Tennis: Sania Mirza stays World Number 1 for second successive year

India’s tennis star Sania Mirza retained her numero uno status in women’s doubles for the second consecutive year, despite failing to defend the WTA Finals Singapore title with partner Martina Hingis.

Defending champions Sania and Hingis had lost to Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the semi-finals of the WTA Finals Singapore on Sunday.

Makarova and Vesnina then defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova to lift the doubles title and denied Mattek-Sands the Number One spot.

“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 Monday from Singapore.

During the year, Sania has won titles, including Australian Open with Hingis, Cincinnati Masters with Barbora Strycova. Sania had split with Hingis but they paired up and made an unsuccessful bid to defend the WTA Finals Singapore.

“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,” she had said after celebrating her 80^th consecutive week as the women’s doubles World Number one.