Sania Mirza has confirmed her retirement from professional tennis. The former doubles world No. 1 champion has announced she will retire at the WTA 1000 event in Dubai in February.
Mirza talked about her retirement in an interview with the website of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).
The 36-year-old will play Kazakhstan’s Ana Danilina in women’s doubles at the Australian Open in January. This is her final appearance at a Grand Slam event after missing the US Open last year due to an elbow injury.
Mirza, battling a calf injury, had planned to retire at the end of the 2022 season but an elbow injury in August ruled her out of the US Open.
“My mind really doesn’t have the capacity to move that much emotionally. I turned professional in 2003… priorities change, and now my priority is not to push my body to a limit every day,” she told the WTA Said to.
After retirement, Mirza will focus on her academics in Dubai, the city of her residence where she has lived for more than a decade with her husband, former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik.
Considered the greatest female tennis player of her country, Mirza has won six Grand Slam doubles titles and will compete in her final major this month at the Australian Open, where she won the women’s doubles crown in 2016.
Mirza became the first Indian to win a WTA singles title when she won the Hyderabad event in her hometown in 2005. She reached the top 30 by 2007 and reached a career-high ranking of world No. 27.
The first win came in 2009, when she partnered with Mahesh Bhupathi to win the Australian Open mixed doubles title.
He won his second with Bhupathi at the 2012 French Open.
Her third mixed doubles title win came at the 2014 US Open partnering Brazilian player Bruno Soares.
In 2015, Sania Mirza partnered with Swiss legend Martina Hingis and won three back-to-back Grand Slam doubles titles.
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