In an unexpected development, Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis on Monday decided to end their partnership that took the tennis world by storm last year when they won nine titles including the year-end WTA championship.
While Sania confirmed the split in an interview to news agency PTI, the Swiss great today took to Instagram to reveal the reasons behind her decision.
Hingis said that the ‘professional decision’ was taken mutually because of the ‘poor results’, which they never desired, in the recent times.
“After three Grand Slam victories and eleven WTA doubles titles together, we have mutually agreed that we would each be open to playing with other players for the remainder of the season. Perhaps, because of our great past results, we have had very high expectations from our partnership and unfortunately did not get the results we desired recently. We would like to clarify that it was a totally professional decision based purely on our recent results. The professional decision has not and will not in any way affect the wonderful personal relationship that we continue to share. We also look forward to defending our title in the year-end WTA Finals in Singapore in October for which Santina has already qualified. We hope that this puts to rest some of the fabricated stories that have been doing the rounds in some sections of the media. Best Sania and Martina,” it reads.
Sania and Hingis began their partnership last year in March with a bang, winning three titles on the trot — at Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston.
Sania became world number one in partnership with Martina when they won the Charleston event. Sania also enjoyed her first ever women’s doubles Grand Slam title by winning the Wimbledon in company of Martina. Later, the pair also won the 2015 US Open.
Sania will now play with world number 21 Barbora Strycova from the Czech Republic while Martina has teamed up with CocoVandeweghe of the United States of America.
Sania’s partnership with Barbora will at the Cincinnati event while she is set to play with American Bethanie-Mattek Sands at New Haven before again uniting with the Czech at the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the season.
Sania and Martina had carried their red hot form into the 2016 season by winning four events on the trot, including the Australia Open, their third Grand Slam together.
They stitched together an incredible 41 match winning streak which ended this year in February at Doha where they lost to Russians Elena Vesnina and Daria Kasatkina.
However, for a world number one pair, the results in the last five months have not been encouraging. After winning four titles at the start of the season, they have managed to win only one title (Rome) after that in three finals.
They also failed to defend their Wimbledon crown. Last month’s Montreal event happened to be their last tournament together, where they lost in the quarterfinals.
In all they won 14 titles, including three Majors, together in 16-month long partnership. The Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati will begin on August 15.
Both Sania and Martina are playing in the Rio Olympics.
