It was not a fairytale ending as Sania Mirza played her last match as a professional tennis player at the WTA Dubai Duty Free Championships.
Sania, who is one of the greatest tennis players ever to emerge from India, closed her glorious career with a first round defeat, losing the contest in straight sets with American partner Madison Keys in Dubai Tuesday.
Sania and Keys lost 4-6, 0-6 to the formidable Russian pair of Vernokia Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova in exactly one hour. The 25-year-old Veronika is ranked 11th in singles and number five in the doubles while Liudmila is world number 13 in doubles.
The 36-year-old Sania, who turned pro in 2003, walks out of competitive tennis with six grand slam titles, including three women’s doubles with Martina Hingis.
She won two of her three mixed doubles titles with Mahesh Bhupathi (2009 Australian Open and 2012 French Open) and the US Open trophy with Bruno Soares.
“What made me that aggressive was that I did not have the fear of losing,” Sania said, ahead of the match.
“Tennis was and always will be a very important part of my life, but it is not my entire life. The worst that can happen is you can lose a match and then come back and try again. So, the fear of losing was not there.”
When she burst on to the scene back in 2005, she was deemed as one of the brightest prospects in Indian tennis. In August 2007, Sania achieved her career-highest singles ranking of 27.
