Tennis sensation Sania Mirza recently opened up about battling depression and the mental health struggles that she underwent during her career. The six-time Grand Slam champion retired in 2023 after a two-decade-long career. Last month, the tennis icon had first addressed this concern on her podcast “Serving It Up With Sania”.
Reflecting on her struggles, she began by saying, “Even I went through it. I had a couple of bouts of depression, I struggled at times. I was dealing with a lot of things off the court as well which were being discussed in the media much early on in my career. I did go through my lows and I spoke about them much later in life. But I am glad that Jemimah did speak about it, as it makes such a big impact.”
In 2021, two years before her retirement, Sania had revealed that after sustaining a wrist injury, she went into depression for around three to four months and had to withdraw from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Besides talking about her struggles, Sania went on to praise India Women’s cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues, who had also openly discussed undergoing anxiety throughout her campaign in the ODI Cricket World Cup 2025 that recently concluded.
“It takes a lot of courage to be vulnerable in front of the whole world when their eyes are on you. And to do it at a time of high, it’s not easy. It must have been a really difficult time for her that you can’t get it out of your head even at your highest high. I completely resonate with that. Her speaking about it shows sports people as normal human beings.”
The middle-order batter of the Indian women’s cricket team scored an unbeaten 127 runs off 134 balls at a strike rate of 94.77 during the semi-finals match of the Women’s ODI World Cup 2025 against Australia held on October 30 in DY Patil. Her brilliant run helped India in making their qualification for the finals, played on November 2, in which they won their first World Cup title.
Sania also highlighted the fact that as sportspersons, they lead a competitive life surrounded by constant participation in tournaments, and as human beings, they forget to take a pause in between, which causes problems to their mental and physical health. She, however, believes the younger generation should be more open and discuss their struggles.
“As sportspersons, we lead our lives tournament after tournament or match after match, sometimes we forget to take a breath and be open to ourselves and acknowledge the fact that it is too much. Hopefully, this will give courage to younger people that there is no shame, weakness in feeling a certain way,” she added.
