Caroline Wozniacki and Rory McIlroy found themselves at the crossroads - their careers or relationship?
It's the sort of thing perhaps best left to the gregarious Eva Bradley to boot around in her aptly named Left Field column on Saturdays.
But I just can't resist invading her pitch this once to be caught off side, even though Bradley is the better player.
That's because it affects all of us at some stage of our lives, especially pertaining to sport, unless, of course, one has taken a vow of celibacy.
I'm a veteran, if you may, in a competition that is in some ways the Super Rugby in the analogy of life although it has the propensity to be as exciting as the New Zealand Warriors' encounters in the NRL.
I'm talking about the dreaded love match.
No, not the French Open variety although one female player's performance this week will be watched with interest.
I'm referring to the recent game-set-match between Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki.
The Northern Irishman publicly called of his wedding with his Danish ex-fiancee last week before teeing off in the BMW PGA Championship to break his win drought on the tour circuit this week.
It's been tabloid frenzy since then, not that he and the former No1 world women's tennis professional should complain because they unwittingly chose to play out their amorous liaisons via social media.
My preoccupation, though, is more with his swing and her serves rather than their break up.
Like Wozniacki, the 25-year-old is a former world No1 and two-time major winner. He has moved four places up to world No6 after the Wentworth title.
The 23-year-old has yet to nail a major. Her best effort is 2009 US Open finalist and she's world No14 before losing to Yanina Wickmayer, of Belgium.
About here, I hasten to add, I don't believe they are or should ever be "role models" for anyone.
Need one then look at people in your own household as a template for life's experiences.
Neither am I a beacon of robust relationships.
Cupid must have been itching to chuck out his bow and reach for an AK47 rifle every time he contemplated throwing barbs at my bleeding heart in my heyday.
However, the sporting duo do unsuspectingly offer a timely lesson to other young people who have promising careers.
Wozniacki bowed out in the first round of the French Open yesterday. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out to be the best in the world you have to be married to your sport.
No doubt when McIlroy claimed a "birdie" more than two years ago it must have felt special and brought them priceless exposure.
Paying the bills is unlikely to ever be an issue for the globe-trotting multi-millionaires.
Playing happy families, it seems, was definitely not on his agenda.
It reportedly dawned on McIlroy he wasn't ready for everything marriage entails when he picked up the wedding invitations.
Admirably he bit the bullet and no doubt she must be feeling like she's just got off the court on the receiving end of a 6-0, 6-0 bludgeoning to Serena Williams.
Media reports ironically state Wozniacki and her bridesmaids engaged in a post-bust up bash with Williams in Paris.
It could have been worse - McIlroy and/or her pulling the plug on their tenure two kids and a golden labrador later. Think Tiger Woods and you start getting a sharper picture.
McIlroy realised they needed to slow down pretty fast.
As always, the choice between career and a relationship is an individual one.
If couples can juggle both with a modicum of success early in their lives than they must shout out the secret from the rooftops but, it goes without saying, they'd be a near-extinct species.
No way am I trivialising the significance of career and relationships.
Both offer a sense of accomplishment but if the too-hard basket beckons then the perceptive will acknowledge one will have to be pushed to the backburner.
A life on the foundation of a spouse and children has its own rewards so it's not surprising some sportspeople choose that, albeit later in life.
In my career as a journalist, I've come across countless men and women who have curtailed sport to spend quality time at home for fear of finding a Dear John/Jane letter.
Conversely, there are those who feel they need to hit the nail on the head while the iron's hot while they are young.
It boils down to a fuzzy logic of sorts, akin to waking up from a prolonged stag do or hen party, that they have had ample time to experience the much-lauded sense of independence.
Just as an all-consuming relationship can't be very healthy, all work and no play can stymie Jack's self-esteem.
Some sportspeople, especially blokes, recognise too late that the window to a sporting career only opens so wide.
Will Wozniacki and McIlroy get together again at an opportune time or will they move on like Kim Clijsters and Lleyton Hewitt?
Only time will tell.