Wimbledon 2022: India ace Sania Mirza, Mate Pavic crash out of mixed-doubles semifinal

India’s tennis ace Sania Mirza recorded her best-ever finish at Wimbledon in the mixed doubles category after she bowed out of the semifinal stage on Wednesday.

Sania along with her Croatian partner Mate Pavic lost to the defending champions Neal Skupski and Desirae Krawczyk, which shattered their dream of winning the grasscourt Major.

Sania had earlier announced that she will retire from the sport at the end of the current campaign.

After reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon in the mixed-doubles category for the first time in her career, Mirza, along with her partner Pavic went down against the defending champions Skupski and Krawczyk 6-4, 5-7, 4-6 in a hard-fought match on Court Two.

The duo of Mirza and Pavic made it to the semifinals with the 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over Dabrowski and Peers.

This is Mirza’s best-mixed doubles performance at the All England Club. She had previously reached the quarterfinals in 2011, 2013 and 2015.

Wimbledon’s mixed doubles crown is missing from her trophy cabinet. Notably, Sania had to face defeat in the first round of the women’s doubles event with Lucie Hradecka.

While this was the Indian ace’s last chance to win a career slam in mixed doubles, she had earlier won mixed doubles titles with Mahesh Bhupathi. With Bhupathi, Sania won the 2009 Australian Open and 2012 French Open, before winning the 2014 US Open with Bruno Soares of Brazil.