Firstpost Exclusive: Sania Mirza opens up on challenges of being a female athlete in India, dealing with fame and anxiety

In an exclusive chat with Rupha Ramani on Firstpost on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, Indian tennis icon Sania Mirza opened up on the highs and the lows of her life, dealing with anxiety and fame early in his career, marriage and how life has changed since she welcomed son Izhaan into her life.

Mirza, who had bid a tearful goodbye to the sport in the Dubai WTA Championships last year, opened up on her fame and whether female athletes come under a lot more scrutiny compared to their male counterparts or not.

“I don’t think that has anything to do with India. That has to do with the world. Unless and until we change our thought process of how we view a female, and maybe this is more pronounced in some countries than the other, but that underlying patriarchy is always there. That happens in any field,” Hyderabad native Mirza told Firstpost in an exclusive conversation on Friday.

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“I did bear that brunt in many ways. I don’t know if that was because of me being a woman or the time that I came up in. But I do see other female athletes not having gone through that.

“Women in general are questioned a lot more and scrutinised a lot more because when you walk into a room, you are judged on how you look. And until that changes… because first you’re judged on how you look, and then you’re judged on how you play,” Mirza, who shot to fame after reaching the fourth round of the 2005 US Open, added in the interview.

Watch the full interview here: