The greatest Indian tennis player of all time, Sania Mirza concluded her remarkable tennis career on Sunday at Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad. The place where she started her career. It has been nearly two decades since Sania indicated her arrival on the world stage with a historic WTA singles title here in Hyderabad.
Since then, Sania’s revolutionary journey in sports and as an individual has inspired millions of Indian women to pursue sports as a career. The 36-year-old Indian tennis star is finally closing a 20-year career with six Grand Slam titles, including three women’s doubles with Swiss tennis legend Martina Hingis. In the last match of Sania Mirza’s inspiring career, an exhibition match, she played some friendlies with Rohan Bopanna, Ivan Dodig, Cara Black, her best friend Bethanie Mattek-Sands, and Marion Bartoli.
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Former Indian Cricket star Yuvraj Singh, Minister of Justice Kiren Rijiju, and former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin were among those attending the exhibition match in Hyderabad.MC Stan celebrated Sania’s career with a live performance for the historic occasion in Hyderabad.
“I’m grateful to each of you for saying goodbye today. I couldn’t have asked for a better goodbye. It all started here in 2002 when I won medals at the Games Nationals. Then in 2004, I won my first WTA title (double) when someone said, for me, it was a one-handed race. Yes, it was an honor to represent the country at the highest level for 20 long years.” said Sania, barely holding back tears. Few people find it difficult to believe that a child would start playing tennis, especially a girl. But only my parents believed in me and accompanied me on this path. Yes, I’m going to (…long pause to wipe away tears as the crowd eagerly chants Sania Sania) lose the game. “But I can tell you that I will be there with the Telangana Government and the Telangana State Sports Board to produce the next Sania. We need more and more Sania’s and we will certainly work on it. These are tears of joy. I miss you,” Sania Mirza stated.
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