With Emma Radukanu Carlos Alcaraz sits side by side in separate chairs, with two armrests forming a barrier between them. It was mid-June, and the US open organizer asked the former singles champion (now doubles partner) to create social media videos to help promote the tournament’s new mixed doubles event. They are faced with producers sitting on camera off camera.
First question: What do they choose in coin toss for the US open match? The producer counts down the time. 3, 2, 1. In these three seconds, Carlos, wearing black shorts and a black sweatshirt, is shy and nervous about Emma. He then looks down at his clenched hands. Emma shaking the camera, wearing a royal blue sweatshirt with her straight black hair drawn into her ponytail.
“Tail,” says Radkanu. At the same time, Carlos calls him “Heads.” They doubled and laughed.
The USTA hopes to spark interest in mixed doubles, moving the event a week before the main tournament and invited players to sign up for top singles. At Crisis: Grand Slam Trophy and $1 million prize money. Carlos texts Emma’s moment after his agent got the new form of words and asks her to be his partner. It took Emma a few days before he said yes. “I started keeping them on my toes,” she said. And now, a few days later, they’re making a video together.
“I had a question,” Carlos says. “If you get a coin toss, what would you choose?”
Emma looks at him. smile.
“I’ll let you choose.”
Carlos laughs back at her.
“Are all the pressures on me?” he says.
Emma’s smile. Her eyes become wrinkled.
The video has 3.2 million views on Instagram. Both the 22-man and Grand Slam champions, Carlos and Emma are two of the biggest stars of tennis. Born in Canada to a Chinese mother and Romanian father before moving to the UK in Canada, Emma first won her first- and so far at the US Open when she was 18 in 2021. They have always said they are just friends, but they want to believe there is something more in a growing community.
“Okay, when will there be a wedding,” commented on the video.
“Is Carlos’ smile bigger than usual?”
And my favourite: “We all know, we all see it, we all feel it. Love is in the courts.”
Welcome to the world where passionate fans play matchmakers to their favorite characters and unquestionable celebrities. Tennis is their latest stage.
Alcaraz and Raducanu are at the heart of the movement as fans break down any shared look, words and laughter. Fans are flooded with Reddit with thousands of posts and comments. According to Google’s trends, the query “Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu” rose 2,250% in search interests around the world over the past 90 days, peaking when it appeared on July 6th to watch him play at Wimbledon.
All this interest sparked a search for answers: why is the world so invested in celebrity relationships? What about Carlos and Emma, who have their fans rooted in the union? And is it important to know if it’s real or imagined?
The term ship, This was born out of the relationship between the words that first appeared in internet fandom terminology in the late 1990s. It is used to express the desire for two fictional or real people to enter a romantic relationship. Soon, the phrase “One True Pailing” is known as OTP.
But even in front of the internet, magazines provided a way for readers to consume news about celebrities and their love interests. Covering the photos with big hearts around two famous actors, for example, people’s magazines in groups of friends, sparking readers’ imaginations and conversations.
Think John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. Fans of the “Forbidden Fruit” tropes looked for clues to all the interaction between the two. After Monroe played “Happy Birthday Mr. President” on his 45th birthday at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, rumors of scandalous events between the stunning actress and the 35th American president reached its peak.
In the tennis world decades before Emma and Carlos became popular OTPs, fans widely shipped the American star and Jimmy Connors in 1972, when they were secretly dating. Then, in 1974, after they got engaged, fans were delighted. When they cut off their engagement a few weeks before their wedding in the same year, it was for the couple and fans – it came to a sad end.
At the same time, fans of “Brady Bunch” speculated about Barry Williams (Greg Brady) and Maureen McCormick (Malcia Brady). Fans then took root with Anthony Geary and Ginny Francis (Luke and Laura from General Hospital) and Olivia Newton John and John Travolta (Sandy and Danny from Grease) to bring on-screen romance into real life.
In the 1990s, World Wide Web became a shipper’s heaven. Fans had to wait for parties and conventions to talk about their favourite ships. There was a collective space open around the clock for fans around the world to discuss and analyze all the moves with their favorite pairs. Websites such as Six Degrees and LiveJournal provided platforms to connect.
For many shippers, declaring an OTP was not sufficient. They stopped taking pictures. They edited the video. Sometimes the pairing was so powerful that it caused a book length story. Enter your fan fiction.
Fanfiction is not a new phenomenon. About five or two hundred years before Emma and Carlos were born, humans loved to expand the story. Homer’s “The Iliad,” an oral poem featuring Greek gods, influenced Virgil’s “Aeneid,” which united the Roman and Greek myths. Shakespeare draws inspiration from real-life heroes and writes historical plays.
Modern fanfic can trace it to “Star Trek.” Fans began to expand the lives and relationships of characters such as Captain Kirk and Spock, and began publishing texts and artworks that drew inspiration from the original content. In 1967, fans published the fanzine “Spokkanaria,” which included the first modern iteration of fan fiction. They mailed Jin to other fans and sold it at science fiction conventions.
Even in the 1990s and 2000s, the fanfic community focused primarily on fictional characters. The discussion and name mash about Harry Potter flourished. Some Potterheads saw the possibility on Harry and Draco Malfoy’s ships and called it “Drary.” Emma Watson (Hermione) and Tom Felton (Draco) sent fans into the rabbit hole with on-screen chemistry of crackling. The “Dramione” ship was revitalized when Watson admitted in a 2011 interview that he had made a big crush on Felton. At one point, both actors called each other “soulmates.” (They never dated to many Potterhead crap.) Both ships sparked a reem of thought-provoking narratives.
“It may not be JK Rowling or even someone whose character is meant to be this romantic or sexual tension and charm,” says Abigail de Kosnik, an associate professor of UC Berkeley, who has expertise in popular culture.
“The characters themselves came out like this on the page or on the screen, or the actors playing the characters had so many natural chemistry that fans are aware of the subtext under the dialogue.”
The same applies to real-life celebrities. In 2013, Anna Todd wrote a prominent early fan fiction called “After.” Based on Boy Band One Direction, it was published on Wattpad, a website dedicated to Fanfic’s publication.
Today, websites such as Wattpad, AO3, and Celebrity Story Library thrive with fanfic writers who publish regular content.
AO3 has 3,825 published titles under the tennis fandom. At Watpad, Carlos and Emma’s fanfic has tens of thousands of readers. Sometimes the writer ships them together. Sometimes they are shipped together with another tennis player. Sometimes, the purpose of their desires is a name that only makes sense to the writer.
Chris Evert is Laughter.
I asked her in many ways – how she treated her in public in the 1970s at the pinnacle of her fame. How did she treat the media speculating about her relationship with Jimmy Connors? How did she treat fans who were in love with Jimmy Connors? I wanted to learn all the details about how she handled the media and how they broke up.
It’s been over 50 years, but she hasn’t thought about it for a long time, she says. And the question brings her to a smile.
“We were number one, we were young, we were up,” Ebert says. “The world was fascinated by it.”
It was more than that. The media portrayed Ever as “the girl next door.” Connors, meanwhile, was a bad boy. Newspapers and magazines called her “sweet little rich girl.” He was a “Street Fighter” and a “Punk.”
Still, it was too good for the public to ignore decades before the girl’s step-order-meets-big-bad-wolf trope became a classic for fanfic writers.
Both generations of talent are ambitious, both young. They wanted to date in 1972 secretly and avoid the media. Then in 1973 they published their relationship and joined in a mixed doubles grand slam event. The speculation has become true. When they competed, even reaching the semi-finals of the US Open Mixed Doubles Championship in 1973, media attention rose. The following year, they both won the Wimbledon Singles title, and the media called the achievement “love double.”
It ended too early.
A news article with the headline “No Love Game” published in the Lexington Herald on July 4, 1975, provided painful details. In it, Ebert revealed that she and Connors had cancelled their engagement the moment they lost to Billy Jean King in the Wimbledon final. According to the story, Connors attended a match with actress Susan George. He later appeared in the semi-finals with red lipstick painted on his cheeks. He brushed off questions about his new relationship with George and called them good friends. Meanwhile, when asked about Connors’ new relationship, Ebert said, “I never thought Jim was dating her. But we broke the engagement, so he has the right to go out with the person he likes.”
Had the relationship been unfolding in 2025, shippers and fan fiction writers would have said a lot. But this was before the internet democratized fandom culture. She had no fan feedback in the way she is currently playing. That’s why she’s grateful.
Are there any similarities between you, Jimmy, Emma and Carlos?
“No, because they don’t have a relationship,” she says.
I laugh. I’m trying to explain to her the shipper, but that doesn’t matter. The key is that they want to make it happen.
“I’m so happy to be in the ’70s, not in this day and age,” she says. “I mean, yes, you’re controversial and you talked no matter what you did.”
Today, many The story of the ship will be held on forums such as Tumblr and Reddit. I created accounts on multiple sites to learn more about the community. On Wednesday, between Adams and Enid Sinclair, between Conrad and Berry in “Summer Now” we found the Emma Raducane Forum, which has over 13,000 members and highly involved in every post, including Carlos and Emma.
“Why are you interested in Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Radukanu?” I titled my post. Below that I explained my inquiry in detail. What about their potential relationships that pique your curiosity?
The responses were posted in 2 hours. Some people called me the loser for chasing non-story and I was called a gossip journalist. One fan asked me to report the story with me and promised to bet Emma and Carlos hotels to reach the bottom of the rumors. Another fan posted a photo of Carlos’ face layered on Emma’s body (such as Wimbledon costume, visor, etc.). Yet another fan has photographed the heart-shaped tennis balls between them, with Emma and Carlos looking at each other and creating painstaking illustrations.
I revised the post:
“To make it completely clear, I am not here to prove the validity of these rumors. I am here to understand why we, as a society, are interested in shipping certain celebrities together, regardless of the truth of the claims. It is to understand our culture, our times, our spirit.”
Comments continued to be included, but the wavelength has changed. One person stood out to me.
“Everything is happening in the world, so everyone is rooting for a good love story,” the fans wrote. “They have both victory at a young age and keeping up with momentum. They are charismatic and look very similar to being able to taste the crowd when they play games.
I contacted the moderator of Radukanusab Reddit, a British Cain Allen who has been following Emma and Carlos since the 2021 US Open Run, and asked him what Reddit trends he noticed in “relationships.” He says a third of Alcalanu Post’s traffic comes from Spain and Asia. He says he notices twice as much comments on their posts.
“Everyone seems to have some kind of opinion. They say, ‘Oh, this is a bull load’ or ‘I’m so excited about this relationship,'” says Allen.
Why they? For example, why are Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud? Or who teams up for Ben Shelton and Taylor Townsend for Open Mixed Doubles in the US?
Allen says he suspects it is a combination of their perceived personality. She is smart, cocky and charming. He is honest, serious and gentleman.
Another big reason, he says: multiculturalism.
“Emma is from all of her natives who was born in Canada and raised in the UK. Her parents in China and Romanians – she could go from the perfect mandarin to Romanians, and she gained fans from all kinds of cultures,” says Allen.
He points out that Alcaraz is a Spaniard with a engaging gaming and a loving desire to learn English. It makes them friendly and likable to fans, he says.
When I scrolled through social media after the phone, I came across fans’ comments about public US posts about Emma and Carlos.
“I want something really bad about this ship.” “They’ll make a good couple.”
Chothie Lot, a The 34-year-old superfan of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reported that he has written 223 fanfiction since 2008 and estimates it to be over 675,000 words across 65 fandoms. So she began writing thousands of words in her golden journal, and began to come up with scenes of how they reconnect, what they would say to each other, and how they would end up together. Her friends invited her to join fanfiction.net and she fell in love with the community. She wrote an original piece and posted it on her website. Slowly, she transitions her work to AO3, enters a superhero fandom, and now bravely reads fanfic based on a superhero ship.
“Shipping costs are my main goal for writing fanfiction,” says Cheyenne. “It’s like mashing your doll together to make them kiss.”
Chaianne’s motivation for writing fanfic comes from the lack of resolution to the romance of the original work.
“We need more,” she says. “I had to know what happened next. If no one told me what happened next, I could have written it.”
The same impulse is also present in RPF (Real People Fiction) writers. Social media has increased visibility among celebrities, but there is a huge amount of information available. So it’s natural for fans to fill in the void with fiction in their own story.
“They write fanfiction because reality is just not offered,” says De Kosnik. “As the storyline is progressing to actually advance, fans create stories, share them with each other and read each other’s stories.”
Like many fanfiction writers, Cheyenne’s story is driven by “tropes.” This is a plot pattern that is comforting and exciting by including your beloved characters.
Cheyanne’s favorite: Slow burns (but there is a determination and time for the couple to “do commonplace things together,” and then there is a kiss.”). Time travel is another of her rich ratios. She loves to send her favourite ships into the past and the future.
My personal favorite? “Golden Retriever/Black Cat” trope. One person in the relationship is a serious and enthusiastic person who chases cold and lonely things.
Xeno, a 27-year-old fanfic writer and reader, says she only shares her name. series. The anime doesn’t have a couple in the series, but the crew (center blocker) and Kenma (setter) show the energy of soulmates fans have spent decades shipping and writing thousands of fanfics.
Trope Xeno responds: They usually have a deep understanding of each other on and off the court, without sharing their thoughts with each other.
It reminds me of Emma and Carlos. Emma and Carlos are teenagers and have been friends ever since. I asked Xeno, who is not part of the tennis fandom, if she would read fanfic on Alcaranu.
“That sounds fascinating to me,” Zeno says.
That’s what enchantment was Palpable. Now I had to test science. I reached out to the psychologist.
Is shipping a kind of a socio-social relationship? Why are we leaning towards that as a society? What happens to your brain when you ship two people out? And finally, why Carlos and Emma?
Alexandra Beth Solomon, a psychologist at Northwestern University and a side social relationship expert, says humans are collectively fascinated by the notion that “they are/is it.” TV shows and film genres explore it. Ted and Robin are in the series “I Met Your Mother,” Luke and Lorelei from “Gilmore Girls,” Ross and Rachel from “Friends,” Eve, Killing Eve, and “Sunset and Celine” from “Sally and Celine from “Harry and Sally.”
“There’s a collective appeal to trying to crack the code of what makes a relationship work,” says Solomon. “Why do you draw them together?”
Solomon reads about Carlos and Emma before our phone call, but she wants me to give her an overview of what I’m observing about them – and hopes I think fans will respond. Their charm of two minutes of elevator pitch, she says.
Carlos Alcaraz is an attractive Spaniard, I’ll start. He rose to the number one ranking in the world in 2022, shocking fans with his incredible shot selection. In conversation with him, I discovered that he was serious and kind. When play stopped during his first round Wimbledon match due to fans getting sick in the heat, Carlos ran with a bottle of water for help. He said in an interview that he would grant Emma the duty of “boss” during their partnership.
Meanwhile, Emma Ladukanu had the US Open Championship for fairy tales in 2021. Fans feel she’s a little lonely. It’s hard to tell her what she’s thinking, and it’s going to be her mysterious, I say. As a couple, there’s something about the seriousness of Carlos and Emma’s loneliness that fans are attracted to. I think their youth, their rise to fame, their global cultural cache will have on everything. It’s finished.
Solomon’s eyes are bulging as I speak. She sits straight and nods violently.
“I was able to feel the changes in my body, like you told me – it feels exciting,” says Solomon. “There’s a neurophysiological, chemical response to the experience of falling in love. So, our collective attraction is that we draft it. That’s how we get that neurophysiological hit on what it is.”
I’ll mention some of the comments I noticed online.
“My heart just skipped the beat.”
“I’ll just kiss you now.”
Solomon has a strong sense of “pure escapism.”
The world is divisive. The political situation is militant. The Internet is a cespool where people scream at each other. It feels like we’re losing the ability to empathize and listen to each other. Against the background, there is something pure about the two of them cheering for them to come together. In particular, the two break through their smiles. A young, multicultural global power couple.
“When you have a serious, confident man telling you, you rush through the desires of women, saying, ‘You’ll be my boss, you’re in charge here,'” Solomon says.
We also ask her towards the end of our conversation to ship the form of parasocial relationships.
Solomon says.
“I feel attracted and invested in the events of public figures’ lives, and my knowledge of their world connects me to them,” says Solomon.
And, in the end, if Emma and Carlos romantically find their way to each other, fans feel the height of helpers, she says. Just as they knew something even before they both understood it themselves.
You can have fun Please show me your appearance. Some fans go from wanting something to be true to trying to prove something is true. They become online detectives.
“Fans feel really smart when they get the subtext, they feel like they are involved in something very secretive and special.
The video will play. The photo will be displayed and enlarged. Social media posts are analyzed and analyzed. The shipper draws a conclusion.
“He’s definitely in love with her,” one fan posted. “I think that’s very obvious.”
“They are destined for each other,” another wrote.
One fanfic writer could not resist the video that Carlos texted Emma and asked him to become his mixed doubles partner. “Even though all the crumbs over the years, I have tried to actively ship them, but they keep pulling me with such an antics. STOPPP! Let’s put AO3 days behind me.”
De Cosnic believes Emma and Carlos know what their “attitude” is doing. Emma was asked at a press conference about the appeal of the internet to Alcalanu. “We’re happy the internet is enjoying it and we’re offering some entertainment to everyone,” she said. It hit de Kosnik as a familiar reaction.
“It’s a great answer because it’s very meta and I don’t accept or deny it,” says De Kosnik. “She’s laughing. ‘I’m going to treat it like an internal joke between us,” making fans feel like she’s pretty much in the theory of conspiracy with them. ”
However, not all the interests shown to Emma are harmless on the Internet either. At the Dubai Tennis Championship this February, she walked to the referee’s umpire midway through the second round match, appearing to hold the railing for support. She had noticed a man in the stand who had come close to her twice in Dubai and had been exhibiting “elaborate behavior” towards her by taking her to tournaments in Doha, Singapore and Abu Dhabi in the previous weeks. The man was kicked out, taken into custody by police and later issued a restraining order. I asked De Kosnik if there was a continuum from shippers to fanfic writers to stalkers. Can one connect to the other?
“Unfortunately, transport and stalking are completely different, despite the sad truth that some stalkers choose to steal celebrities,” says De Kosnik. “Because (not) mentally healthy people can spend too much time stalking them on the internet.”
International speaker, author and stalker survivor Anna Nassett emphasizes differences in intention.
“A fanfiction artist or author is someone who enjoys celebrating celebrities and creating interesting stories in another universe about them,” she says. “A stalker is someone who is motivated to fear, threaten, harass, or harm.”
After years of studying fandom culture, De Cosnick believes that fans use shipping and fan fiction as a meaningful way to interact with celebrities. When fans “meet” Carlos and Emma, they downloaded figuratively low ls images to their brains. All the facts they learned about the two tweaking their understanding until they got a high quality image. That one high quality image has been transformed into an entire album. The need to share and compare albums is human nature. According to her, progression is healthy.
“So instead of trying to force a romance between two real people, it’s really beautiful when fans play with little dolls people have made,” De Kosnik says. “And they do this little puppet show for each other, then they like to watch each other’s puppet shows, do you know?”
She sat down balcony. He rolled into court. A few days after the US Open announced its attractive mixed doubles partnership, Radkanu attended the Alcalaz semi-finals at the Queens Club Championship in London.
“I’m pleased that she came to support me to watch my match,” Alcaraz said after winning the 250th tour-level match of his career. “I’m glad I took her to the stands.”
He added that he watches her game on TV whenever he can.
In one interview, Radukanu explained that his history with Alkaraz paved the way for their present.
“When you’re a little more known or a little more successful, you realize you’re coming back to someone you’ve known since you were younger, because it’s really busy and you have more friends, so it’s a real, real connection.
A few weeks later, she came back to watch him play. This time at Wimbledon.
Since then, Raducanu has been in the US and has played hard court tournaments ahead of the US Open. Alcaraz is now crossing the Atlantic.
I reached out to his manager to see if I could ask him my one burning question. He wanted to help, but said Alcaraz would not have interviewed him during the hard court season.
I contacted the WTA to see if I could ask Raducanu one question. “Maybe tomorrow,” they said first. “Maybe next week,” they said later. Now they are silent.
Tennis’ most pressing romantic storyline remains unresolved. Radukanu and Alkaraz will take the court for the first time on Tuesday to turn the pasture into a shipper’s paradise. However, last week, Alcaraz reached the final at the Cincinnati Open, with the weather pushing back the match against Janik Sinner until Monday afternoon. Can he do it in New York in time for mixed doubles? Do they play together? Are they a couple? Drama Crescendo.
“Before the music starts”
Sports journalist Luna Rhodes Cup, wearing a long black sleeveless summer dress, cups a cucumber mint mocktail as she heads to the VIP suite at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The US is just days before the Open Mixed Doubles Championship, and she is assigned at a Cold Play concert. Her dress has pockets. Inside is her trusty recorder. She is assigned to learn more about the celebrity couples, Carlos and Emma.
At a press conference earlier that day before the tournament, Emma mentioned plans to rest in the evening. Luna got the hint that Carlos wanted to attend the concert. She made calculated guesses and bought tickets for the Cold Play concert that night.
The suite leads to the VVIP section. Her tickets don’t give her access to the area, but she never followed the rules. She opens the curtains. She breathes.
Carlos Alcaraz sits on a cushion of love. He wears a white dress shirt. Next to him is Emma Radukane, a stunning red dress.
Carlos essentially jumps up. Emma stays where she is. Carlos roams, recognizing the long-standing Luna who has covered his career. “Luna,” he says. “How did you know I was here?”
Luna answers her questions. “So… what’s going on here?” she asks. Carlos turns and looks at Emma. He shakes his head and giggles.
“I’ve been busted,” he said with a shrug.
Emma raises her eyebrows and sighs. She walks to Carlos and playfully slaps him in the arm. “Yeah, Carlos, jokester,” she says. “Find a seat.”
Together they take a walk towards the far end door of the suite.
Luna takes the final bite of her mocktail. She puts it down, turns and rushes through the way she came. She has a story to write.