Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza’s Australian Open 2020 campaign came to an early end after she retired from her women’s doubles opening match on Thursday.
Sania Mirza, who partnered with Nadiia Kichenok, was trailing in the 2nd set before she was forced to retire with a calf injury.
The Chinese pairing of Xinyun Han and Lin Zhu were leading 6-2, 1-0 in the 1st-round match against the Indo-Ukrainian pair before Mirza decided to stop the match owing to her injury.
Her right calf strapped heavily, Sania struggled to move freely on the court. It also affected her serve.
Kichenok was also struggling at the net, often missing easy put-away volleys.
Serving at 2-4, Sania was broken by the Chinese and they served out the set easily.
The Indian took a medial timeout after the first set. Soon after, the Indo-Ukrainian pair was broken in the first game of the second set and Sania found it difficult to continue.
Sania Mirza had earlier withdrawn from the mixed doubles event before the draw was announced on Wednesday. She was set to partner with Rohan Bopanna but the calf injury forced her to focus only on the women’s doubles campaign at the Australian Open.
“It’s unfortunate that this niggling injury got aggravated in the Hobart final just as I was getting to the top of my game. It is a lot better now and I intend to give it my best shot in doubles. It’s disappointing to miss out on the chance to partner Rohan in mixed,” Mirza had said.
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