Islamabad/Karachi, March 29 — Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik got engaged on Monday and are going to get married next month, a television channel claims.

According to Geo television of Pakistan, the two have got engaged and in April both will tie the knot.

Earlier Shoaib Malik was accused of marrying Ayesha Siddiqui, a Hyderabad girl, in 2002.

The girl’s father also had earlier threatened to sue Shoaib for jilting the girl and not giving divorce to her.

Geo television also mentioned in its report that Shoaib’s mother met parents of Sania Mirza in India and they accepted her as future daughter-in-law.

On April 16 or 17 may the ‘Walima’ or reception be held says the channel. According to the channel’s sources, both the stars fell in love some six-and-half months ago. The channel also claims that this could be the reason of Sania’s engagement breakup with childhood friend Sohrab Mirza.

In a recent interview Shoaib said, “I desire to get married soon. You will soon get some good news but it depends on my family. I fully expect to get married this year.”

When he was asked whether it would be an arranged marriage, Shoaib said, “No can say what will happen, but it will take place with the concurrence of my family.”

A senior official of Police said that the pair went to Hanley’s home after meeting at a bar near the All England Club in Wimbledon, London.

Hanley, who specialises in doubles tennis, split with long-time doubles partner Wayne Arthurs in 2006 & now plays with Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe.

Hanley is Australia’s second highest money earner on the professional tennis circuit behind Lleyton Hewitt.

The “Indian Express” pair beat Satoshi Iwabuchi & Takao Suzuki 7-6 (2) 3-6 6-3, 6-4 to complete a 3-0 win. Yesterday, Rohan Bopanna & Prakash Amritraj won both the singles matches to put the host 2-0 ahead.

Tournament director & KSLTA secretary Sunder Raju said, “The tournament will provide enough scope for Indian tennis enthusiasts to witness some of the big names of women’s circuit. The crowd response is also encouraging. Tickets of the last couple of days have more or less been sold out. People are eagerly waiting to see the big names of women’s tennis in action”.

Five of the top 30 players in the world, including Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, Hungarian Agnes Szavay, Austrian Sybille Bammer, Russian beauties Vera Zvonareva & reigning Sunfeast Open champion Maria Kirilenko are among the high-ranked players playing in Bangalore.