Katie Boulter and Alex de Minaur, a tennis love story based on trademark British and Aussie wit
The playful relationship between the British women's No 1 and Australia's top-ranked men's player amuses tennis fans no end but as the twosome head into the Australian Open, there's serious business at hand, with Paris 2024 looming.
Tennis
If you're going to have a cracking start to a new year then beating the most successful men's tennis player of all time, plus his widely-regarded usurper and two-time Grand Slam winner, plus the reigning Olympic champion in the first 10 days of the year should do it.
That's how to smash your New Year's resolutions, Alex de Minaur style.
Australia's number one tennis player is the man in question, securing wins over 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic at the United Cup in Perth on 3 January, breaking the Serb's 43-match winning streak on Australian soil, which includes 10 titles at the Melbourne-hosted major.
Four days later, on 7 January, de Minaur beat Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Alexander Zverev who was playing for Germany at the United Cup. The tournament features mixed-gender teams from 18 countries playing across multiple Australian cities over 11 days in the leadup to the Australian Open.
It was this match that propelled the 24-year-old into the top 10 for the first time. Doing so in his home town of Sydney made it extra emotional.
"Talk about special moments… Top 10 in Sydney ❤️🔥😈🏠", posted de Minaur afterwards.
Three days later, the now Alicante resident gave Spain's Carlos Alcaraz the same treatment in a pre-Australian Open exhibition match, defeating the World number two and Wimbledon champion.
During the playful on-court interview afterwards, de Minaur was shown a complementary comment posted on his Instagram account following his top ten breakthrough.
The comment, from girlfriend and British women's number one, Katie Boulter, took him by surprise.
"No person deserves it more than this man," wrote the 27-year-old. "Only just the beginning."
"Look, I’m actually surprised she said something nice about me," de Minaur told the Rod Laver Arena crowd who laughed with the smiling Aussie. "Normally every time she goes on social media to reply to my posts or whatever, it's always having a dig at me. So it’s nice every now and again to get a compliment."
The pair have been dating since March 2022, navigating the ebb and flow of the travelling tennis circus, which brings them together at Grand Slams but diverges with different tournaments on the men's ATP and women's WTA tours.
Their playful nature, a stereotypical characteristic of both Aussie and British humour, comes to the fore through social media posts and TV interviews, entertaining sports fans throughout the year.
The 2024 season looks to be no different.
An early festive season get-together with Boulter and her family in the UK, ahead of travelling to Australia for the beginning of the tennis season, saw the pair post a humorous picture wearing Christmas jumpers featuring the notoriously cynical character, the Grinch.
Boulter's featured an 'I hate Christmas' quote but replaced the 'I' with 'He' and drew an arrow pointing to a comically fed-up-looking de Minaur. For his part, the Aussie's top was inscribed with, 'Merry whatever'.
"Someone’s gotta be the grinch 🤷♂️😂, " laughed Boulter, with the following series of photos showing a grinning de Minaur alongside her family.
Katie Boulter one to watch
Like her partner, Boulter also enjoyed a successful showing at the United Cup, storming back from a set and a break down to upset world No 5 Jessica Pegula as Britain faced the USA in the group stage.
Australia was also in Group C, providing additional banter-worthy fodder for the pair when Boulter defeated Ajla Tomljanovic in the women's singles, while compatriot, Cam Norrie, took out de Minaur in the men's edition.
It wasn't enough for the Brits to progress, however, with Australia topping the tight group to progress to the knockout rounds, besting Djokovic's Serbia before getting knocked out by eventual winners, Germany, in the semifinals.
This nation-against-nation format provides good practice for the couple in being on-court rivals ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which start on 26 July.
Doubles partnerships in Grand Slams can be mixed nations so the pair played together at Wimbledon in 2023, triumphing against the reigning US Open champions, Aussie duo John Peers and Storm Hunter, before being beaten by Joran Vliegen (Belgium) and Xu Yifan (People's Republic of China).
The tournament at the Paris Games, which will be played on the iconic red clay of the French Open Grand Slam venue, Roland Garros, features five medal events – singles and doubles for both men and women plus mixed doubles.
De Minaur was scheduled to play at Tokyo 2020 but was forced to withdraw shortly before travelling after testing positive for COVID-19, so, should the twosome be selected by their respective National Olympic Committees, based on the International Tennis Federation's eligibility requirements, Boulter and de Minaur could both make their Olympic debuts.
Should the duo be selected for their respective nations you can bet the banter will be at Olympic levels, both on and off the court.
* As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
* Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
Katie Boulter of GB and Alex de Minaur of Australia