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163. Acing the Odds (with Sania Mirza & Prajwal Hegde)
Spirit of a Champ
Speakers
Former doubles world No.1, Sania Mirza became an instant sensation when she won the Wimbledon Championships girls’ doubles title at the age of sixteen. From 2003 until her retirement from the singles circuit in 2012, she was ranked by the Women’s Tennis Association as India’s top player, both in singles and doubles. A six-time Grand Slam champion, she notched up an incredible forty-one consecutive wins with her doubles partner, Martina Hingis, between August 2015 and February 2016.
In this candid conversation with Prajwal Hedge, Sania speaks of the making of her career, her support system and what keeps her at the top of her game.
This episode of BIC Talks has been adapted from a Bangalore Literature Festival session which took place in December 2021.
Speakers
Sania Mirza
Sania Mirza is an Indian professional tennis player. A former doubles world No. 1, she has won six Grand Slam titles in her career. From 2003 until her retirement from singles in 2013, she was ranked by the Women’s Tennis Association as India’s No. 1 player.
In her singles career, Mirza had notable wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva, and Marion Bartoli, as well as former world No. 1s Martina Hingis, Dinara Safina, and Victoria Azarenka. She is the highest-ranked female player ever from India, peaking at world No. 27 in mid-2007. However, a major wrist injury forced her to give up her singles career and focus on the doubles circuit. She has achieved a number of firsts for women’s tennis in her native country, including surpassing $1 million in career earnings (in the end over $6.9 million), winning a singles WTA title, and winning a Grand Slam title (eventually, three each in women’s doubles and in mixed doubles), as well as qualifying for (and eventually winning) the WTA Finals in 2014 alongside Cara Black, defending the title the following year partnering with Martina Hingis.
So far, Mirza is one of the two Indian female tennis players to win a WTA title of any kind, and the only to reach the top 100 singles rankings. She is the third Indian woman in the Open Era (after Nirupama Mankad and Nirupama Sanjeev; second in singles after Sanjeev) to feature and win a round at a Grand Slam tournament, and the first to advance past the second round. With 43 crowns, Mirza has won more WTA doubles titles on the tour than any other active player. In addition, she has spent 91 weeks as the world No. 1 in doubles. In 2005, Mirza was crowned the WTA Newcomer of the year, and in 2015 she and Martina Hingis were the doubles team of the year, and later had a 44-match winning streak, one of the longest in history. She has also won a total of 14 medals (including 6 gold) at three major multi-sport events, namely the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the Afro-Asian Games.
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”. She was appointed as the UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia during the event held to mark the International Day To End Violence Against Women on 25 November 2013. She was named in Time magazine’s 2016 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.[12]
She declared retirement from professional tennis in 2022.
Prajwal Hegde
Prajwal Hegde has been working with The Times of India since 2005. She is TOI’s Tennis Editor. She has also covered a number of other sports including athletics and cricket. She played tennis at the state and national levels. Prajwal lives in Bengaluru with her husband Dr Sanjay Hegde.
