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Indian hopes at the Australian Open 2020 were dealt a further blow when the former doubles world no. 1 Sania Mirza had to retire midway through her first-round clash of the women's doubles event.
Sania had earlier pulled out of the mixed doubles event where she was to have partnered Rohan Bopanna. Despite the calf strain that prompted the pullout from the mixed doubles event, Sania took the court for the women's doubles earlier today but looked uncomfortable and dropped the first set before deciding to retire in the second.
Sania had returned to action after 27 months when she played the Hobart International partnering Nadiia Kichenok. The duo won the title at Hobart and the victory had raised hopes that the partnership would make an impact at Melbourne Park.
As it turned out, however, Sania's strapped calf continued to cause her problems, which was evident during the course of the match against Xinyun Han and Lin Zhu of China. The Indo-Ukranian pair lost the first set 2-6 and were trailing 0-1 when Sania decided she was in no state to continue playing.
The Hyderabad girl is a former Australian Open doubles champion - she won the mixed doubles event in 2009 and the women's doubles in 2016.
Sania first played the Australian Open in 2005 and her fans were hoping that the 2020 edition would result in a successful Grand Slam comeback. The Indian star had pulled out of the event in 2017 due to injury after having claimed the women's doubles title partnering Martina Hingis a year earlier.
As a result of her withdrawal from the mixed doubles, Rohan Bopanna will now partner Nadiia Kichenok who was clearly not at her best in the women's doubles first-round clash.
Sania is currently using her protected ranking post-injury, but the former champion's die-hard supporters will need to wait a while longer to see the 33-year-old regain some of her old glory.
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