New Delhi [India], February 22 (ANI): An excellent 20-year-long profession got here to an finish on Tuesday as Sania Mirza performed her final match as knowledgeable tennis participant on the WTA Dubai Tennis Championships. The Indian tennis star has performed a key position in giving a lift to tennis, specifically girls tennis, within the nation.
There was no fairytale ending on provide for Mirza as she suffered a first-round loss on the Dubai Tennis Championships 2023, her farewell match. Mirza had earlier introduced that she is going to retire after the WTA 1000 match in Dubai.
The Indian tennis participant and her American girls’s doubles companion Madison Keys misplaced their first-round encounter 4-6, 0-6 to Veronika Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova on the Dubai Tennis Stadium.
The Indian tennis participant’s pursuit of excellence led her to quite a few accomplishments in her profession together with six Grand Slam titles and prime spot within the WTA doubles rankings. She grew to become the primary Indian girl to enter the highest 30 within the WTA singles rankings.
The first massive title triumph got here in 2009, as she partnered Mahesh Bhupathi to clinch the Australian Open blended doubles title.
The duo of Mirza and Bhupathi paired as much as do India proud but once more three years later, this time on the hallowed clay of Roland Garros. Her third blended doubles title on the Slams was on the 2014 US Open, partnering Brazilian participant Bruno Soares.
The top-seeded duo lived as much as their billing and beat USA’s Abigail Spears and Mexico’s Santiago Gonzalez in a closing which went right into a tiebreaker. In 2015, Sania Mirza partnered with Swiss legend Martina Hingis, with whom she gained three back-to-back Grand Slam doubles titles.
Fans dubbed the duo “Santina” after their first Grand Slam victory at Wimbledon in 2015. The pair superior to the ultimate with out dropping a set towards the Russian duo of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina – Sania Mirza’s former companion. The duo continued in the identical vein and appeared virtually unstoppable over the course of the following few months as they picked up the US Open 2015 title earlier than beginning off 2016 with the Australian Open triumph – marking a hat-trick of Grand Slams.
Despite being a really succesful singles participant for the primary half of her profession, recurring wrist accidents compelled Sania Mirza to focus solely on doubles in 2013. She gained the Hyderabad Open in 2005, changing into the primary Indian tennis participant to win a WTA singles title.
In mid-2007, she climbed to a career-best twenty seventh within the WTA Singles Rankings, which stays the very best tennis rating held by an Indian in singles to at the present time.
In doubles, Sania Mirza rose to No. 1 within the WTA Doubles Rankings in April 2015, changing into the primary Indian girl to take action. Only Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have reached the highest of the ATP doubles rankings. The Indian ace held the primary spot for almost 21 months earlier than shedding it in January 2017.
Representing and profitable a medal for the nation is a dream each Olympic athlete fosters and Mirza is not any totally different. The Indian tennis star is a four-time Olympian. Mirza competed in her first Olympics in Beijing in 2008. Due to a wrist damage, she needed to retire within the second set of her first spherical singles match towards Czech opponent Iveta Benesova. She and her companion Sunitha Rao had been eradicated within the second spherical of the doubles occasion.
Mirza and her doubles companion Rushmi Chakravarthi had been eradicated within the first spherical of the 2012 London Olympics after shedding to Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chia-jung and Hsieh Su-wei. She fared higher within the blended doubles, reaching the quarterfinals with Leander Paes earlier than shedding to eventual gold medalists Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi.
In her third Olympic look, Sania Mirza partnered Rohan Bopanna in blended doubles and superior to the semi-finals. The Czech pairing of Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek defeated the duo within the bronze medal match, denying them a podium end.
In girls’s doubles occasion, Sania Mirza and her companion Prarthana Thombare exited the match within the first spherical after a closely-fought loss to China’s Zhang Shuai and Peng Shuai. At the Tokyo Olympics, Sania Mirza and her doubles companion Ankita Raina did not make it past the opening spherical.
Mirza has an unbelievable eight Asian Games medals, profitable a minimum of one in every of the editions she has competed in.
Perhaps her first main achievement representing India at a serious international occasion was on the 2002 Asian Games. The then-15-year-old gained bronze within the blended doubles occasion with Leander Paes.
Her fortunes improved within the following version when she gained gold in blended doubles and silver in girls’s doubles and the workforce occasion on the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.
In Guangzhou, she clinched bronze in girls’s singles and added silver from the blended doubles occasion and on the Incheon Asian Games in 2014, she gained gold in blended doubles once more and capped it off with a silver within the girls’s doubles.
Due to her accomplishments in tennis, Sania Mirza has been conferred with the Arjuna Award in 2004, Padma Shri in 2006, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (now referred to as the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award) in 2015 and the Padma Bhushan in 2016. (ANI)