Finishing strokes: A Wknd interview with Sania Mirza

Soon after her opening-round defeat in the women’s doubles of the 2022 Australian Open, one of India’s most iconic tennis players voiced her intention of calling time on her professional journey at the end of this season. At 35, she was reaching the end of her career anyway, and had spent the last three years mostly balancing family and tennis. Yet, such is her standing in Indian sports that her announcement created a buzz that took even her by surprise. A week later, as she progressed in mixed doubles in the season-opening Slam in Melbourne, Mirza, in a chat with the broadcasters, said she somewhat regretted the timing of the announcement.

“Then, those same people said, ‘Oh, have you taken your retirement back’?” Mirza says. “Every time I came off the court, that’s all everybody was asking me about. Maybe I should have waited [to make the announcement] until a couple of weeks before I stopped rather than saying it at the beginning of the year.”

“But it’s fine,” she added. “I think eventually people will start to focus on my tennis again.”

Even in Mirza’s last season, tennis is still very much the focus. Shaking off the disappointment of the first-round exit in doubles, she made the quarter-finals of the mixed, partnering Rajeev Ram at the Australian Open, her best Grand Slam outcome since 2017. The week-and-a-half Down Under provided flashes of the Mirza magic—that ferocious forehand for example—although not as consistently. The former doubles world No. 1 is “getting back to the drawing board” to find her old game with more frequency in the coming months. But the bigger purpose lies elsewhere.

“Remaining fit and healthy has always been a big objective, more so when I’m older,” she says.

It’s one of the reasons Mirza decided to end her professional career. Her body was “beat”, she says. The last couple of years have been especially taxing. She welcomed her son Izhaan through a caesarean section in October 2018, and after pushing herself back to elite tennis fitness, made a return to the sport in January 2020. But with the stop-start nature of competing amid the pandemic, contracting Covid-19 herself and minor niggles taking that much longer to heal, her body was telling her something she could not ignore.

“Having had three surgeries, a couple of big injuries, a child with an operation—it’s not easy,” Mirza says. “The body does function differently now than it used to, and the recovery does take longer. It’s a fact of life you’ve got to accept.”

It’s the end of a great, trailblazing journey that began in 2005, when a teenaged Hyderabadi girl captured not just a first WTA singles title by an Indian in her home city, but also the collective attention of the country.

Breaking into the top-100 singles rankings that year, Mirza remained there for a majority of the next six years with a career-high 27th spot in 2007. For context, the highest-ranked Indian singles pro, male or female, before Mirza was Ramesh Krishnan (world No. 23) in 1985.

She gradually shifted her attention towards doubles. She won six Grand Slams—the first with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi at the 2009 Australian Open and the most recent with the Swiss great Martina Hingis in 2016—as well as 43 titles. And she became the first Indian woman to be ranked world No. 1 in singles or doubles in 2015.

More than the list of achievements and path-setting numbers, though, was the mark the shining Sania Mirza success story left on little girls in India.

“It’s important to help and inspire young kids, especially young girls, to do what they love,” she says. “That’s been something I’ve tried to do all my life. And that will not change, whether I play tennis or not. I’m definitely still going to be around tennis, trying to inspire in whatever way possible.”

For now, though, she still has some tennis to play. Mirza has three Grand Slams and a possible Asian Games—where she has won eight medals for the country—to aim for this season apart from other major tournaments on the WTA Tour, where she won a title only last September. If her body backs her at these tournaments, the tennis, Mirza believes, will take care of itself.

“I feel like every time I step on to the court, I’m a contender. And that’s where my level is at,” Mirza says. She’s currently ranked world No. 65. “Obviously, it would be amazing, if I do stop playing at the end of the year, to try and be as high as possible in the rankings and also try and win one or two big tournaments before I stop. That’s the goal, really.”