I am not a rule breaker or trendsetter, says Sania Mirza

Dubai: Ahead of her final days in professional tennis, iconic Indian player Sania Mirza says she is neither a trailblazer nor a rebel. She said she has only lived her life "on her own terms". "I don't necessarily think that I was some kind of a great rule-breaker or some trendsetter. That's not what I was trying to do. I was living my life."

Speaking to PTI at her villa in Dubai, Sania said society should accept differences in opinion and not brand people who dare to do things in their own way as villains or heroes. "I think each individual is different and each individual should have the freedom to be different."

She asked who are these people making these rules and who are these people saying this is the norm and this is the stereotype. "I don't think that I broke the rules." She added: "I think that's where as a society we can probably do better, a little bit where we are trying to hail people or make people the bad guys just because they are doing something differently."

"We all say things differently, we all have different opinions. I think once we all accept that we are all different, and we can co-exist with those differences is when it will not be about breaking the rules anymore," said the 36-year-old winner of six Grand Slam doubles titles.

She further said that he has tried to be as authentic as possible. "I've tried to stay true to myself. I think everybody should be able to do that and have the freedom to do that without being told that you are breaking the rules because you are doing something that you want to do."

"That is something I take a lot of pride in because I think that it's not that I was necessarily different. I might have been different to you. It's just my individuality and another person's individuality," she added.

Speaking about the struggles of women athletes, she said: "I don't think it is just a Muslim community issue. We need to get that very straight. It's in the sub-continent itself otherwise if that was the case we would have a lot more young women playing from all communities."

"You hear a Mary Kom, saying that they did not want her to box. It really does not have to do with a community per se. I came from a family that was very much ahead of their times, that put their young girl into tennis which was a sport which was unheard of from Hyderabad, and then dreaming of playing at Wimbledon, it was not heard of," said the tennis player.

Crediting her family for her career, she said: "I don't know if they (parents) felt pressure or anything but they did not make me feel that pressure. They kept me protected, I did not really understand it much until I grew a bit older. I did hear the whispers here and there from aunts and uncles."

Sania's relatives asked who will marry her if she becomes dark by playing in the sun. "This type of stuff, every girl will tell you from this side of the world. A young woman is considered complete only when she looks good or rather looks a certain way, gets married, or has a kid. These are the tick marks that a girl should have to become complete."

She said she returned to play after motherhood to break those notions. "One of the reasons for my comeback and play as a mother was to show that you can be a world champion and still have a complete life. It does not mean that you have to sacrifice some parts of your life. That you can't be a mother, a wife, or a daughter. You can still do it and be a world champion."