NEW DELHI - India's former world No 1 Saina Nehwal is to marry fellow badminton player Parupalli Kashyap in December, local media reported on Monday.

Nehwal confirmed her wedding with the 57th-ranked Kashyap to the Times of India newspaper, saying the time was right to exchange marriage vows.

Rumors about their love affair had been swirling for some time but the pair always maintained a studied silence until now.

Nehwal, 28, said she had started dating the 32-year-old Kashyap in 2007 after they began going on tours together but delayed the marriage in order to focus on their careers.

"In the competitive world we live in, it is difficult to get close to someone. But somehow we both found it very easy to talk to each other," she told the English-language daily.

Nehwal said she did not have to break the news to her parents as they had sensed it already.

"I didn't have to tell them," she revealed. "We used to be together most of the time and my parents also traveled with me, so they understood who I was close to."

Nehwal, who won a bronze at the recent Asian Games in Jakarta, is currently 11th in the world rankings.

The couple, who will wed on Dec 16, will become the latest in a string of high-profile sports stars in the region to tie the knot.

Indian tennis player Sania Mirza married Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik in a dazzling ceremony in 2010.

Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik is married to squash sensation Dipika Pallikal, while fast bowler Ishant Sharma married national basketball player Pratima Singh in 2016.

Agence France - presse