Is it just me, or does tennis make everyone feel a little… frisky? There was definitely something in the Pimm’s at Wimbledon. On Saturday, Anya Taylor-Joy was papped making out non-stop with her husband Malcom McRae, while mum-to-be Margot Robbie actually licked her husband Tom Ackerley’s nose at one point. And it’s far from the first time the All England Lawn Tennis Club has been the scene of some A-list snogging.
Last summer, we had Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom, Romeo Beckham and Mia Regan, and Cara Delevingne and Minke all playing tonsil tennis in the Royal Box. It’s also served as the location for some memorable relationship hard-launches: in 2022, Alexa Chung was spied kissing Tom Sturridge while sitting one row behind his ex, Sienna Miller, while in 2021, the surprise couple of that summer, Phoebe Dynevor and Pete Davidson, made their love official. The love-in isn’t confined to Wimbledon, either, with Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet also confirming their romance by canoodling at the US Open in 2023.
This air of transgression extends to mere mortals, too, with The Telegraph reporting in 2023 that the “Quiet Room”—an area at the All England Lawn Tennis Club with booths fitted with arm chairs and signs that can be flipped to say “occupied”—was being used for highly unofficial sporting action. Locals have also complained of people having sex in tents while camping on Wimbledon Common ahead of the Queue opening, with some putting up signs saying, “Game, Sex and Match... NO THANKS. Anti-social behaviour such as drugs, booze and sex parties will not be tolerated. Police patrol this area regularly and you have been warned. Thanks for your consideration. Enjoy the tennis!”
It’s certainly not what you’d expect from spectators at one of sport’s most refined and rule-bound games. After all, it’s the only sport where the crowd must sit in silence during play, and when you aren’t allowed to move from your seat until the end of a game, a bit like you’re in the theater. At Wimbledon, there’s also a dress code in place (no torn jeans, please) and a degree of gentility surrounding everything from the snacks (strawberries and cream) to the Queue (with a capital Q). It even extends to the players, who must wear entirely white uniforms.
So why the naughtiness? “It’s the clash of the two personalities that makes it sexy,” shares Nina Parker, chef and avid tennis fan. “There is a lot to be said for the big four rivalry of Murray, Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer. The battles they have fought over the last 20 years together have made the sport more exciting.”
“I think it’s down to the passion of the game,” agrees Fabio Molle, creator of the Functional Tennis Saber. “There’s passion on the court and off the court. They follow the sun and play in the best locations, and there’s a certain glamour to that—Monaco, Paris, even London—you have crowds with famous people, the Royal Box. Even the whites—it looks good!” It’s no wonder that the players themselves are hot for each other too. “You hear stories, definitely stuff goes on,” continues Molle. “They’re traveling and in hotel rooms all the time, but there are only certain weeks of the year when they’re all together for the tournaments.”
Katie Boulter and Alex de Minaur are tennis’s It couple of the moment, but in the past, there’s been Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas, Maria Sharapova and Grigor Dimitrov, and Kim Clijsters and Lleyton Hewitt. The archetypal tennis love story is that of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, still married after more than 20 years. But the one most ripe for a Hollywood retelling is that of Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert, who, after meeting when they both won Wimbledon in 1974, swiftly became engaged, before ending things when Connors turned up to Evert’s match with another woman.
In fact, that tale has echoes of the menage-à-trois at the center of the hot film of the year, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, starring Zendaya as tennis’s hot young thing, with Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist as the two up-and-comers competing for her attention. Full of pumping music, slow-mos of dripping sweat, and plenty of innuendo, it required cinema-goers to cool off with a cold shower after viewing. It’s far from the first time that films have used tennis as the backdrop to sexual intrigue, either: just look at 2005’s erotic thriller Match Point, starring Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
Perhaps we can lay blame at the feet of the players. Of course, like all professional athletes, they are incredibly hot. But it’s not just their bulging muscles (remember Rafael Nadal’s left bicep?), it’s their long limbs (the men are often over six feet, and the women tall as supermodels) and their tanned glow (from training year-round in warm climates). Then there’s the sound effects. You know what I’m talking about: the rhythmic grunting and groaning, the oohing and ahhing—so incendiary that bosses have attempted to ban it, to no avail. It’s enough to get anyone a little hot under the collar. Especially when they’re all wearing teeny, tiny shorts or flirty little tennis skirts. We’ve all seen that famous photograph of Fiona Walker cheekily showing off her bare bottom while lifting her tennis skirt—taken by her boyfriend in the long, hot summer of 1976.
Then there’s the fact that so many of its superstars have had a bad-boy edge (read: sweary and sometimes poor sports), including John McEnroe, Andy Roddick, Nick Kyrgios, and Boris Becker (though it should be noted that the latter two have been convicted of actual criminal behavior). Even Andy Murray was known for being a bit of a dour sourpuss back in his youth. “On the men’s side, you get your Matteo Berrettinis and Grigor Dimitrovs, who women tend to love,” concedes Molle.
It is hardly surprising then that a new generation of influencers and tennis WAGs are capitalizing on the sexiness of the sport. Just look at all the attention Morgan Riddle (340k followers)—girlfriend of player Taylor Fritz—has had in recent weeks, with the New York Times dubbing her “the most famous woman in men’s tennis” for her glamorous life alongside her beau. Then there’s tennis-playing influencer Madison Appel (103k followers), who wrote in a recent Instagram caption that tennis is “a hot girl sport where I can wear mini skirts and earn as much as men.”
When you put it all together—the enforced silence, the decorum, the fresh white outfits, the tanned muscular limbs and the sex noises—it’s really no wonder there are so many balls flying around.