Sania Mirza

Sania Mirza (Hindi: सानिया मिर्जा) (born 15 November 1986, in Mumbai) is a professional Indian tennis player. She began her tennis career in 2003 and is well-known for her powerful forehand ground strokes. She is the first ever Indian to break into the top 30 WTA rankings. Mirza has defeated many top players, including Svetlana Kuznetsova and Martina Hingis.In 2004 she was awarded the Arjuna award by the Indian Government. In 2006, Mirza was awarded a Padma Shri, India's fourth highest honour for her achievements as a tennis player. In March 2010, The Economic Times named Mirza in the list of the "33 women who made India proud".In 2009, Sania Mirza got engaged to childhood friend Sohrab Mirza. However the engagement was called off shortly after. Mirza married Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik on 12 April 2010. The wedding was held in Hyderabad, India. The online attention the wedding received made Mirza the most searched woman tennis player in 2010 according to Google Trends. The couple planned to settle down in Dubai. The wedding was even more controversial because Shoaib Malik was accused by another girl of already being married to him and hence he could not marry Sania without first divorcing her. Initially for many days, Shoiab Malik refused to grant the divorce claiming he was never married. This resulted in a huge media drama leading to so much online attention as stated earlier. Finally, having no other option, Shoaib divorced the girl paving the way for his next marriage to Sania.