After Sania, who?

The gritty Hyderabadi broke new ground on and off the court, which made her the mascot for women’s empowerment in a country where we desperately need more sporting icons outside cricket

This columnist might call herself a culture and heritage nut, who doles out Monday gyaan, all dripping with nostalgia and hat-tips to this great city’s coolness quotient. But the closeted sports addict persona takes over every now and then when the ink and inclination calls for it. Add to that list, when champions decide to retire.

For most of last week, I was torn between keeping track of scores at the Australian Open, as well as from the ODIs between India and South Africa. The latter didn’t go in India’s favour, but this didn’t hurt even half as much as it did when I heard that Sania Mirza had announced that this would be her last year on the circuit. 

I sought out Ace Against Odds from my bookshelf to retrace those moments during an interview with her in 2016 about this engaging, official biography; it was a telephonic chat since she was in between tours at the time of its release. Reading the book felt like a teaser to the actual blockbuster. Sania was all heart, and at her candid best.

I went back to this one particular section in the book from 2010. She wanted to retire after a serious injury and went into depression. Even five-six years ago, for a woman sports champ to admit about a condition that is often equated to weakness, took a lot of guts. She snapped out of it and accepted that tennis wasn’t going to be part of her life. Later, as her wrist healed with rehab, she dabbled in it for fun, built her game, and worked on her mental strength. Soon, she was back to winning medals at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. “That phase brought me back to life,” she admitted during that chat.

There were other points in that interview that struck a chord. Around that time, a famous male TV journalist caused a stir when he asked her about “settling down”, possibly a veiled attempt to enquire about why motherhood wasn’t on the cards. Sania hit a sublime forehand, much like her idol, Steffi Graf: “I wasn’t angry at his question. All credit to him for apologising on national TV. I don’t need a child to validate that I have settled down. Kids are not the be all and end all of this idea.” But she didn’t rule out starting a family with her cricketer husband, Shoaib Malik at some point. “That choice is mine,” she reminded me. The tennis star received loads of mail from women thanking her for speaking on their behalf. They must have felt better that even a Sania Mirza could be questioned on this subject; her reply would’ve been like a soothing balm to those women.

This brings me to her longevity, as a resilient, reassuring icon on the arena. As women badminton, boxing, wrestling and cricket champs emerged, every Grand Slam, Olympiad or Asian Games appearance reminded me of her impact and imprint. While the Indian Express (Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi) was winning accolades, she too brought home the silverware, and soon enough, was mentioned in the same breath. Sania was always going to be around; diehard fans never imagined that she would retire. One of my favourite frames of hers from recent times was with her son Izhaan at last year’s Wimbledon. Cameras focused on the little munchkin cheering for his mommy from the sidelines. As soon as she wrapped up every doubles match, she would run to hug him, and carry him around the court, as fans waved to mother and son. In many ways, she might have been possibly trying to normalise things for him.

She did all of it with panache – be it winning titles, motherhood, and being a public figure (including being married to an equally famous sportsperson from across the border). Sania always believed in fighting against the odds. Even her biography’s title includes those words. A memorable quote [apologies for the endless feeding off from that interaction!] from that interview was, “Aren’t we (women) fighting it all the time? Our lives are a bit more difficult. Be it a tennis player or you, as a journalist. Questions are always asked about our choices if they don’t fit a stereotype. I want to fight this.”

Beyond those columns of newsprint and airtime that would get wasted on the size of her new nose pin or the hemline of her on-court attire, here was this ambassador and fearless voice for women’s empowerment in India who motored along. She showed that it was possible to stride two worlds and come out a winner in both. So, when she announced that 2022 would be her last year on tour, it made us wonder about the void that she will leave behind, and her legacy that inspired and opened the doors for the Ankita Rainas, the Karman Kaur Thandis to follow. How many women were inspired off court, we will never know. And that’s the hallmark of a true icon — to be a role model within and outside the arena.

You will be missed, Sania.

mid-day’s Features Editor Fiona Fernandez relishes the city’s sights, sounds, smells and stones...wherever the ink and the inclination takes her. She tweets @bombayana
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