She became the first Indian woman to reach the 4th round of a Grand Slam tournament at the 2005 US Open, defeating Mashona Washington, Maria Elena Camerin and Marion Bartoli. Having secured a wild card entry to the 2005 Australian Open Mirza reached the third round, losing to eventual champion Serena Williams.On February 12, 2005, she became the first Indian woman to win a WTA singles title defeating Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine in the Hyderabad Open Finals.Sania won theWimbledon Championships Girls' Doubles title in 2003, teaming up with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.

Accolades:
Mirza has earned a large fan following in India as she is one of the very few young women from that country to have done well at the highest levels of sport. The media termed the phenomenon Sania Mania. She reportedly has sponsorships to the tune of U.S. $ 0.35 million per brand per annum. In 2005, she was awarded the Arjuna award in tennis for the year 2004. The Government of India honoured her with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in 2006. She has defeated two top 10 players, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova.Watching her performance in Acura Classics, tennis legend Pancho Segura, Ecuador-born American player who roamed the courts in the 1940s and 50s, felt that Sania's hard-hitting game resembled that of Romanian tennis legend Ilie Nastase - Segura said that Mirza had a natural way of hitting the ball and that she hit it hard, like Nastase.Mirza is also the first Indian sportswoman to feature on the cover of Time magazine (South Asian edition) and was included in its 2005 list of Asia's 50 heroes.

Career Highlights:
2006 Bangalore Open (Hyderabad Open in the previous years) doubles: Won the tournament (partnering with Liezel Huber)

2005 Japan Open: reaches the semi-finals of women's singles and doubles (partnering Shahar Peer of Israel); reaches her highest doubles ranking of 114.

2005 US Open: reaches 4th round by defeating Marion Bartoli of France in straight sets (7-6(4), 6-4) before losing to top seed Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-1. Voted Best Player of the day on the 3rd day for winning her 2nd round match despite bleeding toes.

2005 Forest Hills Women's Tennis Classic, New York: reaches her second WTA final but fails to win.

2005 Acura Classic: upsets Nadia Petrova in 2nd round but loses in the third round to Akiko Morigami of Japan (2-6,6-4,4-6). By beating the 8th-ranked Petrova, she breaks into top 50 in world rankings
for the first time ever.

2005 Dubai Tennis Championships: Upset reigning US Open Champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-2 in 2nd round to reach the quarter-finals .

2005 Hyderabad Open singles: Won the tournament defeating Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in the final and became the first Indian woman to capture a WTA singles title.

2005 Australian Open singles: 3rd round: Became first Indian woman to reach the 3rd round of a Grand Slam tournament.

2004 Hyderabad Open doubles: Won the tournament (partnering with Liezel Huber) to become the youngest Indian to win a WTA or ATP tour title and the first Indian woman to capture a WTA tour title. entered the singles as wild card but lost in the first round to the eventual winner Nicole Pratt.

2003 Wimbledon Championships Juniors doubles: Won the tournament (partnering with Alisa Kleybanova) to become the youngest Indian and the first Indian woman to win a junior Grand Slam title.

2003 Afro-Asian Games: won four gold medals - Women's singles, Mixed doubles (with Mahesh Bhupathi),
Women's doubles and Women's team events (the last two golds in partnership with Rushmi Chakravarthy)