3 tennis players who had a better career than their spouses ft. Roger Federer & wife Mirka
Roger Federer is among the few tennis players who has enjoyed a better career than their spouses
Over the years, we have had quite a few tennis couples, many of whom eventually got married and are still together. The biggest example of this is perhaps Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.
While Agassi and Graf have their own set of achievements, both have been World No.1 in their respective categories and have a combined 30 Grand Slams among them. However, there are also few tennis couples where one ended up doing much better than the other.
With that said, let's take a look at three tennis players who had a much better career than their spouses.
#3 Radek Stepanek
Czech tennis player Nicole Vaidisova married her 29-year-old compatriot and fellow tennis player Radek Stepanek when the former was 18 years old in 2010 and after a brief period of separation, the two got back together in 2018, following which they also had two daughters.
Vaidisova was considered a tennis prodigy at the start of her career and was one of the youngest tennis players to be a part of the top 10 wherein she also achieved a career-high ranking of World No.7 in 2007. However, the Czechs's form dropped thereafter and she sought an early retirement from the game in 2010.
However, in 2014, she did return to the tennis court before saying a final goodbye two years later but throughout both her stints, she failed to reach a Grand Slam final.
Her husband, Stepanek, on the other hand, had a more successful tennis career, particularly in doubles, winning 18 titles. These include two Grand Slams doubles titles with Leander Paes. Stepanek also won a mixed doubles gold with Lucie Hradecka at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The Czech had a relatively modest singles career but did manage to win six titles, including two at the ATP 500 level. He also reached the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings, with
#2 Flavia Pennetta
Tennis power couple Fabio Fognini and Flavia Pennetta are both considered to be some of the best tennis talents produced by Italy and while the latter sought retirement after winning her first Grand Slam in 2015, the former continues to be a part of the international tennis arena and currently holds the ranking of World No.93.
Fognini has held a career-high singles ranking of World No. 9 and World No.7 in doubles, while his wife has been a former World No.6. Additionally, Pennetta is also the first female Italian tennis player to be a part of the WTA top 10 tennis players in the singles category and the first to secure a World No.1 ranking when it came to doubles.
In addition to the same, Pennetta has won 28 career titles - 17 in the doubles category including the 2011 Australian Open victory and 11 in the singles category which includes the 2015 US Open Championship. Her husband, although a prominent Italian tennis player with seven singles titles and eight in doubles is slightly behind his spouse in terms of the tally.
#1 Roger Federer
Roger Federer married his wife Mirka in 2009 but their love story goes way back to the 2000 Sydney Olympics when the latter too was a professional tennis player and like the Former World No.1, represented her country at the Olympics.
While Federer's name and list of accomplishments have been etched in the history of tennis, his wife had a very modest career.
Federer held the record for the longest time spent as World No.1 before Novak Djokovic surpassed the same, and has won 20 Grand Slam titles including a record eight Wimbledon titles. Additionally, he has 103 ATP singles titles to his name, second only to Jimmy Connors, amongst a list of other achievements.
On the other hand, Mirka has held a career-high ranking of World No.76 and her best performance includes reaching the third round of the US Open in 2001. However, owing to certain injuries, she was forced to seek an early retirement from the sport which disabled her from pursuing tennis any further.
In this regard, her achivements seem pretty modest compared to Federer's. Nevertheless, she continued to be a strong presence in the international tennis arena as Federer's PR manager, support system and guide before the Swiss bid adieu to the same in 2022.