On comeback trail, Sania leaving no stone unturned
MUMBAI: By her own admission, Sania Mirza hasn’t watched a lot of tennis over the last couple of years. For the few times that she did, she would invariably be reminded of how much she missed being on court.
“It would irritate me a little bit,” Mirza says.
One of India’s most decorated sportspersons had to press the pause button on her tennis career after the 2017 WTA China Open in October. At that point, it was due to a knee injury. However, the forced time off coincided with Mirza and her husband, Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik, being blessed with baby boy Izhaan exactly a year later.
Now, more than two years since she last stepped on court as a professional tennis player, the six-time Grand Slam champion and former world No 1 is ready to hit the reset button.
The 33-year-old will return to the Tour at the WTA Hobart International starting from January 11, before heading to the Australian Open where she will partner Ukranian Nadiia Kichenok in doubles and American Rajeev Ram in mixed doubles.
“One of the main reasons that I’m playing again is because I missed tennis so much,” Mirza tells HT from Hyderabad. “I missed the feeling of winning, missed the feeling of competing, missed just getting that adrenaline flowing again on the court.
“To be honest, I could have hung up my boots a couple of years ago and said I’ve achieved everything that I wanted to, and I’ve had a great career. But the simple fact is I feel that I still have tennis left in me,” she adds.
That thought, however, was the last thing on her mind while she was preparing to become a first-time mother. “When we decided to start a family, I was prepared mentally that I may never come back and play tennis again. I didn’t know how my body would react, I didn’t know how I would feel emotionally and physically. There were a lot of unknowns,” Mirza says.
One of those unknowns was gaining weight during her pregnancy. “I was just breathing and putting on weight. It was weird,” she says. And so her primary objective after delivering Izhaan wasn’t to think about getting back to playing tennis; it was getting back to being fit. “The day after I gave birth, I decided that I wanted to lose 23kgs. For me, it was more about being healthy again, that was my first thought process. And I managed to lose 26kgs in four months.
“Once I did that, I said, you know what, my body feels almost like it used to be. And then I thought, let me hit some balls. I started with once a week, then twice a week, and I kept enjoying it. After a couple of months, I realized my body was handling everything quite well, better than I had expected. That’s when I found that motivation and inspiration to come back,” she adds.
A big reason, Mirza feels, her body has bounced back sooner than usual is because she remained active during her pregnancy. She says she walked up to 5kms a day till two weeks before her delivery. Why, she even hit a few balls on the court for 20 minutes two nights prior to it.
Not everything was smooth sailing though. The big challenge came immediately after she welcomed Izhaan into the world through a cesarean section. Mirza clearly remembers when she first hopped on to a treadmill three weeks after her delivery. “I promise you, after five minutes on it, I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m ever going to get fit again, forget play tennis’,” she recalls.
From there to getting back to training for five hours a day—like she is now in Hyderabad—mirza already feels a winner again. “Any woman who has been pregnant will tell you how difficult it is just to get back into normal shape, or even mentally, because there are so many hormonal changes. To be able to go through all that and put myself in a position to be able to compete again, I’m already very proud of myself. Not just getting back to looking fit, but also feeling fit, and feeling fighting fit to be a professional athlete,” she says.
Mirza can’t wait to get back on the Tour again, because it’ll be different this time. Unlike in the past when Mirza would often return to an empty hotel room after the umpteen training sessions and matches, she’ll now have Izhaan for company.
“A tennis player’s life is extremely lonely, so I’m glad that I have Izhaan now. It will be special to have him be with me, watch me play and cheer for me,” she says.
On the court, Mirza would love to add to her 42 career titles and six Slams, but she realises she is merely taking baby steps in her comeback journey. More than anything else, though, Mirza simply wishes to relive what she has been unable to for the last couple of years. “Whatever happens in my career after this, whether I win a lot of matches and titles or I don’t win anything at all, everything is a bonus. Obviously, every athlete wants to win. But I’m coming back for the joy of the sport, because I want to enjoy playing tennis again,” she says.
‘WOULD LOVE TO PLAY WITH BOPANNA AGAIN’
Meanwhile, Mirza says the Tokyo Olympics is at the back of her mind, and that she would love to pair up with Rohan Bopanna— with whom she missed out on a “painful” mixed doubles bronze at the 2016 Rio Games—again.
“It would be amazing to play with him (Bopanna) again, if we could put ourselves in that position and compete for a medal again,” she says.