Tennis365’s A to Z of tennis for January: Blackmail, lazy comments and an Andy Murray ‘willy shot’

Shahida Jacobs
Andy Murray after hip surgery

You may have missed some of important things that happened in the world of tennis during January, so here is your A to Z of tennis snapshot.

A is for Australian Open: The 2019 season-opening Grand Slam has come and gone with Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka winning the big prizes, but there were also other highlights like Stefanos Tstispas stunning Roger Federer and Karolina Pliskova saving match points to beat Serena Williams.

B is for blackmail and physical threats: In Round 10 of the Lleyton Hewitt v Bernard Tomic battle, former world No 1 Hewitt accused Tomic of “blackmail and physical threats”.

C is for calendar Grand Slam: Can Novak Djokovic win the calendar Grand Slam in 2019? See what the 15-time major winner had to say after his Australian Open win.
Novak Djokovic poses with Australian Open trophy

D is for disdain: If you want to know how good Stefanos Tsitsipas really is, then look no further than Alexander Zverev’s obvious disdain for him, says Michael Graham.

E is for engagement: After 14 years of dating, Rafael Nadal and his girlfriend Xisca Perello are finally engaged.

F is for freebies: Sometimes you go to the tennis because you want to see great, erm tennis, but then you return home with the racket, shoes or jacket of world No 1 Novak Djokovic.

G is for GOAT v GOAT: Roger Federer and Serena Williams played against each other for the first time in their professional careers and it was all sorts of fun.
Serena Williams and Roger Federer selfie

H is for Hopman Cup: Switzerland won the Hopman Cup for a fourth time with Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic successfully defending the title. This may well turn out to be the last-ever Hopman Cup as the ATP has launched its new ATP Cup.

I is for Instagram account: You have to follow the Instagram account of tennis’ new super couple Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina.

J is for Johnny Nic: Our columnist says we should not subject Andy Murray to a mawkishly undignified Wimbledon send-off.

K is for Katie Boulter jumping the gun: The new final-set tie-breaker rule came into play at the 2019 Australian Open, but Katie Boulter forgot about it.

L is for lazy, ill-informed and dumb comments: That’s what Jamie Murray had to say about Dan Evans’ disparaging remarks about the doubles game.

M is for metal hip: Andy Murray now has a metal hip after undergoing surgery for a second time.

N is for new world No 1 Naomi Osaka: What a year it has been for Naomi Osaka. She started 2018 outside the world top 50 and 12 months later she not only has two Grand Slams to her name, but is also the new WTA world No 1.
Naomi Osaka at the beach

O is for oldest tour-level finalist since 1977: Take a bow 39-year-old Ivo Karlovic.

P is for petrolhead: Did you know Kyle Edmund is a petrolhead? We looked at his love for fast cars, Liverpool, Ricky Ponting and Drake on his birthday.

Q is for quotes: On the back of Andy Murray announcing he is set to retire, we looked at some of his brilliant quotes, including his views on bananas.

R is for retirement: Andy Murray announced on the eve of the Australian Open that he is to retire after Wimbledon, but also admitted that the Melbourne major could well be his last tournament. Fast forward a week and Murray hinted that he would reconsider retirement.

S is for a sulking Naomi Osaka: After getting knocked out of the Brisbane International, Naomi Osaka admitted that she had the “worst attitude” and was “sulking a little bit” during her semi-final defeat.

T is for Top 10 tears of their tracks: Tim Ellis picked out 10 moments when stars broke down, featuring Andy Murray’s waterworks, ice-man Pete Sampras cracking and more.
Roger Federer crying Australian Open

U is for underarm tweener serve: Who would serve an underarm tweener? That’s right, Bernard Tomic.

V is for VIDEO: Dan Evans may well have wrapped up the shot of the year during the Australian Open qualifying.

W is for willy shot: Andy Murray made a massive cock-up after he posted an image of his X-ray on Instagram and it had a “willy shot” as his “dingle dangle” was outlined.

X is for eXclusive: Tennis legend and Eurosport expert Mats Wilander talked to us about Roger Federer being a fading force.
He also believes Andy Murray will struggle to return to the top of the game after undergoing a second hip operation.

Y is for YouTube star: Besides being an Australian Open semi-finalist, Stefanos Tsitsipas is also a YouTube star as he has his own channel with more than 100,000 subscribers.

Z is for zero: We end off this month’s A to Z of tennis with zero/zip as that’s how many games Harriet Dart won when she suffered a 6-0, 6-0 defeat at the hands of Maria Sharapova in the opening round of the Australian Open. However, Dart still walked away with a cheque of £28,000.

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