"Sania mirza was bullied, trolled, abused by two nations all for that" - Tennis fans react to news of Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik's divorce

Tennis fans have expressed sadness at the news of former Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik's divorce.

Mirza and Malik got married in 2010 in a traditional Muslim ceremony in the former's hometown of Hyderabad in India. They later had a Walima ceremony in Sialkot, Pakistan. The two stars' marriage had raised a lot of eyebrows owing to the tense cross-border relations between the two nations.

They have a son, Izhaan, born in 2018.

While it is unclear when the relationship between Sania and Shoaib soured, there has never been a confirmation of their split — until now. Her father Imran Mirza recently told PTI that "it was a 'khula'", which is a course of action that allows a Muslim woman to initiate a divorce.

On Saturday, January 19, Shoaib took to social media to announce that he had married again, this time to Pakistani actor Sana Javed. He shared a couple of pictures and wrote:

"And we created you in pairs."

Fans were quick to react to the news of Shoaib's divorce from Sania and his marrying once again. One fan recalled how she endured vitriol from both Indians and Pakistanis when she chose to marry Shoaib.

"Sania Mirza was bullied trolled abused by two nations because she believed and loved a man all for that man to cheat on her with a married women," a fan said.

Another fan lamented that she endured hate from two nations only for her marriage to end a little more than a decade later.

"I feel bad for Sania Mirza. She faced a lot of smear campaign by Indian media for a man who lied to her about him being married before too yet she still decided to marry him and got so much hate and it ends on such a sad note," read one post on X (formerly Twitter)

Here are some more fan reactions:

---

Sania Mirza's tennis career: A summary

Sania Mirza at the 2022 National Bank Open in Toronto.

Sania Mirza, aged 13 years old, made her ITF junior circuit debut at the Pakistan International Junior Championship in 1999, where she finished as the runner-up in singles and won the doubles title with local player Nida Waseem.

After winning her first singles title on the ITF junior circuit in September 2000 in Mumbai, she made her ITF senior debut the following year in Chandigarh. In 2001, she also took part in her maiden Junior Grand Slam event at the Wimbledon Championships, where she lost in the first round in the doubles and the second round in singles.

Mirza won the mixed doubles bronze medal at the 2022 Busan Asian Games with Leander Paes. In 2003, she partnered with Russia's Alisa Kleybanova and won the Junior Grand Slam doubles title at Wimbledon.

In 2005, Sania made her Grand Slam main draw debut at the Australian Open, where she lost to Serena Williams in the third round. Later, she reached the fourth round at the US Open (lost to Maria Sharapova), making it the best singles result for an Indian woman at a Major.

Her WTA tour achievements that season saw her become the first Indian woman to enter Top-50 of the WTA rankings, eventually finishing the year as the World No. 31. She was also named the WTA Newcomer of the Year.

At the 2008 Australian Open, she and Mahesh Bhupathi made it to the mixed doubles final, where they lost 6-7(4), 4-6 to Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic and China’s Tian-Tian Sun. At the next edition of the Melbourne Major, she won her first Grand Slam title when she and Mahesh Bhupathi emerged victorious in the mixed doubles.

In all, the former doubles World No. 1 has won six Grand Slams – three in women's doubles and three in mixed doubles. In the doubles, she won a total of 43 titles and spent a total of 91 weeks on top of the rankings.

Sania Mirza, who was the top-ranked Indian woman in the singles throughout her career, announced her retirement in February 2023.