Ever since Sania Mirza broke into the big league some three years ago, the big two of Indian tennis — Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi — have been reduced to also-rans in terms of popularity, and success. It was not any different in the year that has gone by. The only change of course was the coming of age of Karnataka's Rohan Bopanna.

But it was the Sania Show that hogged the limelight, both on and off the court for the better part of the year. Her heroics on court easily overshadowed her troubles off it. For, it is not often that you get to compete with the best and come away the best. In a stirring summer in America, the 21-year-old, 20 then, came up with a series of sensational wins that would have made every Indian proud.

The Indian ace notched up wins over Tatiana Golovin, Patty Schnyder, Shahar Peer, Dinara Safina, Martina Hingis, all ranked in the top-20, in a brilliant start to her hardcourt season. After making her third semifinal appearance of the season at Cincinnati in July, Sania went one better in the next event, making the final at Stanford.

Unfortunately, for the third time in the year, the Indian Miss failed to solve the Anna Chakvetadze puzzle. The Russian powerhouse had the measure of Sania at Hobart and Cincinnati earlier, at the semifinal stage in both.
That defeat, however, did not break Sania's resolve.

She continued doing what she does best, notch ing upset wins. Peer and Safina felt the heat of the Indian's charge at San Diego, while former world No 1 Hingis fell to Sania at the East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles a couple of weeks later.

The young sensation had earlier got off to a strong start, making the semifinals at Hobart and Pattaya City before being laid low by a knee surgery. She was off the courts for nearly 10 weeks and it took her a while to get into the groove. When she did, Sania was almost at home on the hardcourts. But a wrist sprain towards the closing stages of the season cost her a few weeks.

If Sania had exploded on the world scene in 2005 as just a talented teenager, 2007 proved that Sania is here to stay, for good - provided she stays injury-free. Besides her singles heroics, Sania won four doubles titles, all with different partners to round off a successful year.

Bright start

At the start of the year, Sania and Bopanna made headlines together with a string of upset wins in the Hopman Cup.

That effort earned them a direct entry into the mixed team competition in the 2008 season. Bopanna then enjoyed the best season of his life, winning one Challenger singles title and five doubles titles, four with regular partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi of Pakistan.

By contrast, Bhupathi and Paes had a relatively quiet year, both winning two titles each. The latter did make the season-ending event at Shanghai, but did little of note with partner Martin Damm.