Sania looking for more happy returns in KL

Malaysia holds many good memories for India’s tennis ace Sania Mirza.

Not only has she played on Malaysian soil during her junior years, she has also visited the country many times for holidays with her family.

“Malaysia is one of the best places to visit for vacations,” said the 23-year-old, who flew in yesterday morning.

The Indian icon will make an appearance in the two-day Showdown of Champions 2009 – The Glam Slam at the Malawati Stadium in Shah Alam from tomorrow.

In the exhibition tournament, billed as Asia versus Russia, Sania will partner Zheng Jie (world No. 36) of China against Elena Dementieva (world No. 5) and Maria Kirilenko (world No. 62).

Family outing: Sania Mirza (right), sister Anam Mirza and father Imran Aziz at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport yesterday.

“I am looking forward to playing in this tournament. I’ve never partnered Zheng Jie before and I hope to get the crowd to cheer us on,” she said.

Currently ranked 58th in the world, Sania started playing tennis at the age of six, coached by her father Imran Aziz Mirza.

She reached a career high thus far when she won her first Grand Slam title with Mahesh Bhuphati in the mixed doubles event of this year’s Australian Open.

“Next year I will be at a crucial stage of my career as I aim to make it into the top 20 in the singles rankings,” she said.

source:thestar

Sania wins opener in Vancouver ITF event

Targetting her second consecutive singles title, top seed Sania Mirza faced stiff resistance from American Mallory Cecil before snatching a hard earned win in the first round of the ITF women’s tournament in Vancouver.

Sania, edged past 410-ranked Mallory 6-4, 7-5 in her opening match of the USD 75,000 hard court event.

Sania will next face American Laura Granville, who advanced to the second round after her Japanese opponent Aiko Nakamura opted out of contest during the third set.

Nakamura was leading 4-3 in the decisive set when she opted out of contest.

Granville had lost the first set 2-6 but stretched the match to third set after winning the second 6-3.

Sania had won Lexington Challenger event recently.

Source:rediff.com

Sania wins ITF Lexington Challenger title

NEW DELHI: India’s ace tennis player Sania Mirza, seeded second, continued her good show as she upset top-seed Frenchwoman Julie Coin 7-6 (7/5),

6-4 to clinch the $50,000 ITF Lexington Challenger title.

With this win, the 22-year-old rose three places to 80th in the latest WTA singles rankings. However, she dropped 10 places to 49th in the WTA doubles list.

Sania kept her cool in the scintillating final in front of sizeable Indian community as she sealed the first set via tie-breaker after squandering a 5-2 lead and facing 5-all.

Mirza had a great start as she broke Julie Coin in the very first game of the match, and also consolidated the break to take an early 2-0 lead.

Coin, however, got herself back in the groove by clinching the third game and then went on to break Mirza’s serve to level the proceedings at two games apiece. Both of them held their serve till the eighth game of the opening set when Coin broke Sania to gain 5-3 lead.

Mirza was in no mood to surrender as she fought her way back by holding on to two under-pressure service games to force the opening set into a tie-break.

Coin gained a crucial 5-2 lead in the tie-breaker but it was Sania’s day as she came back hard to win four points in a row to seal the first set 7-5 in her favour.

Top-seed Coin fought hard as she took an early break to go ahead 2-1 in the second set which was as exciting as the first but Sania levelled the scores to break straight back.

Sania broke Coin for a 5-3 lead and served for the match, but was broken back by Julie. However Sania broke the Coin serve in a marathon tenth game to register an impressive win.

Interestingly, this was only the second ITF $50,000 event that Sania had participated in, the first being way back in 2003 when she was still making a name for herself on the pro tour.

Source:TOI

Wedding bells for sania mirza

HYDERABAD: Tennis ace Sania Mirza will get married to Sohrab Mirza of Hyderabad in the near future, Sania’s family confirmed after the news was broken by the media, here on Friday.

The exact date is yet to be finalised. The two families, although having the same surname, are not related but have known each other for several years.

The 23-year-old Sohrab, son of a businessman, is pursuing MBA.

The 22-year-old Sania became the first Indian woman to win a WTA tour title and break into the World’s top 50 in 2005. But thereafter, she has been plagued by injuries and fluctuating form.

However, she fought her way back and was able to win the Australian Open mixed doubles title along with Mahesh Bhupathi earlier this year.

The family has also confirmed that the marriage plans will not affect Sania’s tennis career and that she will continue to play in all major tournaments even after marriage.

Sania Mirza knocked out of French Open Sania Mirza knocked out of French Open

India’s Sania Mirza was knockedout of the French Open after a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) defeat to Kazakhstan’s GalinaVoskoboeva in a rain-hit first-

India’s Sania Mirza returns a ball during the French Open tournament at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris. (AFP Photo)
round match on Tuesday.

Mirza, theworld number 95 and reigning Australian Open mixed doubles champion, held tolove in an emphatic opening service game before the heavens opened, forcing theplayers off with the score 1-1.

The 22-year-old surrendered herserve in the first game after the rain delay and spurned two chances to breakback in game six, letting another two break points slip by at 4-3 down asVoskoboeva, 24, closed out the set.

The players exchanged breakstwice in the second set before Russia-born Voskoboeva, the world number 81, tookadvantage of her opponent’s misfiring serve to clinch victory in the tie-break,sealing her win with an ace.

Mirza became the first female Indianplayer to earn in excess of one million US dollars in 2008, despite a seasondisrupted by a recurring wrist injury that caused her to miss last year’s FrenchOpen.

Her mixed doubles success in Melbourne this year, with partnerMahesh Bhupathi, made her the first Indian woman to win a Grand Slam title.

Voskoboeva will play Russian seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova inround two.

Source:TOI

Sania to open her French Open campaign against Voskoboeva

India’s Sania Mirza has been drawn to play Kazakhstan’s Galina Voskoboeva in her opening round of the French Open.

The two players have met only once, in hard courts of San Diego in 2005, where Sania currently, ranked 91, beat Voskoboeva, ranked 95.

However, the winner between the two, in the next round is likely to meet seventh-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova who has got an easy opponent in local girl Claire Feuerstein, according to the draw released here Friday.

Sania, who has not played much on clay this season, missed the French Open last year due to a chronic wrist injury that plagued her much of last year. She made a comeback in January and won the Australian Open mixed doubles title with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi.

She went on to reach the final of the Pattaya Open in February but after that her performance graph came spiralling down with a series of early exits.

She recently participated in the Madrid Masters but failed to make it to the singles main draw after a straight loss to France’s Aravane Rezai in the first round of the qualifying round. She, however, made it to the doubles semi-final with Chia-Jung Chuang.

Sania has never moved beyond the second round of the French Open but then clay has never been her favourite surface.

Meanwhile, the women’s top seed Russian Dinara Safina will open against Briton Anne Keothavong while second-seeded Serena Williams will face Czech Klara Zakopalova. Third-seeded Venus Williams is pitted against compatriot Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

In the men’s singles, top seed and defending champion Rafael Nadal will meet a qualifier while second seed and three-times finalist here Roger Federer will play Spaniard Alberto Martin. Third seed Briton Andy Murray takes on Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela.

Source:Hindu

Sania crashed out of womens doubles at BNP Paribas open 2009

Sania Mirza crashed out of the women’s doubles event at the $4.5 million BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells.

Sania and her partner Chia-Jung Chuang of Taipei went down 1-6 4-6 to the Argentine-Israeli team of Gisela Dulko and Shahar Peer in the opening round.

However, Sania is still in contention in the singles event and the Indian ace takes on 12th seed Italian Flavia Panetta after a hard-fought first round victory on Thursday.