Sania Mirza shares journey of getting in shape
She recently shared an Instagram post that documented her journey from 89 kgs after the birth of her son to 63 kgs now.
Sania Mirza only recently returned to action last January having spent two years away from the sport following the birth of her son Izhaan Mirza Malik during this time. She had always been open about bouncing back to her best on court after feeling fully healthy following delivering her baby.
Regular picture and video updates of her sweating it out in the gym on social media is a testament to that. The workouts that she shares on her social media platforms, in fact, can help all mothers get back to a healthy state after pregnancy.
Now fit, healthy and raring to hit the tennis court again, Sania Mirza took to Instagram recently to share an image that showed her at 89 kgs after the birth of her son Izhaan Mirza Malik along with another image of herself at 63 kgs.
India’s top female tennis star shared the image with a heartfelt caption.
“89 kilos vs 63. We all have goals,” wrote the 33-year-old on her Instagram post. “Everyday goals and long term goals. Take pride in each one of those. It took me 4 months to achieve this goal of mine, to get back to being healthy and fit after having a baby.
“Feels like such a long way to come back and regain fitness and being able to compete at the highest level again. Follow your dreams. No matter how many ppl tell you, you can't, cause God knows how many of those we have around us. If I can then anyone can. #believe #mummahustles”
Sania Mirza’s triumphant return at Hobart
The 33-year-old former doubles grand slam champion gave birth to her son in October 2018 and made her tennis return at the Hobart Open last month after more than two years away from the sport.
The Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna recipient completed her successful return to the WTA circuit last month after she and partner Nadiia Kichenok won the doubles title by beating Chinese pair – Zhang Shuai and Peng Shuai – in the final of the Hobart Open. The latest triumph in her constantly burgeoning list of honours was Sania Mirza’s first title after a two-year break.
Her return to grand slam action wasn’t as successful after an injury cut her participation in the 2020 Australian Open short. It was a disappointing setback for Sania Mirza, who was the most successful active doubles participant in the draw with 42 Women's Tennis Association (WTA) doubles titles to her credit.
Olympic medal remains Sania Mirza’s final frontier
Despite being a six-time grand slam champion in doubles and a former world no. 1 in women’s doubles, an Olympic medal has eluded Sania Mirza so far. Her run at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio saw her suffer a defeat in the semi-finals. The agonizing bronze medal play-off match saw her and partner Rohan Bopanna go down to Czech Republic’s Lucie Hradecká and Radek Štěpánek.
The memory of that loss still haunts Sania Mirza, making it imperative for her to have another shot at Olympic glory.
“Tokyo Olympics is at the back of my mind. It’s not my main focus right now, which is to get back to playing and being healthy. But if I’m able to put myself in a position to compete at the Olympics again, I’ll be extremely proud of myself,” she said in an interview with Hindustan Times last December.
“Having not won that medal last time, having come so close was very painful. So, it would be amazing to play with him (Bopanna) again, if we could put ourselves in that position and compete for a medal again,” Sania Mirza added.
As her latest Instagram post suggests, when Sania Mirza sets her mind to something, she achieves her goal more often than not. And with another shot at Olympic glory high on her list of priorities, it’ll take a brave man to bet against the Indian tennis ace from Hyderabad doing just that.