Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki were the sports love couple of the 21st century. With Lleyton Hewitt and Kim Clijsters a distant second.

“Wozilroy”, as they were sometimes known, went where Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf and Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert went before them. Where everything they did was seen through the prism of their very public relationship.

Odd thing though.

McIlroy and Wozniacki were better players before they got together than while they were together … and appear to be better players again, now that they have broken up.

Exhibit A: Each won a tournament yesterday.

McIlroy won nothing less than the British Open, making him the third golfer to win three major championships by age 26. The other two are Jack Nicholas and Tiger Woods.

Wozniacki won a fairly significant women’s tennis tournament in Istanbul, rolling to a 6-1, 6-1 in the final.

Let’s back up.

McIlroy proposed on New Year’s Eve, 2013, but he broke the engagement on May 21, just as wedding invitations were being sent out.

He did it via phone, in a very short call, and Wozniacki at first thought it was a joke.

So, May 21, wedding is off …

On May 25, four days later, McIlroy won a tournament for the first time since November of 2012 — a span of 18 months. Two months later, he won the British Open. Two major victories in two months after 18 months with none at all.

Also yesterday, Wozniacki won a WTA tournament, her 22nd — but first since Luxembourg last year, which was her only victory in 2013.

When she and McIlroy became an item, in the summer 2011, she was in her second year of being No. 1 in the world. She began to slip a year later, and she was Just Another Player through 2013 and into 2014. She didn’t reach the quarterfinals of a grand slam throughout the period.

Two months after Rory’s terse breakup, she finally won again, and moved up to No. 13 in the world

Afterwards, she said when she went out to celebrate she would wear heels for the first time since 2011. A reference to McIlroy being shorter than she is. (He is 5-9; she is 5-10. I thought he was taller.)

So, they are good before the relationship, shaky through it (and at one point in there, Gary Player said McIlroy needed to stop following Wozniacki around the world if he was going to be the golfer he could be, and Player was generally criticized for it) … and good again after.

Howard Bryant of ESPN.com came up with a succinct explanation of what might be behind the events.

“Sometimes it’s not a good thing to be content too early.” Or something like that.

McIlroy is 25. Wozniacki just turned 24.

There seems little doubt McIlroy will be No. 1 in the world again.

Maybe Wozniacki can be, too … now that the apparent burden of a relationship has been lifted from her shoulders as well as his.

Makes you think about how self-involved elite athletes need to be.