05 April,2010 08:55 AM IST | | Shiboli Chatterjee
With a knack of courting controversy, mostly off the court, Sania Mirza has always been at the centre of it all. All except the Centre Court, that is. Her only WTA title came way back in 2005, in her hometown, Hyderabad. She broke into the top 30 in 2007 but it has been a steady fall ever since.
However, even as she slipped out of the top 100, she never quite slipped out of public consciousness, thanks to her steady stream of controversies. She drew the ire of the religious moral brigade who issued a fatwa against her for wearing short skirts on the tennis court. What they expected her to wear instead is anybody's guess.
However, even as Sania Mirza slipped out of the top 100, she never quite slipped out of public consciousness
The girl then put her worst foot forward while watching a match at the Hopman Cup in Australia in 2008. An unfortunate camera angle made it seem that her foot was almost touching the Indian flag. She was hauled to court. Some even foolishly questioned her patriotism.
The last incident came just a month after authorities at Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad slapped a case of trespassing against her for shooting an ad inside the mosque premises --u00a0something for which she had to apologise to her 'brothers and sisters and elders'.
The controversies obviously took a toll on the youngster, who even opted out of the Bangalore Cup in 2008, saying there are too many controversies whenever she plays in India.
But somehow, it seems that this latest one will put all previous ones to shame. Just a month after announcing her break-up with fiancu00e9 Sohrab Mirza came the sudden news of her marrying Shoaib Malik. But even she could not have predicted the tamasha that was to follow. At a time when she should be worried about the colour of her bridal lehenga or how she should wear her hair, she has to face the stress of her future husband's bizarre past with his ex-wife.
Just when we thought reality TV shaadis were as outrageous as it could get, reality proves us wrong. The Sania-Shoaib-Ayesha story is one drama that even Ekta Kapoor could not have conjured up.
It has all the ingredients of a Bollywood blockbuster: a love story, cricket, tennis, a spurned ex-wife, an ex-fiancu00e9, Indo-Pak rivalry, political tamasha... it's Love, Sex and Dhokha meets Chak De meets Border. Bring out the popcorn!
