Sania Mirza, with mixed doubles partner Rohan Bopanna, came close to winning India’s second-ever Olympic medal in tennis but lost in the playoffs for the bronze at Rio 2016.
Indian tennis icon Sania Mirza has won plenty of titles and accolades in a vibrant career spanning over two decades.
A former world No. 1 in doubles and a six-time Grand Slam champion, Sania Mirza has won medals at the Asian and Commonwealth Games and was also the first Indian to break into the top-30 of women’s singles rankings.
However, despite being the first Indian woman to feature at four Summer Games, the coveted Olympic medal has eluded Sania Mirza.
With Sania Mirza announcing her retirement after the 2022 season, the dream of Olympic glory will remain unrealised for Indian tennis’ first female superstar.
Here, we look back at Sania Mirza’s Olympics performances.
Sania Mirza entered the Beijing 2008 Olympics on the back of strong performances in the women’s singles circuit.
The Indian tennis ace achieved her highest singles ranking of 27 in August 2007 and did well at the Australian Open that year, only to be stopped by Venus Williams in the third round.
Sania Mirza’s singles campaign at Beijing 2008, though, was disrupted due to a wrist injury in her right hand leading upto her Olympic debut.
Sania Mirza, then a 22-year-old, took four painkillers before taking the court in her first-round match against Czech Republic’s
Iveta Benesova but eventually had to retire midway in the second set. The score was 6-1, 2-1 in the Czech player’s favour when Sania conceded.
In women’s doubles, Sania Mirza partnered Sunitha Rao and received a bye in the first round. The duo was eliminated in the second round after a 6-4, 6-4 loss to the Russian team of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina.
Sania Mirza later disclosed that she had suffered a mental breakdown after the injury ended her maiden Olympic run prematurely. She struggled with a bad wrist for a year and then permanently switched to playing doubles.
Sania Mirza paired with fellow Indian great Leander Paes for mixed doubles at the London 2012 Olympics. The duo defeated Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic and Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-4 in the first round to make the quarter-finals.
Sania Mirza and Leander Paes ran into eventual gold-medallists Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi of Belarus and lost a hard-fought quarter-final 5-7, 6-7(5).
In the women’s doubles, Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthi got a wild card entry. The duo could not get past the opening round after losing to Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chia-jung and Hsieh Su-wei 1-6, 6-3, 1-6.
The closest Sania Mirza came to winning an Olympic medal was at the Rio Summer Games. At 30, she entered Rio 2016 having established herself as the world No. 1 doubles player.
Sania Mirza had won six Grand Slams by then and partnered
Rohan Bopanna in the mixed doubles at Rio. The pair reached the semi-finals defeating veteran Australian pair of John Peers and Sam Stosur in the first round and the much-fancied British pair of Andy Murray and Heather Watson in the second.
Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram of the USA halted Sania Mirza-Rohan Bopanna’s run in the semi-finals. Sania and Bopanna won the first set but lost steam in the second before going down 6-2, 2-6, 3-10.
The next day, India’s hopes for a second Olympic medal in tennis after Leander Paes’ bronze at Atlanta 1996 were dashed as the duo lost their bronze medal playoff match to Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka 1-6, 6-7.
In the women’s doubles event, Sania Mirza teamed up with Prarthana Thombare but lost a closely-fought first round match to China’s Zhang Shuai and Peng Shuai.
By 2021, Sania Mirza had turned 34. Sania Mirza had taken a break after giving birth to her son Izhaan in 2018 but made a winning return to the court in 2020 at Hobart.
At the Tokyo Games, Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina were eliminated in the first round of the women’s doubles event. The Indian women lost to Ukrainian twin sisters Nadiia and Liudmyla Kichenok despite dominating a portion of the match. Sania and Ankita went down 0-6, 7-6(0), 10-8 in three sets.