Wimbledon is already underway, but when the umpires say “love” it will mean more than just “nothing” to many of the participants in the prestigious tennis tournament.
SW19 has been the scene of many player romances over the years: Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf began dating in 1999, the year they were both French Open champions, and are still married more than 20 years later.
Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors captivated fans with their off-court romance. Although they never married, they were dubbed “The Double Lovebirds” when they both won Wimbledon in 1974.
While the trend of players dating has not been as prominent a feature of the game as it once was, it appears to have made a comeback now with a number of tennis’ ‘trendy couples’ gracing the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon.
Anabel Croft, a former player turned BBC commentator, recently said: “It’s fun to watch and people love gossip. Tennis players have a circus lifestyle. It helps if your partner knows how tough your losses are.”
Leading the way is Italian world number one Jannik Sinner, who is dating Russian Anna Kalinskaya and has been dubbed the game’s new “power couple”.
World number one Italian Jannik Sinner is dating Russian Anna Kalinskaya
They are believed to have started dating in April 2024 after meeting during practice sessions together and were then regularly seen supporting each other in matches.
The pair have been spotted training together ahead of Wimbledon, while Jannik, who won the Australian Open earlier this year, confirmed their relationship during last month’s French Open.
He told reporters: “I’m with Anna, yes, but we keep everything very confidential, you already know my confidentiality… I won’t say more.”
Anna, 25, has remained mum about her romance, but last month, after losing the final of the Berlin Ladies Open, she revealed: “I’m just trying to be a little bit as good as him. Let’s see if we can meet tomorrow. I’ll love him!” Send a text now!”
Jannik, 22, won his first Grand Slam in Australia earlier this year, earning him a lucrative ambassador contract for Gucci and establishing him as a fashion icon whose appeal extends beyond tennis fans.
Born in San Candido, Italy, he resides in Monte Carlo but is rarely able to spend time with Anna there due to his tennis commitments.
Born in Moscow and currently ranked 18th in the world, Anna started playing tennis as a child and at the age of 14 moved to the US to pursue tennis as a career.
Katie Boulter has been dating her Australian boyfriend Alex de Minaur since 2021
Her parents, Nikolay and Elena, are former professional badminton players, while her brother Nikolaz Kalinsky is a football player who plays as a central midfielder or defensive midfielder for FC Pari Nizhny Novgorod in Russia.
Katie Boulter, the current British women’s tennis number one, has been dating her Australian boyfriend Alex de Minaur, ranked number nine in the world, since 2021, with the pair regularly sharing snaps of their time together on social media.
In fact, they played together in mixed doubles at Wimbledon last year. Before this year’s tournament, she revealed in an interview with Australian media that she quickly knew he was the man of her dreams.
Boulter told The Age: “We met at six in the morning and ended up having a coffee. From that moment on, I knew my relationship was going to last a long time.”
‘As a child, I always had a very close relationship with my grandfather: I always told myself that if I could find someone who had half his heart, I would be the luckiest woman in the world. I found that person in Alex.
“He puts me before himself all the time and takes care of the people around him: his family and his team. He is my best example of what I want to be.”
He previously revealed that she is “just a joy to be around” and deeply admires her optimistic nature.
Ukrainian Elina Svitolina has been married to fellow professional player Gael Monfils since 2021.
Last year the couple rented a house near the All England Club with their two families and are believed to have done so again for this year’s tournament.
Boulter, 27, said of his reasons for doing so: “We all spend a lot of time together. I have the option to go out whenever I want, I know where the nearest coffee shop is, where the journalists are, so this is a place I can call home.”
Boulter and De Minaur, 25, see each other compete regularly and do not try to stay in the background when cheering each other on from the stands at tournaments. They also regularly post photos of each other on social media and messages of support.
Speaking about the benefits of being with a professional partner, Boulter said: “I’ve learned a lot from him, how he works and trains.”
Ukrainian Elina Svitolina has been married to fellow professional player Gael Monfils since 2021 and the couple had their first child, Skaï, a year later.
Announcing their engagement on social media in April 2021, the Frenchman posted a photo of Svitolina showing off her ring in the mountains and wrote: “She said YES. Madam MONFILS.
American professional Madison Keys has been dating doubles player Bjorn Fratangelo since 2017.
The former Ukrainian world number 3 posted a photo of his partner together and added: ‘YES! until the beginning of our forever.’
Monfils, 37, and Svitolina, 29, have been dating since 2019 after meeting on the tennis circuit and have become fan favourites, posting regularly on their shared ‘GEMS life’ Instagram page.
Returning to the circuit following the birth of her daughter, the Ukrainian won an event in Strasbourg but has since struggled to maintain her form.
Of hanging out with a fellow player, he said, “It’s really special to have someone who understands what you go through to get these wins, and it’s special to share these moments together.”
American professional Madison Keys, ranked 11th in the world, has been dating doubles player Bjorn Fratangelo since 2017, who is also her coach.
The pair also often play doubles together and competed at the US Open mixed doubles in 2021.
They met while training at the same facility in the US and announced their engagement in 2023.
Australian tennis stars Daria Gavrilova and Luke Saville, both 30, tied the knot in 2021
Keys, 29, said at the time: “He did it at home, the day I got back from Dubai, so I wasn’t expecting it at all.”
“I was sitting on the couch and he said, ‘Hey, I have your birthday present.’ He gave me something and got down on one knee. I just sat on the couch, so now we have to keep the couch forever.”
Fratangelo, 30, revealed: “We’re best friends. She’s my fiancée. We don’t hide anything from each other, we’ve collaborated a lot and I think it’s been a lot of fun for both of us.”
Australian tennis stars Daria Gavrilova and Luke Saville, both 30, fell in love as teenagers on the junior circuit and eventually walked down the aisle in 2021.
Russian-born Gavrilova became an Australian citizen in 2016 and the couple’s first dance at their nuptials was to Coldplay’s My Universe, with the pair learning a routine from YouTube.
She now uses her married name while competing in the professional game and is currently ranked 82nd.
Czech Republic players Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac are also part
In 2018, she shared hilarious details about her beach proposal, which didn’t go according to her husband’s plans.
“He proposed to me on the beach and he said that I would have been taken for granted anything else, because if I was all dressed up… we never got dressed up. If we were all dressed up, you’d be waiting at the restaurant or something,” she said.
‘So, we go down to the beach. And there were so many people that it was like, oh God. I take my socks off because we’re about to get in the water. And he’s like, there’s too many people. And I’m like, what are you talking about? Like let’s just get this over with. I don’t want to sit in the cold water for so long.
“And then I saw the box and he said, ‘I have a question to ask you,’ and he proposed to me. He didn’t get down on one knee, but he asked me. He said, ‘Can I not get down on one knee?’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ “Of course. Because I didn’t want it to be something important.”
Rumors began to circulate that Czech Republic players Katerina Siniakova, 27, and Tomas Machac, 22, were a couple in 2021, and the couple confirmed it on Instagram shortly after, with Machac sharing a photo of the couple in a restaurant, with the legend ‘My love’.
Machac faces Andy Murray tomorrow and is currently ranked 33rd in the world, while 5th-ranked Katerina has enjoyed considerably more success than her partner, having won the US Open and Wimbledon three times.
