Serena Williams Officially Returning 4 Years After “Evolving Away From Tennis”
In tennis, love isn't always a good thing.
But off the court, Alexis Ohanian's support is the wind beneath wife Serena Williams' racket. "Alexis doesn't dim my light," the athlete, 44, explained to Allure in 2019. "He puts me in the light, even if I don't want to be. He pushes me to further points I never thought about."
So, yes, the Reddit cofounder—dad to her daughters Olympia, 8, and Adira, 2—will undoubtedly be in the stands at Wimbledon when his wife bounces back into action four years after telling Vogue she'd be "evolving away" from the sport.
Her 23 Grand Slam singles titles have already placed her firmly in the greatest-of-all-time conversation, but leave her just one victory shy of Margaret Court's record.
And she has hoisted the trophy at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club seven times, most recently in 2016.
She'll also be pulling double-duty while across the pond, playing doubles with older sis Venus Williams, who incidentally has scored a solid partner of her own.
"He really encouraged me to keep playing," the 46-year-old raved of then-fiancé Andrea Preti last July, speaking to The Tennis Letter after her victory at the Mubadala Citi DC Open. "There were so many times where I just wanted to coast and kind of chill."
Because, as she noted, her sport of choice is "9 to 5, except you're running the whole time, lifting weights and just like dying and then you repeat it the next day." So it meant a lot that the Italian actor and producer she wed in December "encouraged me to get through this."
Of course, the Williams sister support section won't be the only happening spot when Wimbledon gets into full swing June 29.
As top-ranked men Jannik Sinner and Ben Shelton hold court, they'll have their own personal MVPs in girlfriends Laila Hasanovic and Trinity Rodman. (Current No. 2 player Carlos Alcaraz, single after he was briefly linked to model Brooks Nader, is sidelined with a wrist injury.)
And to hear Shelton tell it, the professional soccer player is a key piece of his game plan. "I won a title at I think every tournament she's been at this year," he raved of U.S. women's national team standout Rodman as he celebrated his victory in the Stuttgart Open June 14. "You're definitely the good luck charm."
Before he and the other athletes try their luck at Wimbledon, we've got all the stats on their winning romances.
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Serena Williams
Few people are strong enough to volley back and forth with the tennis great. But Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian showed off some real skills during their first 2015 date. With Williams' assistant and agent tagging along, "They just bombarded me with questions—it was like two hours of interrogation," he recounted in an episode of her 2024 ESPN+ docuseries In The Arena. "'Do I have kids? Am I married?' Nothing was off limits."
Soon after, the answer to both was a firm yes, the pair welcoming daughter Olympia in 2017 before marrying later that year. (Daughter Adira rounded out the team in 2023.)
"Having someone as special as Serena as a partner is a consistent reminder of self-improvement," the tech entrepreneur explained to E! News in 2023. "I knew I have found someone I was going to spend the rest of my life with because she was someone who I knew I would never outgrow."
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Venus Williams
The seven-time Grand Slam winner nearly faulted on her forever with Italian actor-producer Andrea Preti. In Lake Como with her sisters, she received a last-minute invite to the Gucci show at the 2024 Milan Fashion Week, she recounted to Vogue ahead of their December 2025 vows, "and decided to go on a whim, and Andrea was tired. Neither of us was planning on being there."
But he aced his pick-up line and soon after they found themselves roaming the streets of London. Following those initial dates, detailed Venus, "I just knew I was going to marry him. People always say they just know, and I just knew."
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Jannik Sinner
Even as the top player in the world, the Italian athlete knew he could ace a strong relationship. "Of course it's not easy, I travel a lot and during tournaments I'm very focused," he noted to Vanity Fair Italia in 2024. "But I think it's a wonderful thing when you find the right love. If you think about it, the best tennis players in the world all have wives and children."
And he seems to have met his match in Danish model Laila Hasanovic. Hard launching their romance in his 2025 Vienna Open victory speech, Sinner shared, "To understand me at times, it is not easy, but thank you for putting in the effort. Everyone here, with family, my girlfriend, friends."
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Jessica Pegula
Well before the No. 4-ranked athlete wed fellow New York native Taylor Gahagen in 2021, they were in the same circuit. After Gahagen earned his MBA, he took a job working for her parents, who happen to own the Buffalo Bills.
And though he no longer holds court at Pegula Sports and Entertainment, he's still playing proverbial doubles with Pegula, serving as vice president of her skincare brand Ready 24 and helping run their charity, A Lending Paw. "We wanted to help people afford service dogs," Pegula told Vogue of their mission. "Not only is it about dogs helping people, it’s about people helping dogs, because we only work with rescues. It goes both ways."
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Aryna Sabalenka
Even after the WTA's current top player won the Brisbane International tennis tournament in January 2026, she continued to serve. "Thank you to my boyfriend," the Belarusian athlete shared, adding pointedly to Georgios Frangulis, "hopefully soon I can call you something else."
Fortunately, the Brazilian businessman didn't drop the ball. Two months later, he popped the question to his partner of two years with a stunning 12-carat custom diamond. "It was super cute," the Oakberry founder acknowledged in a June 2026 episode of the Open Residency podcast, "but I was already planning to propose long before that."
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Ben Shelton
A new sporting power couple emerged when the tennis player and soccer star Trinity Rodman sealed their relationship with a kiss on Instagram in March 2025.
And she's been a stalwart supporter throughout the Grand Slam tournaments, including slamming reporters who invoked her estranged dad Dennis Rodman.
“For Ben’s matches he has his family there as his support system, which includes his dad,” Rodman wrote on a July 2025 Instagram story, calling out the Wimbledon broadcasters for their commentary about her family. “My dads not even in MY life no need to bring him up during HIS matches when I don’t even want him talked about during mine.”
Taylor Fritz
After the pair met on Raya, Fritz made his relationship with Morgan Riddle official in 2020 with the influencer continue to root him on as he worked his wayup the ATP rankings.
“I met him and started travelling with him on the tour a few months later,” she told E! News in 2024. “And now, it’s been almost four years of that.”
However, in April 2026, Riddle confirmed that she and Fritz—who was married to fellow tennis player Raquel Pedraza from 2016 to 2019 and welcomed son Jordan in 2017—had broken up after six years together.
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Coco Gauff
For years, the two-time Grand Slam champ lobbed away any stories of her personal life.
“I think I felt like I just, some parts of myself I love to share and then some parts I think I just keep to myself,” she told People in March 2023. “So I do feel like my life is a little bit in my hands too.”
Still, boyfriend Jalen Sera—an Atlanta-based musician whose fourth-grade teacher was coincidentally Gauff’s mom—has proven to be an important sounding board.
"Last night, I started a little bit, but honestly, I just called my boyfriend," Gauff told reporters about her 2023 US Open Win. "And I told him let’s talk until it's time to go to sleep so we spoke until 1:00 am and then I went to sleep."
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Grigor Dimitrov
Dimitrov and Eiza González made their relationship Instagram official in May 2025, just one month after sparking romance rumors. And since then, the Baby Driver star hasn’t held back in showing her support for the athlete—including after he had to withdraw from the Wimbledon in early July 2025 due to a mid-match injury.
“Love of my life. I couldn’t be more proud of you,” González wrote on her Instagram Story at the time. "This is just a moment that will pass and will make you even stronger. But watching you today alongside the world was a reminder of who YOU are. You’re a winner. We all saw it. And you’ll do it again. I love you."
Instagram/@Katiecboulter
Alex De Minaur & Katie Boulter
After almost five years of dating, the tennis stars announced their engagement in 2024, with Boulter captioning the happy moment, “We’ve been keeping a small secret.”
The pair met in 2020 at a hotel where they were both staying. "We bumped into each other at six in the morning and ended up getting a coffee," Boulter recalled to the Sydney Morning Herald in June 2024. "From that moment, I knew I was in it for the long haul."
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Naomi Osaka
In January 2025, the four-time Grand Slam champion confirmed her breakup with rapper Cordae after five years together. And while emphasizing that they remain friends, she expressed gratitude over their romance as it brought them their 2023 arrival little girl Shai.
"Honestly really glad that our paths crossed because my daughter is my biggest blessing," Osaka wrote at the time. "And I was able to grow a lot from our experiences together."
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Tommy Paul
Paul may have the skills on the court, but his fiancée Paige Lorenze is a go-to coach when it comes to life outside the sport.
"She's been on me about, I guess it’s self-care," Paul told People in April 2025 of the woman he partnered up with in 2022."But just putting on more sunscreen and doing moisturizer at night."
Still, the Dairy Boy founder is no stranger to picking up a racket. "I'm not going to lie, I’m pretty impressed," Paul gushed about her tennis game. "She plays pretty good, she has the strokes down. She knows what she’s doing on the court."
Gael Monfils/Instagram
Gael Monfils & Elina Svitolina
The tennis stars are in sync on and off the court. In fact, they met after Svitolina won the 2018 WTA Finals in Singapore, going on to tie the knot in July 2021. A little over a year later, they welcomed their baby girl Skaï.
"I had the most amazing night of my life, which ended with the most beautiful girl around 6:00 am. Elina was strong and brave," Monfils wrote on Instagram in October 2022. "I can't thx enough, my wife, and God, for this special moment. Welcome to the world, my little princess Skaï."
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