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The Top 10 Most Famous Sports Couples of All-Time

By Mutala Yakubu
Couples in sports
Couples in sports
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When a sports superstar is paired with another sports superstar, you get a power couple. Many power couples have existed in sports, just as it has in other fields like politics or show business.

The combination of superstar athletes’ would’ve surely resulted in genetically gifted children. But majority of the most famous sports couples didn’t find happy endings so we don’t have too many second generation superstars right now.

There are a handful of power couples in sports that had happy endings. These pairs have young children now.

Let’s take a look at ten of the most famous sports couples we’ve seen, with or without their happy endings:

10. Rory McIlroy & Caroline Wozniacki

Danish tennis superstar Caroline Wozniacki was the first Scandinavian player to become women’s tennis world #1. Wozniacki was the top ranked female tennis player on the planet for a total of 67 weeks. She finished on top of the women’s rankings at the end of 2010 and 2011. She has a total of 25 WTA victories to her credit, including six each in 2010 and 2011.

Like Caroline Wozniacki, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy was golf’s top ranked player for 95 weeks. McIlroy, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are the only players in golf history to win three majors by age 25. McIlroy has won a total of 4 majors: 2 PGA Championships, 1 US Open Championship and 1 Open Championship. He is the current face of the EA Sports’ video game series ‘PGA Tour’.

The couple started dating in 2011 and were engaged in 2013. However, McIlroy called of the wedding in 2014, ending their relationship via a 10-minute telephone call.

9. Anna Kournikova & Sergei Fedorov

Before Maria Sharapova, Anna Kournikova was the most photographed female tennis player in the world. There was a point in internet history when the words Anna Kournikova was one of the most searched words in Google. She was a bombshell of a tennis player who reached world #8 in 2000 although she never won a tournament. She later would pair with former world #1 Martina Hingis to win two Australian Open titles.

Sergei Fedorov was one of the best playoff performers in Hockey. Fedorov won three Stanley Cup titles with the Detroit Red Wings and was the Hart Trophy winner as MVP of the NHL in 1994 . Fedorov was inducted to the NHL Hall of Fame in 2015 and the International Hockey Hall of Fame in 2016. He was named as one of the 100 Greatest
NHL Players in January 2017.

They met when Anna was only 15 and their families were friends. They had a long friendship and understood each other’s situation as stars in their respective sports. They later married, but briefly according to Fedorov. Kournikova has always denied that a marriage took place although she turned over a South Beach condo to him as ‘divorce settlement’. Anna’s in the arms of Enrique Iglesias now.

8. Sergio Garcia & Martina Hingis

Martina Hingis took tennis by storm in the 1990’s when she set many ‘youngest-ever’ records. She became world number one for 209 weeks and won a total of 22 grand slam titles including 5 singles titles. Hingis unceremoniously retired in 2002 after a series of ligament injuries. She made a comeback in 2006 and would become a champion doubles and mixed doubles player. Hingis was Forbes’ top earning female athlete from 1997-2001.

Sergio Garcia was Europe’s answer to Tiger Woods. Although he never reached the #1 ranking, Garcia spent over 400 weeks in the Top 10. The Spanish golfer has 30 international golf titles to his name, including the 2008 Players Championship and most recently the 2017 Masters. According to Forbes, Garcia has earned over $43M in his career.

Hingis was known as the ‘Black Widow’ because the careers of her former flames and tennis players Magnus Norman, Julian Alonso and Ivo Hueberger went downhill after their relationships ended. The Swiss Miss and El Nino were popular teen sports stars in the 90’s. They were a couple in 2002 but split in 2003. Garcia’s career didn’t go south though. He peaked to world number 2 after they split.

7. Adam Scott & Ana Ivanovic

Retired Serbian tennis player Ana Ivanovic wasn’t just one of the hottest player on tour. She was one of the hottest players, period. She appeared in various magazines like FHM, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan among others. She was the #1 female tennis player in the world in 2008. After a runner-up finish in the 2007 French Open, she won the title the following year to catapult to the top of the rankings. Her struggles after 2008 are well-documented and she eventually retired from the sport in 2016.

6. Tiger Woods & Lindsey Vonn

Lindsey Vonn was America’s ski racing queen, having won the World Cup overall championships four times, including three consecutive from 2008-2010. She is the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill, winning the event in the 2010 Winter Olympics. She is one of only six women to have won World Cup races in all five categories of Alpine Skiing. Her 77 World Cup wins are an all-time record.

Tiger Woods is well Tiger Woods, the world’s highest earning athlete for many years and golf’s #1 player for the most part of the 2000 decade. Woods was a gold prodigy, starting and dominating the sport at an early age. He turned pro at the age of 20 and less than a year later, he won his first major-the 1997 Masters tournament. A marital scandal forced Woods to take a break from 2009-2010. He would return to the top of the rankings in 2013 before injuries finally took the bite from the Tiger.

Lindsey and Tiger were the most talked about couple in sports. She split from her husband in 2011 and confirmed she was dating Tiger via Facebook in 2013. They were together for three years but called it quits in 2016 due to their respective hectic schedules that forced them to spend majority of their time apart ( according to Lindsey). Of course there were rumors that Tiger cheated, as usual.

5. Sasha Vujacic & Maria Sharapova

Ahh Maria, Maria. Sharapova was the queen of tennis, the heir to Anna Kournikova’s throne. Like Anna, she was beautiful. Unlike Anna, she was truly a top tennis star. Maria Sharapova is the only Russian tennis player to win all Grand Slam events. She was ranked as the world’s #1 tennis player on five different occasions but only for a total of 21 weeks. Despite that, she became the most popular tennis player of her generation and was the highest earning female athlete for 11 consecutive years.

Sasha Vujacic was popular for his championship days with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Slovenian shooting guard was known as the ‘Machine’ with the Lakers for his shooting prowess and ability to score points in a hurry. Vujacic is best remembered for hitting the two free throws that iced Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics. After playing in Europe and a couple of NBA teams, Vujacic resurfaced with Phil Jackson’s Knicks in 2015 and has been playing for NY since then.

Vujacic and Sharapova had a long and serious relationship that led to an engagement in 2010 when Vujacic proposed to her on the first anniversary of their first meeting which took place at a friend’s barbecue. The pair split in the spring of 2012.

4. Greg Norman & Chris Evert

Chris Evert was then Chris Evert Lloyd, America’s tennis sweetheart during the 80’s. She was the year ending number one ranked female tennis player from 1974-78 and 1980-81. Evert won a total of 18 Grand Slam titles during her illustrious career. Her 34 Grand Slam finals appearances are the most in tennis history. She never lost in the first or second round of any Grand Slam event. She won a record 7 individual French Open titles.

Greg Norman is one of the greatest golfers of all-time. The Great White Shark from Australia was world #1 for 331 weeks. He won a total of 91 international golf tournaments, including 20 PGA tour events, two of which were majors. Norman was inducted to the World Hall of Fame in 2001 with the highest percentage of votes of any golfer to date.

They left their long time spouses for each other and then married in a sunset ceremony in the Bahamas back in 2008. 15 months later, they split.

3. Nomar Garciapara & Mia Hamm

Mia Hamm played forward for the United States women’s soccer team from 1987-2004. She won two Olympic Gold medals and two World Cup titles during her decorated career. Hamm was a founding member of the Women’s United Soccer Association and played for the franchise Washington Freedom from 2001-2003. She was FIFA World Player of the Year in 2001 and 2002 and is one of two women to be included in the FIFA 100 list.

The AL Rookie of the Year in 1997, Nomar Garciapara was known for his playing days as shortstop of the Boston Red Sox. Garciapara is one of thirteen Major League players to hit two grand slams in one game and the only one to do it in his home stadium. He was a six-time All-star who became the first right handed batter since Joe DiMaggio to win the AL Batting Title in back to back seasons from 1999-2000.

They met in 1998 during a celebrity soccer shootout where she beat him. Hamm was married to college sweetheart Christian Corry for six years before getting a divorce in 2001. She and Nomar Garciapara dated and wed in 2003 during a ceremony attended by a few hundred guests in Goleta, California. Mia gave birth to twins Ava Caroline and Grace Isabella in 2007. The couple added a baby boy named Garrett Anthony in 2012. So who says sports couples don’t have happy endings? The next two ( top two ) in our list are also happy endings.

2. Bart Conner & Nadia Comaneci

The perfect girl. Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to get a perfect score of 10.0 in the Olympic games. At the age of 14, Comaneci won three gold medals in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Four years later, the Romanian gymnast added two more gold medals in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. She won a total of 9 Olympic medals and 4 World Championships. She is widely credited for making the sport of gymnastics popular all over the world.

Like Nadia Comaneci, Bart Conner was a gymnast. He was a member of the U.S. Olympic team in the 1976, 1980 and 1984 Olympics. Conner did not medal in ‘76 and didn’t join the ‘80 Olympics because of the U.S boycott. In the !984 Los Angeles Olympics, he won gold medals in the Parallel Bars and Team-All Around. He currently owns the ‘Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy’ in Oklahoma.

Little did Nadia know that her defection to the United States in 1989 would lead her to Bart Conner. The two were acquaintances because they shared the same sport and competed in the same events. But after Conner was invited to her 29th birthday, they developed a friendship that soon turned into a four year relationship. They married in Bucharest in 1996. The couple now have a son named Dylan.

1. Andre Agassi & Steffi Graf

Steffi Graf was the most dominant tennis player during her time. She is the only tennis player, male or female, to win the Golden Slam- the Grand Slam plus Olympic gold medal in one calendar year. She is also the only player to win each Grand Slam tournament at least four times. Her total of 22 Grand Slam titles is third most in women’s tennis history.

Andre Agassi was the Golden Boy of tennis during the 1990’s. He was a former world #1 who won 8 grand slam titles and the Olympic gold medal in 1996. Agassi was the first player to win the Australian Open four times. He is also the 8th player to achieve the Career Grand Slam and one of two to complete the Career Golden Slam.

After his marriage to actress Brooke Shield lasted just two years, Agassi married Graf in a private ceremony at the couple’s house in Las Vegas on October 11, 2001. They have two children, a son Jaden Gil born in 2001 and a daughter named Jaz Elle born in 2003. The power couple said that they are discouraging their kids from playing tennis, saying both of them have had enough. Well, if you and your wife have won every Grand Slam singles event and each have an Olympic gold medal from tennis, that sounds more than enough tennis already.

Source:sport.one