One of India's most celebrated sports stars, former Wimbledon doubles champion Sania Mirza has announced that she will retire from tennis after 2022, reports BBC.
Sania's comments came after her first-round loss in the women's doubles in the Australian Open, reports said.
"I have decided that this will be my last season. I am taking it week by week. Not sure if I can last the season, but I want to," she told reporters.
Sania, 35, became the first Indian to win a WTA singles title in 2005.
In 2015, she won at Wimbledon with Swiss player Martina Hingis, then went on to win the US and Australian Opens.
She came close to securing an Olympics medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics when she and Rohan Bopanna played the semi-finals against Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram but eventually lost.
She won the 2009 Australian Open mixed doubles title and the French Open 2012 mixed doubles. She has also won two Grand Slam titles with partner Mahesh Bhupathi.
Mirza started playing tennis as a teenager during the summer holidays but took it up seriously after she began winning adult tournaments.
She picked up her first senior title aged 15 at the 2002 Asian Games.
In 2003, she entered the WTA Tour and later reached a career-high singles ranking of 27 in the world, still the highest by an Indian woman.
After a two-year maternity break, she returned to competitive tennis in 2019.
She has been credited with inspiring young women to play tennis in a cricket-obsessed country.
