Joshna Chinappa

Name : Joshna Chinappa
Gender :Female
Date of birth :Sep 15, 1986
City :Chennai
State :Tamil Nadu
Country : India
Although called the Sania Mirza of Indian squash, child prodigy Joshna Chinappa has more credits than Sania in international circuit. She is the first Indian girl to win the prestigious British Squash Championship in 2003. She is also the youngest national champion in the Indian sports history.

Joshna Chinappa has squash flowing in her blood for four generations. Her great grandfather field Marshall K.M.Cariappa, India's first Commander-in-Chief of Army played squash, so too her grandfather and of course her father Anjan Chinappa who represented Tamil Nadu several times. Joshna Chinappa started playing squash under her father at the age of eight.

At the age of eleven, she ranked second in under-14 National Junior Squash Championship. But the following year she won the title along with Singapore Junior, Hong Kong Junior and Scottish Junior. She was given the C.P Johnston Award For The Best Sportsperson Of The Year 1998.

The saga continued the next two years till 2002 when she won the senior national title at the age of 14, the youngest in Indian sports ahead of Vijay Amritraj, Vishawanathan Anand, Ramesh Krishnan and Prokash Padukone who became national senior champ in their respective fields at the age of 15. . Joshna Chinappa created history by being the first Indian girl to win the British Squash Championship title 2003 and also winning Asian Junior Women Squash Championship.

She also won squash championship titles in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Scotland and UK and ranked world No 1 in the under-17 category. Joshna Chinappa’s superlative performances continued in 2004 when she again became national champions and won Malaysian Junior, earned bronze medal in Asian championship, bagged gold in SAF Games and posted victory in British Open Junior. She was also runner-up in the Hong Kong event the same year.

She cracked 2005 by winning Asian Junior and British Open Junior for the second successive years. She came second in World Junior in Belgium the same year. As of September 2007, she is world’s 42nd. The Goodwill Ambassador of Inida, Joshna Chinappa’s idol is tennis star Andre Agassi.

Sania Mirza

Sania Mirza (born November 15, 1986) is an Indian tennis player. She was born in Mumbai but brought up in Hyderabad. Coached by her father Imran Mirza, she began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003.

She was the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with career high rankings of number 31 in singles and 24 in doubles. She is now ranked 48th in singles and 38th in doubles as of April 9th, 2007.

She became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the 2005 US Open, defeating Mashona Washington, Maria Elena Camerin and Marion Bartoli. In 2004, she finished runner up at the Asian Tennis Championship.

In 2005 Mirza reached the third round of the Australian Open, 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 the Wimbledon Championships Girls' Doubles title in 2003, teaming up with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.