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India's decorated tennis player Sania Mirza bid farewell to the Australian Open (AO) for one last time on Tuesday (January 25) after she lost in the mixed doubles quarter-finals. After a 6-4, 7-6 defeat to Australian wildcard pair of Jason Kubler and Jaimee Fourlis, she marked her exit from the Australian Open. Earlier she had announced, it will be her last season on the WTA tour. Few days later, Sania has expressed that she regrets making the announcement as all the talks have been about her retirement in the last few days.
"I am not actually thinking about that at every match to be honest, I think that I made the announcement too soon to be very honest, I am kind of regretting it because that's all I am being asked right now," Sania told Sony Sports Network after getting knocked out of the tournament.
The 35-year-old was constantly reminded about her retirement plans and wanted to focus on winning the matches rather than focusing on her future.
"I am playing tennis to win matches and until I play, I am going to try and win every match I play, so it (retirement) is not something that is on my mind constantly.
"I enjoy playing tennis, I have always enjoyed it, win or lose, and I still have the same outlook to it, I give my 100 (per cent), sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but I am still in it 100 per cent for the rest of the year and I don't want to really think about what's going to happen at the end of the year," she added in the conversation," the former doubles world no.1 player said.
Sania reached a career-high ranking of 27 in August 2007 and won six major titles, including two at the Australian Open. She won the mixed doubles title in 2009 with Mahesh Bhupathi and in 2016 won the women's doubles titles with Martina Hingis.
Sania is on a mission for 2022, where she can complete a career grand slam in both mixed doubles and women's doubles. The French Open remains the only title missing from her trophy cabinet in women's doubles while the prestigious Wimbledon title has still eluded her in mixed doubles.
