On 30th April 2020, Sania Mirza became the first Indian to be nominated for the Fed Cup Heart Award from the Asia/Oceania Zone along with Priska Madelyn Nugroho of Indonesia, Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit and Luxembourg’s Eleonora Molinaro from Europe/Africa, Fernanda Contreras Gomes of Mexico and Paraguay’s Veronica Cepede Royg from Americas.The voting for the award opens from 1st May until 8th May.
Key Points:
i.Sania Mirza won the doubles match which helped her to win against Indonesia in the final Group 1 match and secured her a place in the playoff.
ii.In her comeback after giving birth in October 2018 in January 2020 pairing with Nadiia Kichenok, she secured the women’s double title at Hobart International.
iii.Fed cup, the world’s largest annual international team competition in women’s sport with 108 nations entered in 2019 was launched in 1963
iv.Fed Cup Heart Award is an International Tennis Federation(ITF) initiative established in 2009 to recognise players representing their countries in the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas.
v.The first Fed Cup Heart award was presented to USA’s Melanie Oudin in 2009.
About ITF:
President– David Haggerty
COO– Kelly Fairweather
Headquarters– London, United Kingdom
