Husbands and wives form a team. But on Friday, Indian Divij Sharan and Briton Samantha Murray Sharan gave that a new meaning at Wimbledon.
The married couple paired on the mixed doubles court for the first time and defeated Ariel Behar and Galina Voskoboeva 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 to reach the second round at The Championships.
“I think we’ll try to play whenever we get the chance. It’s just really four tournaments that have mixed doubles and it’s smaller draws, so we’ll have to see where our rankings are and whenever we get the opportunity,” Sharan said. “I think we entered Wimbledon once seven years ago. We didn’t get in… I think it’s really special that we got a chance this time.”
Divij and Samantha first met in 2012. Their doubles partners at a tournament knew each other, so they were introduced. However, they did not see each other again for about six months.
“I was training at a tournament where he was playing just before the women’s tournament. I ended up there on my own, so I ended up practising with him and his group for the week before,” Murray Sharan said. “We just spent a lot of time together over the next few months and now here we are.”
The couple has been together for eight years. In 2014, they entered Wimbledon for the first time, but did not get into the mixed doubles draw. Sharan has played mixed doubles with other partners in the past, and he said that had they signed up as a team two years ago, they would have earned a spot as alternates. That is why the decision to enter this year was easy.
“We’ll stick with each other and we’ll give it a try,” Sharan said. “We got in as alternates and it was obviously really special for me to share the court with Sam.”
In 1968, 13 married couples played together in the mixed doubles field, and Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert competed together in 1974 when they were engaged according to Robert McNicol, the Wimbledon librarian. In more recent times, it has not been as common.
For this married duo, it was certainly beneficial on court. Despite this being a first for them, they know each other’s games extremely well. During lockdown in Great Britain last year when the tennis tours were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they were able to help each other practise, even if just at their home.
“Both of us play tennis, and we were sort of stuck together,” Sharan said, cracking a laugh. “For other tennis players, it wasn’t possible to play with other people, so we had the chance to help each other out and just to train. We were training together doing volleys to volleys in the back garden and stuff like that.”
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The couple, married in wedding ceremonies on 19 July 2019 in Manchester and 23 November 2019 in New Delhi, do not get to spend that much time together as they pursue their careers. That makes a moment like this even more special.
“Obviously the Slams and some of the bigger tournaments are together, but for quite a few years we’ve been playing at somewhat different levels,” Murray Sharan said. “I’ve been playing maybe just below the main Tour. Even then, a lot of the events are not mixed, so whenever we do have a chance to play the tournament and it works for both our schedules, we try and make sure we can take that chance.”
What would have happened if they were never introduced nearly a decade ago?
“Just the way things turned out, it was meant to be,” Sharan said.
His wife added: “Neither of us are particularly outgoing, so we’re still not sure how we managed to first speak to each other, but one of us managed to puck up the courage I think, so it worked out well!”
Source Tennis – ATP World Tour
