Indian tennis star Sania Mirza on Monday brought home country's first-ever Fed Cup Heart Award in Asia/Oceania category after getting more than 10,000 votes out of the total 16,985 votes cast for this year's three regional Group I nominees. (More Tennis News)
The Fed Cup Heart Award winners were determined through online voting by fans which went on for a week star🌞ting from May 1. The winners from🗹 each category were also awarded prize money of USD 2,000.
Sania's retuಌrn to Fed Cup action for the first time since 2016 s🧸aw India book their place in the Fed Cup Play-offs.
Reflecting on the achievement, Sania sai✃d she wants to dedicate the award to the entire country and pledged to donate the prize money to Telangana Chief Minister's Relief Fund to aid the fight against coronavirus.
"It's an honour to win the Fed Cup Heart Award as the first Indian. I dedicate this awar💝d to the entire country and to all my fans and thank everyone for voting for me. I hope to bring more laurels to the country in the future,&quo𝓰t; Sania said in a statement.
"I want to donate the money that I get from this award to the Telangana Chief Minister's Relief Fund as the world is goin🍬g through very difficult times with the virus," she added.
The Fed Cup Heart Award is an International Tennis Federation (ITF) initiative that was established in 2009 to recognise those Fed Cup players who represent their countries with distinction, show exceptional courage on the court, and demonstrate outstanding commitment to the ideals of t🎃he competition.
Estonia's Anett Kontaveit emerged victorious from Europe/Africa and Fernanda Contreras Gomez of Mexico triumphed over Paraguay's Vero🥀nica Cepede Royg from the Americas region.
