NEW DELHI: This week Indian tennis star Sania Mirza’s ‘numero uno’ status in women’s double ranking hit a marvellous 80 consecutive week and she let the world know about the achievement via twitter.
To put this achievement in to perspective, only three other women’s doubles players have held on to the top spot at one go more than Mirza, and they are Martina Navratilova (181 weeks), Cara Black (145)and Liezel Huber (134).
The 29-year-old Hyderabadi, who became the first Indian woman to hold the No.1 ranking after winning the Volvo Car Open in Charleston with 8885 points while her former partner Hingis is at 8560 points.
After holding the women’s doubles top slot for jointly with Hingis, Mirza finally pipped her to take the sole possession of the WTA doubles number one ranking in August this year when she teamed up with Barbora Strycova to beat and Coco Vandeweghe in Cincinnati Open final.
Sania, who along with Swiss Martina Hingis, formed a formidable combine, dubbed Santina, won 13 titles in a 12-month period, their streak of 41 successive wins was snapped in St Petersburg in February. In the next six months, the duo won just one title in Rome on clay, triggering the split in August.