GAME, SET, LOVE MATCH!

Billionaire Bill Gates and new girlfriend Paula Hurd are both passionate about tennis - and have tech and money in common too

- PECULIA MUSHWANA

HE WAS in Kenya earlier this month on one of his philanthropic missions when a journalist asked him something that had nothing to do with work. Would he like to find love again?

“Sure,” Bill Gates replied.

“I’m not a robot.”

And clearly he isn’t. Less than two years after he and Melinda Gates shocked the world by announcing that their marriage was over, the Microsoft billionaire is dating again. And the woman in question has one big thing in common with him: tennis.

Bill (67) loves the game. He’s been playing it since he was a little kid, writes about it in his blog, GatesNotes, bags the best seats in the house at Grand Slams and has even played in charity matches with two of the biggest stars in the world– Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Now he has someone to sit beside him when he watches the greats of the game in action. Her name is Paula Hurd (60) and tennis has been a big part of her life for decades too.

Tongues started wagging about a love match between her and Bill when they were snapped at the Australian Open last month. Their body language spoke volumes: heads close together, shared smiles, shoulders touching, whispered words – it was clearly game on.

This wasn’t the first time the pair had been spotted at a tennis match. In March last year they attended the semi-final of a WTA tournament in California. In September they watched the Laver Cup at the O2 arena in London and a month later they were at the BNO Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California.

But although there were rumours that something might be up, there was nothing much to go on. Paula was described as the “mystery brunette” by the media and, while she sat near Bill, they didn’t sit next to each other.