Indian Tennis star Rohan Bopanna and his mixed doubled partner Sania Mirza were in the news for their Australian Open 2023 campaign. While they were on the cusp of making history when the reached the finals of the competition which also meant a chance for a fairytale Grand Slam farewell for Mirza, as it turned out the Indian duo eventually lost the summit clash (6-7, 2-6) to Brazil's Luisa Stefani and Rafael Matos at the Rod Laver Arena.
However, post the match and Sania's teary-eyed farewell speech, a tweet by a fan who spotted Bopanna's wife among the spectators at the tennis court and called her the "most beautiful woman" went viral on social media. The same even caught the eye of the 42-year-old who decided to respond to the tweet.
"I agree 😉🥰...," he replied.
Here is the Twitter exchange:
Rohan was my first-ever mixed doubles partner: Sania Mirza
Meanwhile, Sania shed a few tears as she bid adieu to her journey in the Grand Slams.
"If I cry, these are happy tears. That's just a disclaimer. I'm still going to play a couple of more tournaments but my journey of my professional career started in Melbourne," an emotional Sania said as she struggled to hold back tear," she said.
"Rohan was my first-ever mixed doubles partner when I was 14 and we won the nationals, it was 22 year ago and I couldn't think of a better person, he's my best friend and one of my best partners to finish my career," the 36-year-old added.
Sania had earlier announced that the WTA event in Dubai in February will be the last competitive tennis tournament of her career. With this she will retire as one of the greatest tennis players from India, having bagged as many as six Grand Slam titles during the course of her illustrious playing journey. These include three mixed doubles trophies.