Dubai: Sania Mirza has literally lived her whole life this year. Following on from a difficult first half where she was on the verge of giving up tennis due to a wrist injury, her marriage to Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik and her move to Dubai, to the second half marked by her return to tennis that resulted in four medals from the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games, life seems to have turned a full circle.
And in an interview to XPRESS on the sidelines of the Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge, she revealed that she had learnt a lot in the most turbulent year of her life.
A year to remember
"It has been quite a year this. To say it has been most difficult year of my life would be an understatement," she said.
"Being out for those first five months, not knowing whether I will ever play tennis ever again was a nightmare. But then as I realised, everything happens for a reason. I got married to Shoaib in that period, so it was not all that bad after all."
So how has her married life been so far?
"All I can say is that I am very lucky to be married to him. It's nice to marry a person who lives your life day in, day out. He has been a former captain, so he knows what it is like to handle pressure. We do talk about sport, but mostly on how we can help each other regarding, say pressure, fitness and all that stuff," she said.
Mirza's move to Dubai raised a few eyebrows back home, as much as her marriage to Malik, but the 24-year-old said it was a natural choice.
"I have always loved this place ever since I began playing at the Dubai Tennis Championships. I have an aunt who has been living here for over 35 years now and we have taken up residence in the same building. People say Dubai is at the centre of the world and it's true given that I have always flown in Emirates.
"Besides, Pakistan play their home matches here, so it makes sense to live here. And of course there is the added factor of having a lot of people from our countries living here too," she said.
Looking ahead to 2011, Mirza said: "I just hope to stay fit for a whole season, everything will fall in place then. Look at the latter half of this season. Nobody expected me to do anything at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games and yet I got four medals."
