MELBOURNE - In a hallway at the Australian Open sits the history-writer, the conversation-changer, the dream-forger. Her calves are covered in tape, they are "fragile", she says, but that is to be expected.
Not just because of the miles she has run over 18 years on tour but the doors and stereotypes and inequality she has kicked down. Sania Mirza has always met life head on.
Mirza, 36, mother of a four-yearold, is one match from a Grand Slam goodbye. For a woman of immaculate timing - at six, when she first held a racket, she made "ball to racket contact" - of course her farewell is a final. It is Wednesday night and the Indian is running the gauntlet of interviews after reaching the mixed doubles final at the Australian Open and you can tell that lovely ache of competitiveness has not left her.
"The competition," the six-time winner of Grand Slam titles tells The Straits Times, "I think that's probably the only thing I will miss the most... Walking on and feeling the rush of adrenaline. I thrive under pressure. I love it. I like feeling nerves, where I feel like it's depending on me."
This story is from the January 27, 2023 edition of The Straits Times.
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This story is from the January 27, 2023 edition of The Straits Times.
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