She was worried about how she would look on her wedding day. He was overwhelmed with the wishes and prayers of his friends after they found out about the marriage. All very normal and somewhat unexceptional, till they faced a volley — first they became objects of scorn for the hate-mongers, and then the targets of someone who said she has been scorned.

How did the two cross-border lovers suddenly become star-crossed lovers? Why did their impending nuptials land up in the realm of the bookies rather than wedding planners?

Sania Mirza showed maturity by projecting an irreverent, breezy and confident attitude and saying: “I am more worried about how my hair is going to look,” at a press meet following the announcement of her decision to marry Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik.

The cricketer has more experience with the media. However, the word controversial is so often connected with him that it has almost become an appendage, for his suspect bowling action, match-fixing allegation, his romantic entanglement with a Mumbai beauty... and now the ghost of a “marriage” that allegedly took place six years ago.

What, isn’t he about to get married to Sania, you might well ask. Of course, he is, and “Sania knows the truth” they announce. But what about us, what is the truth? Well, join the gang. The media is looking for it, as is Hyderabad police, which is investigating the case after the family of Ayesha Siddiqui accused him of walking out on her.

Shoaib’s first wife? Really! Actually, we can’t be too sure about it, since Shoaib says he has never “knowingly” met her. Yet, she apparently sent him photographs of another, more attractive, woman claiming they were her own.

Who is Ayesha Siddiqui? A Hyderabadi girl whose skill set certainly includes nifty computer skills as well as those on the phone. She certainly made a big impact on the cricketer, since their net and phone connection led, according to her family, to nikah, but later, size did matter, and he allegedly harassed her to lose weight.

It is now well established that Shoaib did attend a feast at the Siddiqui household, and has probably stayed there too. He has also apparently said that he did marry a girl named Ayesha in 2002, but it was not the girl who claims to be his wife.

Where was Sania all this time, you might well ask. Before Shoaib came into her life, Sania first made her mark as a tennis star and was seen as a symbol of modernity and freedom who broke the stereotypes associated with the Indian Muslim woman.

With her parents’ support, this proud daughter of Hyderabad took to tennis at six. Her father Imran and mother Nazima groomed her and she became a tremendous player, along the way also morphing into an advertisers’ dream that wore body-hugging outfits and trademark diamond nose stud. Sania brought glamour to the game and inspired several youngsters to take to tennis despite inadequate infrastructure and training facilities.

Like her beau, she too courted controversies, be it over her performance on the field, the size of her skirts that invited the wrath of clerics or comments on pre-marital sex. Sania was so much of a young woman role model that she was also appointed ambassador of the ‘Save the Girl Child’ campaign of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Talking of beaus, since long it was Sohrab Mirza for Sania. A fellow Hyderabadi and a family friend, Sohrab and she even announced their engagement, but then things fell apart and they parted. Right now, Sohrab is in London, studying Business Management at University of Warwick. He is 25 years old.

Shoaib Malik, who is 28 years old, had swung the willow in England too in his early cricketing days. He took over as the Pakistan team captain on April 19, 2007 from Inzamam-ul-Haq, who resigned after the 2007 World Cup fiasco in the West Indies where the team made an early exit, and coach Bob Woolmer was found dead mysteriously in his hotel room.

Former captain Imran Khan fully backed Malik’s candidacy, stating: “He appears to have a good cricket brain and could turn out to be a very good choice for Pakistan cricket”. What clinched the captaincy for Malik was his young age, and consistent performance at every level of cricket. Sure enough, Malik quickly adjusted to the top job to take Pakistan to the final of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.

In Malik’s first series as captain, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka 2-1 in an ODI series in Abu Dhabi. But subsequently, he lost the series against Australia at home and in India. Slowly, but surely, Malik too was caught in the vortex of Pakistan’s cricket politics as first he failed to tame the reckless, but talented Shoaib Akhtar, and then he himself was sucked into match-fixing scandal.

He was stripped off captaincy on January 27, 2009 when Younis Khan took over the reins. The Pakistan Cricket Board has fined and banned Malik for one year for unspecified disciplinary reason on the recommendations of an enquiry committee formed to evaluate defeats in both Test and ODI series against Australia early this year. Infighting in the team and match-fixing were cited as the reasons for Malik’s fall from grace.

Sania, on the other hand, has really not fallen from the grace, so to say, but she has her shares of ups and downs. Thanks to her powerful forehand stroke play, she rose steadily since her debut in international circuit in 2003 when she won the Wimbledon Championships for Girls’ Double title. The highpoint in her career came in 2009 when she became the first Indian woman to clinch a grand slam title by winning the mixed doubles at the Australian Open with Mahesh Bhupathi.

Mahesh is her mentor and he was upset when the All-India Tennis Association paired up Sania and Leander for the mixed doubles of the 2006 Doha (Qatar) Asian Games. However, she got back to Mahesh to forge an enduring partnership as they reached the 2008 Australian Open mixed doubles final and cracked the Grand Slam code last year. Sania’s career best ranking was 27 in singles and 18 in doubles. A Padma Shri and Arjuna awardee, Sania became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament in the 2005 US Open. In the same year, she reached the third round at the Australian Open before being defeated by Serena Williams.

She won her first WTA title in the Hyderabad Open defeating Ukrainian Alyona Bondarenko in 2005. The following year, she reached the peak of her performance, defeating some top seeded players including Svetlana Kuznetsova and Martina Hingis.

She bagged four gold medals in 2003 Afro Asian Games and was the runner up at the Asian Tennis Championship in 2004. Frequent injuries and inconsistent performance saw her global ranking plummeting, which now stands at 92.

The Sania-Shoaib saga comes at a time when both the stars are going through a rough patch in their careers. Sania faces the risk of slipping out of the top 100 WTA ranking soon. Shoaib has been banned for a year by Pakistan Cricket Board for a year, but right now, their minds are far, far away from their careers.

When the cupid struck, Sania is not telling. All she says is “It is a personal matter. I have known him for the last seven years. Our families have met and agreed for the marriage.” She was apparently smitten by Shoaib's flamboyant style of cricket. In a recent interaction with the media in Hyderabad, while announcing her marriage plans, Sania was all praise for him. “I particularly liked one of his innings where he scored 93 runs in 27 balls (in Bangladesh) but a missed a world record,” she said.

The stars sought matrimonial bliss but their announcement triggered off a storm with the usual suspects. The Shiv Sena and assorted others found a new hate object.. Across the border, Pakistanis spoke of Sania Bhabhi and the media coined a new expression “Shoania”, on the lines of Brangelina (the linguistic coupling of the names of the now uncoupled Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie).

Sania thought that she had found a perfect match. She found herself serving a double fault, or a serve that landed outside the service box, into a fellow Hyderabadi girl’s house, and her opponent is set to score a point. Shoaib thought he has scored a sixer with Sania, but he never anticipated Ayesha’s googli. These super sportspersons are playing a game where rules are unfamiliar and the results uncertain.