Sania Mirza, one of India’s greatest tennis players, finished her playing career with a first-round loss in WTA Dubai Duty Free Championships, on Tuesday (February 21). Sania and her doubles partner Madison Keys lost the match 4-6, 0-6 to Russian pair of Vernokia Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova in 60 minutes. As soon as the match ended, Keys gave a tight hug to Sania, realising how emotional the moments was for her doubles partner. Sania had reached the mixed doubles final in her career’s last Grand Slam at Australian Open 2023 in January with Rohan Bopanna. The Australian Open was also her first Grand Slam.
Watch Sania Mirza’s last moments as professional tennis player here:
One final embrace _@MirzaSania has played her final match, wrapping up her career in Dubai!#DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/miVNQYJGMJ
— wta (@WTA) February 21, 2023
Sania Mirza finishes her career with 6 Grand Slam titles, 43 career titles. She is also the only Indian woman to get into Top 100 of women’s singles. She is former World No 27 in singles as well former World Number 1 in women’s doubles.
The 25-year-old Veronika is ranked 11th in singles and number five in the doubles while Liudmila is world number 13 in doubles. The 36-year-old Sania, who turned Pro in 2003, walks out of competitive tennis with six Grand Slam titles, including three women’s doubles with Swiss legend Martina Hingis. She won two of her three mixed doubles with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi (2009 Australian Open and 2012 French Open). She won the US Open trophy with Bruno Soares.
The breaks were traded at swift pace in the opening set which was locked at 4-4. From there, Kudermetova and Samsonova broke the pair of Sania and Keys one more time for a 5-4 lead, placing themselves in a position from where they could serve out the set. They did that quite comfortably, losing one point in the 10th game. Sania and her partner were broken in the very first game of the second set and it was one way traffic after that as they were bageled.
With PTI inputs
