In 2010, Sania Mirza married Shoaib Malik, a Pakistani cricketer, in a grand ceremony in Mumbai. The two had met at the 2008 Australian Open and began dating soon after. Their marriage was a highly publicized one, with many celebrities and sports personalities attending the ceremony. The couple has been going strong for over 12 years now and is considered one of the most successful and power-packed couples in the sports world.
Sania Mirza went from "Bollywood bachelorette" to "cross-border cricket wife" to "single mother reclaiming her narrative." In a way, her personal storylines mirrored her tennis career: full of comebacks, never boring, always defiant.
The most persistent early rumor involved actor Sohail Khan (brother of Salman Khan). The two were spotted together frequently. Tabloids ran cover stories claiming a "secret romance." In a 2008 interview, Sohail even joked about it but never confirmed anything. Sania remained tight-lipped, dismissing it as friendship. But for the gossip-hungry public, this was the first genuine "romantic storyline"—a tennis star dating a Bollywood khandaani.