Sania Mirza begins farewell season with a loss

The 36-year-old is a former world No. 1 in doubles and had a career-best ranking of 27 in singles. She is also the first Indian woman to win a Grand Slam.

Sania Mirza’s last Grand Slam came at the 2016 Australian Open with Martina Hingis. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Sania Mirza began her farewell season on the WTA Tour with a first-round loss in doubles at Adelaide International 2 on Monday.

Sania and her Kazakh partner Anna Danilina went down 6-3, 3-6, [6-10] to the top-seeded Czech-Australian pair of Barbora Krejcikova and Storm Hunter.

In an interview with the WTA website on Friday, 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.

READ | Sania Mirza to retire at WTA 1000 in Dubai in February

“I can’t emotionally push that much anymore. I turned pro in 2003,” the 36-year-old was quoted as saying by WTA. “Priorities change, and now my priority is not to push my body to the limit every single day,” she added.

Sania is a former doubles world no. 1. She has 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.