning the bronze with Mirza at the Asian Games in 2014, she is now eying an Olympic outing. Yet, her singles career is not as good. Sharrmadaa Baluu, Sowjanya Bavisetti, Natasha Palha, Rishika Sunkara are some of the regulars at the lower level tournaments, but have not yet been able to make the transition to even $25k or $50k tournaments.

The younger cohort do give us some hope. Snehadevi Reddy, Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy and Dhruthi Venugopal have started testing their mettle at the ITF tournaments while other promising youngsters like Pranjala Yadlapalli and WTA Futures starts winner Karman Kaur Thandi are battling it out on the juniors circuit.

Though the picture that women’s tennis presents today in India might not be good, there is surely hope that the next crop of players will try to emulate some of what Sania Mirza has done and will do in the years to come.

Having said that, some of the most important goals that Mirza will try to achieve would be to win an Olympic medal and the Wimbledon mixed doubles title.

Given that she has ruled out return to competitive play in singles, she will now endeavour to meet the standards set by compatriots Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, and in continuing to achieve the laurels she does, ensuring that many more follow in their footsteps.