Sania Mirza: French Open title is also special

New Delhi: Sania Mirza after winning the mixed doubles title at French Open pairing with Mahesh Bhupathi terms this grand slam win as a special one.

Talking to CNN-IBN, Sania said, “Every grand slam is as special as the other. The first one was very special for its own reasons and this was special as it was on my least favourite surface and it comes on Mahesh's birthday and it comes with Mahesh again.

Sania and Mahesh Bhupathi fought back after getting off to a disappointing start. “Fortunately for us things can turn around and this is a great example of it. You have to go out and fight everyday. We had an unfortunate start and we were disappointed. We encouraged each other and inspired each other to do better in the mixed and here we are two weeks later having won the slam,” Sania said.

Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi won their second Grand Slam title together.

However, Sania praised their opponents’ performance in the final and said it was not easy to beat them. “They were here because they beat some great teams including Leander and Vesnina in the semis and we knew we had to play well to beat them. Fortunately we had the experience of playing in some finals before and Mahesh has won so many slams before so we are just happy to keep the level up for the last two weeks especially because we had a disappointing start to the tournament but we are glad to bounce back.”

On their next goal that is Olympics, she said: “Olympics is something we have all dreamt about as athletes and we want to win a medal there but a lot of things are not in our control. If we do get that opportunity we are going to give whatever we have to get that medal.”

On the other hand, winning grand slams is something not new for Bhupathi, but he still experiences the same feeling after a major win.

“It is amazing. It still has not sunk in. I could not have asked for a better present from my partner. Fifteen years later the excitement is still the same when you win a title and we are working hard so hopefully it will continue.

“We were really disappointed in the beginning of the tournament. We turned it around well and kept it going and winning this title makes it a lot more special.”

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