Long school holidays stretching into the summer led Sania Mirza [Images] to find a hobby. Tennis was the winner and now, aged just 18, Mirza is the toast of a billion Indians.

The youngster spent those holidays honing a power-packed game -- one which enabled her to become the first Indian woman to win a WTA Tour title last month and this week to beat US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

It has vaulted her onto the front pages in her homeland but despite the frenzied praise the teenager remains firmly grounded.

She had never set out to become a millionaire tennis star, she merely fell in love with her hobby.

"Maybe if I were a guy I would be playing cricket," she said.

"My parents were always very sports-minded. They never wanted me to play tennis professionally, but they wanted their child to play a sport, whatever it was.

"I used to go swimming and passed the tennis courts every day, and that's how it started. My mum said 'Why don't you play tennis in your summer holidays because you have nothing to do except swim for an hour or whatever?', and that's how I started playing.

"And tennis just suited my style and personality."

DISARMINGLY HONEST

It is not uncommon for the Tour's leading lights to wax lyrical about the strength of their forehand or serve or tactical acumen, but Mirza is disarmingly honest about her strengths and weaknesses.

"To be honest, I'm not that fast on my feet," she said. "But I have amazing timing on the ball which is why, although I'm not that strong, I still hit the ball harder than most of the players on the circuit.

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"It just suited the way I'm built. Maybe if I played squash or badminton I needed more movement, more reflexes. So, it just happened.

"It wasn't as if we sat down one day and decided I was going to become a professional tennis player. It just happened over a period of time.

"Until I was 12 or 13 it was just fun. We had never thought that I was going to make it. My parents never put any pressure on me, even when I was 10 years old and went to play a match. They never told me I had to win it.

"They always just told me to hit the ball as hard as I can and we'll see what happens."

Nobody could have predicted what would happen.

Earlier this year she became the first Indian woman to reach the third round of a Grand Slam, before falling to eventual champion Serena Williams [Images] at the Australian Open.

POTENTIAL BOYFRIEND

Two weeks later she made history again, beating Russian's Alyona Bondarenko in the final of the Hyderabad Open to become the first Indian woman to win a Tour event, 46 years after Ramanathan Krishnan became the first Indian man to win a title, at London's [Images] Queen's Club.

But success has not come easy and it has taken sacrifice.

"When I was 12 or 13, it was difficult, yes," she said. "I think it's natural to want to do what others your age are doing, so I guess you do have to make some sacrifices.

"I realised that if you don't make those sacrifices I don't think you can make something out of your life and I wouldn't be sitting here now.

"Sometimes I did feel I was missing out, like sometimes I'd want to go to a birthday party but I couldn't because I had tennis at four.

"Or sometimes I'd want to go out for a movie but I couldn't because I had to get up at six every morning. But it doesn't bother me now because I'm very happy with what is happening with my life right now."

Such is her devotion to the sport, she has no time for distractions. She does, however, know what she is looking for in a potential boyfriend.

"He has to be good looking and over six feet tall," she giggled.

"No, on a serious note, I think he needs to understand me and he needs to be a nice person and not have any ego hassles.

"I need a guy who understands me."

(Reuters)