Sania Mirza bids farewell to tennis after first round defeat at Dubai Duty Free Championships
Darpan News Desk IANS, 21 Feb, 2023 01:17 PM
Dubai, Feb 21 (IANS) Indian tennis star Sania Mirza on Tuesday ended her magnificent 20-year-long career with a defeat in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, here.
The 36-year-old India legend lost in straight sets along with American partner Madison Keys in women's doubles tie. The pair went 4-6 0-6 down to Russian pair of Veronika Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova in one hour long battle.
A mother to 4-year-old boy Izhaan, Mirza, who had turned pro back in 2003, ended her glorious career with six Grand Slam trophies.
Three of those came in women's doubles with Swiss great Martina Hingis. The other three were in mixed doubles, two of which were with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi - 2009 Australian Open and 2012 French Open - while the other one was a US Open trophy with Bruno Soares.
Earlier last month, Sania was denied a fairytale ending to her Grand Slam career after she lost in the Australian Open mixed doubles final with Rohan Bopanna.
The BCCI on Tuesday named Ravi Shastri as the new chief coach of the Indian cricket team with former fast bowling great Zaheer Khan being appointed the bowling coach for a period of two years.
“I hope we can do our best for the country and we can create history in football,” said the Manipuri midfielder at the media interaction here on Friday, ahead of the U-17 World Cup draw.
Ace women wrestlers Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat on Friday made the cut in the Indian squad for the World Wrestling Championship, to be held in Paris next month.
Manpreet, who originally hails from a village near Patiala in Punjab, also qualified for the World Championship in London by virtue of being Asian Champion.
