Sania Mirza – Keynote Speaker

Sania Mirza is a professional Indian tennis player, well known for her powerful forehand ground strokes. She is the first ever Indian to break into the top 30 WTA rankings in singles and top 10 in doubles. From 2003 until her retirement from singles in 2013, she was ranked by the Women’s Tennis Association as India’s highest ranked player, both in singles and doubles.

Mirza has defeated many top players, namely Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva, Marion Bartoli and Former World No. 1’s Martina Hingis & Dinara Safina.

Sania Mirza has won one WTA singles title so far, at Hyderabad in 2005. She has won two Grand Slam titles: the mixed doubles event at the 2009 Australian Open and the same event at 2012 French Open. She was also the runner-up on two other Grand Slam occasions: the mixed doubles event at 2008 Australian Open and the women’s doubles event at Roland Garros 2011.

Sania Mirza was named one of the ’50 heroes of Asia’ by Time in October 2005. In March 2010, The Economic Times named Mirza in the list of the “33 women who made India proud”.

Mirza is the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with a career high ranking of 27 in singles and 7 in doubles. She is the third Indian woman in the Open Era to feature and win a round at a Grand Slam tournament (the first one being Nirupama Vaidyanathan at the 1998 Australian Open and the second being Shikha Uberoi at the 2004 US Open.) She is the first Indian woman to be seeded in a Grand Slam tennis tournament and the first Indian woman to win a WTA title (singles or doubles).