Sania Mirza is dabbling in coaching these days.
The former doubles world No. 1 showed she’s still got plenty of game left, too.
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Playing her first tournament in a year, Mirza and Andreja Klepac of Slovenia powered into the Qatar Total Open semifinals.The pair defeated Ukranians Nadiia Kichenok and Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-5 in the opening round then dropped just two games dismissing the fourth-seeded team of Anna Blinkova and Gabriela Dabrowski.
Mirza and Klepac fell in today’s semifinals to Nicole Melichar and Demi Schuurs.
The owner of 42 doubles titles, Mirza believes she can continue to produce quality tennis after a year-long break from the sport.
“I think thatI still have a good few, I don’t know if a few, but a good couple of years of tennis left in me at the highest level,” Mirza said. “I feel that I still have it in me to win tournaments and try and compete for the big tournaments or the Grand Slams even.You know, it’s obviously too early to talk about that.
“It’s my first tournament back, but obviously I’m able to still compete at this level and win matches. I think for me that’s one thing.”
The 34-year-old Grand Slam doubles champion and her husband, cricket star Shoaib Malik, are proud parents to two-and-a-half-year-old son Izhaan. India’s first female world No. 1 is one of several moms—Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Tsvetana Pironkova and Kim Clijsters are among the others—showing former stars can take a break, have a baby and return to Tour success.
Mirza, who recently joined the online Unluclass platform teaching a detailed tennis course, aims to inspire young girls women and her son. Motherhood doesn’t have to “crush” tennis dreams, says the former doubles No. 1, instead it can empower new dreams.
“The other thing is that, which is something that’s very close to my heart, I feel that there are a lot of young girls and women who look up to me or look up to us, and I feel that when there is people like Serena, I mean, there are so many mothers now playing on the tour, and I just feel like, especially on our side of the world, women sort of think that once they have a baby, life’s kind of over,” Sania said. “But it’s not. You don’t have to crush your dreams becauseyou have a child. You can still go after them. You can still, you know, find ways to do it as long as you have a good support system around you.
“I think that my son’s a really good motivation for me. I hope that one day he’ll be proud to see what I’m trying to do after having him.”
The woman who has won three mixed doubles Grand Slam titles can complete a career Grand Slam in mixed by winning Wimbledon. A two-time member of India’s Olympic team, Sania says playing the 2021 Tokyo Games is a goal.
“Yeah, and the Olympics is something that’s in the back of my head, as well,” she said.
Photo credit: Christopher Levy