Russian tennis players Anastasia Potapova and Alexander Shevchenko have been together for over six months now. Their budding love life has done wonders to their careers, as both have experienced meteoric rise in the recent period.
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The 22-year-old Potapova, currently occupying a career-high ranking of No.22, followed up her run to the Miami Open quarterfinals with the semifinals at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. Most recently, she made the third round of Roland Garros, her best performance so far at the clay-court Grand Slam. Shevchenko, also 22, reached his career-high ranking of No.84 last month and made his Grand Slam main-draw debut in Paris where he lost in the second round.
Besides crediting her strong team led by former ATP player Igor Andreev, Potapova explains that having a supportive boyfriend constantly by her side helps considerably:
It’s really helpful to have someone who can support you, not just on your team, but someone you’re close to. He’s someone who not only knows tennis but also wants what is best for you. Even if I play like shit, he’s still going to support me, so that’s very nice to have someone like this on the tour. He understands.
Tennis couples usually struggle to match their busy schedules and constant travels make their relationships long-distance. Potapova is happy that her story is different, as the Russians are somehow succeeding in finding a lot of time for each other:
Obviously, I didn’t know how it was going to work because scheduling in tennis is never easy. But somehow we’ve been able to manage it and in fact, it’s like we’ve spent every week together and we see each other a lot, which is a very good thing.
For more stories about the love lives of tennis stars, visit my WTA Players and their Love Partners page.
