Sania Mirza, who is set to retire after next month’s Dubai Masters, describer her long journey in the sport in an emotional Instagram post prior to the 2023 Australian Open, the final Grand Slam of her career.
The 36-year-old wrote, “Thirty (yes, 30!) years ago a 6 year old girl from Nasr School in Hyderabad, walked on to a tennis court at Nizam Club with her young mom and fought the coach to let her learn how to play tennis as he thought that she was too little :). The fight for our dreams began at 6!”
She added, “My Grand Slam journey started with the Australian Open back in 2005. So, it goes without saying that this would be the most perfect Grand Slam to end my career with.
“As I get ready to play my last Australian Open 18 years after I played my first, and then the Dubai Open in Feb, have so many emotions flashing through me with pride and gratitude, perhaps, being the foremost. I take pride in everything have been able to achieve over the last 20 years of my professional career and I am so grateful for the memories that I have been able to create. The greatest memory that I will carry with me for a life time is that of the pride and happiness that I saw on the faces of my fellow countrymen and supporters each time I achieved victory and reached milestones in my long career.”
In an interview with the WTA website earlier this month, former doubles world no. 1 Sania announced that WTA 1000 event in Dubai in February would be her final competition. “Honestly, the person that I am, I like to do things on my terms. So, I don’t want to be forced out by injury. So, I have been training,” she told wtatennis.com.
Sania won six Grand Slam titles together in women’s and mixed doubles.
Initially, she wanted to quit at the end of 2022. But an elbow injury ruled her out of the US Open and forced her to end the season as early as August.
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