Sania Mirza (born November 15, 1986) is an Indian tennis player. She was born in Mumbai and now resides 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 26 in doubles. She is now ranked 66th as of November 27th 2006.

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 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.

As of September 2006, Sania has notched up three top 10 wins against Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Martina Hingis.

Sania won the Wimbledon Championships Girls’ Doubles title in 2003, teaming up with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.

Recently in the Doha Asian Games 2006, Sania won the silver in the women’s singles category and the gold in the mixed doubles partnering Leander Paes. She also was a part of the Indian women’s team that won the silver in the team event.

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