Indian tennis star Sania Mirza capped off her glorious Grand Slam career with a runners-up finish alongside ‘best friend’ Rohan Bopanna in the Australian Open mixed doubles final here on Friday.
Pairing up with her first-ever mixed doubles partner Bopanna, the unseeded Indian duo went down 6-7(2) 2-6 to the Brazilian pair of Luisa Stefani and Rafael Mataos in the final at the Rod Laver Arena.
Sania had announced that the WTA event in Dubai in February will be her swansong.
Sania, who won her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in 2009, won the title with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi. She later won the women’s doubles title at Melbourne Park in 2016 with Swiss great Martina Hingis.
Sania has won three women’s doubles and as many mixed doubles titles in her career. Out of Sania’s six Grand Slams title, three are mixed doubles trophies which she won with Mahesh Bhupathi (2009 Australian Open, 2012 French Open) and Brazilian Bruno Soares (2014 US Open).
All three women’s doubles titles came with Swiss great Martina Hingis. (Wimbledon 2015, US Open 2015 and Australian Open 2016).
Sania Mirza’s Career Highlights –
- 2001 – Played the first event of her career on ITF Circuit in India
- 2002 – Won three singles titles and doubles title on ITF Circuit and won Asian Games bronze medal in mixed doubles with Leander Paes
- 2003 – played first WTA main draw at Hyderabad and won three singles and one doubles title on ITF Circuit
- 2004 – Won first WTA doubles title a Hyderabad and won six singles titles and two doubles titles on ITF Circuit
- 2005 – Became the first Indian woman to win a singles WTA Tour title and first Indian woman to reach a Grand Slam third round (at Australian Open). She also became the first Indian woman to crack the Top 50 and was named WTA Newcomer of the Year
- 2006 – Won two WTA doubles titles
- 2007 – Won four WTA doubles titles and Ranked 27th (career-high) in the WTA Singles Rankings
- 2008 – Made her debut at Olympic Games (Beijing); in the first round singles outing, had to retire due to a wrist injury and first Indian woman in tennis to surpass $1 million in career prize money
- 2009 – Won first Grand Slam title in mixed doubles at Australian Open with Mahesh Bhupati along with one WTA doubles title and one singles title on ITF Circuit
- 2010 – Won one WTA doubles title and won one singles title on ITF Circuit
- 2011 – Won three WTA doubles titles and Made doubles Top 10 debut
- 2012 – Won two WTA doubles titles and played in London Olympics; reached the quarter-finals with Leander Paes
- 2013 – Played first Top 10 doubles season (finished No 9) and Won five WTA doubles titles
- 2014 – Won three WTA doubles titles, including WTA Finals with Cara Black
- 2015 – First No. 1 season in doubles and became the first Indian woman to rise to No. 1 in either singles or doubles as well as the first Indian woman to lift a Grand Slam doubles title, at Wimbledon
- 2016 – Kicked off the season by recording 19 consecutive wins with Martina Hingis and won eight WTA doubles titles as well as reached Rio Olympics semi-finals with Rohan Bopanna in mixed doubles
- 2018 – Took a break from the professional tour after the 2017 season
- 2020 – Made a comeback and won the Hobart International alongside Nadiia Kichenok
- 2022 – Reached the semifinals at the WTA 1000 Qatar Open and the Italian Open as well as the French Open third round, partnering Lucie Hradecká.
- 2023: Announced her retirement with the last tournament being the WTA Dubai Tennis Championships in February. Ended her Grand Slam career with a loss in Australian Open mixed doubles final
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