Top Ten Tennis Romances
Locker Room
April 28, 2015
The life of a professional tennis player can be busy and demanding. Finding time for romance isn’t always easy. No wonder so many players look for love inside the bubble of the tour.
But it’s tough to be a tennis couple when the spotlight is so relentless. And many players will envy the simple stability of Rafael Nadal, who will celebrate ten years with his shy hometown girlfriend, Xisca Perello this year.
While Xisca doesn’t seek the limelight, others can’t escape it. With that kind of close attention, tennis romances have had varying degrees of success over the years.
Here are our top ten tennis romances:
10/ BJORN BORG AND MARIANA SIMIONESCU
In the 1970s and early 1980s it seemed there was barely a woman in the world who didn’t dream of being with Bjorn Borg, the sexy Swede who won 11 Grand Slams between 1974 and 1981.
Shortly before his retirement in his mid-twenties, Borg married Romanian player Mariana Simionescu. Sadly, the couple divorced in 1984.
9/ GAEL MONFILS AND DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA
The flamboyant French star has made waves in the tennis world for the last five years, with his career-best World No 7 ranking in 2011 cementing his place as one of the most entertaining performers in tennis. Monfils briefly dated the Slovakian pocket rocket, Dominika Cibulkova, though the explosive combination didn’t last long. Cibulkova is now engaged to Miso Navara while Monfils has been dating French student Chelsea Altman.
8/ FERNANDO VERDASCO AND ANA IVANOVIC
The years 2008 and 2009 were good to Fernando Verdasco and Ana Ivanovic. The Serbian became the world’s number one woman in 2008 and the following year Spaniard reached a career-high World No 7. These two high-profile players began dating around the time of the 2008 US Open, but broke up again within a matter of months rather than years. The split seemed to be an unhappy one because they were reported to have stopped speaking to each other.
7/ ANDY MURRAY AND KIM SEARS
Andy Murray didn’t exactly step outside the tennis bubble when he began to date Kim Sears all those years ago. Kim is the daughter of British professional tennis coach Nigel Sears, so she has grown up understanding the demands of the game at the highest level. This seems to have stood the couple in good stead in the long run. Despite a rocky patch or two, Kim was at Andy’s side when he completed a dream triple of US Open, Olympic and Wimbledon success. At the last Australian Open she was caught on camera using some rather colourful language to describe one of Murray’s opponents, Tomas Berdych. A calmer Kim finally tied the knot with Andy this spring in his native Dunblane, Scotland.
6/ ROGER AND MIRKA FEDERER
Some may forget that before she became Mrs Federer, Mirka Vavrinec was a tennis player herself and a good one at that, with a career-high ranking of World No 76 before a foot injury forced her out of the game. Roger Federer met her at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and it didn’t take long for romance to blossom. They didn’t marry until 2009, however, and twin girls were born the following year. Twin boys arrived in 2014 to complete the happy family. Mirka created controversy not long ago when she was caught heckling Roger’s fellow Swiss, Stanislav Wawrinka during a match between the pair at the ATP World Tour Finals. Roger acted as peacemaker and the marriage remains as strong as ever.
Now we come to our top five tennis love affairs. They didn’t all end happily, and how some might develop or end still isn’t clear. But for drama, intrigue, heartbreak and sheer romance, these are either the most topical or memorable in our eyes. See if you agree.
5/ LLEYTON HEWITT AND KIM CLIJSTERS
Australian superstar Lleyton Hewitt wasted no time becoming the World Number 1 – the youngest ever at 20 years of age, with US Open and Wimbledon triumphs to his name by 2002. At the start of the previous year, the 19-year-old Hewitt began dating Belgian player Kim Clijsters, apparently at the Australian Open. They told the world of their engagement in 2003, by which time she was already known as “Aussie Kim,” the romance having captured the imagination of the entire country. Unfortunately they separated in late 2004, with a tearful Clijsters seemingly heartbroken. More happily, they both married other people within five years of the split.
Ever since 2004 I’ve been trying to come to terms with Kim Clijsters’ and Lleyton Hewitt’s split. I’m not closer to getting over it today
4/ SERENA WILLIAMS AND PATRICK MOURATOGLOU
No one saw it coming, no one has ever confirmed that it has been happening, though few in the tennis world are in any doubt that intimacy between the world’s best female tennis player and her French coaching assistant has spilled over into romance at some stage or other. The sheer mystery surrounding the relationship is romantic in itself. Last year they were…then they weren’t…and then at the beginning of this year people said they were again. Were what? No one is quite clear, and that is why the relationship between the feisty Serena and her much older man continues to fascinate.
3/ JIMMY CONNORS AND CHRIS EVERT
Two more intense tennis players you couldn’t have wished to meet back in the 1970s, both with an iron will. On court, Jimmy was volatile and Chris ice-cold. It made for an interesting chemistry, particularly in 1974, when both won Wimbledon. They were arguably the most high-profile sporting couple of their era, the most written-about and celebrated. Unsurprisingly, Connors and Evert decided to marry at the end of 1974. The big shock came when they called the wedding off at the last moment. Perhaps two such strong characters were always destined to clash. They were uncompromising on the tennis court, and it appeared that compromise didn’t form a big part of their romance off the court either.
2/ GRIGOR DIMITROV AND MARIA SHARAPOVA
Few gave the glamorous Russian and handsome Bulgarian much of a chance at the start of their romance, when even Serena Williams warned Maria that Grigor had “a black heart.” Even so, the romance blossomed and the couple helped each other cope with the relentless pressures of being a top ten tennis player. They have often had to put up with rumours of a split, including in the last few days because their form had taken a dip and their clay-court training schedules seemed to allow for time apart. But whatever happens in the future, the beautiful couple did prove over the last two years that a romance in the most intense of spotlights can thrive against the odds.
1/ ANDRE AGASSI AND STEFFI GRAF
No one saw this romance coming either. They seemed such different people, with Andre so flamboyant and Steffi so clinical. They had been on the circuit together for more than a decade. Then, with their careers virtually over, a passion exploded between them, which quickly turned into a deep, enduring love. They married in 2001 and they are still together in 2015, proving that some tennis romances really can go the distance. They’re often spotted together at various tennis and charity events, still revelling in each other’s company. Agassi and Graf have two children and live in the Las Vagas area. For the shock their union caused initially, combined with the time they’ve been together, Steffi and Andre take our prize as the most romantic couple the game of tennis has produced.
What are your thoughts? Have we missed out your favourite couple? Do let us know.