Who is Sania Mirza?

Sania Mirza, India's top ranked woman's tennis player, will now represent the country at the London Olympics. She received a wild card for the Olympics in the doubles event on Tuesday, and she celebrated it with a win in the first round of women's doubles event at the Wimbledon.

Sania, who is partnering Bethanie Mattek-Sands in Wimbledon, got the wild card in the Olympics doubles event along with Rushmi Chakraborty. This means she is now qualified to play the mixed doubles with Leander Paes as well.

Sania, who remained quiet on the tennis row all this while, finally broke her silence on Tuesday. She lashed out at the All India Tennis Association for using her as bait to pacify a disgruntled Paes. In her press statement, Sania said: "While I feel honored and privileged to have been chosen to partner Leander Paes, the manner and timing of the announcement wreaks of male chauvinism where a two time Grand Slam champion, who has been India's number 1 women's tennis player for almost a decade in singles and doubles is offered in compensation to partner one of the feuding champions purely in order to lure him into accepting to play with a men's player he does not wish to play with!"

Sania did not spare Mahesh Bhupathi either, her mixed doubles partner with whom she won the French Open title earlier this month and the Australian Open in 2009. She is upset with him for choosing to sacrifice his pairing with her to keep his team with Rohan Bopanna intact.

"Mahesh Bhupathi has firmly stood by his commitment to play together with his men's doubles partner, Rohan Bopanna as he genuinely believed it was good for India. However, in the process, he sacrificed the commitment he made to me to try and win an Olympic medal together for India. Each person has his or her own priorities and I would like to believe that Mahesh made his choice in the best interests of the country," said Sania.

Injuries and inconsistent form may have prevented Sania from fulfilling her potential but there is no denying that she remains one of India's most successful sportswomen.

Sania was only six years old when she started playing lawn tennis at the Nizam Club in her home town of Hyderabad. Now the 25-year-old is well-known for her powerful forehand ground strokes.

Sania is the first Indian to break into top 30 Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings in singles and top 10 in doubles. She has defeated many top players including Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva and Marion Bartoli besides former world number ones Martina Hingis and Dinara Safina.

But life has been a mixed bag for Sania. Born on November 15, 1986 in Mumbai, she has had three surgeries, on her wrist and both knees, and she says her body doesn't feel 25 at all. "It feels much older," she admits.

"I think a sportsman looks at these things a bit differently. We just give it our best shot and try to take victories and defeats in our stride," Sania said after the defeat at the French Open.

Keeping sporting sprits high were probably instilled in her by C.G. Krishna Bhupathi, father of Indian tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi, who was her coach at the Nizam Club in Hyderabad. She later practiced at Sinnet Tennis Academy in Secunderabad and then at Ace Tennis Academy in the United States.

Sania's first appearance in the international arena was while representing India at the World Junior Championship in 1999 held at Jakarta. She is the first Indian to have entered the third round of Australian Open 2005. In 2004, Sania was honoured with the prestigious Arjuna award and in 2006, a Padma Shri.

Sania was engaged to childhood friend Sohrab Mirza in 2009 but the engagement was called off. She wanted to marry a sportsperson and started seeing Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik. They were married on April 12, 2010 in Hyderabad followed by ceremonies at Sialkot and Lahore in Pakistan.

Controversies are not new to her either. Wearing short tennis clothes drawn provoked some Muslim religious groups to criticise her. After she spoke at a conference on safe sex in November 2005, some Muslim leaders said Sania was detached from Islam and that she was a "corrupting influence on the youth."

Sania clarified her stance by saying that she was opposed to pre-marital sex. But when she chose to participate at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, people were happy that she has started to play again at major tournaments in India.