Wimbledon: Pioneering Indian tennis star Sania MirzaSwansong’s performance at Wimbledon ended in a semi-final defeat to defending champions Neal Skupski and Desirae Krawczyk in mixed doubles here.
Mirza and her Croatian partner Mate Pavic, seeded sixth, went down 6-4 5-7 4-6 on Wednesday evening against Great Britain’s Skupski and American Krawczyk in two hours and 16 minutes.
Mirza, 35, is India’s most accomplished tennis player, winning six Grand Slam titles, including three mixed doubles trophies. She was aiming for a career slam in mixed doubles.
She had won the mixed doubles titles at the 2009 Australian Open and 2012 French Open with Mahesh Bhupathi and the 2014 US Open with Brazilian Bruno Soares.
Mirza and Pavic, both multiple Grand Slam winners, dominated the first set after a strong serve.
Mirza, who is in her final year on tour, and Pavic seemed on track to close the game as they led 4-2 in the second set, but the duo lost five of the next six games when Skupski and Krawczyk, as placed second, the decider.
In the decider, Mirza and Pavic drew first blood when they broke their opponent’s serve, but were immediately broken back.
In the 12th game, Pavic made two double fouls with Skupski and Krawczyk swapping match point.
This is Mirza’s best mixed doubles match in the All England Club. She previously reached the quarterfinals in 2011, 2013 and 2015.
Mirza, a six-time Grand Slam winner, had previously announced that she would hang up her racket at the end of the 2022 season.
The 35-year-old Indian star has now retired from Wimbledon after winning a women’s doubles title in 2015 alongside Martina Hingis.
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