BAMBOLIM
Legendary Indian tennis player, Sania Mirza’s session on the concluding day at Goa Fest 2018 at Grand Hyatt, Bambolim on Saturday was not one that highlighted her accomplishments as her player but one that defied norms of a woman athlete reaching a high pedestal and being head-strong.
Coming from a typical middle-class, Muslim family, and being a girl had its share of challenges. But the fuelled determination in Sania Mirza, helped the most famous Indian tennis star overcome various barriers and break various norms in the process to become the success story that she eventually turned out to be.
Given to the environment she grew up in, it was her conviction as a young kid that picked up a tennis racquet for the first time, to a 31-year-old who skirts various controversies ranging from her dress sense to marrying a cricketer from Pakistan, Sania’s narrative is truly inspirational.
“For a six-year-old, when I did pick up a tennis racquet for the first time it was very long ago. At that time, for my parents to say, that my child is to become a professional tennis player, it was actually looked at as a joke. It was not something that was heard of in a country where cricket was like a religion. For a girl particularly, wanting to play tennis, coming from Hyderabad and hailing from a middle-class Muslim background it was extremely challenging to say the least. I think I am an extremely stubborn person and a lot of successful people will tell you that they are stubborn too”, the 31-year-old tennis star revealed. She went further to state that initially you lose a lot more before you start winning. “You have to have that belief and a strong system around you which I did thankfully in shape of my parents and family,” she acknowledged. For her tennis is not about the fame or money as the perks associated with it, but the love for the game itself. “It is more about playing the sport for yourself, representing the country and that is the greatest honour that drives me even today,” Sania proudly stated.
But her tennis career beginnings came with familial sacrifices to finance their daughter’s enthusiasm in taking up the expensive sport while breaking conventional norms.
