Sania Mirza's Wimbledon journey ends with loss in mixed doubles semifinal
Sania, who is set to retire at the end of this season, and her Croatian partner Mate Pavic lost to defending champions Desirae Krawczyk of the US and Neal Skupski of UK.
Published : Jul 07, 2022 04:54 IST
Sania Mirza and her Croatian partner Mate Pavic lost their mixed doubles semifinal at Wimbledon 6-4, 5-7, 4-6 to defending champions Desirae Krawczyk of the US and Neal Skupski of UK on Wednesday, bringing the Indian's journey at the grasscourt Major to a close.
Sania is set to retire at the end of this season.
Sixth-seeded Indo-Croatian pair broke Skupski's serve in the fifth game of the match and held its own to seal the opening set 6-4.
Sania and Pavic broke Skupski again in the first game of the second set and led 4-3 at one point. They could have been up by a double break had Sania not sent an easy overhead wide in the fifth game. The second-seeded American-British duo then found its rhythm and successfully targeted the Indian's serve twice to turn things around and win the second set 7-5.
In the decider, it was the Mirza-Pavic pair that made the first move by breaking the American's serve in the third game. However, their advantage didn't last long as in the very next game, Sania failed to hold her serve. Things remained on serve till the 11th game. In the 12th game, Pavic twice double faulted and the defending champions converted their second match point to seal a place in Thursday's final where they will face the all-Australian pair of Matthew Ebden and Samantha Stosur.
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For Sania, this was her best mixed doubles performance at Wimbledon. She had previously reached the quarterfinals in 2011, 2013 and 2015.
This was, however, the Indian's last chance to complete a Career Slam in mixed doubles.
Sania, along with Mahesh Bhupathi, had won the mixed doubles titles at 2009 Australian Open and 2012 French Open before going all the way at the 2014 US Open with Bruno Soares of Brazil.