Indian tennis star Sania Mirza has shared an update on her plans to retire from the sport, saying that she is intending to hang her boots at the WTA 1000 event in Dubai in the month of February.
The tennis ace had decided to call time on her illustrious career at the end of the 2022 season, citing injuries.
“I was going to stop right after the WTA finals, because we were going to make the WTA finals, but I tore my tendon in my elbow right before US Open so I had to pull out of everything,” Mirza told the WTA tour’s website in an interview published on Friday.
She said that she doesn’t want to be “forced out by injury” so she has been training.
The two-time Australian Open championship winner will pair up with Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina to compete in the women’s doubles event at the Australian Open 2023, which is set to begin on January 16.
“I’m 36, and honestly, my body is beaten; that is the main reason for it. I really don’t have the capacity in my mind to emotionally push that much anymore,” the publication quoted Mirza as saying in a recent interview.
She said that her priorities have changed with time and now she keeps prime “not to push my body to the limit every single day”.
In January 2021, Sania said, “there’s a few [sic] reasons for it. It’s not as simple as ‘okay I’m not going to play’. I do feel my recovery is taking longer, I’m putting my 3-year-old son at risk by travelling so much with him, that’s something I have to take into account. I think my body is wearing down,” the 35-year-old said.
Mirza became the first Indian to win a WTA singles title when she won her hometown Hyderabad event in 2005. She broke into the top 30 by 2007 and reached her career-high ranking of world number 27.
After being plagued by a recurring, career-threatening wrist injury, Mirza forged a doubles partnership with Swiss great Martina Hingis. The self-styled “Santina” team won 14 titles, including Wimbledon and the US and Australian Opens.
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