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Indian tennis players Sania Mirza & Leander Paes announce comeback dates

Indian tennis players Sania Mirza & Leander Paes announce comeback dates
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By

The Bridge Desk

Published: 27 Jan 2021 2:11 PM GMT

Amid plenty of speculations, Indian ace tennis players Leander Paes and Sania Mirza has finally spoken about their comebacks to tennis courts.

While the tennis icon Leander Paes on Monday said he is eyeing a comeback at 2021 year’s French Open as he bids to make a record eighth appearance at the Olympics, Sania Mirza is hoping to make a return to competitive tennis in the first week of March.

The 47-year-old Paes said he skipped the Australian Open as he is apprehensive of playing in a bio-bubble but is looking ahead to the French Open.

“Playing sport in a bio-bubble is very tough and may not be the best thing to do. I got a grand farewell at the Australian Open last year so I felt this year I would be sitting out and watching,” Paes told PTI.

The Olympic bronze medallist in singles and multiple-time doubles Grand Slam winners was speaking during the launch of a cricket tournament named after his father Dr Vece Paes, a bronze winner at the 1972 Olympics.

“I hope that by the time of French Open, by the end of May, Europe will get to a better position than now.”

At the end of 2019, Paes had announced that 2020 will be his last season as a professional player, culminating with the Tokyo Games, but the plan was hampered by the coronavirus pandemic which pushed the Olympics by a year.

“It’s my goal to represent India in eighth successive Olympics. I’m keeping myself in good physical and mental fitness which is not easy being away for 11 months.I’ve been practising hard, putting in three hours everyday and I’m in the last 100m sprint of a long career. Tokyo Olympics is important to make sure India remains in the record,” Paes said.

Whilst, Sania Mirza has resumed training after testing positive for Covid-19 with mild symptoms in Dubai and then recovering. Sania had thought of resuming tennis and playing the Australian Open, but she would give it a miss.

The 34-year-old had to first take a long break from tennis as she was expecting. With son Izhaan growing up, she took a hiatus and made a remarkable comeback in 2020 to the WTA Tour. Sania played in the women's doubles category with her Ukranian partner Nadiia Kichenok and won the Hobart International tennis tournament after defeating the Chinese pair of Shaui Peng and Shuai Zhang 6-4 6-4 in one hour 21 minutes in the final. Her return to Fed Cup action for the first time since 2016 saw India book their place in the Fed Cup Play-offs. She got injured at the Australian Open. Since then, for almost the whole of 2020 she had to stay away from tennis and was not in a rush to return. This being the year of the Tokyo Olympics, Sania is keen to again give it a shot.

Also read: “I don’t want car, I want support to play’ - India's No. 1 requests Anand Mahindra

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