Remember crying for no reason, felt I’ll never play tennis again: Sania Mirza opens up on her battle with depression

There are a lot of sportspersons who have opened up on mental health issues recently. Earlier the focus used to be on the physical side of the game but as time has progressed, things have changed and a lot of importance is given to the mental health of athletes.

The likes of Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell have openly spoken about it in the past. India’s tennis star Sania Mirza has also opened up on her battle with depression and how she had issues with mental health after she had to pull out of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Sania Mirza had retired with a wrist injury against Czech Republic’s Iveta Benesova in the first round of the 2008 Olympics. Sania was trailing 6-2, 2-1 in the match and in the end, she had to retire because of too much pain.

“Yeah, I mean a bunch of times. Not just tennis-wise, but also out of the court because of that, you know because I think many times we rely so much on our career to bring happiness into our lives, we kind of forget that career is just a part of our lives, it is not really our life. At 34, it is a lot clearer in my mind but at 20, there were a lot of incidents where I honestly felt that I could not do this,” Sania said in a YouTube interview for Mind Matters.

“One incident was when I had to pull out of my match at the Olympics. It was the 2008 Beijing Olympics and I had a very bad wrist injury. I went into depression for 3-4 months after that, I remember crying for no reason. I would be absolutely fine and then I would burst into tears. I remember not coming out of my room to even eat a meal for over a month,” she added.

Further talking about her battle, Sania said: “I felt that I will never be able to play tennis ever again. I am a bit of a control freak so for me not being able to do things on my terms was very difficult to digest. The fact that I was being forced into not being able to do what I love or what I do, was really bothering me. It’s a lot for anybody at any age, but for a 20-year-old to read that you’re finished or you are not going to be able to compete at Olympics ever again.”

Mirza also revealed that her injury was so bad that she was not even able to comb her hair.

“To put into context, my wrist was so bad that I was not able to comb my hair. I had lost complete motion, and I needed surgery. After surgery, it got worse. It was a complicated thing that was happening. I felt I let my family and country down. My family helped me see the right direction and I got the help I needed. I happened to win two medals at the Commonwealth Games that happened in India,” said Sania.

Sania has won a total of 14 medals (including 6 gold) at three major multi-sport events, namely the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games, and the Afro-Asian Games. She has also won six Grand Slam titles in her career.

(with ANI inputs)