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Indian tennis legend Sania Mirza ended her outstanding 20-year-long career on Tuesday after a defeat in the first round of the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
36-year-old Sania and her American partner Madison Keys lost in straight sets against the Russian pair of Veronika Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova with 4-6 0-6 in a one-hour-long game.
Veronika, 25, is ranked 11th in singles and 5th in doubles, while Liudmila is ranked 13th in doubles.
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, who had turned pro back in 2003, ended her magnificent career with six Grand Slam trophies, including three with Swiss legend Martina Hingis in women’s doubles.
The two of the other three Grand Slam titles won by Sania were in mixed doubles with fellow countryman Mahesh Bhupathi in the 2009 Australian Open and 2012 French Open. She also won a Grand Slam title with Brazilian tennis star Bruno Soares in a US Open trophy.
The first set was quite competitively fought from both sides with scores at 4-4. However, after that, Veronika and Liudmila took the lead and won the first set 6-4.
It was one-way traffic in the second set as the duo of Veronika and Liudmila completely dominated the set with scores ending at 6-0 to defeat the pair of Sania and Martina in the first round.
Sania is the first Indian woman to win a WTA title, a Grand Slam title and to become World No.1. Recently last month, Sania came close to winning the Grand Slam title after losing the mixed doubles final with Rohan Bopanna in the Australian Open.
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