At Old Globe, a theatrical courtship

At the risk of telling a story so sweet it’ll make your teeth throb, let’s acknowledge a few dangerously adorable truths about the Old Globe’s production of “The Last Match.”

First, two of the show’s actors, the television stars Troian Bellisario and Patrick J. Adams, are engaged to be married (and they portray a married couple in Anna Ziegler’s world-premiere play).

Second, the sport that the show revolves around is one of the few that actually incorporates the word “love” into its scoring. (Something you don’t see in, say, rugby.)

And third (this just in!): Sunday is Valentine’s Day.

To top it off, Bellisario (of “Pretty Little Liars” on Freeform, formerly known as ABC Family) and Adams (a leading man on the USA Network’s “Suits”) have been taking lessons in the sport as a couple, in order to prep for their roles in Ziegler’s story of two rival male tennis champs — one American, one Russian — and their mates.

That’s where we catch up with the pair on a sunny winter weekday at the Balboa Tennis Club, where both have arrived on bikes from their temporary South Park digs. (Although Adams managed to get there about 100 yards ahead of Bellisario. Hmmm, a little hint of actorly competition?)

SAN DIEGO, CA-January 26, 2016: | Patrick J. Adams co-stars as tennis player Tim Porter in the World Premiere of The Last Match, at the Old Globe Theatre opening February 13, along with Troian Bellisario as his wife, Mallory. It’s the story of Tim Porter, an American superstar tennis player as he battles Russian phenom Sergei Sergeyev in the US Open tennis semifinals. | (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) San Diego Union-Tribune

(San Diego Union-Tribune)

“The Last Match,” which also stars Alex Mickiewicz and Natalia Payne, is not a romantic comedy. But it turns out Adams and Bellisario have a bit of a real-life “meet cute” saga, spread out over several years.

“Our paths kept crossing in strange ways,” the Toronto-born Adams says while prepping for the pair’s clinic with club pro Geoff Griffin. “And theater has always been right at the crux of it.”

Although both attended the University of Southern California’s School of Dramatic Arts, Adams had graduated just before Bellisario (an L.A.-born daughter of TV super-producer Donald P. Bellisario) began there.

But “then I directed a production of ‘Marat/Sade’ when I got out of school” around 2005, Adams recalls, “and Troian and a lot of her classmates came to see it. So I think we met for the first time officially there. But neither of us really remember it.”

“I think I remember it,” Bellisario counters. “I was a lowly freshman. I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s so cool!’ And I think he was, ‘I don’t even ... .’”

It so happened that while still at USC, Adams had received the Jack Nicholson Award, an undergraduate acting honor. Past recipients are asked to come back and present the award to the most recent winners.

So in 2008, he returned to hand the Nicholson Award to .... Troian Bellisario.

“I gave a terrible speech that she still makes fun of me about,” he recalls. “Somewhere there’s probably a very awkward, funny photo of me and her with an award.

“And so again we crossed paths and went our separate ways.”

SAN DIEGO, CA-January 26, 2016: | Troian Bellisario co-stars as Mallory, in the World Premiere of The Last Match at the Old Globe Theatre opening February 13. It’s the story of Tim Porter Played by Patrick J. Adams, an American superstar tennis player as he battles Russian phenom Sergei Sergeyev in the US Open tennis semifinals. | (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) San Diego Union-Tribune

(San Diego Union-Tribune)

The third meeting proved the charm, although it didn’t seem likely to start off that way.

In 2009, Adams was preparing to star in an L.A. production of the play “Equivocation.”

“It was a play I’d workshopped a lot,” he says. “I’d been involved with it since its early stages. I kept saying, ‘Who’s the girl gonna be? Who’s the girl gonna be?,'" meaning the actress playing the character Judith.

“And Bill Cain, the writer, said, ‘It’s this fantastic actress named Troian Bellisario.’

“And I looked at her headshot and thought she looked real stuck-up. I said, ‘Oh no, this is going to be some L.A. actress girl.’

“And then she won me over from the first rehearsal.”

Not just from a dramatic standpoint, either. It was during “Equivocation” that the two became a couple; they were engaged last year.

That was also the last play they did together (and in fact only Adams has acted in a play since); most of their careers and lives have since been consumed with their respective TV series, both of which are now winding down (“Pretty Little Liars” is in its final season).

“So when we had the opportunity to do this together, it was a no-brainer,” Adams says. “We love the theater, but we don’t get to do it nearly often enough. We spend so much time apart during the year — I shoot in Toronto eight months of the year, she’s shooting her show in L.A.

“My biggest concern about it creatively, and it’s still something we’re working our way through, is that we don’t want to make (these characters) us, and try to layer our relationship over the one in the play. Because it’s a very different relationship.

“There might be similarities and things we can relate to. But these are very different characters, dealing with different things. These are people Anna (Ziegler) came up with in her brilliant mind, and we really want to do that justice.”

The Brooklyn-based Ziegler, a rising star in the theater world, has been much-praised for such recent works as “A Delicate Ship” and “Photograph 51,” which starred Nicole Kidman on London’s West End.

“The Last Match” was developed in the 2014 edition of the Globe’s New Voices Festival. It centers on an epic U.S. Open bout between the American veteran Tim (Adams) and the Russian Sergei (Mickiewicz), and explores their relationships with Mallory (Bellisario) and Galina (Payne).

The piece is directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, last at the Globe with “Bethany.”

SAN DIEGO, CA-January 26, 2016: | Tennis pro Geoff Griffin gives on as actor Patrick J. Adams who stars as tennis player Tim Porter in the World Premiere of The Last Match at the Old Globe Theatre opening February 13, a tennis lesson at the Balboa Tennis Club. It’s the story of Tim Porter, an American superstar tennis player as he battles Russian phenom Sergei Sergeyev in the US Open tennis semifinals. | (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune) San Diego Union-Tribune

(San Diego Union-Tribune)

While the production won’t showcase a whole lot of actual tennis, the actors are taking their venture into the sport seriously.

“My character is a former pro, and she’s a coach now,” says Bellisario. “There’s one scene where you meet us when we’re younger — the first time he asked me out. I think it’s the only time we’ll have an actual racket onstage. It’s just me warming up.

“But for me it’s just about getting into the mindset of the character, understanding the movement. So when I walk out with a racket, I don’t look like, ‘I’m an actor!’”

Mission accomplished: When Griffin gets the two (plus Mickiewicz) out on the court practicing volleys a bit later, he praises Bellisario’s technique.

“Troian is getting under the ball,” the coach says, before gently admonishing the other two: “You guys need to get more under the ball. She’s looking more authentic at the moment.”

Adams allows that while he played a bit of tennis as a boy, taught by his very persistent dad (who was an avid player), “I was kind of a chunky kid so I didn’t really like running around too much,” preferring the more limited confines of the squash court.

Now, though, it feels like a pretty good way to rehearse a play — especially with his fiancee as volley partner.

“We’re not great tennis players,” says Adams. “But we’ve been talking a lot about it, we’ve been reading a lot about it.

“It’s been beautiful to be in San Diego and just sort of immerse ourselves in this play.”