Dubai Open 2023: Sania Mirza denied fairytale ending; crashes out in doubles' opening round

Dubai Open 2023: Sania Mirza played the final game of her career, which ended on a sour note, suffering a defeat in the opening round of doubles alongside her partner Madison Keys, as she was denied a fairytale ending to her career.

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A fairytale ending was not there, but Sania Mirza bowed out of international tennis after achieving unprecedented success and setting a high benchmark for the next generation. Sania and her American partner Madison Keys lost 4-6, 0-6 to the formidable Vernokia Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova pair of Russia in precisely an hour at the 2023 WTA Dubai Open event.

Just a month back, Sania played her final Grand Slam, ending with a runner-up finish at the Australian Open along with compatriot Rohan Bopanna. Now settled in Dubai, Sania would have hoped for a dream closing at her second home, but she bumped into a solid Russian pairing that cut short her stay in the final career tournament, in which she won 43 WTA doubles titles and a singles trophy.

Success was not the only highlight of her almost two-decade-long career, as unneeded controversies chased Sania everywhere. Sometimes she remained unfazed and kept going, achieving many firsts. Occasionally, she broke to the extent that she considered not playing in India. It was when she had to prove her devotion and dedication to India after being blamed for scorning the tri-colour during the 2008 Hopman Cup in Australia.

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The worst jibe flung at her was when she was called daughter-in-law of Pakistan due to her wedding with former Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik. It was after Telangana chose her to be their state ambassador. All this, despite her inspiring on-court conquest. After all, how many from India became the top 30 tennis players? How many flourished at Majors? How many became the world's number one across formats? How many won the year-ending championships?

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In India, men's tennis is just a handful, and women's tennis is only Sania. As for other women's tennis players in the country, no player in sight appears to be even getting near to what Sania has earned. The gap is enormous, and the best after Sania is gradually fading. The 36-year-old Sania, who turned a Pro in 2003, walks out of professional tennis with six Grand Slam titles, including three women's doubles with the legendary Martina Hingis of Switzerland.

She won a couple of her three mixed doubles with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi (2009 Australian Open and 2012 French Open). She also won the US Open title with Bruno Soares of Brazil. However, success evaded her at the biggest stage: the Olympics. She was close to conquering a bronze at the 2016 Rio Games but yielded the play-off with Bopanna.

In the last match of her career, the breaks were traded quickly in the opening set, which was locked at 4-4. From there, Kudermetova and Samsonova broke the pair of Sania and Keys one more time for a 5-4 charge, placing themselves in a position where they could serve the set.

They did that quite easily, losing a point in the 10th game. Sania and her partner were broken in the second set's opening game, and it was one-way traffic thereon as they were buffeted.

(With inputs from PTI)