Australian Open 2023 tennis: India’s Sania Mirza bows out in second round

Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Kazakh partner Anna Danilina bowed out of the Australian Open 2023 women’s doubles competition following a second round defeat to Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck and Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina at the Melbourne Park on Sunday.

Sania Mirza and Anna Danilina, seeded eighth in the event, lost the match 4-6, 6-4, 2-6.

The Indo-Kazakh pair, who beat the Hungarian-American duo of Dalma Galfi and Bernarda Pera in the first round, started the match slowly and found themselves a set down and trailing 3-0 in the second set in quick time.

Sania and Danilina, however, turned things around brilliantly to draw level and push the match into a decider. Unperturbed, Kalinina and Van Uytvanck upped the ante in the third set to seal their victory and entry into the next round.

The loss marked the end of Sania Mirza’s women’s doubles Grand Slam career, which saw her win three titles. The Indian tennis player, however, remains in contention in the mixed doubles, having won her first round match with compatriot Rohan Bopanna on Saturday.

Sania Mirza is all set to retire from professional tennis after the Dubai Tennis Championships in February.

Meanwhile in men’s doubles, the all-Indian pair of N Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, who had stunned fifth seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek after entering the Australian Open main draw as an alternate pair, failed to carry on their momentum in the second round.

N Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, who finished runners up at the Maharashtra Open earlier this month, fell 6-4, 6-4 to the French duo of Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin.

Following the results, Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna, in mixed doubles, are the only Indian challenge still alive at the first Grand Slam of the year. The duo will face Japan’s Makoto Ninomiya and Uruguay’s Ariel Behar in their second round match on Monday.