Sania Mirza is an Indian professional tennis player. A former world No. 1 in the doubles discipline, she has won six Grand Slam titles in her career.
From 2003 until her retirement from singles in 2013, she was ranked by the WTA as India’s No. 1 player in both the categories. Throughout her career, Mirza has established herself as the most successful female Indian tennis player ever and one of the highest-paid and high-profile athletes in the country.
Last year, Sania embarked on a new journey of motherhood, after welcoming her new born to her family. Relishing the joys of motherhood, Sania is all set to hit the courts back this August.
With new goals set in mind and her fitness levels at an all together new high, Women Fitness India speaks to the Tennis sensation as she gears up for her second innings.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Being one of the most successful female in Indian tennis and one of the most celebrated athletes in the country, share with us your journey in the world of tennis. How did it all start? What draw your attention towards this sport? At what age did you start taking the sport seriously?
Ms. Sania Mirza:
I started playing tennis when I was 6. I used to swim, play tennis, roller skate and I happened to be slightly better at tennis. My parents always wanted their child to play a sport, so it was a very natural process for me to play a sport. But we never thought that it will be this professional, neither there was any day when we thought that from now on lets be professional. It just so happened and things worked out and I started loving the sport and I thought I was good at it, so I just kept going.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Girls have to overcome a number of obstacles both on personal & sports level until they achieve recognition, do share some moments of struggle to serve as an inspiration for others?
Ms. Sania Mirza:
Girls have to overcome a major cultural obstacle that we have in this part of the world, that we have is to just play a sport. A sport is not something that comes very naturally in a girl’s life, its usually only studying or things like that and then its the normal cultural do’s and don’ts about what a girl should and should not do. In this part of the world, people are very obsessed with having light skin, especially for girls, and then everybody would be like, how are you going to tell my parents that ohh she’s going to get dark and then nobody’s going to marry her. So its as silly, and frivolous things like that, but its a big part of the society and the norms that you have to fight and prove that being a girl you can play a sport and be a professional at it.
This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar, President womenfitness.org and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.
All Written Content Copyright © 2019 Women Fitness Org
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
In October 2018, you gave birth to a baby boy. How has motherhood changed you? What are the challenges that you have faced as a new mom?
Ms. Sania Mirza:
Giving birth to my baby boy was the best moment of my life. No matter what I achieve in my life, or what I do or how much I win, this moment will always be at the top. I’ve realised many things but the most important one is that a mother’s love is the most selfless love that there ever existed. It is the most natural transition that you have. As athletes we tend to be a little bit more self-centered of our food and training, our recovery and it just so changes overnight, like literally. When the baby’s in your arms, you don’t feel like that anymore. You feel like you want more for the baby than you want for anyone else in the world, including yourself. I think that’s what it made me realise.
The challenges as a new mom, I’ve been very lucky, I have a very good boy and he’s been a treat honestly but more than anything, I’ve had a lot of help with me as well. Probably the toughest thing has been the sleep pattern but besides that it’s been very smooth.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
As a professional athlete, you ought to be in your most fit space always. Post pregnancy how are you coping up with that? Share with us your daily fitness routine?
Ms. Sania Mirza:
As a professional athlete, all my lIfe I’ve been very fit and I’ve lived a certain way, in terms of my food and training, and everything that’s concerned. When I got pregnant, I put on 23 kilos, and it’s the most natural thing to do when you’re producing a human being. Becoming big is a very small price to pay. I put on weight and I embraced it and the first couple of months were pretty hard, but I’ver lost all the weight now, I’m stronger just that way I was before, the body has come back to the way it was before. Hopefully I can start playing soon.
It was a very different experience and the challenges were different as well, but having said that, it was an experience that I’m glad that I went through and to get back and to know that I have the ability get back to my fitness after giving birth and putting on 23 kilos is very satisfying.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
You are also prepping to hit the courts this August, tell us more about that? How is the preparation going, balancing personal & professional life?
Ms. Sania Mirza:
The plan is to try to get back in August. The preparation is going well. I’ve been training, and working out and I’ve started playing 4 days a week, so I’m just trying to take it slow, this way the body will also cope well with the injuries I’ve had before.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Winning involves a lot of determination and hard work, more so in the life of a sportswoman. What exercises comprise your fitness regime when you are preparing for a competition?
Ms. Sania Mirza:
Fitness regime is very fast, as an athlete, it is a part of our life. I work out 4-5 hours a day including tennis. It involves everything, weight training, agility, a lot of core drills, endurance, strength. I have a trainer, Robert and we sit together and he writes me down a program and then we figure it out.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Sports-specific nutrition is an integral part of a sports person diet to cope with the physical stress and recover from wear & tear. There is no doubt you too need to take special care of your diet. What diet do you follow to stay healthy and physically fit?
Ms. Sania Mirza:
Diet is an integral part of every athlete. I was on a very very strict diet obviously when I was trying to drop all those kilos. But I try to keep it as basic. I believe in moderation. I don’t think you should starve your body of anything. Thankfully, I don’t have so much of a sweet tooth so it helps me as well. I just try to cut down on processed sugar and gluten, most of the time.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Being a professional athlete, you are a role model for many striving to make their dream come true, provide us with some motivational words to help others climb up the ladder of success in this field?
Ms. Sania Mirza:
As a professional athlete, I would just like to say to anybody who wants top pick up a sport, it could be anything, is that you have to love it first, before wanting to be a star or be successful at it. If you don’t love it, then I feel it’s very very difficult to be very good at it. It makes all those hours of struggle and hard work, even harder. Love it, enjoy it. Even today if I didn’t enjoy playing tennis, I wouldn’t pick up my tennis racket again. You have to work hard but determination, sacrifice and persistence are a very integral part of being a professional athlete.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
You were appointed the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia, becoming the first South Asian woman to be appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador in the organization’s history. It has been a true reward for all the hard work. How do you wish to give back to the society through your endeavors?
Ms. Sania Mirza:
Being an UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia, is a huge honour for me. I’ve been involved with them for a few years now, and the work that we try do, we try to talk to girls and young women about equality, about how they should be treated, and know that they should be treated right and equally. I think that these are the things that we can do, as public figures, we have a platform that we can speak from, where people hear us out. And I feel that women need to start believing that they are equal, for men to believe that they are equal. We do a bunch of things with the UN and I do them separately as well. I usually don’t talk about it, but we do educate over a thousand girls in the family, we give them financial support so that they can get educated, because most girls in this part of the world, their parents don’t allow them to be educated because that’s not the most natural process so we try to make sure these girls have a decent or basic education.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
You faced a major wrist injury that forced you to give up your singles career and focus on the doubles circuit. What tips would you like to provide to beginners to better cope with such an injury & return back to competition post recovery?
Ms. Sania Mirza:
I’ve had a lot of injuries in my career, but the 3 main surgeries that I’ve had are with my two knees and one wrist. After my wrist, I played singles and doubles for about 8 years and I got 27 in the world singles. After that in 2012, the question was whether to play another year of singles and probably retire, because that’s how much my body will allow, or change my goals and try to become number 1 in the world in doubles and obviously, in hind sight that was the best decision that I could have ever made.
You just have to focus. Coming back from injuries is not about physical struggles, it is also emotional, it is about believing in that body part, and believing that you can be the best that you can be or believing that you can be better than what you were when you got injured. It’s a mental process. When you want to come back from an injury, make sure you’ve got the right team in place, make sure you have the belief in place and make sure you have the right support system.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
You had once said that “I’m not that fast on my feet”, which you consider your most evident weakness. How do you work on that, to get better in the game?
Ms. Sania Mirza:
Funnily enough, I’m not a fast person in general life. I need to work on that, and it takes a lot for me to be fast in the court because it doesn’t come naturally to me. So I do a lot of court drills, lot of agility stuff, a lot of stuff with the ball drills or cone drills. So there is a bunch of things that we plan out and work out but it just doesn’t come from doing that, you also need a lot of strength. You derive a lot of strength from your gluten and core, so I’ve tried to work on it with that.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Women Fitness works with a goal to reach out to women all over the world providing them with best in health, fitness, nutrition, beauty & fashion. What do you wish to say about the website (Womenfitness.org) and a message for our visitors?
Ms. Sania Mirza:
Congratulations to Women Fitness, for contributing for women and spreading the word of health and fitness, and nutrition. I’d just like to say to all the readers that it is a great magazine and it’s a great website to get your health tips from a lot of athletes from around the world, a lot of healthy people, and a lot of fashionable people. And to you guys, keep doing the great work and keep spreading the message of being healthy.
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This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar, President womenfitness.org and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.
All Written Content Copyright © 2019 Women Fitness Org