'Can't push body anymore,' Sania Mirza to retire after Dubai Tennis Championships in February

Indian ace Sania Mirza will retire from professional tennis after playing in the Dubai Tennis Championships 2023 in February.

Sania Mirza was slated to retire at the end of the 2022 season. However, an elbow injury in August ended her season prematurely, after which she decided to shelve her retirement plans as she wanted to go out on her own terms.

"Honestly, I like to do things on my own terms. So I don't want to be forced out by injury,” Sania Mirza, who pulled out of the US Open 2022, told wtatennis in an interview.

Sania Mirza made her senior debut in 2001 and has gone on to prove herself as one of India’s most successful tennis players of all time. She has won six Grand Slam titles in her career - three in women’s doubles and three in mixed doubles. However, Sania Mirza hasn’t won a WTA title since the Ostrava Open in the Czech Republic in 2021.

“I really don’t have the capacity in my mind to emotionally push that much anymore,” Sania Mirza told Curly Tales Middle East in an interview recently. “Priorities change, and now my priority is not to push my body to the limit every single day.”

Sania Mirza will partner Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan in women’s doubles at the upcoming Australian Open, which is expected to be her last Grand Slam. The Indian tennis player won the Australian Open doubles title with Martina Hingis in 2016.

Mirza also clinched the Australian Open mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi in 2009 but her participation in the category at the Australian Open 2023 is yet to be confirmed.

Regarded as the best Indian women’s tennis player of all time, Sania Mirza was the world No. 1 doubles player in the WTA Rankings from April 2015 until January 2017. The period saw her win three Grand Slam titles in a row.

Sania Mirza took a break from professional tennis after the 2017 season and gave birth to her son Izhaan in October 2018. She made a winning return to the court in 2020 at Hobart and claimed her 42nd WTA doubles title.

Meanwhile, in singles, Sania Mirza’s only WTA title was won in her hometown Hyderabad in 2005. She reached her career-best singles rank of world No. 27 in 2007 but gave up playing singles after undergoing multiple surgeries.

Sania Mirza also holds the distinction of competing at four different Olympic Games. At the Asian Games, the Indian tennis player has won eight medals (two gold, three silver, and three bronze). Sania Mirza competed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and won a silver in singles and a bronze in women’s doubles.