Tennis doubles ace Sania Mirza is hoping to make a return to competitive tennis in the first week of March. After testing positive for Covid-19 with mild symptoms in Dubai and then recovering, the 34-year-old Super Mom has resumed training.
Being a wife, mother and a professional tennis player, Sania has to make the right decisions. She had thought of resuming tennis and playing the Australian Open in December end. However, even before her testing positive for Covid-19, Sania had to weigh the pros and cons.
Just to jog the readers’ memory, Sania had to first take a long break from tennis as she was expecting. With son Izhaan growing up, the tennis diva has many responsibilities to fulfil.
When she made a comeback in 2020 to the WTA Tour, she had started off well in two tournaments before getting injured at the Australian Open. Since then, for almost the whole of 2020 she had to stay away from tennis and was not in a rush to return. At that time she had spoken of how her decision-making as regards playing tennis was not easy as her son was still young and the pandemic was raging.
“I’m still in the process of recovery, post Covid, and hope to get back to playing matches by first week of March,” Sania told this writer from Dubai.
As regards who will be her coach, Sania was dead sure it had to be her father Imran Mirza. Her family has been a pillar of strength all through her career.
“I’ve had brief stints in the past with (coaches) Tony Roche, Bob Brett (who passed away recently) and Sven Groeneveld but my Dad has always been my ‘Super Coach’ and travelled with me on Tour. He will continue to work with me,” said Sania.
She hinted at returning to India and preparing for the grind of professional tennis. “I may be in Hyderabad in February and prepare for three weeks at SMTA (Sania Mirza Tennis Academy) before taking it from there,” she added.
“If I feel I’m ready, I could play in the Doha and Dubai WTA tournaments in March,” concluded Sania.
This being the year of the Tokyo Olympics, Sania is keen to again give it a shot. she still enjoys a protected ranking from the WTA and wants to resume tennis when she is dead sure her body will respond positively.
At a time when most global athletes are supposed to take the vaccine for Corona virus, Sania will also be deciding on it. Her immediate focus is to be physically very strong and then train hard. As someone who has dealt with injury breaks many times in her career, if he is talking of a return to tennis, it will be a whole hearted effort.
Mr. S. Kannan
Senior, Sports Journalist
