Tennis
Sania Mirza bows out in the semifinal of her comeback tournament in Qatar
Indian ace female tennis player Sania Mirza suffered a heart-breaking loss in the semifinal of the Qatar Total Open in Doha in the women's doubles event on her return to the WTA circuit. Pairing up with Slovenian partner Andreja Klepac, Sania lost against the second-seeded pair of Demi Schuurs and Nicole Melichar 5-7, 6-2, 5-10 in the semifinals on Thursday.
The Indo-Serbian pair pulled off the brilliant comeback after trailing 1-4, in first set to eventually concede the set at 5-7. In the second set, they registered a 3-0 lead, which converted into a win by 6-2. The match went into a tie-breaker with the second-seeded pair winning by 10-5.
This is the first tournament for the 34-year-old Indian in the last one year. Incidentally it was at the Doha Open, Sania had played her last tournament in February 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic halted sports across the world. The former world No. 1 herself had recovered from Covid-19 in January this year. Earlier Sania and Klepac had beat fourth-seeded Gabriela Dabrowski and Anna Blinkova 6-2, 6-0 in the quarterfinals.
Last year, Mirza brought home the country's first-ever Fed Cup Heart Award in Asia/Oceania category after getting more than 10,000 votes out of the total 16,985 votes cast for 2020's three regional Group I nominees.
