On January 20, 2026, Indian sport quietly crossed an important threshold with the official launch of “The Next Set”, a new high-performance and philanthropic venture spearheaded by six-time Grand Slam champion Sania Mirza.
Designed to address the long-standing structural gaps in Indian women’s sport, particularly tennis, the initiative marks a shift away from isolated academy training toward a professionally managed, mobile support ecosystem that follows athletes where it matters most on the global competitive circuit.
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Indian women’s sport has long been defined by flashes of brilliance rather than sustained excellence. While stars like PV Sindhu, Mary Kom and Smriti Mandhana have shown what is possible, the system behind them has often failed to convert promising juniors into long-term international professionals. Tennis has felt this gap most acutely since Mirza’s own singles prime ended.
“The Next Set” directly targets this fragile transition phase between junior success and professional stability a stage often described in tennis as the sport’s “valley of death.” At this level, athletes must fund intercontinental travel, manage injuries, arrange coaching and handle mental pressure largely on their own. For most Indian players, the cost and complexity become overwhelming.
Mirza’s initiative is not simply about writing cheques. It is about replacing isolation with structure. By embedding professional support around emerging players, the program aims to give Indian women athletes the same operational backing that players from Europe, Australia and the United States receive as standard.
A two-pronged high-performance model
At the heart of “The Next Set” lies a carefully designed two-pillar strategy.
The first pillar is a traveling performance unit. Selected athletes will have access to traveling coaches, physiotherapists and fitness trainers who accompany them to tournaments. This is a crucial intervention. In modern tennis, the gap between the world’s top 100 and top 300 is rarely about technique it is about recovery, injury management and tactical preparation. By providing this mobile support, the initiative ensures that Indian players are no longer forced to compete alone on the world stage.
The second pillar is the academy-based development system, anchored at the Sania Mirza Tennis Academy (SMTA) in Hyderabad and Dubai. Here, players undergo structured training blocks focusing on technical, tactical, physical and mental development. These camps are led by Mirza herself, whose experience of navigating Grand Slams, injuries, public scrutiny and motherhood gives her mentorship an authority few can match.
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Together, the two pillars create a full-circle system athletes train at a world-class base, then take that preparation onto the tour with professional support at their side.
The corporate and medical backbone
What makes “The Next Set” different from many past initiatives is the scale and sophistication of its partnerships.
BNW Developments, a Dubai-based luxury real-estate firm chaired by Ankur Aggarwal, provides financial strength and long-term stability. With assets worth billions of dirhams under development, BNW’s backing ensures that the project is not a short-term sponsorship but a sustained investment in women’s sport. Aggarwal’s philosophy of empowering women through meaningful platforms aligns directly with Mirza’s vision.
Equally significant is the partnership with Shookra Polyclinics, a health-tech and longevity venture chaired by Ankiti Bose. Shookra brings advanced medical diagnostics, recovery science and performance monitoring into the ecosystem. For athletes, this means access to cutting-edge injury prevention, hormonal tracking, nutrition planning and long-term wellness management areas that have historically been neglected in Indian women’s sport.
This focus on longevity is vital. Careers are not only built by talent but by how well bodies are protected from burnout, stress fractures and chronic fatigue. “The Next Set” aims not just to create champions, but to help them last.
The Sania Mirza Tennis Academy as the engine
The SMTA, founded in 2013, is the operational heart of the project. Its dual bases in Hyderabad and Dubai give Indian players access to both domestic talent pools and international competition pathways. Dubai, in particular, offers ideal weather, world-class facilities and proximity to European and Asian tour stops, making it a strategic bridge between Indian training and global competition.
Mirza has often said that her greatest strength lies in guiding players ranked between 300 and 500 into the top 100. That is precisely the bracket “The Next Set” is designed to serve athletes who are too good to be amateurs but not yet equipped to survive professionally.
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Beyond rankings and results, the initiative carries a deeper social message. Mirza has long spoken about the pressure on Indian women to prioritise marriage or family over ambition, even at the height of sporting success. “The Next Set” challenges that narrative by professionalising women’s sport by showing families, sponsors and society that a female athlete’s career is worthy of serious, structured investment.
In doing so, it moves Indian women’s sport away from tokenism and toward sustainability.
Although tennis is the starting point, the program is designed to expand into other sports. The model of traveling support, mental conditioning and scientific recovery can apply just as powerfully to badminton, athletics, shooting and even cricket. With Mirza already embedded in the Women’s Premier League ecosystem as a mentor, cross-sport expansion is not a distant ambition but a logical next phase.
A new blueprint for Indian sport
“The Next Set” represents a fundamental rethink of how India develops elite female athletes. It blends corporate capital, global-standard sports science and lived sporting wisdom into a single operating system. Where earlier generations fought alone, the next generation will travel with a team. For Sania Mirza, it is a continuation of her legacy not as a champion who lifted trophies, but as a leader who ensured others would have the tools to do the same.
In Indian women’s sport, a new match has begun. And this time, the players will not be stepping onto the court by themselves.
