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.
"I am done with shooting, even hobby shooting," said Abhinav Bindra in detailed comments after coming fourth in the 10m air rifle event here at the Olympic Shooting Centre on Monday.
Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian to enter gymnastics individual vault finals in her debut Olympics after finishing eighth in the qualifying round at Rio 2016
Sandhu, in his fourth Olympics, lost out after scoring a cumulative total of 115 while Chenai scored one less to be out of the fray on the second day of qualifications at the Olympic Shooting centre.
Bindra started well, but a couple of wayward shots cost him dearly as he lost in the bronze medal play-off to finish fourth with a total score of 163.8 points.
Leander Paes' dream of winning an Olympic gold medal came to an end as the Indian tennis veteran, partnering Rohan Bopanna, lost his opening 2016 Rio Games men's doubles match in straight sets
