New Delhi, Sep 12: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza on Monday broke into the doubles top-10 for the first time in her career as she gained a place after the US Open, where she made the third round along with Russian partner Elena Vesnina.
Sania is now fourth Indian player from the current lot to feature in the doubles top-10. Veteran stars Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi and ever-improving Rohan Bopanna figure in the top-10 in the ATP doubles ranking chart.
Sania won three doubles title in the current calender to take the overall number to 12 trophies. She triumphed at Indian Wells and Charleston with Vesnina and at College Park with Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova.
"Woke up to find out I cracked the top 10 in the world:) thanks each and everyone of you for the support and love all these years," Sania wrote on her twitter page.
"Needed some good news to lift up spirits after this silly knee injury...hope to recover soon," her next tweet read.
Bhupathi congratulated Sania for the achievement. "Welcome to the top 10 club. That's a big effort. Now stay there for a while please... :)," Bhupathi tweeted.
However, the first round exit in the singles at the last Grand Slam of the year cost Sania dear as she slipped to 81 from 64.
Sania had points to defend as she had reached the second round at the US Open last year via qualifying but the defeat against Shahar Peer meant that all she could get was just five points.
Sania, who is likely to miss to the rest of the season due to a knee injury, and Vesnina are now placed fourth in the WTA race to year-end championship.
Only the top four pairs compete in the elite championship and due to Sania's injury the Indo-Russian pair may end up losing a lot of points and hence miss out on qualifying.
They have 4788 points, Yaroslava Shvedova and American Vaina King are getting close as they have 4685 points. PTI
