Sania Mirza on motherhood, missing tennis

Gulf News

Sania Mirza on motherhood, missing tennis. Pregnant champion talks about the pressure for sportswomen to get back on their  feet after giving birth.  Read the full Gulf News article: https://gulfnews.com/tabloid/celebrity/sania-mirza-on-motherhood-marriage-and-missing-tennis-1.2254550  See more at: http://gulfnews.com/videos

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00:00I actually surprisingly feel really good like I actually was anticipating you know

00:08touch wood I've never had I've not had morning sickness and stuff like that

00:14which has been really good yeah it has been really good so far it's something

00:18as a woman that we all look forward to in our lives and regardless of whether

00:22you're a tennis player or not so it's a new phase and it's a sort of a new

00:26beginning in many ways and yeah so I'm really I'm really excited I've

00:30completely gone off sweet thankfully so that's good because otherwise I would

00:36have put on more weight I just crave really like spicy stuff and a lot of

00:41like chatpata things you know like a lot of bhel puris and the chaat yeah and

00:45stuff like that I think first of all there was no maternity leave until very

00:49recently so already that has changed so it may take some time but I do think

00:53that because there are so many mothers that are coming back to playing because

00:56what would happen before was that once the only once they retired were they

00:59going into motherhood but it's not the case anymore there's at least 20 mothers

01:03out there who are playing which is incredible you know including Kim

01:06Kleister's who's come back and won slams after she's had a child so Serena is

01:11obviously someone who should probably the greatest you know tennis player ever

01:15and you know she is someone that has come back and even for her it's not easy

01:20obviously to be out for like a year and a half or two years and then get back to

01:24the same level probably possibly you can get back but to come back to the same

01:28it takes time the same will happen to everybody you know it's a normal process

01:31so yeah sure I think but we do have a protective ranking sort of you know in

01:36place where you can protect your ranking and try and come back on those you get a

01:39certain amount of tournaments where you can still play on the ranking that you

01:42had before so you can sort of freeze your ranking you can freeze your ranking

01:46that that is there which I have done obviously it's a long way off but we're

01:50still in 2018 and my goal is obviously to try and come back to 2020 Olympics I

01:55mean I think that's a realistic goal to be honest it'll be end of the year by

01:59the time I have a kid and who knows maybe before but I'm just not trying to

02:02be too anticipating it too soon you know I just don't want to get into it too

02:07fast but I feel like Olympics 2020 seems like a very doable thing one of my main

02:12goals to be honest is you know I've obviously never followed a tradition or

02:18traditional woman what they're supposed to do you know I've always been the the

02:22odd one out so to say and I'm glad that I've been and my parents have always

02:25supported in whatever decision I made so whether I was playing tennis which from

02:29Hyderabad nobody ever thought of playing or whether dreaming of playing and

02:33winning Wimbledon one day or marrying the person that I loved or whatever it

02:37was or being married for eight years and having a kid whenever I felt like I've

02:41always lived on my own terms. Pregnancy is really empowering I think what we are

02:46doing and what we are creating as women nobody else in this world can do and I

02:50think that is extremely extremely strengthening gives me an added strength

02:54when I look at myself so I feel that pregnancy in no way should hold you back

02:59I don't think that it's fair that pregnancy should be a sort of a drawback

03:04on either your career or your life. Pregnancy or you know motherhood or

03:10parenthood should not be something that holds you back from your dreams it

03:13should still keep moving forward if I stop doing what I love doing whatever it

03:17is whether it's playing tennis whatever it could be it's a very bad example for

03:22my child that it happened because of my child. In today's day and age it's

03:25extremely important to be very independent not just as as people but as

03:29children as well and as we can see everybody is you know I mean I see kids

03:33come up to me who are like four five years old and have no qualms about

03:37coming and talking to me in whatever way and I can't remember ever doing that

03:41when I was like six years old you know and I was so shy to go up to someone I

03:45feel I want that in my child you know I want them to be self-confident

03:49self-sufficient and independent obviously they will be my number one

03:53priority you know but that does not mean I have to spend every single minute of

03:56the day with them to make them a good person you know or to parent them

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