Press trust of india
Charleston, April 12: Sania Mirza created history by becoming the first female tennis player from India to achieve the world No.1 rank in doubles, following her stupendous title win at the WTA Family Circle Cup with partner Martina Hingis, here Sunday.
The top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair blew away the challenge of Casey Dellacqua and Darija Jurak 6-0, 6-4 in just 57 minutes in the lop-sided final of the USD 731,000 clay court event. Sania took 470 points from the win to take her tally to 7965 as she jumped past Italy’s Sara Errani (7640) and Roberta Vinci (7640) to sit atop the ranking table.
The official ranking chart will be issued Monday. Before Sania, only Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhuapthi had achieved the top rank when they dominated men’s doubles circuit in the last 90s. Sania is also first female player from the country to win Grand Slam tournaments. It is Sania’s third successive title win with Hingis and they have not lost as a single match since joining forces in March.
