(NEW YORK) — In tennis, love means zero, but for a two-time Grand Slam champion love was a walk in the park.
Spanish-Venezuelan tennis star Garbiñe Muguruza just announced her engagement to Arthur Borges, a fan who wished her good luck during the 2021 U.S. Open while walking by in Central Park.
“My hotel was close to Central Park and I was bored, so I thought I should go for a walk,” Muguruza told HOLA! Spain in an interview. “Suddenly, he turns and says ‘Good luck at the U.S. Open.’ I was left thinking, ‘Wow, he’s so handsome.'”
The 2016 French Open and 2017 Wimbledon champion took a selfie with Borges and asked him for a date the very next day.
“I really couldn’t believe it … having her ask me, ‘Hey, you want to see each other tomorrow?’ And I was like ‘Yeah.’ It felt unreal. It’s still does when I remember those two weeks,” Borges said in an interview.
After their initial meet-cute, the pair continued on dates for the remainder of the tournament before Borges left his job in New York at the Tom Ford fashion house and moved to Geneva, Switzerland, to be with her, eventually traveling the world together for Muguruza’s tennis career.
“It was definitely the most unreal two weeks of my life. Full of joy, excitement,” he said.
Borges popped the question to Muguruza in March and the pair officially confirmed their news publicly via Instagram over the weekend, with a very fitting Jerry Maguire quote: “You had me at ‘Hello.'”
Muguruza told ABC News’ Good Morning America that she cried with joy for an hour after he proposed.
The former world No. 1, who was ranked in the top 10 as recently as last year, announced just months ago she would be taking a hiatus from the sport to focus on her personal life.
As part of that hiatus, she will be skipping the ongoing French Open and Wimbledon in July.
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