Coconut responds to negative comments; Nado is called a legend for these three records; the United Cup is about to begin

Three minutes daily to keep up with all tennis happenings worldwide. Greetings to all tennis enthusiasts, today is Tuesday, December 30, 2025. Welcome to the news midday report provided by "Tennis Home."

We begin by covering the aftermath of the gender match between Australian ace Kyrgios and women's world No.1 Sabalenka. After this uneven exhibition match, Kyrgios gave an interview to BBC Sport, where he responded to the negative feedback by boasting, "Let me remind everyone, I am one of only 16 players in the world who have defeated the Big Four — Murray, Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal have all lost to me. And she just proved she can compete against someone who has beaten the greatest players in history. We should focus on the positive side of this." "Therefore, we should promote this perspective instead of the negative comments. The fact is, everyone who had a negative opinion watched the match, which is part of what makes this interesting." "Those who criticize but still watch actually enjoy the match; they just don’t admit it openly. I believe if this event happens again and we both participate, it will become a cultural trend and occur more frequently. I see this as a step in the right direction."

Sabalenka also expressed confusion over the negative criticism, saying, "I don’t understand why anyone would find fault with this event. I played at a high level; it was a very entertaining match. Yes, he won, but I performed very well. The score was not a one-sided 0-6. It was a thrilling contest and highly watchable. So I feel we have only brought more attention to the sport. I don’t see anything wrong with that and don’t understand why there are negative comments."

Next, let’s focus on the clay court king, Nadal. Recently, when asked by the media about being called a "sports legend," Nadal said it might be due to three records he holds. "Obviously, some achievements are unbelievable, even to me. I don’t often think about these records, but whenever I remember winning 14 French Open titles... that’s truly extraordinary, plus 12 Barcelona titles, or maintaining a top-ten ranking for 912 consecutive weeks despite countless injuries and long breaks. These are records I am very proud of." Which of Nadal’s unprecedented records do you think will be broken first?

Now, turning to the 2026 season opener. In three days, the United Cup mixed team tennis tournament will start in Perth and Sydney, Australia. Recently, key players like defending champions' star Gauff from the USA, Osaka from Japan, and Paolini from Italy have arrived to prepare for this season-opening event. China has also qualified for this edition, sending five players: Zhu Lin, Zhang Zhizhen, You Xiaodi, Terigele, and Wang Aoran, with Wu Di as captain.

According to the schedule, China’s group matches will begin on January 3 next year, with their first game against Belgium. Zhu Lin will face Mertens; Zhang Zhizhen will play against Borg; mixed doubles is yet to be decided. On January 4, they will compete against Canada, with Zhu Lin against Mboko and Zhang Zhizhen challenging Aliassime. On the European BC company’s odds list for the championship, China ranks last with odds of 51 to 1, not favored to win.

Finally, a guessing game. Below is a shirtless photo of a player. With his eyes and nose obscured and no hints given, can you identify who he is?

In the last guessing game, some fans gave the correct answer. Indeed, the person in the picture is Serbian tennis king Djokovic.

(Source: Tennis Home Author: Independent Thinker)