Pressure increasing for Sania

SANIA Mirza has admitted the pressure on her is "growing by the day" as the tennis player adapts to life as India`s first female sports star. Ever since she won the junior girls title at Wimbledon in 2003, an achievement which saw her favourite cricketer and India icon Sachin Tendulkar gift her a sportscar, Mirza`s career has been on an upward path. Last year she became the first Indian woman to break into the world`s top 50, the first to win a tournament and to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam event. Related Stories Sania loses in quarters Pressure increasing for Sania Sania reaches DFS Classic quarters Sania declares open tennis school in Edgbaston Mirza relives happy days with grass win Sania beats Bondarenko More Sania Mirza News >> All these feats led to the now 19-year-old Mirza being named `Newcomer of the Year` on the women`s tour. As her tennis profile rose the Muslim teenager also found herself having to cope with attacks from some clergy unhappy with the outfits, unexceptional compared to those say of Serena Williams, she was wearing on court. And Mirza, who won her first-round match at the DFS Classic WTA grasscourt event in Birmingham on Tuesday, with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 defeat of Ukraine`s Alona Bondarenko, admitted life in the spotlight was far from an easy ride. "After what happened last year there`s a lot of pressure on me, with people expecting me to do a lot better than I did," she said. "The pressure is growing by the day. Every match, whether I win or lose, people expect me to do better than I ever can. "That is something that as an athlete you go through day in and day out, although my upbringing is such I feel I can ignore it. "It is something you need to learn to block out. It is hard to do all the time because there are occasions when you feel pressure. That is when family helps."