Sania Mirza opens up about her journey back to tennis

More than two years after his last professional match (China Open 2017), the return of Sania Mirza on tennis court is imminent. A knee injury and the conception of her son Izhaan in 2018 forced her to stop much longer than expected. She is the third Indian woman in the Open Era to feature and win a round at a Grand Slam tournament, and the first to reach the second week. She has also won a total of 14 medals (including 6 gold) at three major multi-sport events, namely the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the Afro-Asian Games.

In a phone interview with wtatennis.com, the Indian player opened up about her journey back to tennis: “I think that there are so many amazing athletes out there who are mothers and who are coming back. And why not, right? I mean, I know that being a mother or a father is a great privilege, but also being a mother is also physically pretty taxing, because your body goes through a lot to have the baby.

I think it might be tougher, but I think if guys can come back to playing after becoming a father, why shouldn’t mothers? And I think that it’s pretty amazing, it’s really inspiring to see so many amazing athletes who are mothers today. I guess that is maternal instinct, so a lot changes. I mean, us tennis players are so used to thinking about ourselves.

I think he’s taught me patience. I mean generally I was not a very patient person, and now you just have all this patience in life to listen to words 500 times a day. For example, he calls me ‘amma’ and so he says ‘amma!’ like 500 times a day. And it sounds great! It sounds amazing. Every time he says it, it’s like he’s saying it for the first time.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2th0k5D