They jumped in joy and hugged after winning the final point. It was a moment to remember. India's tennis queen Sania Mirza created history by becoming the first woman player from the country to win a women's doubles Grand Slam trophy as she clinched the Wimbledon title with Swiss partner Martina Hingis in London, says a report in Hindustantimes.
According to the report, for Hingis, it was her first Wimbledon title since 1998. Hingis won the Wimbledon doubles with Helena Sukova in 1996 and Jana Novotna in 1998. For Mirza, it was a maiden women's doubles title at a Grand Slam although she has won three mixed doubles at the majors. It came 12 years after she turned Pro.
"To come out here at Wimbledon, this is something we dream of as kids. Every kid that picks up a tennis racquet this is about winning Wimbledon or playing at Wimbledon one day,” said Mirza, adding, "I hope it inspires a lot of girls and makes them believe they can be Grand Slam champions too," she said.
"I think for me as an Indian, I'm in Little India here. There are so many Indians in England. Thankfully there are a lot of us everywhere. In England especially I've always had amazing support."
According to a report in The Times of India, it is, by all means, a momentous achievement for the women's game in India and has put Sania, 28, on a pedestal atop which no Indian woman has stepped before.
The report says the country's most successful female tennis player has gone where no compatriot had before. “Paired with Hingis, the former world No 1 who was forced into temporary retirement in 2002 at the age of 22, the Hyderabad star rallied back from a shaky start to beat the formidable Russian pairing of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina,” the report adds.
“In what was an intense match spanning two-and-a-half hours at Centre Court, including a 15-minute hold-up as the retractable roof was closed shut, Sania and Hingis overcame some dominant tennis from the No 2 seeds who were more powerful for the majority of the gripping contest. Sania was broken in the first game and Hingis in the 11th, and the pair lost the first set - the first time in the tournament that they had done so. To win from here was spectacular,” says the report.