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Indian tennis player Sania Mirza, in an interview with BBC Urdu, said that sports taught her that bad days don’t last and one has to try to make the next day better.

When asked by the interviewer if lessons in winning or losing from sports applied in real life, Mirza stated that no book could teach her the life lessons she learned through playing sports.

“You have good days and bad days, you win or you lose, [but] you come back the next day and try again and try to be better,” she said, adding that the same philosophy could be applied to life.

Mirza continued that she carried this through in her own experiences. “Bad days don’t last — good days also don’t last but you have to try to stretch those good days. If you have a bad day, you have to try to make the next day better.”

The former tennis player also commented on her biggest fear of losing touch with reality, stating that it is important to have people who tell you the truth.

“The world we live in, [with] social media or in my case of fame, you have so many people telling you so many nice things. It is important to have people who tell you the truth and to stay in touch with reality and with what is important to you,” she said. Mirza emphasised the importance of knowing who will be there for you in tough times.

“Money, fame, and things — these are a part of luxuries, they are not the most important. What’s important is who will be there when you really need, who are you willing to stand up for.”

She also said that in the past decade, she has become more patient with age and because of motherhood.

“When you become a mother, you have no route but to be patient,” she maintained, adding that she was glad her impulsiveness had decreased. “Now before a decision or before saying something I think more and that has to do with me not being as impulsive.”

Talking about her decision to retire from tennis, the six-time Grand Slam champion said that she wanted to stop on the top.

“My body had become a huge problem and after three surgeries and a kid, [it] couldn’t recover how I needed it to,” she said.

“People see you in the Grand Slam final but they don’t understand what I have to do to get there,” Mirza added.