Indian Tennis player Sania Mirza and her partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands fell in the first round of the women’s doubles competition.
It was the match event in Abu Dhabi Open 2023 WTA 500 on Monday. The duo lost to Kirsten Flipkens and Laura Sigmund of Belgium, 3-6, 4-6.
Mirza is one step closer to her retirement from the sport. The six-time Grand Slam champion before announced about her retirement news.
She would retire from professional tennis after the Dubai Tennis Championships. The event will start from February 27.
Mirza played on the hard courts at Zayed Sports City International Tennis Centre.
The European team broke Sania and Sands to take the lead in the sixth game to win the first set.
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The second set was a hard battle by both teams trading this three break points against each other. Both teams were on 4-4 draw, but Sania and the Sands dropped serve in the crucial ninth game. In the tenth game Belgium kept the tension and he won in over an hour.
Earlier, Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna finished in her second place behind Brazil’s Luisa Stefani and Rafael Matos. That was in the Australian Open mixed doubles final. It made the Brazilian pair their first ever doubles final, to win a grand slam.
Sania Mirza faced Rohan Bopanna in her final Grand Slam, where the duo of Luisa Stefani and Rafael Matos lost 7(7)-6(2) 6-2.
Sania Mirza won her two Grand Slam tournaments at the Australian Open. She had won the Australian Open women’s doubles title with Martina Hingis in 2016. She has also won the Australian Open mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi in 2009.
The Indian team defeated reigning Wimbledon champions Desirae Krauchik and Neil Skupski in 3 sets.
That was in the semi-finals of the Australian Open 2023.
Her career started in Melbourne.
As her WTA doubled her No. 1 ranking in the world over 91 weeks. Sania Mirza finished her No. 2 in her last Grand Slam tournament of her career.
February’s WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships will mark the end of her professional tennis career.
