While most athletes are in the final stages of their Olympic preparations, Sania Mirza is in Mumbai, busy consulting Dr Ananth Joshi. The wrist that had undergone surgery to fix a tear is still iffy and that’s not very good news. “It won’t affect her Olympic campaign as such. Actually she had gone to reassess the developments on her wrist. It will take about six months to be completely normal,” states Sania’s father Imran, to allay fears of a pull-out.However, the Olympic fever is yet to grip the Mirza household, located at 61A, Jubilee Hills, an upmarket area in the city. For them, the Olympics is not a be-all and end-all affair. “Nadal the other day said that for a tennis player, a Grand Slam win is the ultimate. I go with him,” explains Imran, adding that: “It will be a great honour just to be a part of the Olympic contingent and since this time, it has been included in the WTA circuit, all the top players are coming.”Imran doesn’t want to put any extra pressure on his celebrity daughter. “Honestly, we are not expecting too much. It’s a very strong field and she has just returned from a four-month lay off. Had there been mixed doubles, she probably would have had a chance either with Leander or Mahesh. So I’ve told her to be honest with herself and give it her best shot.”Four years ago at the Athens Olympics, Sania was an 18-year-old slowly making her way into big-time tennis. “Being the first Indian woman to play in Olympic singles and having played in all the Grand Slams, she has been representing her country every time she steps on court. It will be the same in Beijing, which being a quadrennial showpiece event, one never knows whether you will get a second chance to play in it again,” points out Mirza senior, who will be travelling with his family to Beijing.“Actually, my younger daughter Anam is more excited than Sania, who by nature is very quiet. Sania, who was very studious still rues the fact that she couldn’t continue after Class XII. In fact, when she was first selected for an invitational tournament, she wasn’t very keen to participate in it as it meant skipping an exam. But her headmistress at Nasr School — Tiger Pataudi’s sister — persuaded her and only then did she oblige”. Talking about the flip side of stardom, Imran informs that Sania has enrolled in a degree-level correspondence course, but has not found the time to appear for the exams. “I like her to play for three more years and by that time she would be a veteran on the circuit. We want her to have a rounded life rather than just make tennis a living,” concludes the doting father.
