Australian Open: India’s most influential female athlete Sania Mirza to leave legacy for aspiring sports women as Grand Slam farewell nears
Sania Mirza – India’s greatest Women’s Tennis player and the only Indian woman to have ever won a tennis Grand Slam title, announced her retirement at last year’s Australian Open. The 2022 season was expected to be a farewell for her but instead, she stayed on track for a fairytale farewell after reaching the mixed doubles final at the Australian Open this Wednesday, January 25th , 2023.
In Melbourne, Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna, India’s legendary tennis pair defeated third seeds Desirae Krawczyk and Neal Skupski 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 10-6 in the semifinal of Australian Open Mixed Doubles on Wednesday. The semi-final match lasted for 1 hour and 52 minutes and the duo on the winning side hugged each other after ending the match and shook hands with their opponents and thanked the crowd for their love and support.
With this win, Mirza keeps her hopes high to win the seventh major title alive. Although, the tennis star has already confirmed that the WTA 1000 event in Dubai will be her last professional tennis match. It looks like, she has, at every difficult moment in her life and career, always wanted to do things her way.
“I’m so emotional but I’m not a crier in front of people. I feel the love when I am here, and for the 18 years that I’ve been coming here, it feels like home because honestly, I’ve got family here, I get so much home food, I eat at home, and I have all these Indians coming out and encouraging me. I’m really going to miss coming back here it’s been quite a journey,” said Sania, who won the first Indian WTA singles title.
In a fitting farewell, @MirzaSania's last dance will take place on the grandest stage!
She and @rohanbopanna 🇮🇳 have qualified for the Mixed Doubles Final!@wwos • @espn • @eurosport • @wowowtennis • #AusOpen • #AO2023 pic.twitter.com/qHGNOvWMoC
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2023
“For me, competitiveness is in my blood. No matter if it’s my last tournament or my last Slam or my first Slam because every match I play is to win,” said Sania. “I want to win every time when I step on the court, regardless of whether it’s going to be my last Slam, whether it’s my last season. It’s special and emotional in many ways. The approach to every match remains the same for me, the same professionalism, routine, and warm-up. That doesn’t really change,” added Sania.
Sania will be playing in the finals (mixed doubles) on Friday, 18 years after she first made her major debut at the same tournament. With Sania battling for her third Australian Open and seventh Major, the legendary Indian pair is ready to cross swords with Brazilian duo Rafael Matos and Luisa Stefani in the next final match on Saturday. While interacting Rohan Bopanna said, “Absolute, with the 6-time Grand Slam champion, it’d be a dream to achieve the winner’s trophy.
Life update :) pic.twitter.com/bZhM89GXga
— Sania Mirza (@MirzaSania) January 13, 2023
“We need it in India, and we need to keep inspiring everyone and I think it’d be really special as you can’t get anything better than this to finish her last slam with this big title,” said the 42-year-old champion. Saturday’s final can be said to be the perfect Grand Slam farewell for Sania Mirza as she announced her retirement earlier this month from professional tennis. The Dubai Tennis Championships, a WTA 1000 event, begins on February 19.
SANIA MIRZA GRAND SLAM TITLES
Year Grand Slam Title Partner
- 2009 Australian Open Mixed doubles Mahesh Bhupathi
- 2012 French Open Mixed doubles Mahesh Bhupathi
- 2014 US Open Mixed doubles Bruno Soares
- 2015 Wimbledon Women's doubles Martina Hingis
- 2015 US Open Women's doubles Martina Hingis
- 2016 Australian Open Women's doubles Martina Hingis
SANIA MIRZA’S LIFE AFTER TENNIS
Including her prize money earnings along with endorsement deals as of 2023, Mirza’s net worth is estimated to be about USD 25 million. Also, from the WTA Tour, Sania Mirza’s earnings stand at an impressive total of USD 6,963,060. The Indian athlete has also been a part of endorsement deals with Adidas and Sprite and is also the brand ambassador for the state of Telangana. A BMW X3, a Mercedes-Benz, a Porsche Carrera GT, an AUDI and a Ranger Rover are some of the cars she fancies.
Sania Mirza recently launched a tennis academy in Dubai which has three branches in different locations, that aims is to spread and bring tennis into people’s homes. In India, the tennis player had launched her first tennis academy in Hyderabad back in 2013.
The last dance 🧚🏽♀️💜🎾 @AustralianOpen @WTA pic.twitter.com/mR6omkQjB2
— Sania Mirza (@MirzaSania) January 22, 2023
‘PARENTS CAN ENCOURAGE YOUNG GIRLS NOW TO TAKE SPORT AS A CAREER’
“There are so many male cricket stars. And, I’m pleasantly surprised that we have some big stars in women’s cricket as well now,” said Sania. Mirza encouraged women to take sports as their career, especially in the world where many, especially parents, still think sports is not a natural course for career for young girls.
She said maybe this kind of stuff can help parents to encourage their young girls to take sport as a career adding that it’s not just sport, ‘Oh, my God, what is this, what are you thinking going and playing like boys’ like situation, in fact, you can just actually say, ‘you’re playing like a girl’.
