Indian tennis star Sania Mirza's father has reportedly confirmed that she used her right to divorce her former husband Shoaib Malik through a 'khula'.

Indian news agency, the PTI, quoted Sania's father Imran Mirza as saying on Saturday that "it was a khula", which refers to the right of a Muslim woman to unilaterally divorce her husband.

Earlier, unconfirmed media reports claimed that Sania Mirza sought divorce from Shoaib for allegedly not being happy with the cricket player meeting other women. The 37-year-old former tennis player reportedly took the step after losing her patience.

Earlier on Saturday, Pakistan's former captain Shoaib Malik announced that he has married popular actress Sana Javed in Karachi.

The cricketer who was previously married to Mirza, with whom he has a five-year-old son, released photographs on Instagram with his new wife, captioned: "Alhumdiulliah", followed by a Quranic verse about humans being created in pairs.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shoaib Malik (@realshoaibmalik)

There were strong rumours about differences between both Shoaib and Sania since 2022, hinting at their split, as they were also rarely seen together in the last couple of years.

Just a few days back, Malik also unfollowed the Indian tennis star on Instagram. However, currently, they both still follow each other on the social media platform.

Also Read: Cricketer Shoaib Malik ties the knot with actress Sana Javed

Shoaib and Sania had got married in Hyderabad, India April 2010, and they used to live in Dubai. Sania would also travel to Pakistan once in a while.

A couple of days ago, Sania had shared a cryptic post on her Instagram account that mentioned marriage and divorce both being hard.

“Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard. Obesity is hard. Being fit is hard. Choose your hard. Being in debt is hard. Being financially disciplined is hard. Choose your hard. Communication is hard. Not communicating is hard. Choose your hard. Life will never be easy. It will always be hard. But we can choose our hard. Pick wisely,” Mirza’s post read.