Sania Mirza
Life and Career She became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the 2005 US Open, defeating Mashona Washington, Maria Elena Camerin and Marion Bartoli. In 2004, she finished runner up at the Asian Tennis Championship. In 2005 Mirza reached the third round of the Australian Open, losing to eventual champion Serena Williams. On February 12, 2005, she became the first Indian woman to win a WTA singles title, defeating Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine in the Hyderabad Open Finals. Sania won the Wimbledon Championships Girls’ Doubles title in 2003, teaming up with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia. As of September 2006, Sania has notched up three top 10 wins against Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Martina Hingis. At the 2006 Doha Asian Games, Sania won the silver in the women’s singles category and the gold in the mixed doubles partnering Leander Paes. She was also part of the Indian women’s team that won the silver in the team event. She has stated that one of her best friends is fellow WTA tour player, Anna Chakvetadze. Controversy Hackles have been raised in some Islamist quarters supposedly due to her attire not being conformant to Islamic Hijab. According to one report published September 8, 2005, an unnamed Islamic scholar had issued a fatwa, saying that her attire is contrary to what is permitted by Islam.. A further report published the next day on this fatwa elaborated that Sania was unfazed by the comments made by Syed Yousaf Bin, the chief patron of the Ulema Board, in Hyderabad..Large numbers of Indian Muslims protested her attire, accusing her of being a “corrupting inflence on the youth”She has been widely attacked and villified in radical Islamist circles ,including a cleric named Haseeb-ul-hasan Siddiqui who said “The dress she wears on the tennis courts…leaves nothing to the imagination, She will undoubtedly be a corrupting influence.” Radical Islamist groups such as Jamiat-ulema-e-Hind allegedly threatened to disrupt her tennis matches, following which the Calcutta police had to heighten security measures to protect her. In 2006, Mirza declined from playing with an Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe’er for fear of violent protests from India’s Muslims and their opposition to the existence of Israel.
Sania Mirza (born November 15, 1986) is an Indian tennis player. She was born in Mumbai but brought up in Hyderabad. Coached by her father Imran Mirza, she began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003. She was the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with career high rankings of number 31 in singles and 24 in doubles. She is now ranked 48th in singles and 38th in doubles as of April 9th, 2007
Similar Entries
Sorry, no comments yet.