Sania together with the American partner Madison Keys suffered a direct defeat at the hands of Vernokia Kudermetova AND Liudmila Samsonova. Sania and Keys lost 4-6, 0-6 to the formidable Russian duo in exactly one hour.
25-year-old Veronika is eleventh in singles and fifth in doubles while Liudmila is world number 13 in doubles.
United🫂.@MirzaSania played his last game ever ending a 22 year long career in Dubai 👏🏽#DDFTennis… https://t.co/3DX15OBEl9
— Dubai Tennis Championships (@DDFTennis) 1676997398000
The 36-year-old Sania, who turned pro in 2003, exits competitive tennis with six Grand Slam titles, including three women’s doubles with Swiss legend Martina Hingis.
He won two of his three mixed doubles with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi (2009 Australian Open and 2012 French Open). He won the US Open trophy with Bruno Soares.
Breaks were traded at a brisk pace in the opening set which was locked at 4-4. From there, Kudermetova and Samsonova once again broke the pairing of Sania and Keys for a 5-4 lead, putting themselves in a position from which they could serve the set.
They did so comfortably enough, dropping a run in game ten.
Sania and her partner were busted in the very first game of the second set and it was a one-way traffic after that because they were bagged.
(with PTI inputs)
