The Telangana State Brand Ambassador Sania Mirza gets Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award 2015, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports.
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of four years immediately preceding the year during which award is to be given.
Telangana State CM K Chandrasekhar Rao congratulates Sania Mirza on winning Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award 2015
“It’s a tremendous honour for me to be conferred the Khel Ratna award and I feel humbled with the love and respect showered on me by my country,” Sania told PTI from Toronto.
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award 2015
Sania Mirza today became only the second tennis player for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. Sania, currently ranked world number one in women’s doubles, scripted history by becoming the first Indian to clinch a women’s doubles Grand Slam when she partnered Swiss great Martina Hingis for the Wimbledon trophy earlier this year.
Sania is only the second tennis player after Leander Paes to be named for the top award. Paes had been bestowed the honour way back in 1996 after his bronze medal in the Atlanta Olympics.
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee will receive medal, certificate and award money of Rs. 7.5 lakh, Sania had won the Arjuna award in 2004 and was the favourite for the top award this year. In 2006, she was bestowed the Padma Shri the country’s fourth highest civillian honour.
Sania’s mixed doubles trophies had come in the Australian Open (2009), French Open (2012) and US Open (2014).
