Sania Mirza to retire from professional tennis after Dubai Championships, to play Australian Open
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India ace player Sania Mirza will retire from professional tennis after playing the Dubai Tennis Championship 2023 in February. Mirza was to retire in 2022 itself, however, an elbow injury in August ended her season prematurely, post which she decided to give it another go on the circuit.
"Honestly, I like to do things on my own terms. So I don't want to be forced out by injury,” Sania Mirza, who pulled out of the US Open 2022, told wtatennis in an interview. After making her senior debut in 2001, she went on to scale unprecedented heights and became the most successful women's player in the country, in singles as well as doubles.
In a span of 22 years, she won six Grand Slam titles - three in women’s doubles and three in mixed doubles. However, her last win on the circuit came in 2021, when she won the Ostrava Open. “I really don’t have the capacity in my mind to emotionally push that much anymore,” Sania Mirza told Curly Tales Middle East in an interview recently. “Priorities change, and now my priority is not to push my body to the limit every single day.”
Meanwhile, Mirza will partner Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan in women’s doubles at the upcoming Australian Open. The Indian had last won Australian Open in 2016 when she won the women's doubles title with Martina Hingis. Her participation in the mixed doubles is not confirmed as of yet though.
Mirza was ranked world no.1 in doubles from April 2015 until January 2017. The period saw her win three Grand Slam titles in a row. On the other hand, in singles, her only WTA title came in Hyderabad in 2005.Â
