It is quite unimaginable to talk about Indian tennis sans Sania but answering the what-if conundrum, if not for tennis what would she have pursued? “This is something that I have done all my life, so I don’t see being something else. I do love doing other things. At one point I wanted to be an interior decorator, which I probably will be after I am done playing. Fortunately or unfortunately, we retire young so it leaves us with a lot of room to do different things. I like entrepreneurship. I am starting my own café and tennis academy in Hyderabad,” she mentions. She elaborates, “The resto-lounge is called Ristretto. It has a pool table, a private party place, a Bollywood Tollywood themed area, and a sporty place that has huge screens to watch cricket and football matches. It about 10,000 sq ft and I want to keep the place open till late hours making it a favourite and happening hangout.”

The tennis ace also wanted to release her autobiography earlier this year but now it has got pushed for a later release. So do readers get to know all about Sania through this book? “Yes! It will have everything, starting from when I was 4 and how we could not afford a lot of things, to the controversies about me, my nose ring, my tee shirt and so on,” she explains. The autobiography is tentatively titled Against All Odds.

Tennis matches, resto-lounge, autobiography and planning a tennis academy (that she is set to open in February 2013), Sania has her hands overflowing with ventures. Where does she find the time and energy to handle all this? “I am very fidgety. I keep moving my feet. I cannot sit still and love doing different things. And at some point I know I will not have tennis to fall back on and I have to start building on what I have to do for the future.”