Sania Mirza inches closer to world number one rank

NEW DELHI: Sania Mirza took a giant leap towards becoming world number one player in the doubles by pocketing 1000 ranking points, following her stupendous title win in the Miami Open with partner Martina Hingis.

Sania's ranking remained at number three but she closed the gap to just 145 points with the world number one Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, who both have 7640 points each.

With her second title in a row with Martina, Sania now sits at number three with 7495 points.

Now Sania needs to win the Family Circle Cup, beginning this week in Charleston, where she and Martina are top seeds. But the tournament is being played on green clay and Sania with her partner go into the event without practice on this surface, which is little faster than red clay.

Nevertheless, Sania had won a title at Charleston in 2011 with Elena Vesnina.

Meanwhile, in the WTA singles rankings, Ankita Raina gained a place to be at number 252.

In the ATP rankings, Somdev Devvarman continues to be India's top singles player at number 171, a gain of five places. Ramkumar Ramanathan was the next best at number 233. He jumped 14 spots on the ladder and was followed by Yuki Bhambri (251), who climbed six places up.

In the doubles, Leander Paes was highest-ranked player at number 23 and was followed by Rohan Bopanna (24). Both the players gained two places each.