HE WAS the Great White Shark of golf. She the Ice Maiden of tennis. For 15 months, they were married and blissfully happy.
Less than a week ago came the announcement that Greg Norman and wife Chris Evert had split up. It was the Australian's second marriage and the American’s third.
What went wrong, many who heard the news would have asked. What a shame, they seemed so happy, more would have sighed.
But was it really surprising? Were there collective gasps as people heard the news or did shoulders shrug and heads nod in a knowing way?
After all, with the exception of what one colleague calls "a freakish marriage" between Andre and Steffi, it is a struggle to think of successful athlete-athlete unions.
Owen Slot of The Times says such pairings fascinate him. His point is a valid one – successful athletes are inevitably selfish and self-centred.
Even more so when it involves individual sports like golf or tennis where things like teamwork and cooperation are often overlooked.
On the fairways or courts, ambition and success demand a drive that is as narrow and singular as the number one.
Norman spent 331 weeks as the world’s top golfer, winning two Majors. Evert finished the year ranked No.1 five times and her 18 Grand Slams is only bettered by Steffi Graf and Margaret Court.
One incredulous story that has been widely circulated tells of how the pair could not even agree on whose house they were going to live in.
If home is indeed where the heart is, then this absence of affection after 15 months of moving back and forth is perhaps inevitable.
Perhaps dealing with egos both on and off the courts was just too toxic for a happy household.
But there are exceptions. Married life seems to agree with Roger Federer. But that is not surprising – most things, including gravity when hitting a tennis ball, seem to agree with the Swiss ace.
His wife, Mirka Vavrinec, is a former tennis player who now acts as his public relations manager. It is a relationship bereft of domineering personalities and maybe that is what makes a successful marriage.
But having the spotlight shine solely on one partner can be debilitating. Evert's first husband was John Lloyd, a former British tennis player who could not deal with being Mr Chris Evert.
Said his coach Dennis Ralston of the pair's whirlwind engagement: "John was a little awed when he and Chrissie married. He was overwhelmed by it all."
Even fairytale romances between athletes do not have the requisite Hollywood endings. It was love at first sight when American hammer thrower Harold Connolly met Czechoslovakian discus thrower Olga Fikotova at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne.
They married soon after the Games, though not without difficulties. Fikotova was accused of being a traitor by the communist authorities in her country and her marriage to an American spelt the end of her career in Czechoslovakia.
The marriage did not last however and they divorced in 1973.
It was a similar story with American sprinter Marion Jones who married her college track coach C J Hunter in 1998. A drug scandal involving Hunter in the run-up to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney led to cracks in the marriage. The couple divorced two years later with Jones blaming the scandal for their failed marriage.
Often, athletes talk about finding the zone when they excel. Pete Sampras called it "The Gift". When he began his decline he said that it had simply disappeared, not knowing how or why.
Perhaps marriages among athletes are like that. They can only be in that ideal zone for short time before it evades them again.
There are no perfect marriages, no perfect relationships. But some do come close to achieving a perfect score.
Retired gymnast Bart Conner once said of his wife of 13 years Nadia Comaneci: "Most guys brag that their wives are a 10. My wife IS the 10."