Tennis: Sania Mirza to retire next month

Indian tennis legend Sania Mirza has confirmed her retirement plan from the sport. The 36-year-old will hang her boots at the end of the WTA 1000 event in Dubai next month.

Mirza had earlier planned to retire at the end of the 2022 season, but decided to prolong her career after a injury prone second half of the year.

"Honestly, the person that I am, I like to do things on my own terms. So I don't want to be forced out by injury. So I've been training," Mirza was quoted as saying by wtatennis.com.

The WTA 1000 event in Dubai will kickoff from 19th February 2023. But before that Sania Mirza is expected to compete in the final Grand Slam of her career at the 2023 Australian Open later this month.

Mirza is expected to partner with Kazakhstan's Anna Danilina in women's doubles and with fellow Indian Rohan Bopanna in mixed doubles for the Australian Open.

Sania Mirza, who turned pro almost two decades back in 2003, has won 6 Grand Slams in doubles apart from being a world number 1 in the category.

She had also reached the semifinals in mixed doubles at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Mirza also had a stellar career in singles reaching as high as world number 27 in WTA Rankings.

She is also the last Indian to reach the second week of a Grand Slam in singles, reaching the fourth round of the 2005 US Open.