Sania Mirza announces retirement from professional tennis in February, here's the reason why

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Dubai, Jan 7: Indian tennis great Sania Mirza has announced that she will retire from professional tennis next month.

The former doubles World No.1 will play her last game at the WTA 1000 event in Dubai in February.

The 36-year-old claimed that she doesn't have the emotional push to compete anymore and that her priorities are changing.

"I really don't have the capacity in my mind to emotionally push that much anymore. I turned pro in 2003...Priorities change, and now my priority is not to push my body to the limit every single day," she was quoted on the WTA website.

After hanging up her shoes, the tennis superstar from Hyderabad will focus on her academics in Dubai, where she has been residing for more than ten years with her husband, former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik.

Sania Mirza Swansong

Mirza, who has been the greatest women's tennis player India has ever produced, has won six Grand Slam doubles titles. Her last major competition will be the upcoming Australian Open, where she was crowned the women's doubles champion in 2016.

She will be pairing alongside Kazakhstan's Anna Danilin in the first Grand Slam of 2023. Her fans would be hoping for her to finish her Grand Slam career on a high.

Sania Mirza Tennis Career

Mirza - who was the flagbearer of Indian tennis - became the first player from the country to win a WTA singles title, when she won her hometown Hyderabad event in 2005. Mirza broke into the top 30 in the world by 2007 and reached her career-high ranking of world number 27.

She was ranked by the Women's Tennis Association as the Indian No. 1 in singles from 2003 until her retirement from singles in 2013. Her maiden Grand Slam success came in 2009 when she clinched the Australian Open mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi.

In 2013, she bagged her second major title alongside Bhupati in the French Open 2012. Two years later, she partnered with Brazilian Bruno Soares to bag her third mixed doubles title at the US Open in 2014.

In 2015 Mirza partnered with Swiss legend Martina Hingis and the duo ended up winning three back-to-back Grand Slam doubles titles together.