In India cricket is a religion and cricketers gods. Hardly ever has any sports-star challenged their supremacy and dominance on the minds of Indian and grabbed the eyeball. Anyone, but Sania Mirza.

The five feet seven inch tennis star has had a dream route to fame, following her rise in the tennis court. Unfortunately, she also has been the victim of the sheen of limelight because of this fame, tortured with the news of fatwas, MMS scandals and numerous link-ups.

So when on July 10, 2009, after a long period of ups and downs in her career and her personal life, she got engaged with her childhood buddy, many Sania fans almost dragged themselves out of a suicide attempt.

People have always shown keen interest to know who Sania Mirza’s men were. So here is a short glimpse of who went in and out of Sania’s mind.

Akshay Kumar
You heard it right. Akshay Kumar has been Sania’s crush for god knows when. Sania has always said that ‘Akshay is such a handsome guy’.

However, at the same time she also said that she had a crush on him since childhood. So all those guys who were jealous of Akshay, please don’t be. It was a childish affair!

Marat Safin:
It was year 2005, and the new Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza had entered the glamorous world of tennis and like any other girl she fell for the macho guy, the hero of the field.

Marat Safin, the former World No. 1 Russian ATP tennis player, was all over Sania’s mind. In fact, she even tried to befriend him through his sister – Dinara Safina.

People from the Islamic world would have loved to see the two together as Marat is a Tatar Muslim.

Unfortunately, like all first crushes, it didn’t have a very happy ending. Marat, known for his dating skills, has a new girlfriend Nastya Osipova, a Russian pop singer.

2006 - Bhupathi is just a friend:
Yes, the media didn’t spare Mahesh Bhupathi and linked him with Sania several times, until she came out in the open and made it clear that Bhupathi was friend and nothing more.

2007 - Shahid Kapoor
The boy-man made news first when Kareena was head-over-heels in ‘love’ with him. Then suddenly the love fell apart and Kareena became Saifareena. Poor shahid thought every girl.

And like in all love stories, came another heroine into Shahids life – Sania Mirza.

If rumour mills are to be believed the “link-up” begin after Sania and Shahid were spotted together at Windsor Sheraton in Bangaluru.

Their link up seemed to puff up the then vogue of sports stars dating stars, forcing the media to dig more into their life.

2008 - Navdeep
Just months after the Shahid-Sania stories, a Telugu hero, Navdeep, shot to sudden media attention when he supported the industry buzz about his ‘very open’ friendship with Sania Mirza.

Nevertheless, people still believe it to be a publicity gimmick by the actor. Anyways, it did beg for some public attention, and was rightly served so.

Sania though was pestered (as usual) by the media had the two-word common retort – no comments.

2009
Yes, it was the month of July when all the speculations and gossips about Sania’s romantic life came to a sudden end. Sania Mirza declared her wish to marry her childhood friend Mohammed Sohrab Mirza.

The world kept wondering why she chose Sohrab when there were a hundred better looking men waiting for her nod. Anyways, love is blind and we know one good benefit that Sania would have got after getting engaged to Sohrab, she doesn’t have to change her surname!

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