Center Courtship
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Does love off-court help eliminate loves on-court? Or is it, like endorsement deals and outrageous court apparel, just another distraction from the game?
Those are some of the questions asked by the new movie, “Wimbledon,” which opens Friday. (If you watched the Open on television, you already know this, since advertisements for the movie aired virtually every commercial break.)
In the film, Paul Bettany plays Peter Colt, a once-promising British tennis player (he used to be 11th in the world) who has fallen to the bottom of the rankings. Colt is set to play Wimbledon, his last tournament, before retiring. But there he meets and begins dating Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst), the hotshot rising star of women’s tennis – its Maria Sharapova, if you will – and he suddenly rises in the rankings.
Now, everyone knows England only has one tennis star of note. Tim Henman has enjoyed what all agree is the best year of his career, having reached the semifinal round in both the French Open and the U.S. Open. And the story of a national hero winning Wimbledon on his home court could only be inspired by the yearly dramas played out in the London newspapers every time Henman steps onto the court.
Is this an example of life imitating art, commercial synergy, or just coincidence?
I asked the tennis player, who is notoriously protective of his privacy, whether he thought the movie was at all based on him. “I don’t know,” he replied, before conceding, with a smile, “Don’t think I’ll be watching it either.” Why not? “Not my type of story line,” he smirked. It was unclear if he was referring to the cutesy British romance – the film is produced by the same people who brought us “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Notting Hill” – or his generally anxious relationship with Wimbledon.
For the record, Henman has been married since 1999 – to a non-tennis-playing television producer – and has a one year daughter. And any number of tennis romances would have been better inspiriting for the movie’s love story. First in any list are Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert: The two were engaged to be married when they both won championships at Wimble don in 1974. In fact, Evert appears in “Wimbledon” playing herself.
More recently, there’s Lleyton Hewitt and girlfriend Kim Clijsters, a couple that is well-versed in the game’s ups and downs. The two players began dating in 1999. After the lesser-known Clijsters rose to the number-one ranking, Hewitt began to flounder. Now Hewitt’s back among the men’s top four players, while Ms. Clijsters is sidelined with a wrist injury.
And Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf – though the former is in his final years and the latter long retired – are the current king and queen of the game.