Arthur 'wished her luck' and 'shyly asked for a selfie'...and the rest is history, Hollywood-style
WIMBLEDON winner and former world number one tennis star Garbiñe Muguruza has stunned her followers by announcing plans to marry her partner of two years – and sent many fans into a frenzy of daydreaming.
Left: Garbiñe Muguruza playing in Birmingham, UK, in 2017 - the year she became WTA world number one (photo: EFE); right: Garbiñe and future husband Arthur Borges on the last day of their holiday at the beginning of this year (photo: Garbimuguruza on Instagram)
Almost everyone on earth has imagined, at least once, a scenario where their celebrity crush falls in love with them and they end up together, but for practically all of these avid fans, the chances of this ever happening are virtually nil.
For Arthur Borges, though, this fairytale ending is his real life.
The New Yorker spotted Garbiñe, now 29, leaving her hotel in the Big Apple in August 2021, and shouted to her, “good luck in the US Open!”
Garbiñe agreed to take a selfie with him, and the story from that point onwards sounds identical to a Hollywood blockbuster script.
“When I saw him, I was left thinking, what a handsome guy!” the half-Spanish, half-Venezuelan prodigy revealed.
“After that, we began to really connect. We went for walks together every day in Central Park.
“Yes, it's very romantic, that's true. We were instantly attracted to each other; it was totally unexpected, happening just like that when we crossed paths in the street.”
Her views on Arthur's attractiveness turned out not to be entirely subjective – he works as a model, and at the time, was under contract to Tom Ford.
But Garbiñe had no idea about that when they first met.
Two pictures of the happy couple, from Garbiñe's Instagram account (garbimuguruza)
“He loves tennis, and when he wished me luck, he was very shy,” she recalls.
In a whirlwind romance, Arthur Borges decided to leave his entire life in New York behind and move to Geneva, Switzerland, where Garbiñe has lived since 2016.
And last month, he proposed to her in the traditional manner – on one knee, ring in box – at the Marbella Club Hotel on the Costa del Sol.
Arthur had prepared a romantic evening, candlelit dinner under a tree, and asked her hand in marriage between courses.
They will marry in summer 2024 'on or near a beach, and in Spain', says Garbiñe in an interview with national broadsheet El Mundo, because 'this is the place that brought us together'.
Although living in New York, Arthur Borges was born in the Canary Islands, to one Spanish and one Finnish parent, and grew up in Finland.
Who is Garbiñe Muguruza? Wimbledon winner and world number one in same year
Six-foot-tall (1.82m) Garbiñe's mum Scarlet Blanco is Venezuelan and met her Basque father José Antonio Muguruza – from Azcoitia, Guipúzcoa province – when he moved to Caracas.
Garbiñe with Arthur, her biggest fan (photo: garbimuguruza on Instagram)
Garbiñe was born there, in the Venezuelan capital, in October 1993, then the family moved to Guatire in the Venezuelan State of Miranda when she was still a baby.
She started playing tennis in the Guatire area aged three, and the family moved to Barcelona when she was six.
Garbiñe, as a professional WTA player, has always represented Spain, where she grew up and where her father is from, although she holds joint Spanish and Venezuelan nationality.
Her trainer, Conchita Martínez – one half of the legendary women's doubles 'dream team' of the 1990s along with Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, a Wimbledon winner herself and the first Spanish woman to reach the finals at the All England Club since Lilí de Álvarez in 1928 – was described as 'completely unworried' when her prodigy faced the formidable Venus Williams in the last match of the tournament in 2017.
By then, she knew her pupil had nothing to fear either, and Garbiñe became the first Spanish woman to clinch the Wimbledon singles title since Conchita herself in 1994, when she beat Martina Navratilova.
Garbiñe with her Wimbledon trophy in 2017 - the first Spanish female to win the singles title after her own trainer, Conchita Martínez, beat Martina Navratilova in 1994, and the first Spanish woman to win at all since 1995, when Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario clinched the doubles title (photo: EFE)
Garbiñe soared to WTA world number one in September that year, giving Spain a female and a male first-class player on the same day for the first time ever, as Rafael Nadal was ATP world number one at that moment.
Currently, Garbiñe is at number 168, but this is likely to change once the season gets well under way.
Her main sponsors are Adidas, Babolat, Rolex, Caser, and BBVA, making her the first sportswoman to be an ambassador for the latter bank at world level.
She has two elder brothers, Asier and Igor Muguruza, who are retired professional tennis players.
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