Sania Mirza has announced that the current season would be her last on the WTA Tour after a first round loss in the women’s doubles of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Wednesday.
“We have been discussing this subject for quite a few weeks. Sania hopes to finish the year on the Tour if her body holds up,” Imran Mirza, father-cum-mentor of Sania, told The Hindu
“As things stand, Sania hopes to play till the U.S. Open this year if everything works out well including her physical condition and the pandemic scenario across the world,” Imran said.
“It is difficult to sum up the decision after such a long, eventful career in a sentence or two. But, I wholeheartedly support her decision,” added Imran.
Concern for son
For her part, the 35-year-old Sania felt recovery time was taking much longer now and that she was putting her three-year-old son Izhaan to risk by travelling so much with him.
The six-time Grand Slam winner also pointed out that as she was getting older, her knees were hurting a lot and it was not that easy to recover from the niggles.
Sania said that she wanted to play the full season because she was still enjoying it and had enough to last the whole year. “I am not sure this body will take any more load beyond this season,” said Sania, adding she had great memories playing both singles and doubles.
Good example
She took pride in saying that she wanted to set a good example for mothers by the way she worked so hard to get back to the desired fitness levels after having a child three years ago.
Some of the high points of her career, besides the Grand Slam titles, was also being the World No.1 in women’s doubles.
This decision also means the champion can focus more on training young talent at her academy in Hyderabad.
