Sania Mirza makes a winning comeback after one year in Qatar Open

Indian's ace female tennis player Sania Mirza made a winning return to the WTA circuit and reached the doubles quarterfinals of the Qatar Total Open with Slovenian partner Andreja Klepac on Monday.

The Indo-Slovenian pair beat Nadiia Kichenok and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine 6-4 6-7(5) 10-5 in the opening round of the WTA 500 tournament.

Sania's returned to the court after a gap of 12 months induced by the coronavirus lockdown. She had incidentally played the Doha Open in last year February before the pandemic halted the tennis competitions across the world.

Sania herself was diagnosed with COVID and had recovered in January this year.

Sania and Klepac were down 0-3 because of early break and were struggling at deuce in the fourth game. They showed immense perseverance and held on together. The Indo-Slovenian pair get their one break back on serve in the seventh game, breaking the Kichenok sisters at love.

With an easy hold, they were four-all and pocketed the set with another break. The Ukrainians again drew the first blood in the second set for a 3-1 lead but Sania and Klepac fought hard to drag it to the tie-breaker but could not stop the rivals from pushing the contest to a Super Tie-Breaker.

The Indo-Slovenia pair raced to a 5-1 lead in a jiffy and closed the match, converting the second match point.

Also read: An Olympic medal is missing from my list of achievements – Sania Mirza