Sania gets engaged to childhood friend

Hyderabad:

Away from the prying media eyes Indian tennis diva Sania Mirza on Friday got engaged to childhood friend Sohrab Mirza at a plush city hotel.

A glittery ceremony at Hotel Taj Krishna here was attended by a few special and close invitees, close to 300, including Indian tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi, south movie star Chiranjeevi and some political personalities.

The 23-year-old Sohrab will pursue MBA in Britain and his father owns a chain of bakeries in the city. His family migrated from Iran many years ago and lives in Anand Nagar in the heart of the city.

Much to the disappointment of curious and byte crazy media army, posted outside the venue, not even a single peep into the ceremony was allowed by the Mirza family, which termed it a "family oriented" event.

Anxiously waiting shutterbugs were also a dejected lot as they were not allowed to click photographs and were promised ceremony photographs through a PR agency.

Delhi based designers Nikhil and Shantanu had prepared Sania's green and gold lehnga, a traditional dress, which the tennis sensation wore with old family jewellery.

The engagement of the Indian tennis' poster girl also put to rest all the speculation about her romantic links with sport stars and bollywood actors.

The 22-year-old Hyderbadi has been linked with Pakistani tennis player Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and bollywood actor Shahid Kapur and also Telugu superstar Navdeep in the recent past.

With two cupid-struck youth creating nuisance outside Sania's Banjara Hills residence in the last two days, the city police had made tight security arrangements to ward off any trouble at the function.

"This is a private affair and we request the media to cooperate with us. It is a family oriented thing where only a very few close people and friends have been invited. It is not a show," Sania's father Imran Mirza told mediapersons.

Imran had earlier made it clear that Sania would continue playing the game after her engagement and the wedding would take place a couple of years later.

Sania, India's first female player to win a Grand Slam title, is likely to leave for America later this month to participate in the US Open and other competitions.