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Sania Mirza retains year-end World No. 1 rank for 2nd straight year
Mirza won eight titles in the season, including the Australian Open and Rome Masters with Hingis, and the Cincinnati Masters with Barbora Strycova.
India’s tennis star Sania Mirza retained her numero uno status in women’s doubles for the second consecutive year, despite failing to defend her WTA Finals title with Martina Hingis.
Defending champions Sania and Hingis lost to Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the semi-finals of the WTA Finals in Singapore on Saturday.
Makarova and Vesnina went on to defeat Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova to lift the doubles title on Sunday, denying Mattek-Sands the number one spot and allowing Mirza to hold on to the top ranking.
“I am very happy. It’s an amazing honour to be number one for the second year. It has been an amazing journey for me,” Sania told PTI on Sunday from Singapore.
Mirza won eight titles in the season, including the Australian Open and Rome Masters with Hingis, and the Cincinnati Masters with Barbora Strycova. Mirza had split with Hingis in Australia but they had already decided to pair up and attempt to defend their WTA Finals crown.
“For me, this has been an unbelievable journey and the kind of stuff that dreams are made of! I’ve always felt that reaching the pinnacle in any sphere of activity is a huge achievement but staying there for a prolonged period is even more difficult than getting there for the first time,” Sania said.
“The fact that only 3 legends of the women’s game - Navratilova, Black and Huber - have had a longer consecutive stint at the top in the history of women’s doubles tennis makes it even more satisfying for me,” Mirza said after celebrating her 80th consecutive week as the women’s doubles number one.
