By Chris Oddo | Tuesday February 9, 2016
Here’s what’s Happening around the tennis world on Tuesday, February 9:
Video: Get a full Fed Cup recap from this weekend, and find out what’s on tap for Rafa in Buenos Aires in our Monday Blast.
Ladbrokes Taking Bets on Baby Murray’s Name: Want to earn some fast cash? Have a hunch on what Andy Murray and Kim Sears might be naming their baby girl? Well, you’re in luck, because there’s a market for it. And that’s not all there’s a market for. Bookmakers were already offering odds of just 33-1 that the child will play any sport at national level and 500-1 that he or she will follow in father’s footsteps by being crowned Wimbledon champion.
Tennis Umpires Secretly Banned over Match Fixing Scam: More horrible news from the gambling in tennis front. The UK Guardian reports that two international tennis umpires have been secretly banned, while four others face being thrown out of the sport for life on charges of serious corruption. Even worse, the ITF has done its best to keep things quiet, according to the article.
Super Bowl Tweets: Not done gossiping about Super Bowl 50 yet? Well, fine. Tennis.com runs down the top 10 Super Bowl tweets. Tennis-related, of course. Apparently Maria Sharapova is into Peyton Manning and Laura Robson is into Beyonce.
Halep, Kvitova and Pliskova into Dubai: Late wild cards are all the rage in Dubai. Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova all want in—and they got in. Their addition means that there are now six top-10 players entered in this very stacked draw.
In other news, Agnieszka Radwanska and Lucie Safarova are out of Dubai, but rumor has it that Safarova will make her first appearance of the year in Doha.
Fed Cup announces World Group play-off matchups: Eight teams will battle for the right to rejoin the Fed Cup World Group in 2017 in April, on the same weekend that the semifinals take place. Here are the seedings and matchups for those ties.
Argentina honors Vilas in Buenos Aires: A host of past and present Argentine tennis greats gathered at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club on Monday to unveil the newly named Court Central Guillermo Vilas. A long list of legends, past and present was on hand: Juan Monaco, Alberto Mancini, Guillermo Coria, Gaston Gaudio, Jose Luis Clerc and Martin Jaite as well as former WTA Tour players Paola Suarez, Gabriela Sabatini and Norma Baylon.
10 Things St. Petersburg and Kaohsiung: Belinda Bencic is the top seed for the first time in her career this week in St. Petersburg. The WTA gives you a rundown of both tour-level events this week here.
There’s more to the fist pump than just pumping the fist: Over at SI Tennis, Tim Newcomb digs into the mental aspect of the sport, and makes the case for the fist pump. Yah, fist pump! Come on!!!!!
Rafa on Grass: Rafael Nadal announces that he’ll warm up for Wimbledon at Queen’s Club. The 2008 champion has not been back at Queen’s since 2011. He owns a 13-4 career record there with one title.
Nole not stressing about Paris Everybody else is stressing about Novak Djokovic winning in Paris, even though the event is still over three months away. But not Novak.
Have a great day!