Is India doing enough to become a sports giant? Sania Mirza gives her verdict

Sania Mirza, who blazed a trail for India over two decades on the world tennis circuit, applauded her country’s ‘improved’ performance at last month’s World Athletics Championship in Budapest but felt that there was still ‘a lot more that can be done’ by the authorities.

India’s Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra secured a historic gold medal when winning the javelin throw event while four top-eight finishes helped India to finish 18th on the medal table.

“It’s good to see that in India we are focusing on other sports as well and that’s the biggest change that has happened in recent years,” Mirza said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the launch of the Dubai Open for Tennis Academies (DOTA) Tournament.

“It’s great to see that we have a better infrastructure, better training and better coaching. I also think that the commitment level in individual sports is better.

“I think our athletes are getting recognised for excelling in other sports as well. But having said that there’s a lot more that needs to be done (at the administrative level) to achieve more success.”

Mirza, who earlier this year retired from professional tennis on what she described as her ‘own terms’, has not left the game completely.

She is focused on developing her tennis academy in Dubai and to helping the next generation.

“We always talking about producing champions but In this part of the world we have not been able to reach greater heights,” she said. “It comes at a price and only though opportunities.

“When I was a kid I did not have many opportunities to compete, to play tennis and experience that feeling of winning and losing. These are the things that you need to grow your game.”

Women’s tennis has been transformed since her formative years and as she said on the WTA website, ‘some players have never been in positions where they’ve had careers, so much money and millions riding on them.”

Commenting on the present state of the women’s game Mirza, 36, gave it a big thumbs up, and said:”I think today’s women’s tennis is at a different level.

“You can have a champion come out of nowhere and win and I think we saw that at Roland Garros when Karolina Muchova reached the final before she lost to Iga (Swiatek) and has now become more consistent. Then we had Markéta (Vondroušová) win at Wimbledon.”

Having been there and done that during her peak in 2015-2016 when she teamed up with Switzerland’s Martina Hingis to win three straight majors, securing wins at Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open, you could say that she is in an exalted position to view women’s tennis differently than most.

When asked if she has been the following the US Open at Flushing Medows, New York, Mirza said affirmatively,: ’Yes!’

And who has impressed her most?

“I think its Coco Gauff’s time to shine,” she said of the American talent who is two wins away from the first Grand Slam title of her career.

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