A Tennis Match That Ended At Love

With small clay court tournaments in Bastad, Stuttgart, Prague, and Palermo failing to capture much interest in tennis circles last week, the sport's focus turned to the steps of a church in the Czech Republic.

And on those steps of St. Vitus Cathedral, Nicole Vaidisova and Radek Stepanek posed for an endless number of photographs, having just been wed in their county's largest cathedral.

The two had actually previous obtained a marriage license several years ago in Florida, but when asked insisted it was a joke.  You know, one of those joke marriage licenses.

The two dated at very different times in their careers.  During their courtship, Stepanek led the Czech Republic to the Davis Cup final, and made the second week of grand slams several times. Stepanek had had similar success while dating his previous fiancee, Czechoslovak-born Martina Hingis.  The two broke up shortly before Hingis' positive test results at Wimbledon were revealed.

Vaidisova, however, seemed to enter a complete tailspin at roughly the same time she and Stepanek got together. 

Vaidisova was a prodigy, and won two WTA titles in 2004 when she was only fifteen.  Though she was two-time grand slam semifinalist who reached #7 in the WTA rankings in 2007, Vaidisova's career fell apart spectacularly in 2009.  That year, her ranking fell over 150 spots during the year, lowlighted by a loss in the first round of qualifying at Stanford to #576 Stacey Tan by the score of 6-2, 6-1.

The slump was also attributed to the fact that Vaidisova stopped being coached by her stepfather, but it can still be fairly said that dating Stepanek did nothing to improve her game.

After losing in qualifying at the 2009 US Open, Vaidisova stayed and cheered her fiancee from his box, appearing visibly angered any time that television cameras showed her.  She seemed to want to be known as nothing more than Stepanek's girlfriend, perhaps embarrassed by the enormous tumble her career had taken.

Though still only 21, Vaidisova announced her retirement from the sport in May, after her streaks of horrendous play saw her ranking fall outside the top 400.

It hasn't been confirmed yet if Nicole will change her last name to Stepankova, or if she will keep her maiden name.  Though seeing how few ventures she has going on right now independantly and how much she seems to enjoy simply being a part of Radek's life, I'm guessing Nikki V is now telling her friends to call her Nikki S.