Garbine Muguruza has announced she is getting married to her long-time partner, who she met in unusual circumstances in a chance encounter.
Muguruza shot to fame when she won the French Open in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2017. The 29-year-old Spanish player was world number one after her triumph at Wimbledon, but has fallen down the rankings in recent years.
But while her fortunes on the court have experienced a downturn, Muguruza has enjoyed her time off the court. While in New York in August 2021 she met Arthur Borges, who stopped her on the street to ask for a selfie.
"My hotel was close to Central Park and I was bored, so I thought I should go for a walk,” Muguruza explained. "I go out and I run into him on the street. Suddenly, he turns and says, 'Good luck at the US Open.' I was left thinking, 'Wow, he's so handsome.'"
Borges works as a model and was in New York to work for top-end label Tom Ford. He has over 10,000 followers on Instagram but was star-struck by Muguruza, who was still ranked No3 in the world at the end of 2021.
They began seeing each other after that fateful first meeting and, after nearly two years, Borges popped the question in Marbella, Spain. Muguruza announced their engagement to her 881,000 Instagram followers with a picture of them alongside the caption: “You had me at ‘Hello’.”
Speaking about the proposal, she added: "It felt weird. I was thinking something else and then when he proposed I started crying. I didn't know how to react. I said yes in the midst of tears, it was very romantic."
No date has been set yet, but the couple plan on getting married near the beach in the near future.
Muguruza was born in Venezuela but represents Spain and feels she has a connection with her husband-to-be because he was born in Spain but grew up in Finland. "He's a mix, like me. I'm half-Venezuelan and half-Spanish, so we understand each other,” he said. "We share that feeling of being citizens of the world."
Muguruza has only played four matches in 2023, dropping to No168 in the WTA rankings as a result. After losing to Czech teenager Linda Noskova in the first round of the Lyon Open in February, she announced her decision to take a break from competing.
"Spending time with family and friends and it's really been healthy and amazing, so I am going to lengthen this period till summer,” she wrote on social media. “Therefore I am going to miss [the] clay and grass season.”
Muguruza won her first Grand Slam title aged just 22, beating Serena Williams at Roland Garros in 2016. She backed that triumph up a year later, overcoming Venus Williams at Wimbledon to announce herself as a fully-fledged star of women's tennis.
