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The Death Of The Athlete Power Couple, Or Why We Want To See Rory McIlroy Hook Up With Caroline Wozniacki

The athlete power couple is a dying breed. Sure, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf are still going strong, but they haven’t been relevant since 2001. Nomar and Mia? Too G-rated, and no longer active. Maria Sharapova and Sasha Vujacic? Kinda douchey, right?

It’s time for a changing of the guard. We need a new athlete power couple, because the world secretly wishes it was a giant high school, where the cute captain of the golf team dates the cute captain of the tennis team (we know this version of the world’s high school sounds like a boarding school in New Hampshire, but stay with us). We’re all separated from each other by geography and our jobs and the socially isolated internet worlds we create for ourselves. So when something happens in real life that could have happened on a Teen Nick show, like a star guy athlete dating a star girl athlete, it feels nice, even if we don’t necessarily want to admit it.

Which is why this is news: a London-based tennis blogger dining out at All Bar One (apparently the U.K. equivalent of Applebee’s) recently witnessed tennis “It” girl and world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki breaking bread with 22-year-old U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy.

If the subtly-obtained visual documentation is any indication, things looked to be getting pretty intimate. In one image, the two can be seen sitting side-by-side at a table, and in the other, they’re sharing a kiss outside. Something is most definitely in the air, and it’s not just the smell of Cumberland sausage and mash (or whatever they serve at the UK version of Applebee’s).

McIlroy, who famously told all that he had to “beg” to get ex-girlfriend Holly Sweeney back after breaking up with her prior to the start of the 2011 season, is now a single man according to his management company.

The two called it quits (again) before the British Open, which could go a long way in explaining the young Irishman’s shoddy performance last week — that is if you subscribe to the whole WAGS-affecting-athlete-performance philosophy.

After the Open, McIlroy hopped on a train to London, where Caro was doing a photo shoot for sponsors Adidas and Stella McCartney.

The two met at Wimbledon last month and have since been doing some not-so-subtle flirting via Twitter. Exhibit A:

Note the excessive use of emoticons, which everyone knows is how you show that you’re interested, without appearing interested. It’s a total high school move. And if McIlroy and Wozniacki are indeed starting something here, and we get to watch their slightly clunky courtship continue to play out on Twitter, and in Applebee’s, the world would be happy. Even if it doesn’t want to admit it.