I’m not comfortable sharing my emotions, says Sania Mirza

Tennis ace Sania Mirza, who just launched her autobiography in the city, says the book was long on the anvil, feels she owed it to her fans to tell her story. (Photos: Shripad Naik)

If she’s acing it on the court, World No 1 tennis player (doubles) appears to be playing the right shots off it too. Sania Mirza, who has just turned writer with her autobiography Ace Against Odds, has been roping in the biggest names from Bollywood to launch her book. After King Khan Shah Rukh launched it in Sania’s home city Hyderabad, she got Bollywood’s very own “Sultan” for the Mumbai leg of the launch. Salman and Sania go back a long way, and at the launch the superstar spoke highly of her and how their camaraderie has stood the test of time. He lauded her for having written an autobiography at the very young age of 29. “People don’t achieve what she has in three lifetimes,” Salman said. “I think she had a lot to say. So before she forgot what she had to say, she decided to write it down,” he added with a cheeky grin.

Post the launch in an interview with The Mumbai Age, the tennis ace spoke at length about her journey this far, fighting all odds, finding support in her partner and eventually having the courage to tell her story the way it is. Excerpts from an interview:

From a bookworm to a Tennis ace Were it not for Sania Mirza’s principal in school, we wouldn’t have had a sports star today. “I was a brilliant student in school and my principal had to push me to play a tournament because I did not want to miss my lectures. I was a bookworm and I have always excelled in my studies. When I won the U-14 and U-16 Nationals tournament, it was a turning point for me. I’m a very competitive person and that kind of fed my passion. I loved competing and going out there and performing. That’s when I knew I wanted to be a tennis player, while my cousins were all doctors. They’d see my tan lines and say to me, ‘you are so lucky, you get to go out and play.’ For them it was ‘play’ but for me it was hard work.”

Proving naysayers wrong Sania’s rise to the top hasn’t been smooth, but time and again the tennis superstar has proved no hurdle is too big for a focussed mind. “The obstacles and struggles never stop, they keep coming. Some roadblocks are hard, while some are simply relatives getting worried that who will marry me if I continue to play in the sun and become dark-skinned by the day. Being fair is the biggest attribute of beauty that people in this part of the world give importance to. A girl here will be at the receiving end of a remark like ‘tu sawli hain’ or ‘she is good looking but she is sawli’. I get to hear that a lot to this day and people who don’t get to hear it are indeed very lucky.” Sania continues, “Then there are obstacles like playing with no proper facilities or infrastructure because no one at that point believed that you would turn into a World No. 1 player. Forget that title even, nobody believed you would be a professional in the first place. People would tell me, ‘You think you’ll become Martina Hingis ’ And now she (Martina) and I have got to do so much together.”

Lucky or not When asked if she feels lucky to be able to continue her profession after marriage, Sania says, “I won’t use the word ‘lucky’ here. I don’t think it’s ‘lucky’ to be able to do that. Why does a woman have to stop playing It’s very normal. But yes, I’m lucky to have a husband who is following his profession as well and has no problems with me following my profession, because that was never a part of the discussion.

Too young for an autobiography Sania had decided to pen her autobiography much early on in her career. “The process started six or seven years ago. I knew I had to share my story but I did not know when. I have had a long enough career and I have been fortunate enough to have that. I turned pro when I was 16 and it has been an entertaining journey on and off the courts. I honestly felt that if I had to write a book, it would make for a good story because getting to number one was my main goal and after achieving that I feel I owe it to my fans to tell them the story,” she says. A tell-all Co-written by her father Imran Mirza, along with sports journalist Shivani Gupta, Sania feels that the book has touched upon almost all the important areas in her life. She confesses that she was reluctant to reveal some bits. “The process took us six to seven years, it was rewritten many times. I’m a private person and it was difficult for me to write about those things. I’m not comfortable sharing my emotions, so it was hard writing about my marriage and dating Shoaib (Malik). That is something, which is very personal to me, but I have tried to be as open as I could. Now that I look back, I feel good because a lot of people wanted to know about a lot of things about me, especially from the time I was injured and how I felt each time that would happen to me, and how I coped with the controversies. Because only I know how I felt during those times.” More to come Rumour mills were abuzz a while ago that Farah Khan would be making a biopic on Sania’s life. Now that her autobiography is out on the stands, can we expect a biopic soon “People are assuming that she is making a film on me because they see us hanging out all the time. Farah is a very good friend, but I think we had only one serious discussion about it. Right now there is nothing to get excited about.” Ask her about a second part to her autobiography and she says, “We will see if there are more things worth writing about. This book does give me the scope to write another autobiography. I’m not planning to retire anytime soon, so hopefully there will be more things to share and write about.”