Hyderabad, March 29 (IANS) Indian tennis star Sania Mirza's family Monday confirmed that she was all set to marry Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik.
An Indian news channel quoted Sania's father Imran Mirza as saying that the reports of her proposed marriage with Malik were true. According to the channel, he said that the marriage would take place in a month and that the couple would settle down in Dubai after tying the knot.
Imran said that both Sania and Malik would continue to represent their countries in their respective games.
However, Sania's father or any family member did not come out of the house to speak to mediapersons waiting outside to get a confirmation of the news first aired on a Pakistani television channel.
According to Geo News, Shoaib Malik's mother met the family of Sania, and sought Sania for her son. The channel claimed that Sania's family has accepted the proposal and the two families are all set to conduct the engagement of the two.
The channel even claimed that the engagement ceremony was expected to take place next month.
The news of Sania's proposed marriage with Malik came two months after she called off her engagement to childhood friend Sohrab Mirza, citing "incompatibility".
Six months after the engagement took place here amid much fanfare, Sania decided to part ways with Sohrab.
Interestingly, Shoaib Malik was also engaged to a girl from this southern Indian city a few years ago but he later called it off. The family of the girl had even claimed that he had married her but the Pakistani star denied this.
Malik had said in January 2008 that his marriage plans with Ayesha Siddiqui ended because both families could not reach an understanding on certain issues.
However, the girl's family claimed that the they entered the wedlock through 'nikah' over telephone in 2002. Ayesha's father M.A. Siddiqui had even threatened to sue Malik for cheating and demanded him to give a formal divorce.
Malik was also quoted by Pakistani media as saying that Ayesha was not the girl he met in Dubai and that her family cheated him by sending a photograph of another girl.
Malik had reportedly met Ayesha in Dubai and they decided to marry. The Pakistani cricket team was given a grand reception by Ayesha's parents at their residence here when the team toured India in 2005.
Interestingly, Ayesha had not come out at the reception and did not even meet Shoaib, saying she was down with some allergic problem.