Sania Mirza: Embarking on new paradigms, on and off-court

Sania Mirza speaking at the launch of Sony Pix’s ‘Pix School of Bonding’

The IPTL and CTL: Advantage and Challenges

The IPTL is set to start in a few days’ time and Sania Mirza, multiple Grand Slams champion and Asian Games gold medallist, is all set for it. The Indian tennis player, who’s ranked sixth in the WTA doubles ranking, plays for the Indian team – the Micromax Indian Aces – which also boasts Roger Federer and Pete Sampras in its line-up.

Mirza, who will now be seen in a new avatar as the face of Sony Pix’s new theme, featuring all iconic James Bond movies, starting from the 22nd of November, has started preparing for the IPTL. Speaking at the launch of Pix School of Bonding in Mumbai on Thursday, the 28-year old spoke at length about the merits events like IPTL and CTL bring to the tennis table for India.

“IPTL and CTL are going to be very good for tennis in India. They have raised lot of excitement. This is good because masses aren’t much into tennis. IPTL and CTL will help tennis grow in India. It is a great opportunity for Indian tennis players to play with the greats of the game,” she said.

Mirza was also candid about the challenges these two events posed to players elaborating. “Scheduling is going to be something to watch out for. We play 30 weeks a year and tennis is a physically demanding sport, so we have to wait and watch how this year goes, before taking a call ahead.”

Starting Newer Partnerships

Riding a wave of success this year, winning three WTA doubles titles, including a maiden title at the WTA final at Singapore with Cara Black and the US Open Mixed Doubles partnering Bruno Soares, Mirza will start her 2015 season teaming up with Su-Wei Hsieh. When asked about her expectations for the season with her new doubles partner, the Hyderabad native compared doubles partnerships like being in a relationship. “We are committed to playing the entire year. Some teams work immediately, with the partners getting along like a house on fire, both on and off court. Some take time,” she said.

The point of Indian tennis vis-à-vis global representation did do the rounds and remarking on it, the sixth seed stated about there not being any one solution to the problem. “Indian genes aren’t as strong as the Western tennis players’. Infrastructural facilities also need to be improved as does need to be improved, financial assistance to those interested. Tennis is a very expensive sport. Good training is needed right at the grass root level. The government is moving in the right direction and hopefully in a few years’ time, we won’t have to ask this question,” she siad.

She went on conclude giving an example of the Indian tennis team’s success at the Asian Games. “Younger players are really good. We went to the Asian Games with a B team, and right before the start of the Games, there were some talks about scrapping the team itself. We came back with five medals,” she said.