'What made me that aggressive and that mindset was not having a fear of losing' - Sania Mirza

Tennis is and will remain a significant aspect of Sania Mirza's life, but the legendary player says that not treating the sport as the be-all and end-all gave her the freedom to unleash her aggressive game every time she stepped on the court. Sania, who is bidding farewell to the game, says she never feared losing in her heart because it makes a player defensive.

The 36-year-old won against one of her era's best players -- then US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, Swiss legend Martina Hingis, Nadia Petrova, and Flavia Penneta. Although she lost her singles matches to the legends of the game -- Serena Williams and Venus Williams -- she put up a decent fight when pitted against the American sisters.

"What made me that aggressive and that mindset was not fearing losing. For me, tennis was and will always be a large, big, and important part of my life, but it is not my entire life. And that is the mindset I went with, even as a young girl and a professional athlete. The worst that can happen is that you can lose a tennis match and then come back and try again," Sania told PTI in an interview.

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"So, the fear of losing was not there. And I think a lot of people become defensive because they have a fear of losing. They think, 'oh, if we push the ball or put it inside the court, we won't lose'. But, in the long run, that doesn't work to become a top athlete," added Sania.

It's just losing a tennis match
As an athlete, you work to get as many wins as possible, and such a risky style would not let you do that. Since she was always prepared to lose matches, did the defeats affect Sania? "No, they affected me. But I knew I could try again next week. They affected me at the moment. But I always knew that was not the end of the world. It was just losing a tennis match," she supposed.

The gift of forehand
The Indian ripped forehands from impossible-looking angles, a game style that brought much success in her almost two-decade-long career in which she won three women's doubles Grand Slam trophies and as many mixed doubles titles. So, did it come naturally, or she had to work to develop such a shot?

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"It was a bit of both. I was gifted with the timing. I was blessed with the way I struck the ball. But, there was a lot of work that went into my grip. A lot of effort went into bringing variation into the shot. That was just repetition. There was a lot of work that went into making the shot deceptive, and people were not able to read it. It was a mix of both. Repetitions, that is what I can tell you, and working different angles of the court," she affirmed.

"I don't know if a change in grip resulted in injury"
Sania began with a western grip but modified it to a semi-western grip on the coaches' advice. It was the 'Indian' wrist that allowed her to create those tricky angles. But was it also a reason for her getting a career-threatening wrist injury which later forced her to quit singles?

"I don't know. The thing is, I have a very hyper-mobile joint structure. I don't know if the injury would have happened with the western grip also if it had not happened with the continental grip. I can't get into a hypothetical situation. I mean, I had a wrist injury, and that was it. So, you had to deal with it," Sania recalled. But there is also a view that she chose the easy route by quitting singles. "I don't react to it. I don't care what people say."

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I don't care what people think of the doubles format
Many a sideshow considers the doubles format against the singles, which tests all aspects of your game -- fitness, movement, ground strokes, stamina and mental fortitude. In fast-paced doubles, the reflexes and reactions become much more vital as you cover just half the court.

Sania said the success of her singles gets overshadowed because of her doubles exploits. "I got a lot of respect [because of doubles]. I am very grateful for that. I had a great singles career. I was not number one, but I was top-30, which has yet happened from our side of the world for a long time. It never happened for women and even for men. The last person was Vijay [Amritraj] or Ramesh [Krishnan]. It was a long haul, we had someone playing as a top-30 singles player, and I had success," she asserted.

"Then I moved on to the doubles because my body could not take it after three surgeries, and it was the right call. Being number one in the world at whatever you do is fantastic. It does not matter what people say. It [success] looks much more in doubles because I was number one. In the fraternity, there is a lot of respect for each other," attested Sania.

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The most vulnerable, weakest and the strongest
She is combative by nature, but there would be moments, like in any athlete's life, where you feel vulnerable. When did Sania feel the strongest? "The weakest I felt was when I had a nasty wrist injury during the 2008 Olympics. I would say that probably was when I went through many mental health issues when I had depression," she remembered.

"Being at the peak of my career, not knowing if I would be able to play again or if I would be able to comb my hair. I had a where I felt fragile. And, where I felt the strongest there were many times when I felt powerful, but probably the most unbeatable was during the middle of 2014-end till the middle of 2016. Those almost two years of my playing life were incredible," she recognised.

"Not many athletes get to go on the court and feel like they will not lose a tennis match or any match. You feel like you are stepping on the court, and almost half won the match just by stepping on the court. That was the feeling that used to happen when Martina [Hingis] and I stepped on the court for that period," she added. They won the Wimbledon (2015), US Open (2015) and the Australian Open (2016) in an incredible run.

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The missed Olympic medal
Sania has medals from many multi-sport big-ticket events like the Commonwealth Games (CWG) and the Asian Games, but an Olympic medal eluded her. She came closest in 2016 when she and Rohan Bopanna competed in the bronze play-off but lost to the Czech pair of Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradceka.

"I am very content with what I have achieved. To represent India in four Olympics has been so so amazing. If I could have one moment back, it would be that bronze medal match, or the match before that, when we played the semifinals," Sania concluded.

(With inputs from PTI)