One of India’s most decorated tennis player Sania Mirza has announced her retirement plans after her loss in the first round of women’s doubles at the Australian Open 2022 on Wednesday. Mirza and her Ukrainian partner Nadiia Kichenok lost 4-6, 6-7(5) to Slovenian team of Tamara Zidansek and Kaja Juvan in one hour and 37 minutes.
Kichenok was off-colour today as unforced errors kept flowing from her racquet throughout the contest. However, Sania will play in the mixed doubles having paired up with American Rajeev Ram.
Following the loss, Mirza announced that 2022 is going to be her last season on the tour and she really wants to complete it.
“I’ve decided this will be my last season. I’m taking it weeky by week, not sure if I can last the season, but I want too,” Mirza said in the post match press conference.
“There’s a bunch reasons for it. It’s not as simple as ‘okay I’m not going to play’. I do feel my recovery is taking longer, I do feel, considering my son is three years old, I’m putting him at risk by travelling so much with him, that’s something I have to take into account.
“My body is wearing down. My knee was really hurting today and I’m not saying that’s the reason we lost but I do think that it is taking time to recover as I’m getting older,” she said.
Mirza has been playing on the professional tour since 2003 and it has been 19 years of the Hyderabadi playing tennis at the top.
She is a former world No.1 in doubles and has won six Grand Slam titles in her career.
Mirza had a decorated singles career, where she reached a highest of world No. 27 in mid-2007, which made her the highest-ranked female player ever from India.
She had notable victories over Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva, and Marion Bartoli and former world No. 1s Martina Hingis, Dinara Safina, and Victoria Azarenka but had to give up her singles career due to a major wrist injury.
Mirza is one of the only two female tennis players from India to win a WTA title and the only one to reach the top 100 of singles rankings.
