Tennis is very important but not everything in my life: Sania Mirza, on retirement

Tennis is and will remain a significant aspect of Sania Mirza’s life but the legendary player says that not treating the sport as the be-all and end-all gave her the freedom to unleash her aggressive game every time she stepped on court.

Sania, who is bidding adieu to the game, says she never had the fear of losing in her heart because it makes a player defensive.

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The 36-year-old conjured up wins against one the best players of her era — then US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, Swiss legend Martina Hingis, Nadia Petrova, and Flavia Penneta.

Although she lost her singles matches to the legends of the game — Serena Williams and Venus Williams — she put up a decent fight when she was pitted against the American sisters.

“What made me that aggressive and that mindset was of actually not having the fear of losing,” Sania told PTI in an interview.

“For me, tennis was always and is always going to be a very, very large and big and important part of my life, but it is not my entire life. And that is the mindset I went with, even as a young girl and as a professional athlete. The worst that can happen is that you can lose a tennis match and then come back and try again.

“So, the fear of losing was not there. And I think a lot of people become defensive because they have the fear of losing. They think ‘oh if we push the ball or put the ball inside the court, maybe we won’t lose’. But, in the long run, that doesn’t work to become a top athlete.”

It’s just losing a tennis match

As an athlete you work to get as many wins under your belt as possible and such a risky style would not let you do that. Since she was always prepared to lose matches, did the defeats affect Sania?

“No, they affected me. But I knew I could try again next week. They affected me in the moment, some defeats more than the others. But I always knew that was not the end of the world. It was just losing a tennis match.”

The gift of forehand

The Indian ripped forehands from impossible-looking angles, a game style that brought much success in her almost two-decade long career in which she won three women’s doubles Grand Slam trophies and as many mixed doubles titles.

So did it come naturally or she had to work to develop such a shot? “I think it was a bit of both. I think I was gifted with the timing. I was gifted with the way I struck the ball. But I think there was a lot of work that went into my grip. There was a lot of…