FEDERER, DJOKOVIC, MURRAY, AND NADAL ALL MATURING BY RICHARD EVANS

Written by: on 6th May 2014
NADAL_MURRAY_FEDERER_DJOKOV
FEDERER, DJOKOVIC, MURRAY, AND NADAL ALL MATURING BY RICHARD EVANS  |

The famous Top4 are getting older, maturing, settling down – at least off court. Roger Federer, of course, has been settled for some time with Mirka, the twins and another child due in weeks, or even days, if Roger’s late withdrawal from the ATP Masters1000 in Madrid is any indication.

 

But Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray all seem heading towards the path of matrimony and, sooner or later, the responsibilities that come with fatherhood. All three have had regular girl friends for years and Djokovic is now officially engaged to Jelena Ristic, the 27-year-old beauty who is ever-present in his courtside box. No such announcement from Rafa but it is assumed that Maria Francisca Perello will only have one answer when, rather than if, she is asked.

Is stability off court essential for a player at the very top of the pro game today? The fact that David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also enjoy steady relationships with long term partners would suggest so.

 

The game is exhausting enough as it is and, for the men, the desire to chase girls at every stop along the way would, one imagines, require illegally ingested levels of testosterone if brought to a series of successful conclusions.

 

So the role of the partner to the current crop of stars should not be underestimated, nor, indeed, should the ladies’ adaptability and patience. Madrid, Rome, Paris and London is an itinerary that young women sitting in cubicles at work the world over probably fantasize about on a daily basis but the glamor tends to fade the fourth or fifth time around.

 

It is not just the sameness of hotel rooms which deny the female visitor the seemingly – in my experience – insatiable need to change, beautify and re-decorate their environment but the fact that they feel morally obliged to sit through their men’s matches. And, being the partner of a player in the top ten, there are a lot of those matches as their men win, win and win.

 

Mind you that is an easier task than having to dine and sleep every night with a player who gets dumped out of the tournament every Monday or Tuesday. Lose, lose, lose and then the role changes to one of nursemaid, psychologist, frenetic and doubting cheerleader or preventer of imminent suicide. Over the years, one has seen many give up and crawl home to the boy next door.

 

While talking of his relationship with his team of coaches and physios, Andy Murray has admitted that he is not always easy to be around. Kim Sears has not offered a public utterance on the subject but, coming from a tennis family – her father Nigel has coached numerous players including Daniela Hantuchova for many years – she went into her relationship with Andy well versed in the skills required to survive on the tennis tour.

 

Murray’s sometimes misunderstood humor no doubt helps and Kim will not have been surprised by Andy’s tongue in cheek answer on Twitter about setting a date for their marriage. As far as anyone knows there is no date set but expect it anytime – now or at some distant point in the future.

 

In his book “77 – My Road to Wimbledon Glory” Murray has admitted that he would like to start a family and that ‘he would try to be a good father’. Given that he is a person who seems far more interested and aware of other people’s needs than many blinkered, self-absorbed super stars, there seems every reason to believe he would be a great Dad.

 

As for Djokovic, the news that Jelena is pregnant will be a welcome distraction for a player currently struggling to get over the wrist injury which has forced him to miss this week’s ATP Masters1000 in Madrid.

 

At any rate, the days when a top player like Marat Safin could populate his box at the Rod Laver Arena with a bevvy of blondes, possibly losing his way against Thomas Johansson in the final of the 2002 Australian Open as his eye roamed, seem long gone. Safin ended up being sucked into politics as a member of the Russian parliament, a fate that the partners and wives of today’s Top4 will, hopefully, counsel against.

 

If they have any doubts, they might want to be as blunt as Ion Tiriac when he heard Ilie Nastase intended to run for Mayor of Bucharest. “I knew you were stupid,” Tiriac said, staring at his old doubles partner, “but I didn’t think you were that stupid.”

 

Being far from stupid, Tiriac deprived himself of an obvious opportunity to become President of Romania in the weeks after the fall of the dictator Caucescu and contented himself with making ridiculously large fortunes from his various business enterprises. The tournament in Madrid this week, of which he is chairman and master-mind, would not be one of his major money makers but he created the Caja Majica because he loves tennis. More personal relationships have been less permanent for this unique character and he would agree that a good woman is hard to find. But today’s top players appear to have found the key.

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