Sania Mirza Biography, Age, Height, Career, Net Worth

Basic Information:

Name :Sania Mirza

Nickname :Sam

DOB :15 November 1986 (Age 37 Yr. )

Personal Life

Education: Graduate

Caste: Sunni

Religion:Islam

Nationality:Indian

Profession:Tennis Player

Place: Mumbai

Physical Appearance

Height: 5 feet 8 inches

Weight: 66 kg (approx.)

Eye Color: Dark Brown

Hair Color: Dark Brown

Favourite

Place: Dubai, Maldives

Food: Biryani

Sports: Cricket and Swimming

Singer: Atif Aslam, Arijit Singh

Sania Mirza is a renowned Indian tennis athlete and among the elite doubles tennis competitors globally. She remains the most accomplished Indian female tennis athlete. Mirza emerged on the scene as an extraordinarily gifted teenage tennis player, securing numerous tournaments in the Indian domestic circuit before advancing to the international stage with a victory in the Girls’ Doubles championship at Wimbledon. Although she couldn’t achieve the level of success she had hoped for, Mirza clinched several singles titles in the national circuit and also performed admirably in the Grand Slam singles circuit. A wrist ailment was among the factors that caused her career to experience a challenging phase, but following that injury, she began focusing on doubles and mixed doubles competitions rather than singles, leading to her triumphs in Grand Slam tournaments. She formed a highly successful partnership with fellow Indian tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi in mixed doubles and later with Swiss legend Martina Hingis. She is considered one of the world’s best doubles players and undoubtedly among the finest tennis players to have represented India.

Childhood & Early Life

Sania Mirza was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on 15 November 1986 to Imran Mirza and Naseema Mirza. Her mother was in the printing business while her father was involved in the construction industry. She has a younger sibling.
The family relocated from Mumbai to Hyderabad shortly after Sania Mirza’s birth, and it was in Hyderabad that she began learning lawn tennis from her father when she was just six years old. Mirza attended Nasr School in Hyderabad.
She graduated from St. Mary’s College, but her true ambition was to become a professional tennis player, and to that end, she started participating in tournaments across India. In 2001, she began competing in ITF tournaments, and the following year, she won three titles, solidifying her credentials as an emerging player. The following year, she clinched the Bronze Medal in mixed doubles from the Busan Asian Games.

Career

She turned professional in 2003 and started competing in major tournaments. That same year, she won the Girls’ Doubles title at the Wimbledon Championships and reached the US Open Girls’ Doubles semi-finals. Additionally, she claimed four gold medals in the Afro-Asian Games hosted in Hyderabad.
From 2004 onward, she began to find success in the WTA circuit, winning a doubles title at the AP Tourism Hyderabad Open. After that, she captured six singles titles in the ITF circuit. The following year, she performed particularly well in the Grand Slams, reaching the third round of the Australian Open women’s singles tournament, the second round at Wimbledon, and the fourth round at the US Open. She was named the ‘WTA Newcomer of the Year’ for the season.
In 2006, she became the first Indian female to be seeded at a Grand Slam, achieving this at the Australian Open, though she couldn’t progress far in the tournament. Besides a few notable victories, she didn’t advance much in singles events, but at the US Open the next year, she reached the quarterfinals in both women’s doubles and mixed doubles events.

2008 was a difficult year for Sania Mirza due to a wrist injury that impacted her performance, forcing her to withdraw from the French Open and the US Open. She also missed the Beijing Olympics but won her first Grand Slam title, the ‘Australian Open Mixed Doubles Title,’ with Mahesh Bhupathi the following year. Despite ongoing struggles with her wrist injury, which affected her game, she continued to persevere.
Following a series of disappointing results and early exits in singles events, Mirza shifted her focus more toward doubles events in 2011. That same year, she and her partner Elena Vesnina reached the final of the French Open. The next year, the Mirza-Vesnina duo was able to reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open and won the French Open mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi.
In 2013, Mirza and Mattek-Sands won the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships but didn’t make a significant impact at the Grand Slams, prompting Mirza to start playing with a new partner, Cara Black. The pair enjoyed considerable success, reaching the later stages of several tournaments the following year.
Mirza and Cara Black reached the semi-finals of the US Open in 2014 but triumphed in the Mixed Doubles title with Bruno Soares. That same year, Mirza participated in the International Premier Tennis League, helping her team ‘Indian Aces’ win the league.
Mirza teamed up with Chinese player Hsieh Su-Wei in 2015 and later with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, but her partnership with Martina Hingis proved to be a pivotal decision.
In 2015, Mirza partnered with Hingis to win at Wimbledon in straight sets, marking her first Grand Slam victory in women’s doubles. They also won the 2015 WTA Finals, followed by a US Open victory that same year.

Awards & Achievements

Mirza received the Arjuna Award from the Government of India in 2004.
In 2006, Mirza was honored with the Padma Shri by the Government of India, the 4th highest civilian award in India.
In 2015, she was bestowed with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, and a year later, she received the Padma Bhushan, India’s 3rd highest civilian award.

Personal Life & Legacy

In 2009, Mirza got engaged to Sohrab Mirza, but the wedding was called off soon after.
On 12 April 2010, she married Shoaib Malik in a traditional Hyderabadi Muslim wedding ceremony at the Taj Krishna Hotel in Hyderabad, India, followed by Pakistani wedding customs, with a mahr of ₹ 6.1 million (US$137,500). Their Walima ceremony took place in Sialkot, Pakistan.
The couple announced their first pregnancy on social media on 23 April 2018. In October 2018, Malik announced on Twitter that Mirza had delivered a baby boy named Izhaan Mirza Malik.

Controversies

Mirza (pictured here with Bhupathi) accused the All India Tennis Association (AITA) of using her as ‘bait’ in the Paes–Bhupathi 2012 Olympics controversy.
In 2006, certain newspapers reported that Mirza declined to play doubles with Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe’er due to fears of protests from India’s Muslim community.
On 4 February 2008, Mirza announced that she would stop appearing in tennis tournaments in India, starting with the 2008 Bangalore Open the following month, citing a series of controversies and advice from her manager. However, Mirza chose to compete in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
After both Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna refused to play in the men’s doubles event at the 2012 Olympics with Leander Paes, Paes demanded that he be paired with Mirza for the mixed doubles event. Mirza accused the All India Tennis Association (AITA) of using her as ‘bait’ to placate Paes, as she wanted to partner with Bhupathi, with whom she had won two Grand Slams. Mirza, along with Sunitha Rao, was photographed violating the dress code at the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony parade in 2008. As a response, she proved her loyalty to her birthplace, stating, “To see the national flag rise while standing on the podium is the proudest moment in an athlete’s life, and I aspire to experience that for myself in London”.Mirza was labeled as “Pakistan’s daughter-in-law” and deemed unfit to represent an Indian state after she was appointed as the Telangana state’s brand ambassador. The comment was directed at Mirza’s husband, Shoaib Malik, being a Pakistani cricketer. She was awarded with ₹1 crore on two occasions by Telangana chief minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao . She was summoned by the tax department for non-payment of service tax on the payment received, but she clarified that the ₹1 crore was a training incentive, not compensation for becoming the state’s brand ambassador.