“You sound disappointed that I’m not choosing motherhood over being number one” : Sania Mirza tight response to Rajdeep Sardesai. This is what tennis ace said recently in an interview with tv journalist, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sania Mirza proved that she can hit back with words, as well as she hits shots at the Tennis courts.
While discussing her new autobiographical book, ‘Ace Against Odds’, Sania was asked by Rajdeep if she had plans to settle down, to build a family, she curtly replied, saying that, “You don’t think I’m settled?”
When Rajdeep further prompted Sania, by saying- “You don’t talk about retirement, about raising a family, about motherhood, what’s life beyond tennis is going to be…”
Taking it as gender biased question, Sania shot back with a heavy blowing response: “You sound disappointed that I’m not choosing motherhood over being number one in the world at this point of time. But I’ll answer your question anyway, that’s the question I face all the time as a woman, that all women have to face — the first is marriage and then it’s motherhood. Unfortunately, that’s when we’re settled, and no matter how many Wimbledons we win or number ones in the world we become, we don’t become settled. But eventually, it will happen, not right now. And when it does happen I’ll be the first one to tell everybody when I plan to do that.ai ”
In the end, Sardesai had no choice but to apologise, as he realised himself, that won’t have asked the same question to a male athlete.
Sania, who has always kept a strong view regarding feminism, has played an immense role in influencing the wave of women in sports, when 13 years back, aged 16, she had brought home the 2003 Wimbledon Championships Girls’ Doubles trophy. Ever since then, Sania has become an icon for women’s sports in India, like none other.
Today, she stands at rank No. 1 in Women’s Doubles across the world.
The book, ‘Ace against Odds’, talks about Sania’s struggles to reach the top, as well as problems and hardships she faced along the way, such as severe injuries, and media scrutiny. The book is co-written by her father- Imran Mirza and was released on 6th of July.
Here’s the full interview: