Retired American tennis player Mardy Fish won the American Century Championship on Sunday. Fish had a record-setting Saturday birdieing the final five holes for a course-record 9-under 63.

The $600,000 purse for the celebrity tournament and additional funds will be donated to a number of charitable organizations.  These include organizations supporting COVID-19 relief efforts, the Equal Justice Initiative, and Lake Tahoe regional non-profits.

Fish had finished in the top-5 in five of the last six years. Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams finished second and Golden State basketball star finished fourth.

Mardy Fish plays left-handed on the golf course despite playing right-handed in tennis. He retired from tennis in 2015 and is currently the captain of the US Davis Cup team.

Mardy Fish is married to Stacey Gardner.  Gardner is an actress who appeared on the TV show “Deal or No Deal”.  The couple has a son, Beckett, who was born in 2014.

Wimbledon will get rid of its special seeding formula for the men’s draw starting in 2021.  Wimbledon will simply follow the ATP rankings for its men’s seeds just like other grand slams.

“Since last year’s Championships, we have also taken the time to give consideration to the evolution of the sport and the mechanisms of allocating seeding for The Championships.

Given the quality of competition, entertainment and modern grass courts, following detailed discussion with the player groups, the AELTC has decided that the grass court seeding formula used since 2002 has served its time, and from The Championships 2021 seeding for the Gentlemen’s singles draw will be based solely on ranking. There will be no change to the method of seeding for the Ladies’ singles draw.”

Wimbledon Statement

The special seeding system introduced in 2002 at Wimbledon seeded players based on their grass-court results.  This has been controversial as players were seeded below or higher than their ATP rankings.  

Top players such as Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have criticized the special seeding system.  Nadal once complained, “They want to do it by their own rules. Another thing is we are an organization like ATP that, I repeat, we give two thousand points to this event. We supposed to have something to say about this Wimbledon rules when we are giving them the maximum points possible in one event.”