Sania Mirza : Being a female celebrity, an athlete in this part of the world is difficult

12/23/2016

Sania Mirza has opened up on the difficulties she faces being a female celebrity in this nation where “certain questions” are always asked of a woman. The World no.1 in doubles has also downplayed her split with her former partner Martina Hingis, labeling it as an” extremely professional decision”.

“I have always said this, being a female celebrity, an athlete in this part of the world is difficult. It’s not just difficult being a tennis player, (but) becoming an athlete. It’s also dealing with the other things around you. Being a woman athlete is probably the toughest thing you can do. The margin of error is very, very small.

The problem is that there are certain questions asked to women without thinking that there is anything wrong with them.

Sania Mirza

“The problem is that there are certain questions asked to women without thinking that there is anything wrong with them. And that’s the cause that we as women, and especially modern, independent women, are all fighting for. At some point in our lives, we have always been asked to not go play in the sun because you will become dark, and you won’t get married. We have always been asked when we are going to have kids. Once you have a kid, the question becomes when you are going to have the next kid. That’s the way society in this part of world looks at “settling down”. To change this, it’s a process that’s going to take all of us women to fight against together. That is something that we will have to do time and again, on every single day of our lives. But we are going to have to fight it as a unified voice,” Sania Mirza said in an interview with the Firstpost.

Earlier this year, Sania parted ways with her long-term partner Martina Hingis after a string of poor results. The duo, named ‘SanTina’ by the fans, dominated the women’s doubles circuit for over a year, winning three Grand Slams in the process along with a memorable unbeaten run of 41 matches. However, Mirza felt that the decision was a professional one, and has downplayed its importance, insisting that “it’s not that big a deal as people made it out to be”.

“It was an extremely professional decision. (Doubles) partnerships are like relationships. They work, and then they don’t work. And then you move on. It’s always tricky when you split with someone you have had so much success with.

"But, it’s really not that big a deal as people made it out to be. It’s not that tragic. This is a professional tour. Everybody wants to win. It’s sad to finish a partnership of any kind in anything in life. But you have to accept it. She’s happy in the space with whom she’s playing with now. And obviously I am, which is why I have had success already,” she explained.

The 30-year-old was full of praise for her new doubles partner Barbora Strycova of Czech Republic. She said, “We had a great start and she is a great fighter, which is her biggest quality as a tennis player. The best thing about our partnership is that we are completely honest with each other. Do I feel that she is going to focus on one (singles) more than the other (doubles)? Of course not. Whenever we step on the court, it is going be 100 percent or we do not get on the court.”

Sania Mirza : Being a female celebrity, an athlete in this part of the world is difficult

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