Tennis is a tougher sport than Cricket: Shoaib Malik

Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik recently asserted that Tennis is a much tougher sport than cricket. Shoaib, who is the husband of Tennis ace Sania Mirza, was in all praise for his wife and the sport as well. Sania recently completed 80 consecutive weeks at the top of WTA women’s doubles rankings. The Pakistani cricketer married the Indian tennis sensation in 2010. Since then, the couple have been seen supporting each other. Sania often attends Shoaib’s matches.

In a recent media interaction, he mentioned how an individual sport is tougher than a team sport. He conceded that his assertions are not because his wife is a tennis player. Malik said that there are escapes in a team sport. But in the case of individual sport, there is no way to go. One has to take the entire blame for the shortcomings.

“Tennis is a much tougher sport than cricket. I’m not saying this because my wife is tough. But an individual sport like tennis is actually tougher than a team sport like cricket. There are places to hide in a game like cricket but in tennis, there’s nowhere to go and you are right in the middle of the action all throughout the game,” said Malik.

Shoaib Malik cited an example when a player is out of the tournament right after a defeat. Thus tennis rarely gives you a chance to bounce back. Citing Sania’s example that she doesn’t even know in which city she will be playing next.

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“I’ve seen her (Sania) playing one day in a city without knowing where she will be playing next time she is out on the field because once you a lose a match in tennis you are out of the particular tournament,” said Malik.

Adding further, he mentioned that the players need to raise their mental standards. They need to be at the top of their mental condition to cope up with pressures like those. “To raise yourself up mentally having such thoughts at the back of your mind is really challenging. In team sports, you have coaches and the support staff as well as your teammates to back you but it is much tougher in the case of an individual sport,” he added further.

Shoaib Malik also spoke on the Pakistan Super League (PSL). He mentioned that the first edition was a tough one. This was for the reason that there was uncertainty about the tournament’s future. Malik had captained the Karachi Kings in the last edition.

He said the management knew what the plans are there in this year’s edition. Hence the team will be a stronger one in the second edition.

Also read – Shoaib Malik credits Sania Mirza for his comeback in the national side

“The first edition was tough because no one knew where a cricketer is going. But this year most of the stuff is planned. I think we’ve done our homework and that’s why we know whom to pick and whom not to pick. We picked our team before the draft and we are more or less settled now,” Malik said.