Caroline Wozniacki and Rory McIlroy announce engagement

Danish tennis player proposed to by Northern Irish golfer while they watched new year fireworks over Sydney harbour bridge

http://www.theguardian.com

Sport's highest profile romantic couple have seen in 2014 with a bang, an enormous diamond – and a message tweeted to their millions of followers on social media. Golfer Rory McIlroy and tennis player Caroline Wozniacki announced their engagement in the early hours of New Year's Day, after the Northern Irishman proposed while they watched the midnight fireworks at Sydney's Harbour Bridge.

"Happy New Year everyone! I have a feeling it's going to be a great year!! My first victory of 2014 #shesaidyes!!" tweeted McIlroy, 24, attaching a photo that showed the large solitaire diamond on his Danish fiancee's finger. Wozniacki, 23, in turn tweeted: "Happy New Year everyone! Rory and I started 2014 with a bang! … I said YES!!!!"

But there was to be no leisurely new year lie-in for the newly engaged couple. Wozniacki, who has struggled with an injured shoulder in recent weeks, is due to play in the Sydney International tournament on Sunday, and spent her first day as a bride-to-be practising her serves with coach Thomas Hogstedt at the city's Ken Rosewall arena while McIlroy looked on.

After the injury forced her to pull out of this week's Brisbane International, the tournament will offer Wozniacki her last opportunity to warm up before the Australian Open in less than two weeks.

The couple have been dating since the summer of 2011, when she was ranked world No 1 and he had recently become the youngest US Open winner since the 1920s.

"I want to become the best player in the world, I think we definitely spur each other on," McIlroy said shortly after the relationship became public. "She's No 1 in the world and I've got a major and we sort of both want what each other have. She's got a great work ethic and it's something I can probably learn a lot from."

The golfer went on to win a second major, the 2012 PGA Championship, and gain the No 1 spot that he craved, but he struggled last year before winning the Australian Open in December, taking his world ranking to six. Wozniacki's form has dipped since her career peak, and she is currently ranked No 10. She has yet to win a Grand Slam tournament.

The couple have been relatively public about their relationship, appearing frequently at each other's events and posting photographs on social media of them together. Wozniacki acted as McIlroy's caddie for a round before the US Masters in April, while he played a point on her behalf against Maria Sharapova during an exhibition match in New York in 2012. There were rumours late last year that he had ended the relationship, which he quickly quashed.

McIlroy and Wozniacki are not the first high-profile golf and tennis couple to wed: Greg Norman and Chris Evert married in 2008, although that match ended in divorce 13 months later. While in Australia, however, McIlroy has been reading the autobiography of Andre Agassi, who has been married to fellow former Wimbledon champion Steffi Graf since 2001, and tweeted Agassi last week saying he found the book "honest, inspiring and thought-provoking".

The bookmaker Ladbrokes, which offered odds of 5-1 last January against the couple getting engaged in 2013, confirmed that it would pay out, even though the announcement came after midnight New Year's Day, Australian time. "It's not the time to be pedantic as far as we are concerned," said a spokesman.

Sydney is proving something of a romantic city for the pair; during last year's tournament Wozniacki and McIlroy went for a trip to the top of Sydney Tower, together enjoying the magnificent views over the harbour.

"It's great to be back in Sydney and now the city has even more special memories for me and Rory," Wozniacki said. "It's a wonderful way to start the new year and we are very happy. It was a lovely night watching the fireworks and then to have this beautiful ring given to me made it so special.

"Thank you to our fans for all the support and fantastic wishes we have received. It's a great start to 2014."