Andy’s Reads: Hopman Cup Canceled and Verdasco Becomes Dad

Hopman Cup, the mixed team event held in Perth and served as a warm-up to the Australian Open for years, comes to an end after 31 years (Reuters)

Fernando Verdasco and his wife Ana welcomed a baby boy Miguel.  Anna Kournikova, former WTA star becomes Miguel’s aunt (Think Spain)

Denis Shapovalov did a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session. One of the questions was “As a Canadian, are you contractually obliged to apologize to every opponent you beat?” (Reddit)

Canada is producing a lot of good tennis players: Bibi Andresscu, Denis Shapovalov and the latest phenom Felix Auger-Aliassime (aka FAA). Learn more about the 18-year old FAA (Tennis.com)

The rise and fall of South Korean tennis player Chung Hyeon (Korea Joongang Daily)

Former coach who trained Naomi and Mari Osaka during their junior days sues them for $2 million (NY Post)

Man who stabbed Petra Kvitova gets 8-year prison sentence (tennis.com)

Wimbledon sells 5-year passes to premium seats on Center Court for £80,000 each (The Guardian)

Continue ReadingAndy’s Reads: Hopman Cup Canceled and Verdasco Becomes Dad

Andy’s Reads – Expensive Miami Open and America’s Tennis Factory

Miami Open’s new location, the Hard Rock Stadium is getting scorching reviews – expensive parking, expensive good and lot of empty seats because of expensive tickets.  Player reviews haven’t been great either (Miami Herald)

After losing to Bibi Andreescu for the second time in two weeks, Angelique Kerber did a drive by handshake at the net and called her opponent “biggest drama queen ever”.  Kerber tried to clean up her comments on social media the next day.  That didn’t go well with the fans (tennis.life)

Federer has answered every question from the press for years.  But he refused to comment on the possibility of Alexander Zverev joining his agency Team8 (TennisWorld)

In effort to get ITF to do something to help the lower tier players, here is a comment from Antoine Bellier on twitter:

“I was just wondering if it was normal for you that we play the last qualifying round WITHOUT umpire, no change of balls of all the match and a super tie-break (10 points) instead of a third set in a professional tennis tournament M15/M25 ?”

Poor run continues for Sloane Stephens (tennis.com)

Hsieh Su-Wei’s mismatched outfits have drawn attention.  She doesn’t have a sponsor and wears what she likes.  Before you say, her agent needs to get her a clothing contract,  she has no agent.  But she is playing great tennis this week (Twitter)

Florida – America’s tennis factory (Newyorker)

 

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