Indian Tennis legend and one of the poster women of the sport in this country, Sania Mirza bid an emotional goodbye to the sport in her hometown of Hyderabad. She is a lovely player also in the betting world. Sania Mirza had played her last Australian Open earlier in January and followed it up with her final WTA tournaments. Now, in a star-studded exhibition match in Hyderabad, she bid farewell to the sport completely. 

This exhibition match included some of the most reconisable faces in Tennis and in Indian sports, featuring Rohan Bopanna, Yuvraj Singh and her ‘best friend’ Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Ivan Dodig, Cara Black and Marion Bartoli. Sania finally said goodbye to her illustrious career at the Lal Bahadur Tennis Stadium, the venue where she signalled her arrival on the big stage with a historic WTA singles title triumph nearly two decades ago. 

The exhibition games were witnessed by eminent personalities ranging from sports to film industry, including union law minister Kiren Rijiju and former India cricket team captain Mohammed Azharuddin, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Ananya Birla, Huma Qureshi, Dulquer Salmaan, musician AR Rahman her fans, family, friends, sporting personalities and students of the Sania Mirza Tennis Academy.

The six-time grandslam winner was extremely emotional during the final few moments and said that it was the greatest honour of her career to have played this sport and represented India for over two decades. 

“I am so excited to play my last match in front of you all. I have always wanted to play and express my gratitude by playing my last match in front of my home crowd in Hyderabad, and I’m so thankful to the Government of Telangana for making this happen,” she said after the match.

“I didn’t think that I was going to get emotional today. But, these are really, really happy tears. I could not have asked for a better send-off,” she added. 

Sania Mirza is already looking at some incredible career options in her second innings. She has appointed as a mentor for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Women’s Premier League, where she has promised to help the youngsters get the better of their mental battles. Visit Nextbet and know more about Tennis news and betting in one place.