Indian tennis legend, Sania Mirza called curtains to her illustrious sporting career on Tuesday, 21 February. She was competing in the Dubai Tennis Championships, where Sania and her partner, Madison Keys, suffered a 4-6, 0-6 defeat against Veronika Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova.
Born in Mumbai, the 36-year-old spent her formative years in Hyderabad and started playing at the tender age of six. She first rose to fame with an Asian Games medal in 2002, and since then, has been on a consistent spree of earning accolades and breaking records in the process.
Sania won her first Grand Slam title in 2009, alongside Mahesh Bhupati in the mixed doubles event at the 2009 Australian Open.
It was followed by the addition of a couple of more mixed doubles Grand Slams to her trophy cabinet, in the form of the French Open and US Open.
Between 2015 and 2016, wherein she also became the first Indian to be ranked world number one on WTA doubles rankings, Sania won three Grand Slams in women's doubles – Wimbledon, Australian Open, and US Open.
The birth of her son, Izhaan Mirza Malik, saw the ace taking a two-year break from the sport between 2018 to 2020, while she returned in some fashion with a women’s doubles triumph at Hobart International.
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