Tennis couple Divij Sharan-Samantha Murray enjoy their Wimbledon match-up

They provided a rare occasion of husband and wife entering the mixed doubles draw, winning the first round for good measure

Mumbai: At the previous Wimbledon in 2019, Divij Sharan and Samantha Murray considered signing up in the alternates list for mixed doubles. Sharan though earned a direct entry into the draw alongside China’s Duan Yingying, leaving him with a choice to make. Understandably, he went with one which provided the certainty of playing against leaving it to chance.

Samantha Murray Sharan and Divij Sharan tied the knot soon after the 2019 Wimbledon. (Twitter)

“After some teams pulled out, Sam and I figured that we could’ve got in as alternates,” Sharan said. “So this time we were like, ‘It doesn’t matter, if we don’t get in, that’s fine. But we’ll sign together’.”

They signed together, played together, won together, lost together.

Sharan and Samantha—now Samantha Murray Sharan after the two tied the knot soon after the 2019 Wimbledon—became the first married couple to play mixed doubles at Wimbledon in three decades, and the first to win a match in more than four decades, after they got into the draw as alternates. Playing together for the first time, the husband-wife pair defeated Ariel Behar and Galina Voskoboeva 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in the opening round. In the second round on Saturday night, they were up a set again before losing 6-3, 6-7(1), 3-6 to 10th seeds Raven Klaasen and Darija Jurak.

The Indian doubles specialist, ranked No. 76, plays most of his tennis on the ATP and Challenger tour while Britain’s Samantha, world No. 185 in doubles, plays on the WTA and ITF circuit. The difference in rankings aside, there’s always limited scope for the Sharans to play together. Only Grand Slams have mixed doubles on the professional tour. The opportunity came at this Wimbledon.

“We wanted to play together for a long time now. It was great to play with her and to just share the court with her,” Sharan said.

The last time a married couple played the mixed doubles was at the 1991 Wimbledon, Robert Seguso and Carling Bassett losing in the opening round. You’d have to rewind further back for the last husband-wife duo to win a match at the grass-court slam. Raz Reid and Kerry Melville—like the Sharans—won their first round before losing in the second in 1978.

What has become rare in modern tennis used to be common until a few decades ago. At the 1968 Wimbledon, there were 13 married couples in the draw of 128. “In the pre-Open Era, it was common for married couples to enter the mixed doubles and this continued even into the first half of the 1970s. However by late 1970s it had become rare,” Robert McNicol, the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club’s librarian who works in the Kenneth Ritchie Wimbledon Library, said over email.

What isn’t rare is for Sharan and Samantha to have a hit together. After being together for eight years, they got married in 2019. The newly-weds spent a few months of the lockdown last year cooped up in their Manchester house, playing a bit of backyard tennis with each other and resuming training once the courts reopened.

Chemistry and camaraderie between partners are key ingredients for a sweet doubles recipe. Sharan and Samantha had plenty of that on court for a first-time pair.

“It wasn’t new for me. We speak to each other a lot, follow each other’s games even when we’re far apart, know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, practice together whenever we get a chance. So we have that understanding. More importantly, we have mutual support—that we’re backing each other no matter what happens on court. That can sometimes be missing when you play with somebody new,” Sharan said.

And much like at home, communication was two-way on court. “She would generally call the play on her service game, while I would on mine. If we had a suggestion, we shared it. We have good understanding that way. We’re not fixed on things, are open to suggestions and are both pretty equal,” he said.