Who is Sania Mirza?

Page 16
Q-News, Issue 361
March 2005

In India, she’s everywhere. There isn’t a publication or television program that hasn’t caught Sania Mania. “This lass has got class,” they gush. “She’s the belle of the ball,” they coo. Siraj Wahab reports on the teenage tennis sensation that’s got everybody talking. 

Sania Mirza is an 18-year-old Muslim girl from Hyderabad, India, who has caught the attention of the world of tennis. On 12 February 2005 she became the first Indian to win a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) title - and the $140,000 prize that went with it. She was given a wild card for the Hyderabad Open event, which she won by beating ninth seed Alyona Bondarenko of the Ukraine. That victory came after her exploits in the Australian Open last month where she became the first Indian, not to mention the first Muslim, to reach the third round of a Grand Slam event. Sania lost to Serena Williams. She jumped from a 400 ranking last year into the Top 100 this year. She is on No. 99 in the latest world rankings.

Those are cold statistics for the record books. What sort of Muslim girl goes around playing tennis on the international scene? “She is a deeply religious girl who prays five times a day and tries  not to play during the holy month of Ramadan. She reads the Quran every day,” her father and coach, Imran Mirza, says in a telephone interview from Hyderabad.

“She doesn’t want to miss out on college, so she recently enrolled herself for a bachelor’s degree in mass communications, having completed her higher secondary course last year. She went to Nasr School, an English-medium school which is a typical Muslim one.”

So she wants to be a journalist? “Having answered hundreds of questions from hundreds of journalists after winning the hearts and minds of a multitude of Indians, she probably knows the right questions to ask,” said the doting father.

Sania had already learned the nuances of journalism when someone asked her what’s it like for a Muslim girl to wear short skirts and slug it out on court. She quickly replied: “I don’t wear miniskirts on the streets.”

Imran Mirza syas the whole family has contributed to Sania’s rise to stardom. “My younger daughter Anam, who is 11, probably missed a lot of time with us because we were so busy with Sania.”

Sania’s grandfather was an avid sportsman. “My father, Muhammad Zafar Mirza, played university-level cricket. He also played club cricket for Middlesex in England. But his first love was hockey. Then he went into academics,” said Imran. Sania’s mother is also a sports lover. “She never played organised sports though,” said Imran.

“It was natural for Sania to pick up some kind of sport. Cricket is not an option for women, and we discouraged her from getting into swimming so tennis became the best option,” said Imran.

“We knew she had talent when she picked up the racket for the first time at the age of six. We knew then that she was destined for big things, but we didn’t know she’d reach the Top 100. Now she wants to be in the Top 50 by the end of 2006 and the Top 25 by 2007.”

Imran says finding corporate sponsors initially was tough. “GVK Industries did a lot to promote her. Now we are deluged with offers from sponsors.”

Anirban Das, senior vice president of Globosport, which handles Sania’s commercial work, told Outlook news magazine that he spent the last few months “persuading people, trying to convince them there was something special about this girl.”

Sania’s appeal extends beyond the demographic of tennis-watchers in that she has become an icon for young people - particularly women. After losing to World No. 7 Serena Williams in the Australian Open, Brad Gilbert, coach of to Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, told her: “You have a bright future. I would like to see you in the Top 50 in the next 12 months.”

Sania Mirza possesses simple, wholesome charm along with sheer earnestness. There is a down-to-earth quality to her which goes beyond the transitory appeal of models. And, unlike actresses, Sania is real.

Sania’s rise to the top has also given a shot in the arm to the morale of the country’s Muslim minority. In a much-acclaimed article, Praful Bidwai hit the nail on the head when he said: “Sania has come to embody a number of aspects of modernity, freedom and rationality - the very opposite of the stereotypes that Indian Muslims are straitjacketed into. Many conservatives, especially Bharatiya Janata Party sympathisers, believe Indian Muslims are irredeemably backward, illiterate, overly religious, bigoted... In their view, Muslims are somewhat inferior, under-socialised human beings who deserve pity or sympathy, not equal treatment or respect. The Hindu nationalist, as well as the middle class pseudo-liberal, is deeply uncomfortable with the modern, liberal, educated, well-informed Indian Muslim who has an open mind and cosmopolitan outlook. The discomfort is all the greater if the person is a woman. Sania Mirza represents all of those modern attributes. And yet, she has become an irresistible, irrepressible icon by dint of her talent and her transparent charm. This is a major transformation of the Indian Muslim stereotype.”

So who is Sania Mirza? If you’re one of the Top 100 in the world of tennis, the answer might be “trouble.”