DUBAI: Referred in its report as “the greatest tennis players ever to emerge from India,” NDTV Sports paid a glittering tribute to 36-year-old Women’s Tennis player, Sania Mirza.
Mirza, 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.
A first round 4-6, 0-6 straight sets defeat with American partner Madison Keys at the WTA Dubai Duty Free Championships, to the formidable Russian pair of 25-year-old Vernokia Kudermetova (ranked world 11 in singles and number five in doubles) and world doubles number 13 Liudmila Samsonova in exactly one hour, was the closing match of Mirza’s career.
Just a month back Mirza played her last Grand Slam and ended with a runner-up finish at the Australian Open along with compatriot Rohan Bopanna.
Now settled in Dubai, she would have hoped for a dream closing at her second home but she bumped into a strong Russian pairing that cut short her stay in the final tournament of her career in which she won 43 WTA doubles titles and one singles trophy.
Success was not the only highlight of her almost two-decade long career as unwarranted controversies chased her throughout.
Sometimes she remained unfazed and kept going, achieving many a firsts. Sometimes she broke to the extent that she considered not playing in India.
It was when she had to prove her love and loyalty for India after being accused of disrespecting the tri-colour during the 2008 Hopman Cup in Australia.
Probably the worst jibe thrown at her was when she was called daughter-in-law of Pakistan due to her wedding with Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik. This was after Telangana chose her to be their state ambassador.
All this, despite her inspiring on-court success.
After all, how many from India became a top-30 tennis player? How many excelled at Majors? How many became world number one across formats? How many won the year-end championships? In men’s tennis, just a handful and in women’s tennis, it’s only Sania Mirza.
With no player in sight who looks close to getting even near to what Mirza has achieved. The gap is huge and the best after her are also gradually fading.
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.
However, success eluded at the biggest stage: Olympics. She was close to winning a bronze at the 2016 Rio Games but lost the play-off with Bopanna.
In the final match of her career, 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.(SOURCE LINK https://sports.ndtv.com/tennis/sania-mirza-ends-tennis-career-with-first-round-defeat-in-dubai-3802237)
