In tennis, all good things come in threes – just ask Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist. Even away from the sweat and slices of Challengers‘ La Rochelle, real couples Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa, as well as Katie Boulter and Alex de Minaur, oft delight fans with their on-and-off court antics.
Now it seems there is a third tennis it-couple who have been indulging in some off-court courting. World number one Jannik Sinner has been offering public support to new girlfriend and fellow player Anna Kalinskaya as the two kick off their grass season in the run up to Wimbledon.
Sinner and Kalinskaya confirmed their relationship during the French Open earlier this month. In a first-round press conference, the Italian told journalists that he was dating the Russian-born world number 24. ‘I’m with Anna, yes, but we keep everything very confidential – you know my confidentiality … I won’t say more.’
Admirable constraint from Sinner, whose career has skyrocketed over the past year, not only securing the top spot in the world rankings, but winning his first Grand Slam in Australia and bagging a lucrative Gucci ambassadorship.
Winning matches and winning hearts, it seems. The pair watched each other from the stands at Roland Garros, with Kalinskaya – who used to date tennis maverick Nick Kyrgios – telling the world how proud she was of Sinner’s semi-final run on the clay after his loss to Carlos Alcaraz.
More recently, Sinner congratulated Kalinskaya after her first-round victory against Nao Hibino at the German Open this week, commenting a pair of suitably romantic fire and heart emojis under her highlights reel. The support clearly paid off, as Kalinskaya won her next match in Berlin, beating former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova. (It was a walkover, but the power of love knows no such formality.) Sinner, too, has got his grass season off to a strong start, dispatching of Tallon Griekspoor at Halle after losing a nail-biting first set tiebreak. If the former-skier wins his second round match today, he could face Tsitsipas, who recently reignited his relationship with Spanish player Paula Badosa. Love-all, anyone?
The couple will, no doubt, be hoping to emulate the success of Boulter and de Minaur, who have developed an uncanny ability to win tournaments on the same day. British number one Katie Boulter recently beat Karolina Pliskova to defend her last year’s home soil Nottingham Open victory. After vanquishing Emma Raducanu in the semis, Tatler cover star Katie jokingly told crowds that her boyfriend was ‘in the doghouse’ after he wasn’t in the stands to witness her championship win. In all fairness, he was otherwise engaged, busy winning S-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands on the same day.
