Sania Mirza on Tuesday acknowledged the 'graciousness' of former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly in coming over to watch her match at the Sunfeast Open WTA tennis tournament in Kolkata.

"Me and Sourav are pretty good friends. I spoke to him this morning. And he said he will come for the match. I told him that I know how popular he is and that the crowd will go berserk seeing him," Sania told mediapersons after her opening round win in the tournament.

"It's great that Sourav came here and watched the match," said Sania.

Ganguly, who sat in the VIP enclosure in the company of several cricketers from Bengal, was seen enthusiastically applauding every shot of the 19-year-old Hyderabadi.