Tennis Today: Another ‘new Roger Federer’ named, and Maria Sharapova calls British journalist ‘a virgin’

Michael Graham
February 27, 2020

In Tennis Today, another heir to the Roger Federer throne is named, and Maria Sharapova doesn’t like The Sun and its journalists it seems…

What’s on the site
I’m sure it was impossible to miss, but just in case you did, we covered the news that Maria Sharapova has retired.

And that prompted a typically brilliant tribute from our man Kevin Palmer, who describes her as ‘the Queen of the court who never received her coronation.‘

Andy Murray might, of course, be the next huge name to follow Sharapova into injury-forced retirement, but it sounds like he’s not ready to give up yet despite another injury blow.

Nick Kyrgios crashed out of the Mexican Open, where he was the defending champions, in the first round due to injury, and it wasn’t well-received by the Acapulco crowd.

Does he care about that, though? Well, he was asked, and you can probably guess his typically entertaining reply…

What’s in the news
Forbes have become the latest publication to declare Italian sensation Jannik Sinner as ‘the new Roger Federer’.

Sinner is the only 18-year-old in the top 100 players in the world, and won the ATP Next Gen Finals in Milan last year.

“I was skiing, because where I am from, the first sport is skiing, or winter sports,” Sinner is quoted as saying in the article.

“Then my dad came to me, gave me a racket, and I was like 2-and-a-half years old.

“I played a little bit, but not so much. I just played a little bit to enjoy everything.”

“When I was 7 or 8, I was not playing for one whole year because I was focusing on just skiing.

“Then, my dad gave me the racket once more, and I enjoyed it once more playing tennis.

“Then when I was like 13-and-a-half, I decided to go to [renowned tennis coach] Ricardo Piatti.”

Maria Sharapova is also all over the news, as you’d expect, after she announced her retirement.

Many stories from her career are emerging, but few as entertaining as her calling one journalist from the mischievous British tabloid The Sun ‘a virgin’.

Behold the full tale here (Note, link doesn’t actually take you tot he Sun, so boycotters can relax…)

What’s on social media
We’ll miss you, Maria…

View this post on Instagram

Tennis showed me the world—and it showed me what I was made of. It’s how I tested myself and how I measured my growth. And so in whatever I might choose for my next chapter, my next mountain, I’ll still be pushing. I’ll still be climbing. I’ll still be growing. Tennis—I’m saying goodbye.

A post shared by Maria Sharapova (@mariasharapova) on Feb 26, 2020 at 5:19am PST

Dominic Thiem gets all wizardry…

View this post on Instagram

we took platform 9 3/4 and ended up in hogwarts

A post shared by Dominic Thiem (@domithiem) on Feb 26, 2020 at 10:38am PST

While David Goffin appeared to take his vacation in Narnia instead…

View this post on Instagram

Need to recharge the batteries 🔋

A post shared by David Goffin (@david__goffin) on Feb 26, 2020 at 8:31am PST

Andy Novak Djokovic shared a cool training pic…

View this post on Instagram

Always working to improve!! 💪🏼👊🏼🏋️ Thank you @faz3 and @nas_sc for hosting us. 🙏🏼 @marco_panichi1 #TeamDjokovic #DDFTennis

A post shared by Novak Djokovic (@djokernole) on Feb 26, 2020 at 6:00am PST