Sania Mirza, Indian tennis ace, to miss Australian Open 2018 due to injury

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza will miss the Australian Open early next year due to a right knee injury.

Down with a condition called jumper’s knee in her right leg, tennis ace Sania Mirza said she would not be defending the women’s doubles title at the Australian Open 2018, beginning January 15.

Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won the Australian Open women’s doubles title in 2016. (AP)

Mirza and Martina Hingis beat Andrea Hlavakova and Lucie Hradeka 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 in the final in 2016. With Hingis, Mirza also made the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon and partnering Barbara Strycova she was in the round of eight in the US Open as well.

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“My doctors have told me to take a couple of months off and take it from there. I could need surgery or maybe treat it through injections. I don’t see myself returning before March. It’s all right when I am walking but painful I need to turn,” said Mirza, 31, here on Saturday.

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Mirza said after playing for 15 months, it might not be a bad thing to be out for some time. And she cited the example of Roger Federer to embellish how taking a break can be good. “He went out for six months and has done exceedingly well this year…Hopefully, I will too,” she said.

Mirza said she is optimistic of playing the Commonwealth Games in April and the Asian Games next August. But with tennis players, you never know how our health is going to be, she said.

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Given that she is married to Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik and therefore is one-half of a celebrity couple, Mirza was asked about Virat Kohli’s wedding with Anushka Sharma, a couple she said she knew.

“It’s known that they’ve been together for a long time and what better when two people who love each other get married. They obviously realised how the media hype would be here so they went to Italy. At some point, they have to face it. High-profile marriages are obviously complicated in terms of dealing with so much of outside stuff. It’s not just internal. Shaadi gives enough stress anyway,” said Mirza.