Indian tennis star and wife of Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, Sania Mirza, has revealed that she is all set to play her "last-ever" tennis match in Hyderabad on March 5.
In a career that started at the age of six on dusty courts constructed out of cow dung in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, Mirza won six doubles Grand Slam titles and 43 major titles.
Taking to Instagram Sania shared that she would be taking the court for the last time in her life.
"I have some really exciting news. I am all set to play my last-ever tennis match exactly where it all started for me 18-20 years ago in the LB Stadium on the 5th of March," she said.
"And I have all my closest friends coming, my closest peers coming, my partners coming and I can't wait to play this match in front of all of you for one last time on the tennis court. I hope to end this beautiful journey on a good note in front of my friends family but important of all my most loyal fans, who have been through everything with me in this journey," she added.
It is worth mentioning here that Sania ended her tennis career with the Dubai Tennis Championships on Thursday.
Prior to the Australian Open, the she reveled that the WTA Tour and the Dubai Duty Free would be her last.
The Indian tennis icon played the final match of her 20-year professional career on Tuesday, losing alongside Madison Keys 6-4, 6-0 to Russian pair Liudmila Samsonova and Veronika Kudermetova at the Dubai Open.
Earlier, Mirza said she does not see an Indian talent emerging at the top echelons of women´s tennis in the immediate future, but is hopeful that can change down the road.
The 36-year-old Mirza´s trailblazing journey has inspired countless young people from her country to take up tennis.
"Every time that we see a glimmer of hope, we see either they go to college, and after college they never sort of come back to competing, or they´re just not able to make that next jump," Mirza told reporters.
"If you´re talking about someone trying to achieve, not just me as a benchmark, but more than what I have, I honestly feel that it will probably be someone who´s maybe five or six years old today."