For Sania Mirza, March and April have been the most rewarding months of her long career. She and her doubles partner Martina Hingis have been unstoppable. When they began their campaign in the Family Circle Cup in the US town of Charleston last week, Mirza was ranked as the world's Number 3 women's doubles player. When she and Hingis won the title on Sunday, Mirza shot to No 1 ‒ becoming the first Indian woman's player ever to occupy the spot.
To describe Mirza and her new doubles partner Hingis as "dominant" would be an understatement. The duo have played in three tournaments since the beginning of March – the Indian Wells Masters in California, the Miami Open and the Family Circle Cup in South Carolina – and won all of them. In the 14 matches that they have played, they have lost only three sets. In the final on Sunday, they wiped out Casey Dellacqua and Darija Jurak 6-0, 6-4.
The duo had already secured the No 1 spot on the doubles leader-board by winning the semi-finals on Saturday. By winning the final on Sunday, Mirza took another 470 points to add to her tally and leap past the Italian duo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.
Until Sunday, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, who dominated the men's doubles circuit in the mid-1990s, had been the only Indians to have topped the tennis charts. Mirza is also the only female player from India to have won a Grand Slam tournament.
Hingis is no stranger to partnering Indian tennis players on the mixed doubles circuit. At the Australian Open in January, she partnered with Paes to capture the mixed doubles title.
Mirza won her first Women’s Tennis Association title in 2004 when she partnered with Liezel Huber to win her hometown event, the AP Tourism Hyderabad Open. Since then, Mirza has partnered a number of female players. Most recently though, she partnered Cara Black for the entire 2014 season which turned out to be very fruitful.
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To describe Mirza and her new doubles partner Hingis as "dominant" would be an understatement. The duo have played in three tournaments since the beginning of March – the Indian Wells Masters in California, the Miami Open and the Family Circle Cup in South Carolina – and won all of them. In the 14 matches that they have played, they have lost only three sets. In the final on Sunday, they wiped out Casey Dellacqua and Darija Jurak 6-0, 6-4.
The duo had already secured the No 1 spot on the doubles leader-board by winning the semi-finals on Saturday. By winning the final on Sunday, Mirza took another 470 points to add to her tally and leap past the Italian duo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.
Until Sunday, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, who dominated the men's doubles circuit in the mid-1990s, had been the only Indians to have topped the tennis charts. Mirza is also the only female player from India to have won a Grand Slam tournament.
Hingis is no stranger to partnering Indian tennis players on the mixed doubles circuit. At the Australian Open in January, she partnered with Paes to capture the mixed doubles title.
Mirza won her first Women’s Tennis Association title in 2004 when she partnered with Liezel Huber to win her hometown event, the AP Tourism Hyderabad Open. Since then, Mirza has partnered a number of female players. Most recently though, she partnered Cara Black for the entire 2014 season which turned out to be very fruitful.