Nirupama Sanjeev

Nirupama Sanjeev (née: Vaidyanathan; born 8 December 1976) is a retired Indian professional tennis player. In 1998 Australian Open, she became the first Indian woman in the modern era to feature and win a round at a main draw Grand Slam, beating Italy's Gloria Pizzichini. She has also won the Bronze Medal at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games in Mixed Doubles, partnering Mahesh Bhupathi.

Nirupama was born in the Southern Indian town of Coimbatore. She started playing tennis at the age of 5 and was influenced very much by her brother. Her father K.S. Vaidyanathan was a cricketer who had played for Tamil Nadu in Ranji Cricket tournament coached her at the start of her career. Her first tennis tournament foray was the National Under 12 tournament, where she reached the semi-final and went on to win her 1st National title in Under 14 age group at the age of 13. One year later in 1991, she won the National Women's title at age 14. She won the National Women's title in 1992–1996.

In 1996, she moved to Luxembourg and she turned professional at the age of 18. Nirupama shifted her base to Sarasota, Florida in 1997 where she trained with David O Meara who was the former coach of Leander Paes for two years. In 1998 Australian Open, she became the first Indian woman in the modern era to feature and win a round at a main draw Grand Slam, beating Italy's Gloria Pizzichini. She has also won the Bronze Medal at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games in Mixed Doubles, partnering Mahesh Bhupathi.

She retired during the later 2000s. She made a comeback in 2010 when she represented India to play in the Commonwealth Games 2010 and in Asian games in Guangzhou as a 33-year-old.

For the past five years, Nirupama has been on the expert commentary team along with Indian tennis legend Vijay Amritraj for ESPN-STAR sports. Nirupama also runs a tennis coaching camp in the Bay Area, California. She is launching her autobiography "The Moonballer" in August this year.

On 23 May 2002, she married Sanjeev Balakrishnan, a software engineer from Bay Area, California; the brother of the Indian sprinter Rajeev Balakrishnan.

Singles finals: 4 (2–2)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	15 July 1996	Bilbao, Spain	Clay	Laura Pena	6–1, 4–6, 5–7
Runner-up	2.	02 September 1996	Spoleto, Italy	Clay	Catherine Mothes-Jobkel	5–7, 2–6
Winner	1.	17 November 1996	Bad Gögging, Germany	Carpet (i)	Raluca Sandu	6–4, 6–1
Winner	2.	17 April 2000	New Delhi, India	Carpet	Sai Jayalakshmy Jayaram	6–3, 6–2

Doubles (10–6)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	21 August 1995	Wezel, Belgium	Clay	Olga Hostáková	Ivana Havrlíková Monika Kratochvílová	2–6, 3–6
Winner	1.	15 April 1996	Gelos, France	Clay	Cara Black	Amélie Mauresmo Isabelle Taesch	7-6 (4) 6-3
Winner	2.	28 October 1996	Poitiers, France	Hard (i)	Olga Barabanschikova	Anique Snijders Noëlle van Lottum	6-2 6-3
Winner	3.	17 November 1996	Bad Gögging, Germany	Carpet (i)	Barbara Schwartz	Kirstin Freye Silke Meier	6-4 6-1
Winner	4.	30 June 1997	Vaihingen, Germany	Clay	Seda Noorlander	Maria-Fernanda Landa Marlene Weingärtner	6-3 6-1
Runner-up	2.	03 August 1998	Lexington, United States	Hard	Jing-Qian Yi	Amanda Grahame Bryanne Stewart	4-6, 6-1, 3-6
Runner-up	3.	04 October 1999	Albuquerque, United States	Hard	Marion Maruska	Debbie Graham Nana Smith	4-6, 5-7
Runner-up	4.	13 December 1998	New Delhi, India	Hard	Tathiana Garbin	Rika Hiraki Lorna Woodroffe	2-5 ret.
Winner	5.	17 April 2000	New Delhi, India	Carpet	Sai Jayalakshmy Jayaram	Rushmi Chakravarthi Radhika Tulpule	6-4, 6-2
Winner	6.	17 July 2000	Mahwah, United States	Hard	Evie Dominikovic	Lisa McShea Irina Selyutina	6-4 6-4
Runner-up	5.	02 October 2000	Albuquerque, United States	Hard	Lisa McShea	Brie Rippner Elena Tatarkova	4-6, 4-6
Runner-up	6.	23 October 2000	Dallas, United States	Hard	Nana Smith	Brie Rippner Elena Tatarkova	3-6, 6-3, 3-6
Winner	7.	30 October 2000	Hayward, United States	Hard	Nana Smith	Kelly Liggan Milagros Sequera	4-2 4-2
Winner	8.	06 November 2000	Pittsburgh, United States	Hard (i)	Nana Smith	Seda Noorlander Kirstin Freye	5-7 6-4 6-0
Winner	9.	22 April 2001	Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	Hard	Manisha Malhotra	Leanne Baker Shelley Stephens	6–3, 7–5
Winner	10.	29 April 2001	Sarasota, United States	Clay	Melissa Middleton	Janet Lee Samantha Reeves	6-4 6-2