Sania Mirza Wins Doubles Title in China

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

A rare shot of Sania Mirza with her mother, wearing traditional clothes.

India’s Sania Mirza was all smiles over the weekend as she and her doubles partner, Romania’s Edina Gallovits, won the women’s doubles division of the Guangzhou International Women’s Open in China. The duo defeated the local team of Xinyan Han and Wanting Liu 7-5, 6-3 in the finals to take the title, Sania’s 9th ever WTA doubles title to go with only 1 singles title.

Sania earned 280 rankings points and split $11,000 from the $220,000 hard court event with Gallovits. It was Mirza’s first WTA title in almost two years. She last won a women’s doubles title in April of 2009 at the Ponte Vedra Beach event in Florida, partnering with Taiwan’s Chia-Jung Chuang. She won her one and only Grand Slam doubles title in 2009, winning the Mixed Doubles title at the Australian Open with fellow Indian Mahesh Bhupathi.

In the singles competition of the Guangzhou Open, Mirza lost in the quarterfinals to China’s Zhang Shuai 6-4, 1-6, 6-4. Mirza won her one and only WTA singles title in 2005 after beating Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine in the finals of the Hyderabad Open. Most recently, Mirza lost in the second round of the U.S. Open in New York.

12-39