SANIA MIRZA

When Sania Mirza was making India proud at the US Open some days back, her short skirts, body-hugging sleeveless t-shirts were making news back home.

Muslim clerics issued a fatwa against her dress and Kolkata's Jamaet-e-Ulema-e-Hind last week threatened to stop her from playing in $170,000 WTA Tour Sunfeast Open.

The fatwa - in effect, a demand that she cover up - was issued by a senior cleric of the Sunni Ulema Board, a little-known group. "The dress she wears on the tennis courts…leaves nothing to the imagination," Haseeb-ul-hasan Siddiqui told The Hindustan Times. "She will undoubtedly be a corrupting influence."

At the US Open this year, Sania became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam event. Maria Sharapova might have won the fourth round match in straight sets but at the post-match press conference, Sania was definitely the winner with the media lining up to ask her questions.

From 326th position on August 30, 2004, the 18-year-old tennis sensation recently climbed to her career-best 34th rank in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) ratings.

Her t-shirt punchlines might have the clerics screaming murder but they say it all about her attitude. Like one says, "You can either agree with me, or be wrong."