Tennis legend Sania Mirza has opened up about the profound emotional emptiness she experienced immediately following her retirement from professional sports, describing how the structured life she knew for over thirty years suddenly vanished.
The Morning After: Confronting the Void
Sania Mirza retired in 2023 after a spectacular two-decade career, playing her final match at the Dubai Open. The champion recalled the startling emptiness that greeted her the very next morning. Despite having chosen to retire, she was overwhelmed by a sense of loss.
"I woke up and felt so empty," Sania shared. Her parents reminded her that retirement was her decision, but she explained, "that day, it felt like a part of me had died." She described the feeling as having to bury the life she had lived for more than three decades and start anew, searching for a fresh schedule and a different routine.
A Life Built on Routine
The six-time Grand Slam champion admitted that her entire existence had been governed by a strict regimen. For decades, her days were mapped out with training, gym sessions, and travel. The sudden absence of this framework was disorienting.
"I knew my schedule for the whole year for the last 20 years. And all of a sudden, I didn't have to do any of that," she said. This realization triggered a powerful emotional release. "I just started crying… maybe for two hours in my room… but I was howling and crying… which is not my personality."
After that initial outburst, she never cried about it again, acknowledging that she knew retirement was the right decision for her changing priorities. However, the adjustment was monumental. To fill the void, Sania quickly immersed herself in new roles, joining the RCB cricket camp as a mentor and moving into television work, finding herself busier than ever.
A Family's Collective Adjustment
Sania emphasized that the transition was not hers alone to navigate. Her family, who had invested deeply in her career, also had to recalibrate their lives.
"Adjustment for all of us. Not just for me, because even for my parents, 30 years were invested only in me. I was the project of the family," she explained. Her father or mother would often travel with her, and after the birth of her son, Izhaan, complex family coordination was a constant. For three decades, their lives orbited around her tennis career, and its conclusion meant everyone had to readjust.
Expert Insight: The Psychology of Retirement
Psychotherapist and life coach Delnna Rrajesh clarified that this experience extends far beyond the world of sports. It affects anyone emerging from a rigid, all-consuming structure or identity.
"Whenever a role becomes your identity, its ending feels like losing yourself," Delnna stated. She highlighted that athletes experience this acutely, with their lives dictated by training cycles and performance goals. The entire family system often reorganizes itself around the athlete's career, leading to a collective sense of dislocation when that career ends.
Delnna reframed retirement not as an end, but as a reorientation. The discipline and resilience built over a career become the foundation for a new chapter. She offered key advice for navigating this shift:
- Accept the grief: Mourning the end of a career is a natural and necessary process.
- Build a new routine slowly: Create structure based on choice, not compulsion.
- Cultivate an identity beyond achievement: Discover who you are without your former role.
- Encourage families to adapt together: Find new ways of relating beyond the old performance cycle.
She concluded that the initial stillness of retirement can be frightening but, with guidance, it can become the very source of reinvention.
