Russia’s most famous sporting couple, tennis player and model Maria Kirilenko and Ice hockey player Alexander Ovechkin are no longer together. Kirilenko apparently called off her relationship with Ovechkin after dating him for three long years. They got engaged two years back.
Kirilenko announced her decision to the media saying that she has terminated her engagement with Ovechkin for a lot of reasons, but she won’t go into any details. She ended her statement saying that she has a lot of respect for Ovechkin as a fellow countryman and athlete and wished him success in all his future endeavors. She now wants to concentrate on her tennis as she has been struggling recently and is currently ranked 109 in the world. Ovechkin who plays for NHL team Washington Capitals was not available for any comments.
The news of this break-up has come as a shock for the people in Russia as they were recently seen together at the Winter Olympics in Sochi where Ovechkin was representing his country in Ice Hockey.
According to some reports in the Russian media, the tennis player dumped Ovechkin because of a photograph which was posted on the social media network, Instagram by noted Russian basketball player Vitaliy Fridzon. In the picture, which was apparently a selfie taken by Fridzon, Ovechkin was seen seated beside Russian gymnast Carolina Sevastyanova in what looked like a helicopter. However, Kirilenko stated that the photo was not the reason for her calling off the engagement.
This latest news comes after the break-up of professional Golf player Rory McIlroy and tennis player Caroline Wozniacki. In this case, it was Rory who called off their relationship just days before their wedding. However, the break-up has done both the players some good as Rory just won the British Open beating players like Tiger Woods while Wozniacki bagged the Istanbul Open tournament which was her first trophy in a long time.