Indian tennis star Sania Mirza ended her illustrious career with a straight sets loss to American partner Madison Keys in the first round of the WTA Dubai Duty Free Championships here on Tuesday. Sania and Keys lost 4-6, 0-6 to Russians Veronika Kudermetova and Lyudmila Samsonova in a match that lasted just over an hour. Veronika is ranked No. 11 in singles and No. 5 in doubles while Lyudmila is ranked No. 13 in doubles. Thirty-six-year-old Sania turned professional in 2003.
She won six Grand Slam titles in her career, including three in women’s doubles and as many in mixed doubles. In women’s doubles, she won all three of her Grand Slam titles with Martina Hingis. Of his three mixed doubles Grand Slam titles, he won two with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi (Australian Open in 2009 and French Open in 2012). He won the US Open title with Bruno Soares.
In the Dubai Open, both the teams broke each other’s serve early on, with the score tied at 4-4 at one stage. Thereafter, however, the Russian pair broke Sania and Keys and then held their serve to take the first set. Sania and her partner lost their serve early in the second set and failed to make a comeback thereafter.
