The Dane was struggling at a set and 5-4 down to Maria Sharapova when she lightheartedly asked McIlroy, who was among the audience, for his help.

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He lightheartedly recalled a "man with a high mission" who also enjoyed playing Stratego, a board game drawing on Napoleonic history, and belting out "La Marseillaise" and French nursery rhymes when the two companions found themselves in trying circumstances.

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