Katie Boulter and boyfriend Alex de Minaur partner for the mixed ...

Boulter and De Minaur – who reached the finals at Queen’s, narrowly losing out 6-4 6-4 to the Spanish wunderkind Carlos Alcaraz – have clearly sparked the zeitgeist. Since the other tennis-playing couple in the tournament, the comparatively new (in relationship-terms), Stefanos Tsitsipas (known as ‘the Greek God’) and Paula Badosa have also partnered up for mixed doubles. They’ve reportedly already declared oneanother as ‘soul mates’. It seems that life partners are turning into tennis partners (interestingly, Tsitipas will also be playing doubles alongside his brother Petros Tsitsipas).

Of course, this is wonderful, wonderful, not to mention romantic news – and their respective matches will be a field day for the paps. Although ex-professional Laura Robson, the Brit who conquered Junior Wimbledon in 2008 (and Boulter’s former Putney housemate), admitted: ‘I think I would struggle to play with my boyfriend purely because you get frustrated if they miss the ball and they probably don't want to hear any constructive criticism,’ adding what a coup it was to have De Minaur (World No 17) and Tsitsipas (World No 5) in the mixed doubles draw this year. ‘I think they're just gonna enjoy themselves and hopefully give us some Instagrammable moments,’ she beamed on Eurosport.

Indeed, isn't the age old adage, never to mix business and pleasure? And aren’t they defying the recommendations laid out by Billie Jean King and Fred Stolle in their 1980 book, How to play Mixed Doubles: the Tactics and Techniques for a Solid, Winning Partnership, where they outline that doubles played by married couples – which we can extend to those in a relationship – ‘can be a risky proposition’.

‘The two major culprits seem to be the husband or wife who is overly or overtly critical, and those spouses who are extremely sensitive to signs of disapproval from their mates,’ the two tennis champions, King and Stolle, wrote, in a section picked up by The New York Times in 1982. ‘The fireworks that invariably ignite when these players take the court are directly related to the familiaritybreeds-contempt syndrome, the you-always-hurt-the-one-you-love syndrome, or both.’ But – this book was written over 40 years ago. Before Boulter, De Minaur, Tsitsipas and Badosa were even born, and before couples’ counselling went mainstream.