Injured Mirza to miss Australian Open

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Bengaluru, December 18: India's Sania Mirza has pulled out of season's opening Grand Slam in Australia due to a recurring knee injury.

The 31-year-old, won the women's doubles title at Melbourne alongside Martina Hingis in 2016 but lost out on the mixed title a year later, going down to Abigail Spears and Juan Sebastian Cabal when playing with Croatian Ivan Dodig.

"I have something that's called a jumper's knee, it's extrmely painful," Mirza told WTA website.

"I am okay to walk but it's painful to change directions and play. That's the biggest problem. I can run straight but I can't actually do plyometric stuff on it.

"When I spoke to my doctor a couple of months ago, they told me to take a couple of months off, then see how it feels before getting into a process of either surgery or injections.

"So when I saw them, the pain wasn't less after two months. Now we have to take a call whether we have to do a surgery or take a couple of injections. So it's a little up in the air.

"I can't tell you a definitive when but it won't be before the next couple of months at least," the former doubles world No.1 added. "Hopefully I'll be healthy again."

Mirza, who quit singles in 2013, said she might have to go for a surgery and is looking for a Roger Federer-like comeback.

"After 15 years, it's not such a big thing to be out for a few months. It did wonders for Roger -- he went out for six months and he has not lost a match since... Hopefully that can happen to me as well."