Hyderabad: Indian tennis player Sania Mirza ended her glorious journey as a player at the same venue from where she started. Sania bid goodbye to her journey with ‘tears of joy’ by playing an exhibition match at the Lal Bahadur Tennis Stadium.
It was at the same stadium that she won the historic WTA singles title nearly two decades ago.
Rohan Bopanna, Yuvraj Singh and his best friend Bethanie Mattek-Sands participated in these exhibition matches. Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju and former Indian cricket team captain Mohammad Azharuddin were among those who came to watch the match.
The six-time Grand Slam winner (three women’s doubles and three mixed doubles) played two mixed doubles exhibition matches and won both. After the matches, Telangana minister KT Rama Rao and state sports minister V Srinivas Goud congratulated Sania.
In the end Sania thanked those who supported her in this long journey. “The biggest honour for me is to play for my country for 20 years. It is every sportsperson’s dream to represent their country. I managed to do that. During this time, after listening to the applause of the audience, Sania got emotional and said, “These are tears of happiness. Sania said though she has said goodbye to tennis, she will somehow continue to be associated with tennis and other sports in India and Telangana.