Forty love? Fans play detectives as tennis icon Venus Williams is rumored to be dating 6ft 11in player who is 17 years her junior

Venus Williams detectives have been left laughing after social media rumors linking the veteran to tennis star Reilly Opelka were backed up in the media, suggesting the former world number one took her match on a museum trip.

Seven-time Grand Slam winner Williams was seen hitting with Canadian Opelka in April at the Ibis Golf and Country Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, where her tennis coach, Eric Hechtman, showed them working together.

That accelerated gossip among observers on Twitter, who also spotted that Williams left three hearts as a comment under a photo the world number 35 posted from the Italian Open in Rome earlier this month.

Hechtman appeared to indicate that the pair had traveled to Rome together in another post, and Opelka confirmed that he had been indulging his restless appetite for culture with Williams off the court.

"I was practising and I went to some art museums and art galleries," he told the ATP.

"I actually went with Venus Williams to the Borghese Museum and I got my arts and crafts in prior to checking into [the] Rome [bubble]."

A self-confessed light sleeper, inquisitive Opelka attended New York Fashion Week events around the 2019 New York Open, which was his first ATP title win.

“In Madrid when I lost, I checked out of the bubble hotel the same night and I went to the Prado Museum, which was probably the greatest museum I’ve ever been to," he also explained. "This one was unreal.”

While Williams is a towering 6ft1, Opelka is one of the few players who can stand comfortably above her with his height of almost 7ft.

At 23 years old, the former Wimbledon junior champion is also 17 years younger than the current world number 102, who lost in the round of 32 in a challenger event in Italy on Monday.

"Good for Venus," said one fan. "Opelka is so tall, but so is Venus."

Others were more cynical about the reports, blaming the eagle-eyed tittle-tattle of "tennis Twitter". "Why on earth would they be dating?" asked one. "The timeline was just joking."

Another replied: "They went to see the sights – also known as getting married by the Pope."