Roger Federer has withdrawn from the 2021 Australian Open.  The announcement was not a surprise since Federer had indicated that he needed more time to be match fit. The good news is that he will be playing soon after the Australian Open. (Associated Press).

Australian Open has given wild cards to Andy Murray, Sumit Nagal, and Wang Xiyu. Xiyu is a 19-year old Chinese player currently ranked 123 in the world.  (The Age)

Here is the full list of wild card entrants for the Australian Open (not surprisingly, a lot of Aussies on the list)

Andy Murray
Thanasi Kokkinakis
Alex Bolt
Aleksander Vukic
Sumit Nagal
Marc Polmans
Chris O’Connell
Daria Gavrilova
Astra Sharma
Maddison Inglis
Lizette Cabrera
Arina Rodionova
Destanee Aiava
Wang Xiyu

Australian tennis player Angelina Graovac is raising money through Onlyfans to support her tennis career (Yahoo Sports)

Naomi Osaka has won a lot of accolades this year. Add one more to the list – AP has named Osaka AP Female Athlete of Year. (Associated Press)

Leo Levin, the father of tennis statistics, died at age 62 (ATP)

Tennis continues to struggle with match-fixing problems at the lower levels. Egyptian tennis player Mostafa Hatem, who reached a career-high ranking of 1556, has been suspended for two years for match-fixing. (ESPN)

Move over Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka, and Dominic Thiem. We have a new exciting player hitting single-handed backhands – Iga Swiatek. (Twitter)