Sania Mirza: World No. 1 Ranking a Dream Come True

Given their form coming into the Family Circle Cup, Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis knew they were favourites. The stakes were higher for Sania, who was just a title away from becoming the world’s No. 1 doubles player. But till the job was done, it was difficult to contain the tension and excitement around it.

“I’d be lying if I’d say it’s not playing on my mind. But the idea is to try and block it out as much as possible and take it one match at a time,” said Sania, going into tournament.

The Indo-Swiss pair had to block out a minor comeback attempt from their opponents, Casey Delalacqua and Darija Jurak, before winning their third consecutive title in as many tournaments.

The top seeds won 6-0, 6-4. Sania added 470 points to her tally of 7965, thus going past Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, to become the world’s No. 1 doubles player.

“It’s a dream come true. For me, my family, and my country too,” Sania told NDTV from Charleston after the win.

“It was a bit nervy towards the end of the 2nd set, and we were on match point twice. But that’s tennis, you have to win every point to cross the finish line, nobody gives it to you.”

After a recurring wrist injury threatened to end her career, Sania decided to focus full time on doubles in 2012. “It was a tough call to take, but my body just couldn’t cope any longer.

I had to re-set my goals, and I’m happy I’ve been able to achive that,” Sania told NDTV. “In hindsight, it was definitely a great decision”

Twenty five of Sania’s 26 WTA titles have come in doubles. And 2014 was in a way indicative of what was on its way.

The Hyderabadi Hurricane won her 3rd Grand Slam (US Open Mixed Doubles with Brazil’s Bruno Soares), an Asian Games gold (Mixed Doubles with Saketh Myneni), and the year-ending WTA title (Women’s Doubles with Cara Black), that’s often called the fifth Grand Slam of the year.

Sania’s partnership with Swiss Miss Martina Hingis is less than two weeks old, but they’re yet to lose a match.

“I hope our winning streak never ends,” said Sania.

“Of course that’s going to happen, but till then I hope we continue playing some amazing tennis like we have so far. We played some great matches against each other when we were singles player, and now it’s fantastic to be on the same side of the court”

Sania will be back in Hyderabad for a short while, but won’t have much time to relax. She will be leading India’s Fed Cup side in the Group II Asia-Oceania tie between April 14-18 in her hometown.