My child will have Mirza-Malik as surname: Sania Mirza

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza has said that her child will carry the surname Mirza Malik when she and Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik decide to start a family.

Speaking at the Gender Bias panel at the ‘Goa Fest 2018’, the tennis ace talked about her personal experience about gender bias and how her husband wants a “daughter”, reported Indian media.

“Today I will tell you a secret. My husband and I have spoken about it and we have decided that whenever we have a child, the child will have Mirza Malik as a surname and not just Malik. So that’s where we stand as a family including my husband. He actually wants a daughter”, she said. 

She also talked about her family where her relatives have talked with her parents, about having a son so that he can carry the family name.

"We are two sisters and have never wished that we had a brother. I have had fights with my uncles and aunts, who talk about it or come up and tell my parents that they should have had a son. For us, daughters are daughters and there was nothing like wanting a son to carry the family name forward” she said.

`"I have not changed my surname (post marriage) and my name is still Sania Mirza and it will remain that way. The family name is going to go forward," she added.

The 31-year-old who hails from Hyderabad married Shoaib Malik in 2010 said that pay disparity between men and women players exists in sports and a way out of it is to change the mindsets of people towards women players.