Sania to quit at Dubai meet next month

PTI, Jan 7, 2023, 2:35 PM IST

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Veteran Indian tennis player Sania Mirza has decided to draw curtains on her illustrious career at next month’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship. The former doubles no.1 has made this announcement to WTA. Sania initially intended to hang up her racquet at the end of last season, but an elbow injury ruled her out of the US Open and forced her to stop playing in 2022 as early as August.

The 36-year-old Sania, who is married to Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik, has been living in Dubai for more than a decade, and will look to bid adieu to the game at her home base.

”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 US Open so I had to pull out of everything,” Sania told wtatennis.com. ”And 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.” Sania, a six-time major champion — three in doubles and three in mixed doubles — has signed up to compete in this month’s Australian Open alongside Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina.

She has been suffering from a lingering calf problem but is hoping that the injury won’t hamper her farewell plans. ”The plan is to try and retire in Dubai during the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships,” she said.

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, a WTA 1000 event, begins on February 19.