Sania Mirza
Indian tennis legend Sania Mirza's glorious career came to an end after a first-round defeat at the WTA Dubai Duty-Free Championships. Playing in the Women's Doubles with American partner Madison Keys in Dubai, the pair lost in straight sets.
Sania and Keys suffered a 4-6, 0-6 defeat against the Russian pair of Vernokia Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova in exactly one hour. Veronika is world number 11 in singles and number five in doubles while Liudmila is ranked 13th in doubles. After the loss, Sania Mirza got emotional and embraced her partner before completing the customary handshakes with the opposing players.
Watch the video here:
The 36-year-old turned professional in 2003 and became the first Indian to win a WTA singles title at the Hyderabad event in 2005. She then reached the top 30 by 2007 and achieved her career-high ranking of world number 27.
Now after glorious 20 years, Sania Mirza walks out of competitive tennis after winning six Grand Slam titles. Three women's doubles with Swiss superstar Martina Hingis. She won two of her three mixed doubles with fellow Indian Mahesh Bhupathi in the 2009 Australian Open and 2012 French Open. She also won the US Open trophy with Bruno Soares.
Earlier last month, Sania couldn't get a fairytale end to her Grand Slam career as she lost in the Australian Open mixed doubles final with Rohan Bopanna. The Indian pair lost 6-7(2) 2-6 do to the Brazilian pair of Luisa Stefani and Rafael Matao in the final at the Rod Laver Arena.
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