I wanted to have a career in tennis: Yuvraj Singh

Apart from wanting to become a cricketer, former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh had once harboured dreams of becoming a tennis player too. In an interview with Sportskeeda, Yuvraj Singh recalled an incident from his childhood when he broke a racket his dad bought him and was too scared to ask for a new one.

“I loved skating and tennis. I wanted to have a career in tennis. I remember I asked mom for a racket and she obviously told dad that I want a racket. Dad got a bit upset but he bought it and it cost 2500 at that time and I was playing in the quarter final or something and I eventually lost in the tournament and and broke the racket. Zor zor se maara,” Yuvraj Singh said.

“After breaking the racket I was scared to ask my dad for a new one, and thought of playing cricket for a few days and then ask for a racket again. But I started enjoying cricket and got into it completely and stopped playing tennis,” Yuvraj Singh added.

I don't miss playing cricket much: Yuvraj Singh

He further revealed that he still plays tennis to maintain his fitness and enjoys it so much that it doesn’t make him miss cricket a lot.

“I play tennis all the time for fitness. I really enjoy playing tennis and to be honest I don’t miss playing cricket much. I look forward to playing tennis almost every second day,” the all-rounded quipped.

Further in the conversation, Yuvraj Singh spoke about how, even after retirement, cricketers and other sportsmen always wanted to stay involved in sports. He recalled a recent conversation in which Sachin Tendulkar told him that if the latter didn’t play sports for more than four to five days, he would feel agitated.

“He was saying that it is very important that he plays some sports, be it golf or table tennis or badminton. So it’s the same for all sports people. I really enjoy playing table tennis, billiards or snooker or tennis. I just want to play some kind of sport every day,” Yuvraj Singh added.

Yuvraj Singh played 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20Is for India in which he scored 1900, 8701 and 1177 runs respectively.