Sania retains 37th in singles, moves up in doubles

High after becoming the first Indian sportswoman to feature in the cover page of The Time magazine, Indian Tennis icon Sania Mirza retained her 37th place in singles while moving up to her career-best 128th in doubles, according to the latest WTA rankings announced on Monday.

Sania, who has been included among the 2005 Asian heroes in the Time magazine's latest issue, had reached her career best ranking of 34th after she made it to the pre quarter-finals in the US Open.

She clung to it even after her first round exit from the Wismilak Open in Bali, but slipped to 37th in the last rankings after she lost in second round of the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata.Sania is seeded eighth in the 170,000 dollar AIG Open in Tokyo which starts today. She will also play in Thailand Open starting October 10.

In the doubles rankings, Sania is now ranked at an all time high of 128th moving one place up from last week's ranking, which was aided by her semi-final appearance in the Sunfeast Open, partnering Virginia Ruano Pascual.

Among other Indians, US-based Shikha Uberoi moved down to 146th slot from last week's 139th in the singles rankings while her sister Neha did the same slipping down nine places from 263rd to be at 272nd, according to information received here.

However, the sisters' poor show in the singles was compensated by career-high rankings in doubles. While Neha moved up to best-ever 134th ranking from last week's 188th, Shikha moved up to her best-ever 155th from 208th.

Another Indian Rushmi Chakravarthi also moved up one place to be on the 425th position in the singles.

Sanaa Bhambri stood at 479th position moving 10 ten places down from last week while her sister Ankita noe stood at 504th, six places down from last week's 498th.