Indian tennis player Sania Mirza has disappointed fans by pulling out of all of her home tournaments this year due to the controversy they generate. The 21-year-old has declared she was advised by her manager not to take part in the Bangalore Open next month because of the criticism she encounters when playing in India."A lot has been happening in the last few months, everytime I have played in India there has been some kind of problem so we just thought it was better not to play at this point," the star told reporters in Hyderabad on Monday.
As a Muslim player, Mirza has reportedly been condemned by Islamic groups over her attire on the court, with her short tennis skirts coming under particular scrutiny. The star has become something of a flag-bearer for Muslim sportswomen, being seen last year playing in T-shirts bearing slogans of defiance such as "Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History".
"As long as I'm winning, people shouldn't care whether my skirt is six inches or six feet long," she said at the time.
In December the star was forced to apologise after filming an advert near a historic mosque in Hyderabad, where she is from.
In 2005, after Mirza became the first Indian woman to win a WTA tour event, she was the subject of a fatwa issued in India by a senior cleric of the Sunni Ulema Board, a little-known group. The demand to cover up was not the first however, but none have ever gained popular support from the country's 130 million Muslims.
Indian tennis chief Anil Khanna has reportedly called for Mirza, who broke into the top 30 ranked players in the world last year, to be left alone so that she can prepare for an attempt at an Olympic medal this year.