NEW DELHI – Sania Mirza, India’s former doubles world No. 1, has confirmed that she will call time on her career following the Dubai Tennis Championships in February, after her 2022 retirement plan was delayed due to injury.
The 36-year-old, regarded as her country’s greatest women’s tennis player, has won six Grand Slam doubles titles and will compete in her final Major at the Jan 16-29 Australian Open, where she bagged the women’s doubles crown in 2016 with Martina Hingis.
An elbow injury in August prompted her to ditch her plan to retire after the season-ending WTA Finals in November.
“I was going to stop right after the WTA Finals because we were going to make the WTA Finals, but I tore my tendon in my elbow right before the US Open, so I had to pull out of everything,” Mirza, who has also been dealing with a lingering calf injury, told the WTA Tour’s website in an interview published on Friday.
“Honestly, the person that I am, I like to do things on my own terms. So I don’t want to be forced out by injury. So I’ve been training.”
Mirza became the first Indian to win a WTA singles title when she won her hometown Hyderabad event in 2005. Two years later, she broke into the top 30 and reached her career-high ranking of world No. 27.
After being plagued by a recurring, career-threatening wrist injury, she forged a doubles partnership with Swiss great Hingis. The self-styled “Santina” team won 14 titles, including Wimbledon and the US and Australian Opens, during their 16-month partnership.
Mirza will compete alongside Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina at the Australian Open before bidding farewell to the sport in the United Arab Emirates, where she has resided for more than a decade with her husband, former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik.
“I’m 36, and honestly my body is beat, that is the main reason for it,” Mirza said. “I really don’t have the capacity in my mind to emotionally push that much any more.
“I turned pro in 2003. Priorities change, and now my priority is not to push my body to the limit every single day.”
The mother of a four-year-old boy will next be focusing on her recently launched tennis academy in Dubai.
Pointing to the dearth of tennis players from UAE, she said: “There’s a problem somewhere so we’ve got to tap on the problem, and try to be part of a solution.” REUTERS
