Australian Open: Sania Mirza says she’ll try for more Slams with Horia Tecau

Melbourne: India’s Sania Mirza said she will try for more Grand Slam mixed doubles titles with Romanian Horia Tecau after the pair missed out in the Australian Open final on Sunday.

Mirza, 27, said she had made a great start to the year despite the loss to Canadian-French pair Daniel Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic, who won 6-3, 6-2.

Mirza also reached the women’s doubles quarter-finals with partner Cara Black, where they went out in three sets to eventual champions Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy.

“It’s a good start to the year, I can’t complain,” she said. “Tough loss in the [women’s] doubles and we lost to the eventual champions, which was Errani-Vinci, and then losing obviously in the final here.

“I’ve had a decent week and we had a really good week in mixed and we’re looking forward to the rest of the year. It’s a good start to the year.”

Mirza ruled out a return to the singles circuit, saying her “body is broken”.

She has won two major mixed doubles titles with Mahesh Bhupathi, the 2009 Australian Open and the French Open in 2012.

Meanwhile, Nestor has targeted a mixed doubles grand slam in 2014 after his success on Sunday.

It was a third Melbourne Park mixed doubles title for the Canadian after his 2007 triumph with Elena Likhovtseva and 2011 victory with Katarina Srebotnik.

Nestor then told his 20-year-old partner Mladenovic on court that he would now like to target a sweep of the major titles to complete the grand slam in one year.

“I was half joking but I always tell my friends my best chance of winning grand slams nowadays are in mixed,” the 41-year-old, who now has won a total of 12 grand slam doubles titles, later told reporters. “But obviously I’d still like to win men’s doubles titles, too... I just think this is the best chance, but I’ll keep playing both and hopefully good will come out of it.”

The last time a single partnership won doubles titles at all four majors in one year was when Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver performed the feat in women’s doubles in 1984.