For better or worse: Do weddings help or hinder tennis careers?
It has been a big year for weddings on the professional tennis tours.
Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter tied the knot in July. Casper Ruud married long-time partner Maria Galligani. Tommy Paul married Paige Lorenze.
Daria Kasatkina, Liudmila Samsonova, Asia Muhammad, Bernarda Pera and Tereza Mihalikova were also among a remarkable run of tennis weddings in 2026, while Alexei Popyrin and Harmony Tan have joined the newlywed club.
The photos are splashed across social media and certainly get fan attention.
But getting married is also one of the biggest events in a person's life.
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There is planning, travel, family, time away from work and a considerable amount of attention directed somewhere other than tennis.
For professional players, whose careers are built around carefully planned schedules and routines, it raises an interesting question.
Does getting married have any noticeable impact on a player's tennis?
The class of 2026 gives us plenty to explore.
Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter
The biggest tennis wedding of the year came when Australia's Alex de Minaur married Britain's Katie Boulter in July.
De Minaur certainly cannot call 2026 a bad year.
He won Rotterdam and reached a career-high ranking of No.5 during the season.
But there have also been form drops and periods where his usual consistency has been missing.
He has a losing record at Masters 1000 level, has reached just one Grand Slam quarter-final, and currently sits at No.10 in the rankings.
After finishing 2025 at No.7 and 2024 at No.9, he now faces the possibility of dropping out of the top-10 by the end of the year.
He has spoken about his struggles this year, saying after his Wimbledon loss to Flavio Cobolli: "I'm broken inside. That's the reality. Not being able to live up to it is truly heartbreaking. It's very hard."
Boulter's season has followed a very different trajectory.
She reached No.23 during 2025 before tumbling to No.100 by the end of the year.
In 2026, she has climbed back inside the top-60 and has been finding some of her previous form.
Casper Ruud
Casper Ruud married Maria Galligani in Mallorca in June, during a year that has also seen the couple become parents.
The Norwegian has been as high as No.2 in the world and finished 2025 at No.12.
This week, however, he dropped outside the top-20.
Ruud has still produced some strong tennis, including a run to the Rome final, but his season has also been interrupted by physical problems.
Tommy Paul
Tommy Paul's numbers have been relatively steady.
The American married Paige Lorenze in July ahead of the North American hardcourt swing.
After reaching a career-high No.8 in mid-2025, Paul dropped to No.20 by the end of last year following injury troubles and now sits at No.18.
There have also been plenty of strong results. Paul won Houston and reached finals in Hamburg and at Queen's.
On the other hand, he failed to make a Grand Slam quarter-final for the first season since 2022.
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Alexei Popyrin
Alexei Popyrin married long-time partner Amy Pederick in September, with the pair tying the knot after becoming engaged in 2024.
The wedding came during a difficult season for the Australian.
Popyrin reached a career-high No.19 in 2025 and finished the year at No.53. In 2026, he fell as low as No.139 and is currently ranked 130th.
Ahead of the US Open, Popyrin revealed just how heavily his results had been weighing on him.
After Wimbledon, he sought help from mindset coach Emma Murray, saying his pursuit of the form and ranking he had previously achieved had become an "unhealthy obsession".
It had reached the point where he was concerned his struggles on court would affect his wedding.
"I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy my wedding because of my tennis," Popyrin said.
He said that thought made him realise something had to change, and he began working on separating his results from how he viewed himself as a person.
Daria Kasatkina
Daria Kasatkina has had a year of major change both on and off the court.
After beginning to represent Australia in March 2025, Kasatkina became a citizen in January this year, making 2026 her first full season on tour as an Aussie.
In July, she married long-time partner and former Olympic figure skater Natalia Zabiiako in Greece.
Kasatkina finished 2025 ranked No.37 after ending her season early, citing mental and emotional exhaustion. Her ranking has continued to fall in 2026, and she is now No.87 in the world.
There have still been some positive moments, including winning the WTA 125 event at La Bisbal d'Empordà, but overall it has been a challenging first full season representing Australia.
Liudmila Samsonova
Liudmila Samsonova married her partner and coach Alessandro Dumitrache in Rome during the European summer.
She finished 2025 ranked No.17 after reaching the Strasbourg final, the semi-finals in Adelaide and Berlin, and her first Grand Slam quarter-final at Wimbledon.
Her 2026 singles season has been much tougher.
Samsonova is currently ranked No.37 and has a mixed year with a 19-22 win-loss record.
Asia Muhammad, Tereza Mihalikova and Harmony Tan
The doubles rankings provide another interesting comparison.
Asia Muhammad finished 2025 at No.19 after reaching a career-high No.8 during the season.
After marrying James Cross in July, she has fallen to around No.50.
Tereza Mihalikova, however, has gone in the opposite direction, finishing last year at No.28, climbing as high as No.21 in 2026 and remains around that mark now.
Harmony Tan has been far more stable. She married Pauline Vilela in September after finishing 2025 ranked No.238 and remains around a similar position this year.
So, do weddings actually matter?
Looking across the 2026 newlyweds, the picture is mixed.
Tommy Paul's ranking has changed relatively little. Tereza Mihalikova has remained around the same level, while Katie Boulter has climbed significantly from where she finished 2025.
But a larger group has gone the other way.
Alex de Minaur, Casper Ruud, Alexei Popyrin, Daria Kasatkina, Liudmila Samsonova and Asia Muhammad are all currently ranked lower than they were at the end of last season.
One obvious explanation may simply be age.
Every player featured here is at least 27, with most aged between 27 and 30 and Muhammad 35.
That matters in tennis. By that stage of a career, players are generally more likely to be dealing with accumulated injuries, greater ranking fluctuations or a gradual move away from their peak years.
There may also be an element of reverse cause and effect.
A player dealing with injury, playing fewer tournaments or going through a quieter period may decide it is finally a good time to get married.
The tennis might influence the timing of the wedding rather than the wedding influencing the tennis.
There are also individual circumstances, including physical injuries or mental health breaks.
Marriage hasn't stopped some of the greats
History also provides plenty of examples of players producing some of their best tennis after getting married.
Novak Djokovic married Jelena in July 2014, and then in 2015, he produced one of the greatest seasons in tennis history, winning three Grand Slam titles and reaching the final of the fourth.
Roger Federer married Mirka in April 2009, and weeks later, he finally won Roland Garros to complete the career Grand Slam before winning Wimbledon again the following month.
Elina Svitolina married Gaël Monfils in 2021, later became a mother and returned to professional tennis. Within months of her comeback, she reached the Wimbledon semi-finals. In 2026, she is back inside the world's top-10.
Weddings and other major life events will no doubt have some impact on anyone's career, tennis or otherwise.
That impact could be positive or negative, or it could simply be another major event happening alongside everything else.
For the tennis newlyweds of 2026, the results are ultimately a mixed bag.
Like most things in professional sport, what works well for one player may have a completely different effect on another.
Which, in the end, sounds a lot like marriage itself: for some it works brilliantly, for others not so much, and there is definitely no guaranteed happy ending!
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