Indian ace Sania Mirza will retire from professional tennis after competing in the 2023 Dubai Tennis Championships in February.
Sania Mirza was due to retire at the end of the 2022 season. However, an elbow injury in August ended her season prematurely, after which she decided to put her retirement plans on hold as she wanted to leave on her own terms.
“Honestly, I like to do things on my own terms. So I don’t want to be forced by injury,” said Sania Mirza, who withdrew from the 2022 US Open. father in the interview.
Sania Mirza made her senior debut in 2001 and has proven herself to be one of the most successful Indian tennis players of all time. She has won six Grand Slam titles in her career – three in women’s doubles and three in mixed doubles. However, Sania Mirza has not won a WTA title since the Ostrava Open in the Czech Republic in 2021.
“I really don’t have the ability to emotionally push as much anymore,” said Sania Mirza Curly Tales Middle East recently in an interview. “Priorities change, and now my priority is not to push my body to its limits every day.”
Sania Mirza will partner Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan in women’s doubles at the upcoming Australian Open, which is expected to be her last Grand Slam. The Indian tennis player won the Australian Open doubles title with Martina Hingis in 2016.
Mirza also won the Australian Open mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi in 2009, but her participation in this category at the 2023 Australian Open is yet to be confirmed.
Regarded as the greatest Indian tennis player of all time, Sania Mirza was ranked No. 1 in the world in doubles by the WTA Rankings from April 2015 to January 2017. During this period, she won three Grand Slam titles in a row.
Sania Mirza took a break from professional tennis after the 2017 season and gave birth to her son Izhaan in October 2018. She made a victorious return to court in 2020 in Hobart and won her 42nd WTA doubles title.
Meanwhile, in singles, Sania Mirza won her only WTA singles title in her hometown of Hyderabad in 2005. In 2007, she achieved her career-high singles ranking of No. 27 in the world, but retired from singles after undergoing multiple surgeries.
Sania Mirza also has the distinction of competing in four different Olympic Games. At the Asian Games, the Indian tennis player won eight medals (two gold, three silver and three bronze). Sania Mirza competed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and won silver in singles and bronze in women’s doubles.
