Tennis star Sania Mirza hangs up her boots after first round loss at Dubai event

HIGHLIGHTS

• Sania Mirza lost her first round match in Dubai
• Mirza retires from professional tennis
• She lost her doubles to Veronika Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova of Russia

Tennis star Sania Mirza's illustrious career has come to an end with the final match in Dubai where she lost her first-round match in women's doubles encounter, reported India Today.

She competed alongside singles World No.23 Madison Keys against the Russian duo of Veronika Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova. Sania and her partner Keys were defeated 4-6, 0-6.

The breaks were traded quickly in the first set, which was tied at 4-4. Kudermetova and Samsonova then broke the duo of Sania and Keys once again for a 5-4 lead, putting themselves in position to serve out the set.

They did it with ease, dropping only one point in the tenth game. Mirza and her partner were broken in the opening game of the second set, and it was all downhill from there as they were bageled.

Earlier in the Australian Open, Mirza and her childhood doubles partner got the runner-up position in the mixed doubles.

 
Mirza, 36, who began her professional tennis career in 2003, retires from the sport with six Grand Slam victories, including three women's doubles titles with Swiss tennis great Martina Hingis.

She won two of her three mixed doubles matches alongside fellow countryman Mahesh Bhupathi (2009 Australian Open and 2012 French Open). She shared the US Open title with Bruno Soares.

In her career, Mirza achieved a feat of becoming the first Indian woman to reach the second week of a singles. She also got a ranking of World No. 27 on the singles tour.

Meanwhile, the ace tennis player has been appointed as the team mentor of Royal Challengers Bangalore for the first season of the Women's Premier League (WPL), which will kick start on March 4. 

Also Read: Women's Premier League: Tennis star Sania Mirza joins Royal Challengers Bangalore as mentor