ATP
Anyone for a kebab?
CARLOS Alcaraz may have just picked up £2.35 million for beating Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final, but the 20-year-old new superstar of tennis headed back to ‘normality’ after his victory.
No Rafa-style mansion, or Monte Carlo pad a la Djoko. No, for Carlos it was back to a humble apartment in southern Spain, an apartment over a Turkish kebab shop in Murcia.
The apartment, worth about 10% of his Wimbledon prize money, is owned by Alcaraz’s parents and sits above the ‘Turquesa Kebab & Pizza’.
Dad, Carlos Alcaraz González, who watched his son at Wimbedon, is a former real estate agent in Murcia, a couple of hours south of Alicante on Spain.
He also ran a local tennis academy where his son once trained.
Media reports that Alcaraz is now planning to build a new home for his parents with the millions he has earned from his exploits.
The new ‘mansion’ is to be built on three plots of land Alcaraz junior has bought, about 15 minutes drive from the current family home.
THERE’S low and then there’s Hungarian low … Amarissa Toth shocked the tennis world last week at the clay-court Budapest Open whe she deliberately removed a ball mark with her foot to deny her opponent, veteran opponent Zhang Shuai.
Shuai retired from the event in tears after an argument over a line call against her 20-year-old opponent.
To put it in context, the dram unfolded in the first set when a ball was called out that the Chinese player was convinced was in.
Even commentators agreed it was in.
Shuai argued with the umpire for several minutes before the event supervisor came on court.
Toth then walked towards the contested ball marking and scuffing it out with her foot.
Shuai yelled from her side of the net: “Wait, wait, wait, keep the mark! What are you doing? Why would you do that?”
Toth replied: “Because you’re making problems, that’s why.”
A visibly distressed Shuai had to then seek the assistance of a doctor.
The 34-year-old then retired from the match.
Amazingly, and totally wrong, Shuai was even booed off court by partisan Hungarian fans.
“All efforts on practice was wrong, because when you wanted hitting closer to the line, even touched the line still OUT,’ Shuai wrote afterwards on social media.
Toth’s conduct has since been crticised worldwide.
Australian Ellen Perez declared her disgust over the issue.
“Well that’s a quick way to lose respect from your peers. I’m actually shook by the level of disrespect from this girl,” Perez wrote of Toth.
“If I see this girl tomorrow I will tell her how disgusted I am.”
Another Aussie, Ajla Tomljanovic, was also angry.
“Absolutely disgusting behaviour,” she wrote on Twitter.
Daria Saville didn’t hold back when she posted: “Zero respect for this Toth girl. ZERO! I am so so so mad. I feel so bad for Shuai.”
NOVAK Djokovic was hit with a ‘record’ fine of $8000 for his racket abuse at Wimbledon last weekend.
But this ‘record’ is pitiful when you look at his earnings from the event.
Djokovic’s net worth is estimated to be $240 million and he picked up a cool $1.4 million for his runner-up finish.
Djokovic struggled to control his anger in a fit of rage during the fifth set, which saw him smashing his racket into the net post.
Surely it is time to change this farcical fines rule to a percentage of earnings instead of a set figure.
10 per cent of earnings to go to charity would be a far better option – and might, just might deter this insane behaviour.
DJOKOVIC has been branded the LOAT (Loser of all time) by a tennis fan, and it has angered Novak’s dad.
In response to the comments, Djokovic Snr told Republika: “May God help that man. If he can even be helped, and if he really means everything he wrote.”
Montenegrin journalist Nebojsa Sofranac posted on Facebook: “What did you do to him, Carlitos?
“So many illegal crazy volleys, slices and bombs that should be banned. And to inflame so much anger among lumberjacks who don’t even know how to count games, but know enough to curse a 20 -year-old boy who amazed the world?
“How many shepherds will stop watching tennis and cry in anguish on my wall? The Spaniard has given Novak a new nickname. LOAT, as many as 12 lost finals, the most in the Open Era, he is the ‘loser of all times’.”
SAUDI Arabia is looking to buy the United Cup – and the move is not going down well with fans.
The United Cup was introduced last year as a replacement for the ATP Cup as part of the Australian Open buildup.
The mixed teams competition with teams of 4 to 5 players from both the ATP and WTA Tours in a team format against each other has been a success Down Under.
According to the London Daily Mail, the Saudis are in talks with Tennis Australia about buying the event.
Photo: Roger Parker International Sports Fotos Ltd
INJURED Nick ‘King’ Kyrgios will step into the coaching booth this weekend at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown in Los Angeles, helping out Frances Tiafoe.
Kyrgios was to play the event but was replaced by Benoit Paire, and had previously said he would take part in some capacity.
“I will still be coming to LA and the UTS event,” he said on Tuesday.
He added: “Maybe I’ll coach… any suggestions?”
The decision is an odd one, given that Kyrgios himself has been ‘uncoached’ for many years.
JUST A THOUGHT:
The BBC’s viewing figure announcement last that 15 million people in the UK watched Sunday’s men’s final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, but only 4.4 million watched the women’s final the day before explains perfectly the commercial realities as to why men’s tennis earns so much more than its female counterpart.
Two-time champion Casper Ruud had to work for more than two and a half hours to overcome Jaime Faria, the Portuguese who put out Stan Wawrinka in the first round at the Gstaad Swiss Open on Thursday.
Faria was riding the momentum from Tuesday’s defeat of three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka, set to retire this season and beaten in an opening match at his home venue.
Faria had his eye on a second upset as he faced Ruud, who lifted the trophy at this elite alpine village in 2021 and 2022.
Ruud ahd to dodge a bullet and mount a comeback to get through the second-round test against the Portuguese.
After dropping the opening set in a tiebreaker, Ruud played patiently as Faria saved five break points in the sixth game of the second set before failing on the sixth.
Ruud then pulled away for a 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-2 victory, his first since Roland Garros.
“Sometimes it is hard to say when you get a good feeling and you start to win some games in a row,” the winner said.
“You try from the first game to the last, but suddenly something clicked in the middle of the second for me, luckily.”
He added: “I had to really fight hard and if I played one bad game in the second and he serves well, it could be over and it would be time to go home. But luckily I can extend the stay.”
The Scandinavian could join Spaniards Sergi Bruguera and Alex Corretja as three-time winners in the Alps, with Ruud now standing 10-1 here over his career.
Stefanost Tsitsipas said he slept soundly prior to finishing off a darkness-interrupted match on Thursday as he eliminated local Jerome Kym at the Gstaad Swiss Open.
The Greek who once cracked third in the world and the 186th-ranked Swiss returned to the clay after darkness on Wednesday night left them hanging at 5-all in the third set.
Tsitsipas revved up his game from the resumption to emerge into the quarter-finals 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5).
The second seed now standing 85th in the world after several poor seasons and a split with his father as his coach, said getting his rest was not a problem after the interruption.
“It was strange going to bed and not being finished. I visualised what I wanted to do, my shot patterns.
“It worked out pretty well.
“I had a good night’s sleep, I was not too stressed and I recovered to get ready for the continuation.”
After saving break points in the first game on Thursday, Tsitsipas triumphed in the final-set tiebreaker
“I’m relieved I was able to save a couple of break points.. I put my game together and made it )victory) happen again.”
The Greek now faces off against Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech for a semi-final spot.
“I’m expecting a lot of big serves, the altitude (1050m) helps. I’ll try to build consistency around my own serve.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas was handed a reprieve due to fading light with his second round match at the Swiss Open Gstaad stopped with the Greek deadlocked with local Jerome Kym 6-4, 6-7 (2), 5-5.
The math had to be halted as night fell and electronic linecalling computers could not read the path of the ball on the clay in contrast to humans who could have carried on for a few additional minutes..
The 27-year-old Tsitsipas was taking the worst of it in the concluding stage after a promising start.against a journeyman opponent ranked 186.
Tsitsipas, his ranking down to 85th after once standing third in the world, lashed out verbally in the last few games, apparently frustrated with his racquet reactions.
The Greek was quick to make his point of an overnight stoppage to the chair umpire while Kym – who reached 5-all with a love service hold – left the court with a defiant fist pump for his public in this alpine resort village.
The cutoff came after just over two hours of play, with the contest to be concluded on Thursday. The winner reaches the Friday quarter-finals.
Tsitsipas produced his last notable result in April with a fourth-round showing at the Madrid Masters,
He is aiming for his second quarter-final of the season after Doha in February and his 2025 Barcelona 15 months ago.
Tsitsipas stands 10-1 vs. players ranked outside the top 100 this season with a sole loss to No. 104 Italian Matteo Arnaldi at the Roland Garros second round.
History repeats for Argentine spoiler in Gstaad
Ruud survives a scare to secure Gstaad quarters
Tsitsipas finishes off Kym after overnight pause
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