Sania Mirza (right) with Sohrab during their engagement ceremony in Hyderabad in July last year. (PTI)

Hyderabad, Jan. 28: For Sania Mirza, the winter of discontent refuses to end.

Battling a rocky tennis career and nursing injuries, the 23-year-old has now called off her engagement to childhood friend Mohammed Sohrab Mirza, days after crashing out of the Australian Open.

The two had a fairytale engagement on July 10 last year, but, sources said, the relationship did not take off in the months that followed.

Sources close to the two families said the couple had announced their intention to separate sometime in November. The final decision was made before Sania left for the Australian Open this month.

“It is over,” read an SMS Sania sent to a tennis mentor of hers.

Sania’s father Imran Mirza, who also manages her, said the decision was “mutual”.

“Sania has already said there was incompatibility between the two and both came to us. The families have been very close. We have known each other for half a century now. It was mutually agreed that it might be in the best interests of everyone concerned that it should be called off,” Imran said.

Sania, he added, would continue to play. “This has nothing to do with her career. She has been playing before, through the engagement and now,” said Imran. “But she has to fight her way out of it (the break-up).”

The glam girl of Indian tennis had earlier in the month said she was considering giving up her career after marriage.

The Mirzas pointed an accusing finger at the media for pressuring the young couple. “Sania’s statement that she will not play tennis after the wedding was blown up by the media. She has been saying that for the last five years,” Imran said.

Sources in Sania’s family said her tennis career had dipped to a career low with several defeats and injuries to her right knee. “Sab ki kharab nazar lagi hai (An evil spell has been cast on her),” said an elderly lady in the Mirza clan.

Gloom had enveloped the Jubilee Hills bungalow where the tennis ace lives with her parents after Sania’s first-round exit from the Australian Open singles event. The player, who had reached a career high ranking of 27 in 2007, has fallen to No. 57 this year. Last evening’s disclosure of the broken engagement has deepened the gloom.

“We were friends for years but found ourselves incompatible as fiancés. I wish Sohrab the very best in life,” Sania said in a brief statement without elaborating the exact reasons for the break-up.

Sania has been more open about her relationship with Sohrab, who was a year senior to her at the Nasr School in Hyderabad. A graduate of St Mary’s College in the UK, Sohrab is pursuing his MBA there.

In some interviews, Sania had described her dream husband as “one who is good-looking and six feet tall, should not be of serious nature, must not have any ego hassles and has to be a guy who understands me”.

Sohrab, who is of medium height (5’7”), is generally known to be of a serious disposition and does not fancy flashy clothes. “It is a family decision. I have nothing to add,” Sohrab told his friends over the phone this morning from London.

Soon after their engagement, the couple had declared they would not interfere in each other’s domains: he in her tennis career and she in his higher studies.

Although the families are tightlipped, a chill is said to have set in after Sania’s tennis started suffering. “Sania’s family is more upset about her disturbed tennis career and is blaming it on us,” said a friend of Sohrab.

The sources said the couple had hardly spent a few evenings together since their engagement. Soon after exchanging rings, Sohrab had left for the UK and Sania got busy with her tennis.

“The two have met but they have been brief encounters over lunch or dinner abroad,” said a close friend of the now estranged couple.

Sania is in Australia and is due to arrive in Kuala Lumpur this week to lead the Indian challenge in the Fed Cup Asia Oceania Group-II competition beginning February 2.