Daily Dose of Social Media including Murray's birthday, Badosa back in the gym and Collins' iconic retort to cameraman

ATP
Wednesday, 15 May 2024 at 20:15
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In our Daily Dose of Social Media, we give you the top moments that you may have missed as the Rome Open reaches the latter stages as well as other moments that have hit social media platforms on Wednesday 15 May.
The Daily Dose for Wednesday includes Paula Badosa, Andy Murray, Danielle Collins and Flavio Cobolli as well as some news regarding the US Open.

Badosa working out 'next to' Rafael Nadal

Paula Badosa had a confidence building week at the 2024 Rome Open as she took down Mirra Andreeva, Emma Navarro and Diana Shnaider and showed that she is very much still a threat on this surface.
It has been a hellish 12 months for Badosa who sustained a stress fracture in her spine this time last year and ever since has been living with the effects. She also recently split from boyfriend, Stefanos Tsitsipas. This could or could not be behind the latest upturn in her form. But she was looking to a Spanish legend for inspiration while working out.
Seemingly heading towards Rabat where she will play with a wildcard next week, she continues to work hard and was shown in the gym on Wednesday with the caption 'can't stop, won't stop'. Here's hoping for a continued resurgence.

US Open Men's Final set for earlier start time

While the US Open may seem like sometime away, Flushing Meadows will soon turn the corner into the next juncture of the tennis season after the Olympic Games. It will be on broadcast TV in the States on ABC. It will also start two hours earlier in the case of the men's final.
The US Open Men's Singles Final will be shown on ABC for the first time ever. It will have a 60 minute warmup heading into the match and will also still be shown on ESPN for instance. But it gives the tournament even more visibility while also starting earlier than usual. Last year of course Novak Djokovic won his 24th Grand Slam title. He defeated Daniil Medvedev in the final 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 to seal the deal.

Murray celebrates birthday in Bordeaux

Andy Murray turns 37 today and as ever, he is at a tennis tournament and is preparing for his comeback to the sport for the first time since Miami in March. it is a weird time of year for Murray as usually he is training for Wimbledon.
Murray will defend his Surbiton title for instance and usually begins there as opposed to even attempting to play Roland Garros. But with it being his final year and with the Olympic Games firmly in his sights, he has decided to give it a go this year for the last time. He will team with Dan Evans at the French Open. He faces Kyrian Jacquet tonight at the Bordeaux Challenger who defeated former World No.36 Pierre Hugues Herbert to reach the first round. He takes him on around 22 CET.
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Andy Murray celebrates his birthday today and he is playing tonight.
But despite having a match on the horizon, Murray was still given a cake by the tournament to celebrate his birthday. Albeit he looked slightly embarrassed by the birthday wishes cutting a smiley but grumpy figure. A true legend of the sport who will end his career shortly, but hopefully on a high.
He has won three Grand Slam singles titles, 46 career titles, 14 Masters titles, two Olympic Gold Medals and is the only man to win a Grand Slam, Olympics, Masters and ATP Finals in the same calendar year. He will tackle the next portion of his career tonight as he tests out whether he is really back after his heartbreaking Miami injury.

Collins is the icon and the moment

Danielle Collins as of time of writing is facing off against Victoria Azarenka for a spot in the semi-finals of the Rome Open and will aim for yet another tick on her box in the final year of her career. The American has really been the queen of WTA tennis in recent months and doesn't show any signs of letting up.
Collins though despite being fairly love or hate to fans showed once again why to the former she is truly iconic when she faced Azarenka. She was going back to her bench after a break and the cameraman came closer. But she uttered to him: "Hey dude, you're gonna have to back up a little bit." The true swagger of the Danimal in full flow in that moment.
Currently she is about to seal the opening set against Victoria Azarenka. She blew away Irina Camelia Begu and Caroline Garcia in the previous rounds with Anna Blinkova also being defeated. This also showed the superb sportsmanship side of the American as she went to help the latter as she had to be carted off court.

Roger Federer's On brand announce soaring profits and new signing

Roger Federer has had a really crushing day as he announced soaring profits and smashing his estimates. He is 60% up and will likely top up to 2.5 billion this year. He has also announced a new signing for his On running brand.
Ironically while the action is currently in Rome, he has added an Italian to his ranks. It is a fairly closed shop thus far with only Iga Swiatek, Ben Shelton and Joao Fonseca being the main athletes on his brand. Albeit some criticism has been levied regarding the fact that they all wear the same clothes and Swiatek will wear the same pattern as Shelton and vice versa.
But it has certainly helped in getting the company firmly into the conscious of tennis fans. Cobolli will hope to do the same. At the age of only 22, he is at a career high of World No.57. He made his Grand Slam debut last year and reached the third round of the Australian Open.
A player that is an interesting pick given that he has yet to pull up any trees given the billing he has been given. But he still very much has time on his side with his age and also hopefully his backing to move forward with his career as 2024 concludes. A good day for Roger Federer's team just got better.

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