I am 35 and you should be expecting this at some point: Sania Mirza surprised at reactions to retirement

India’s tennis ace Sania Mirza regrets announcing her decision to retire at the end of the year, after seeing how emotional it has made her fans. During the Australian Open, Mirza announced that she would hang her boots at the end of the ongoing season.

“I think it came as a bit of a shock to everyone and later I said that honestly, I shouldn’t have announced it (about retiring at the end of this season) so soon and should have come closer to the end of the year and announced it because everybody got really emotional,” Mirza told NDTV.

“I got so many messages and for me tennis will always be a very important part of my life. I am grateful for the memories and the achievements I have had. I do plan to finish at the end of the year, but I am in it a hundred percent and it is a long year ahead.”

Mirza is a former no.1 player in women’s doubles and a multiple Grand Slam winner in women’s doubles and mixed doubles. She said that she had been contemplating retirement for some time now.

“It had been on my mind for a while and I had been thinking about it. At the press conference the journalists were taken aback and I thought ‘I am 35 and you guys should have been expecting this at some point’.

“Australia has always been very special to me and it was here that I made my big mark, playing Serena in the third round after being a wild card. It was just a coincidence that it happened there and it is great that things pretty much have ended where it all started for me.”