On Sania Mirza's birthday, we recall the 9 most iconic moments from her career

Answering the skirters

Sania Mirza returned the ire she faced from radical clerics just as quickly as she returns serve

Mirza, an observant Muslim, faced backlash from clerics a few years into her career, who alleged that the player’s clothing was ‘too short’, describing it as ‘un-Islamic’. Mirza, who proudly observes her religion, took offence at the clerics’ statement, responding to them in a pithy reply. “"As long as I am winning, people shouldn't care whether my skirt is six inches (15 centimeters) long or 6 feet (two meters) long," she had said to the cleric who alleged Mirza, an icon for young women world over, was “leading young Muslim women astray.”