Sania Mirza, who is set to retire after next month's Dubai Masters, chronicles her long journey in the sport in an emotional Instagram post ahead of the final Grand Slam of her career, the 2023 Australian Open. The 36-year-old wrote, “Thirty (yes, 30!) years ago a 6-year-old girl from Nasser School, Hyderabad, walked into the tennis court at the Nizam Club with her young mother and wrangled the coach to let her study. How could he play tennis because he thought she was too short :). The fight for our dreams started at 6! She added, “My Grand Slam journey started from the 2005 Australian Open. So, it goes without saying that this would be the most fitting Grand Slam to end my career.
“As I prepare to play my last Australian Open, 18 years after I first played, at the Dubai Open in February, many emotions flash through me with pride and gratitude, perhaps at the forefront. I am proud of all that I have been able to achieve in the last 20 years of my professional career and I am very grateful for the memories that I have been able to create. The greatest memory I will carry with me for the rest of my life is the pride and joy I have seen on the faces of my countrymen and supporters every time I win and reach milestones in my long career. In an interview with the WTA website earlier this month, the former doubles world no. Sania has announced that the WTA 1000 event in Dubai on February 1 will be her last tournament. “Honestly, the person that I am, I like to do things on my terms. So, I don't want to be forced by injury. So, I'm training,” she told wtatennis.com.
Sania has won six Grand Slam titles combined in women's and mixed doubles.
Initially, she wanted to leave by the end of 2022. But an elbow injury ruled her out of the US Open and forced her to end the season in August itself. Veronika Kudermetova crashed out of the Adelaide International semi-final with Paula Badosa on Friday, leaving them in contention to qualify for the Australian Open. Belinda Benzie and Daria Kasatkina were given free rides into Saturday's title match by their withdrawal. Russia's Kudermetova, the ninth seed in this year's opening Grand Slam that starts on Monday, cited a left hip injury in her exit against Switzerland's Bencic. It followed epic three-setters in her previous two matches, with Thursday's quarterfinal against Danielle Collins lasting over three hours. Olympic champion Bencic, who has won nine of his last 10 matches, will be aiming for his sixth singles trophy and fifth title on hard courts. She will face world number eight Kasatkina, who won her seventh WTA title last year and was ranked second in Australia after winning the Phillip Island Trophy last year. Kasatkina progressed at Melbourne Park after Spain's 11th seed Badoza was ruled out with a thigh injury.
The combination of Tennis-Yuki-Saket reached the semi-finals in the Thailand Challenger
Top seeds Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni defeated Dan Addad and Michael Geertz 4-6, 7-5, [10-5] in the doubles quarterfinals of the $80,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Nonthaburi, Thailand on Thursday. In the semi-finals, the Indian pair will face fourth seeds Marek Jengel-Adam Pavlacek, who defeated Anirudh Chandrasekhar and Vijay Sundar Prashanth 10-8 in the super tie-break in the quarter-finals. In the $40,000 ITF women's section in Nonthaburi, third seed Ankita Raina was beaten by Haruka Kaji in the singles pre-quarters, but Rutuja Bhosale reached the doubles semi-finals, partnering Japan's Erika Semma. Timofey Derepasko of Russia played an athletic all-around game to tame second seed Amir Milushev of Uzbekistan 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in the quarterfinals of the ITF Junior Tennis Tournament at the DLTA Complex on Thursday. Milushev found his match in Derepasco after coming through tough contests in the first two rounds. In the semi-finals, the Russian player will play his compatriot Ivan Iutkin, who beat Korea's Dongyun Hwang, the champion of the previous tournament, in three sets.
The other semi is between top seed Aditya Ganesan of America and Kim Jangjun of Korea. Both of them arrived for the direct sets without breaking a sweat in the bright morning. In the girls' category, left-hander Vlada Mincheva was quite resourceful in defeating second seed Susanna Pawlikowska of Poland. She will meet USA's Alexia Harmon, who halted the impressive run of Britain's Allegra Davis, who qualified on a five-match losing streak. Top seed Ashton Bowers of the USA had to dig deep to bring out her best game to beat France's Margot Fantala, a tournament winner at the same venue a few months earlier. Ashton will challenge Belgium's Inidra Lepage, who ousted third seed Anna Sedisheva with a tricky game. Dr. Tughlaqabad on Thursday. Olympian Aishwari Pratap Singh Tomar won the 50m rifle 3-position event by defeating Pankaj Mukheja 17-7 at the National Shooting Selection Trials at the Karni Singh Range. It was an admirable performance from Aishwari, who had earlier qualified with a score of 590, to top the semi-final stage in a particularly strong field. Akhil Sheoran finished third ahead of Neeraj Kumar, while Olympic quota winner Swapnil Kusale finished fifth ahead of fellow Olympians Deepak Kumar and Sanjeev Rajput. In the second trials of women's air rifle, Ramita Jindal defeated qualifying topper Thilothama Sen (633.5) 16-12. In Ilaven, Valarivan again finished third while the winner of the first event, Narmada Nithin, scored 630.5 marks to finish fifth.
Manini Kaushik, Meghana Sajjanar and Rati Rajendra made it to the semi-finals.
In women's sports pistol, after qualifying with 590, Manu Bhekar again topped Abhidnya Patil 27-26. Ritham Sangwan, Sree Nivetha, Anaksha Bansal and Surabhi Pathak were eliminated in the semi-finals. Haryana won gold for the children's saber and foil team at the 24th National Sub-Junior Fencing Championship held at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi on Thursday. Karnataka won the girls' EP team title. Meanwhile, Maharashtra's Saiprasad Jangwad and Karnataka's P. Pavani won gold in the boys and girls individual EP event.
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