Former Indian tennis player Sania Mirza had opened up about her mental health issues on her podcast last month, shedding light on the mental health crisis sportspersons go through during their career. Even cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues openly spoke about her battle with anxiety during the semi-final clash at the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 recently.
Ask her about the importance of talking about these issues, and Sania Mirza says, “It is very important and I spoke about it quite late in life because we were not really aware about it before. It’s really in the last eight to 10 years that people have started to talk about mental health openly. There was so much stigma and shame around it in society. I am glad that it is going away.”
She adds, “As sports people, our life is robotic but we are also taken as robots, which is not true. We are actual real human beings with real feelings. The fact of the matter is that everybody has their struggles and mentally to be able to be vulnerable and come out to the world is very hard to do. But it’s the only way to accept and acknowledge. People like us, whose voice is heard more per say, it’s our responsibility to speak about things that are not spoken about that often. So, I am glad I spoke about it.”
{{/usCountry}}She adds, “As sports people, our life is robotic but we are also taken as robots, which is not true. We are actual real human beings with real feelings. The fact of the matter is that everybody has their struggles and mentally to be able to be vulnerable and come out to the world is very hard to do. But it’s the only way to accept and acknowledge. People like us, whose voice is heard more per say, it’s our responsibility to speak about things that are not spoken about that often. So, I am glad I spoke about it.”
{{/usCountry}}Reflecting on her own struggles, Sania shares, “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."
Raving about Jemimah Rodrigues being open about her issues, the former tennis player adds, “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.”
She highlights, "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 or weakness in feeling a certain way.”