Sania Mirza a Champion in Dubai

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

Slowly but surely India’s Sania Mirza is reasserting herself in the world of women’s professional tennis. She came on like gangbusters at the start of her career, only to crash and burn soon after. But over the past few months she has risen from the ashes. She lost in the finals of the Commonwealth Games in October. That was followed by a semifinal loss in the Asian Games in China in November. She paved more of her comeback trail today by winning the Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mirza showed her growing confidence by coming from a set down to defeat 5th seeded Bojana Jovanovski 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. And with Jovanovski being ranked 40th in the world, this was certainly a feather in Mirza’s cap. Sania’s World Tennis Association ranking moved up slightly after the tournament to 164.

“It’s really satisfying,” she told NDTV. “It’s like a dream come true considering the way I started the season with an injury. In the last six months I have been playing consistent tennis. And going into a Grand Slam with a title and beating a top 40 player gives you a lot of confidence,” Sania said. Sania is now preparing for the new year’s first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open in January.

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