Wedding bells for Rio wedding love matches
Play the French Open and Wimbledon? Check. Plan for the Olympic Games in Rio? Check. Squeeze a wedding date in the weeks between? Check.
|||Play the French Open and Wimbledon? Check. Plan for the Olympic Games in Rio? Check. Squeeze a wedding date in the weeks between? Check.
Early days of wedded bliss have been cut short for a host of top tennis stars during a hectic summer on and off the court.
Former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic, one-time Wimbledon semi-finalist Tsetvana Pironkova and colourful Italian Fabio Fognini who all said 'yes' before saying their goodbyes and reaching for the passports once again.
Ivanovic, 28, married German football star Bastian Schweinsteiger in a lavish ceremony in Venice in the week after Wimbledon last month.
The Serbian star, a former world number one and the 2008 French Open champion, has been dating the Manchester United player since 2014.
She had been previously romantically linked with Australian golfer Adam Scott.
"I am completely overwhelmed by all the beautiful wishes and congratulations posts. Thank you all! We are very happy and excited for future!," tweeted Ivanovic after her wedding which was also splashed over German Vogue.
A week later, and with the honeymoon over, it was business as usual.
"OK Back to work," she tweeted.
Ivanovic will be hoping for a better start to married life on the court than Schweinsteiger, who had his locker in United's first-team dressing room cleared out and ordered to train with the reserves by new boss Jose Mourinho on his 32nd birthday on Monday.
Bulgaria's world number 76 Pironkova married her long-time boyfriend Mihail Mirchev, a former Bulgarian footballer also in July.
Pironkova is one of two Bulgarians in the Olympics tennis event alongside Grigor Dimitrov in the men's singles.
Unlike, the social media savvy Ivanovic, the private Pironkova made no mention of her nuptials on either her Twitter feed or Facebook page.
Fiery Italian Fognini also arrives in Rio as a newlywed.
Fognini, who famously dumped Rafael Nadal out of the US Open in five sets last year, married long-time girlfriend Flavia Pennetta in June in Brindisi.
Pennetta won her only Grand Slam title in New York in 2015 and promptly announced her retirement.
"More than yesterday, less than tomorrow," gushed Fognini beside a photo of him and Pennetta sitting in their wedding car.
World number 11 Dominika Cibulkova would have been another newlywed at the Games before injury intervened.
The 27-year-old married Miso Navara in her hometown of Bratislava on the day of the women's singles final at Wimbledon.
But she had been prepared to cancel her big day when she defied her own doubts to make the quarter-finals.
She eventually lost to Russia's Elena Vesnina - who tied the knot herself in November last year -- on the Tuesday before the final, leaving her just over three days to make it back to Slovakia and put the final touches on her big day.
"I can finally start to think about the wedding. I'm really looking forward to it," said Cibulkova, who was forced out of the Olympics on Monday with a calf injury.
AFP