The Score: Russia picks 14-year-old for Davis Cup, Pliskova’s ice bath, Andy Murray’s brother’s doubles feud

A 14-year-old tennis prodigy has been picked for the Davis Cup, but is ‘The Iceborg’ the real deal or are they pouring more fuel on the controversy surrounding the maligned competition’s new format?

Russia has selected 14-year-old prodigy Konstantin Zhzhenov in its Davis Cup team.

Surely he’s just cutting the oranges?

That has to be the only explanation for Russia naming 14-year-old Konstantin Zhzhenov in its Davis Cup team to play Switzerland.

There has been a lot of noise around the Davis Cup and its new format with a lot of the big names sitting out the opening round of qualifiers.

Russia did name a couple of its big guns in Karen Khachanov and Daniil Medvedev for the tie against the Swiss who will be minus Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.

Last year Zhzhenov, who already has an impressive nickname of ‘The Iceborg’ for his on-court demeanour, won the European 14-and-under title.

He came in at No.3 on Tennis Europe’s official U/14 boys rankings behind Croatia’s Mili Poljicak.

Russia has selected 14-year-old prodigy Konstantin Zhzhenov in its Davis Cup team.

DAY 10: FOLLOW ALL TODAY’S OPEN ACTION LIVE

INCREDIBLE CHOKE: WHAT WENT WRONG FOR SERENA

AGAINST THE ODDS

The joys of punting on the run were on display during the thrilling Pliskova-Williams quarter-final.

If you fancied a dabble with live betting then there was lots of great odds getting thrown up by the TAB.

At different points in the third set both players had $26 next to their names.

Pliskova blew like the wind when she was trailing 1-5 in the third set before she started her remarkable comeback.

The Czech No.7 seed started the match at odds of $3.60 which came down to $1.60 after she won the first set and then to $1.20 during the second set when she was up a break.

But when Williams stormed back she was the overwhelming favourite at the start of the third set at $1.37 with Pliskova out to $3.10.

Then when she got out to the 5-1 lead there was no price available for her.

After that the odds started to leak slowly out: 5-2 (Williams $1.04-Pliskova $11) 5-3 ($1.07- $8.50), 5-4 ($1.46-$2.70).

When the set was levelled at 5-5 Pliskova took over as favourite at $1.85 to Williams’ $1.95 and then at 6-5 she was into $1.15 with the struggling former champion out to $5.50.

The extraordinary result certainly left one TAB punter in tears after they’d had a lazy $45,000 pre-match bet at $1.32 on Williams.

Serena Williams and Karolina Pliskova fought out a topsy-turvy clash that had the betting odds fluctuating wildly. Picture: AFP

ICY SUPERSTITION

When you’re on a good thing it’s best to keep running with it.

That’s exactly what Pliskova planned to do after her upset quarter-final victory over the game’s greatest ever player.

It turns out the Czech player has a few superstitions around her food intake and the role of her support staff.

Asked about how she would recover from what was a gruelling quarter-final, Pliskova said: “All my team, everyone will be getting in the ice bath with me and then we will be going to the same restaurant again.”

Everyone wants a piece of new Greek sensation Stefanos Tsitsipas. Picture: AFP

SUBSCRIBE TO THE GREEK FREAK

The Stefanos Tsitsipas phenomenon continues to grow, literally by the minute.

After Tuesday’s quarter-final win, Jim Courier did an entertaining on-court chat with the Greek freak and one of the topics was his own Youtube channel.

Tsitsipas keeps his fans up to date with his off-court activities and already has a couple of episodes posted on his time in Australia

In the 10 minutes after he told Courier about his online channel, he gained more than 6000 subscribers. Twenty four hours later his total number was up past 46,000.

Jamie Murray talks tactics with doubles partner Bruno Soares on the court, but off it, he’s been locked in a feud with fellow Brit Dan Evans over the validity of the format. Picture: Getty Images

MURRAY’S BROTHER’S DOUBLES FEUD

The Poms love a feud and Andy Murray’s brother Jamie has found himself in the middle of a spat over the worthiness of doubles with fellow Brit Dan Evans.

Jamie is a six-time grand slam doubles winner while Evans, who was suspended for 12 months after testing positive for cocaine, isn’t a big fan of the teams concept.

They came to blows after Murray pumped up widely respected specialist coach, Louis Cayer, to become Britain’s national performance director.

“Who exactly has Louis Cayer ever coached apart from doubles players?” Evans said.

“Jamie thinks we should be celebrating six pairs inside the main draw of a grand slam?

“So we are celebrating people who didn’t make it at singles and people who didn’t have the attitude to work hard enough to make it in the singles game.”

As you can imagine that last comment didn’t go down well.

“To question the reason that we are on the doubles Tour is because we don’t work as hard as the singles guys is just total nonsense,” Murray said.

Unfortunately Evans got to have the last laugh with Murray and his partner Bruno Soares losing their quarter-final match against Australia’s John Peers and Finland’s Henri Kontinen.

The greatest doubles combination in history, Bob and Mike Bryan, also bid farewell, losing to French pair Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.

GRAND:

She may have lost the match but we give Serena Williams a big tick for not bothering to call for the trainer after twisting her ankle early in the third set. Yes she was in control at that stage but when things got wonky after that, we’re tipping most of her colleagues — yes we’re looking at you Maria — would have been calling for an extended break.

Serena Williams showed how tough she is, fighting through an ankle injury without treatment. Picture: Getty Images

SLAM:

The no-let rule is stupid. It cost our man Rinky Hijikata in the juniors on match point. The big boys and girls have already indicated they don’t want it in grand slam competition so let’s stop messing with tradition.

THE WHISPER:

Which tennis legend had their nose out of joint after overhearing photographers making less than flattering comments about their appearance?

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