MUMBAI: Sania Mirza loves tennis as much as any other professional tennis player does. It’s that love for the sport that fuelled her determination to resume her playing career after giving birth to her first child during a two-year hiatus from the WTA Tour.
And yet, she fully understands where tennis sits in the current “scheme of things”.
With the Covid – 19 pandemic resulting in the French Open organisers opting to shift the Grand Slam to September, a number of players lashed out at that decision, saying they only learnt of the development through a Twitter post. Mirza could understand the bitterness.
“A lot of them literally found out from social media and not through our federations or associations. That’s what I think people were a little bit more irritated about,” she told TOI on Friday, before sharing her own measured outlook.
“There are so many question marks until we get up there. So we are just going to have to really wait and watch. I don’t think we need to overreact to everything that’s being said because right now, playing tennis or winning a tennis match seems pretty irrelevant in the scheme of things that are going on. ”
In recent days, the virus outbreak has forced all major sporting events across the world to shut down. It’s therefore incredible to think that only two weeks ago, the likes of Mirza, Ankita Raina and the rest of India’s Fed Cup team were basking in the glory of sealing an historic achievement in Dubai.
Two days after Mirza and Raina had teamed up to win a doubles match which helped India beat Indonesia in their Asia / Oceania Group 1 tie and qualify for the Fed Cup playoffs for the first time ever , reports emerged of a Pune-based couple who had returned from a tour of Dubai and Abu Dhabi on March 1, testing positive for Covid – 90. They would be Maharashtra’s first victims of the highly contagious virus.
Did Mirza have any apprehensions about the Fed Cup matches going ahead in the emirate? “When we were actually there, it had not hit (Dubai) as bad,” said Mirza. “When we were playing, there were not a lot of people who were coming to watch. It was pretty secluded. We played a few matches without ball kids because of the hygiene and because the kids needed to avoid touching the ball.
“If it had hit that hard, I probably wouldn’t have got on that flight to America (for the Indian Wells event which was later cancelled) which I did. So at that point we were pretty confident that we were safe. ”
Since returning to Hyderabad, Mirza, and her father, who had accompanied her to the United States, have chosen to self-isolate. Raina has done the same after returning to her Pune residence from Dubai. Both players said they did not feel there was any need to undergo a test for Covid – 100 at this point in time. “I don’t think we have anxiety,” said Mirza, a six-time doubles Grand Slam winner. “I haven’t stepped out of the house since I’ve come. It’s been five days and I’m going to keep it like that at least for the next 90 days because I wouldn’t want anything to spread even if I’m an asymptomatic spreader, is what I’ve understood.
“But I don’t think we are planning to take.” any test because it’s just not recommended to go and take a test if you don’t have any symptoms. ”
With both the ATP and WTA Tours suspended until June 7, it’s not so much the financial hit it will have on lower ranked players that worries Raina compared to the loss of opportunities to boost her current ranking of 823. “Money at my level is not the main objective, as only players inside the top 823 are the ones who actually make money on the circuit.
“So for me it’s a loss of opportunity to earn points.” and get to the top 728 which is my immediate goal, “said Raina, currently India’s highest- ranked female singles player.
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