Sania Mirza was barely five years old when her parents, Imran and Naseema, decided to give her the racquet. They were watching a match between Conchita Martinez and Steffi Graf.

Imran Mirza asked her wife if she would like to see their daughter play like that. She nodded and thus foundation for a tennis career was laid.

The child started playing tennis from the age of six under the supervision of PA Jain and Ravi Chander. Her first international match was at the age of 13 years when she played the ITF Junior Tournament.

Soon she was drawing the attention of tennis enthusiasts. Playing competitive tennis obviously meant absolute deidcation towards the game that could affect her education but Sania worked hard on studies..

She secured 63% in the Xth examination. Meanwhile, she won the Wimbledon Girls Doubles title--the first ever grandslam win by an Indian girl. Sania had truly arrived.

Under the guidance of Mahesh Bhupathi and his father, he game improved significantly. She won 10 ITF singles and 11 ITF doubles championships.

Already, the youngest girl to win bronze at the Asian Games, she kept on working hard on her game. After playing with Serena in the Australian Open, the high point of the career was winning the WTA Open at Hyderabad.

Despite injury, she performed consistently and at Dubai Open became the first Indian woman player to beat a top ten player. The successes boosted her world ranking to 77. She kept on working on her game and soon broke into the top 50, a great achievement and is now cruising towards the top 25 players in the world.

When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called her up on phone, praised her game and said that he felt delighted seeing her play confidently with Serena Williams, the Hyderabadi girl was overjoyed. It's still a beginning and many more skies are to be conquered.