India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza beat Israel’s Andy Ram and Nathalia Dechy of France to lift the Australian Open mixed doubles title here on Sunday. This was their second consecutive year in the finals, and followed a rather lacklustre year for Ms. Mirza. Their opponents were unseeded, and the match was won handily by the duo. This is the seventh Grand Slam title for Mahesh and the first for Sania. He lost the Men’s Doubles finals

Mirza, 22, had already achieved a series of firsts for Indian women tennis players, including the highest ranking of 18.

She became the first Indian female to capture any grand slam title when she partnered Russia’s Alisa Kleybanova to win the 2003 Wimbledon junior doubles then in 2005 she became the first Indian woman to win a WTA event when she won at Hyderabad.

She is enormously popular in India but has been dogged by controversy.

She almost quit the sport last year after being accused of showing disrespect to the Indian flag and facing mounting criticism from religious groups for playing in normal tennis attire.