onsidering themanymarried couples who havemet through tennis, here is a surprising statistic. In the 83 years since Nell and Harry Hopmanwon themixed doubles at the Australian championships for the fourth time in 1939, no husband-and-wife teamhave won a Grand Slam title together. Indeed, fewer and fewer off- court partners are wanting to join forces on it, a far cry from the days when the draws at Grand Slamevents often featured a host of married couples. WhenDaria and Luke Saville playedmixed doubles together at this year’s AustralianOpen, just sixweeks after theirwedding, it was the rarity value of their participation that contributed to thewidespreadmedia interest. It was a similar story atWimbledon last summer, when India’s Divij Sharan and Britain’s SamanthaMurray Sharan became the first husband-and-wife teamto play together at the All England Club for 30 years. Last year’sWimbledondebutants celebrated by winning onematch, but the Savilles fell at the first hurdle inMelbourne. As Linda Pearce reported for CODE, an Australian sportswebsite, the Savilleswere clear about the challenges of playing together. “It’s obviously tough whenyou care about eachother somuch and then you go out there andplay, that dynamic canbe tricky,” said Luke, whowas runner-up in themen’s doubles inMelbourne two years ago. Daria, a former top 20 player in singles (as Daria Gavrilova), said shewas “almostmore upset about this result than singles”, adding: “I probablywouldn’t have cared asmuch if I was playingwith another partner, but, playingwith Luke, someone you love, you’re like: ‘Oh, it sucks for both of us’.” Perhaps one of the reasonswhy fewermarried couples compete alongside each other today is the fact that in more recent years there have been fewer marriages in which both parties are active professional players. Andre Agassi and SteffiGraf, for example, married in 2001, two years after Graf retired. An indication of how good amixed doubles pairing they could have been came at Wimbledon in 2009, when they narrowly lost a mixed doubles exhibitionmatch against TimHenman and KimClijsters to celebrate the installation of Centre Court’s new retractable roof. It was one of the only times Graf has appeared on court since her retirement, yet she hardly looked as if she had been away. “She’s in better shape than I’m in,” Agassi said at the time. “She still moves great and does her thing, but getting ready comes with a lot of stress for her. She takes a lot of pride in being ready and she’s always on the verge of feeling like her body is not going to hold up.”
Tying the knot Luke and Daria Saville (below, pictured at an awards ceremony before their marriage last year) played mixed doubles together at this January's Australian Open, while Flavia Pennetta (bottom left) and Fabio Fognini did not marry until the year after her retirement
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