Sania Mirza thanks PM for inspiring words after her farewell match
In a letter to the tennis legend, Modi called her as India's best tennis player who had made a lasting impact on Indian sports and inspired future generations of athletes.
India tennis star Sania Mirza and her French partner Caroline Garcia’s campaign at the Dubai Open ended on Wednesday as the pair lost to fifth seeds Saisai Zheng of China and Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic with a 2-6, 4-6 scoreline in the second round.
Earlier, the Indo-French pair had inched past Russia’s Alla Kudryavtseva and Slovenia’s Katarina Srebotnik 6-4, 4-6, 10-8 on Tuesday in the first round of women’s doubles.
In January, the ace India player had pulled out of the Australian Open with a calf injury. She had initially withdrawn from the mixed doubles event, where she was set to play with compatriot Rohan Bopanna before retiring midway through the women’s doubles first-round match in Melbourne.
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Before this, the ace Indian player had won the Hobart International with women’s doubles partner Nadiia Kichenok in the same month. It was Sania’s first tournament after a two-year hiatus from the sport. The initial phase included injuries and then the later saw her welcoming a son in October 2018.
Prior to her return in the international circuit after a two-year break, the Indian star had last won a trophy alongside Bethanie Mattek-Sands at the Brisbane International in the first week of the 2017 season, one of three doubles finals she reached that year before announcing her pregnancy in April of 2018.
The former world number 1 had won the Australian Open doubles title in 2016 following a successful 2015 season in which she claimed the Wimbledon and US Open doubles titles, all paired with Martina Hingis.
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