Russian tennis star Maria Kirilenko and hockey player Alex Ovechkin have ended their relationship as a couple.

R-Sport published Kirilenko’s comments concerning the break up. For all intents and purposes, the tennis player is now officially single. Or as official as the internet ever gets. Maybe it’s better to have her put it unequivocally in her own words:

“Мною принято решение о расторжении помолвки, – заявила Мария. – Причин много, но не хотелось бы вдаваться в подробности. Скажу одно: наши отношения завершены, но я уважаю Сашу как человека и спортсмена и искренне желаю ему дальнейших спортивных успехов”.

For those of us who align with the English side of the world wide web, the news translation site, the Russian Machine Never Breaks, has offered their translation of her side of the story:

“I have made a decision to break up our engagement. There are a lot of reasons, but I wouldn’t want to go in detail. I’ll say just that our relationship is over, but I respect Sasha as a person and an athlete and sincerely wish him athletic success in the future.

I’m currently concentrating on preparing for my tennis tournaments and I hope that soon I’ll be able to please my fans with news about my success as an athlete and not just in my personal life.”

There has been some confusion in the English speaking world as to why the all-Russian all-sports all-stars ended their relationship. Sport Illustrated thought it might be because of an Intsagram photo.

Alex Ovechkin was apparently dumped by fiance Maria Kirilenko over an Instagram photo: http://t.co/lpTTKkqB07 pic.twitter.com/HIs2x6rRwS

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) July 21, 2014

Again, the kind folks from the Russian Machine Never Breaks cleared this one up for us. The Sports Illustrated piece was based on a “nonsensical story” published by R-Sport. When Sports Illustrated fell for the rumor, it began to pick up traction online. Kirilenko was even asked about it by Nikolay Mysin from Sovetsky Sport. She then put an end to the rumor once and for all:

“Believe me, over the years I have seen so many pictures of Sasha in the company of young ladies, that I have gotten used to it. That is normal. We are public figures, and people often want to take pictures with us. This is the first time I heard about this girl, and I made my decision to break up the engagement long before these pictures appeared on the social networks. It is laughable to point to them as the main reason behind the breakup – after three years together couples do not break up over a couple of pictures. There are much more significant reasons. I will not go into any more details about them. But let’s just say it is not a secret for anybody that Sasha has certain habits and particulars of behavior that I did not consider worth tolerating anymore.”

For those of you curious about the photo of Ovechkin with gymnast Karolina Sevastyanova, here it is:

For his part, Ovechkin seems to be recovering from the break up by enjoying his vacation. At least, that’s what he posts on Instagram:

Image via Wikimedia Commons