Greek world No.16 Stefanos Tsitsipas has paid tribute to Swedish DJ Avicii after winning his first title at the Stockholm Open on Sunday.

The 20-year-old downed Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 6-4, to become the first Greek player in history to win a title on the ATP World Tour. Tsitsipas had also previously reached the final at tournaments in Barcelona and Montreal. On Monday morning, the Next Gen star said on social media that his maiden title will be dedicated to Avicii because the artist ‘inspired him’ with his music.

“I have dedicated my first ATP title to Avicii who inspired me with his music. A person who made me dream of things, a person with a creative attitude and a person that I will always remember.” Tsitsipas wrote.

Avicii, whose real name was Tim Bergling, passed away on April 20th at the age of 28 after reportedly committing suicide. The details about the circumstances concerning Avicii’s death was never revealed by his family or management. A statement from his family at the time of his passing said ‘he could not go on any longer.’

Prior to the start of the Stockholm final between Tsitsipas and Gulbis, a special ceremony took place to remember the artist. Avicii is one of the best-selling Swedish artists of all time with an estimated 30 million records being sold.

Avicii tribute by ball kids pic.twitter.com/pJxonfFZfP

— Skihippy (@bamosdomi) October 21, 2018

Despite being the youngest player currently in the world’s top 20, Tsitsipas’ latest breakthrough has generated widespread attention back home. Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras has said the country ‘is proud’ of his latest achievement. Earlier this year, Tsitsipas also became the first Greek male to reach the fourth round of a grand slam at Wimbledon.

“Of course I feel happy because I’m the first Greek [to win a title]. Hopefully many Greek players can achieve something like this. I would be super-happy to see them achieve something like this in the future, maybe even in the near future,” Tsitsipas told atpworldtour.com. “Representing my country at such high-level tournaments, being the first Greek to crack the Top 100 is very, very special for me.”

Tsitsipas will return to action this week at the Swiss Indoors in Basel. He is seeded fourth in the draw and faces France’s Jeremy Chardy in the first round.

At the start of next week Red Bull will announce the creation at a brand new tennis event that will be staged during the ATP Next Gen Finals from 2019 onwards.

The name of the tournament of reported to be The Red Bull Next Gen Open, according to The Times. Eight players around the world aged under 21 and ranked between 400 and 1000 in the world will be invited to take part. It is said to be inspired by the Neymar Jr’s Five football. A five-a-side tournament with a twist. During its first year, a total of 65,000 players from 47 countries took part.

Under the plans, there will be Red Bull qualifying tournaments held around the world. Each of the winners will then progress to the Next Gen Open. The event will be held at the Fiera Milano, the same venue as the ATP Next Gen Finals. Although at the present it is expected that no ranking points will be on offer.

“This is a Red Bull event, not an ATP event. It will however take place at the same venue as the Next Gen ATP Finals (Fiera Milano).” The ATP has told Ubitennis.
“At some point early next week Red Bull will be putting out an announcement with more details, but it’s essentially a 21 and under event played on the Friday and Saturday of our tournament, with players selected from various countries.”

Red Bull GmbH is famously known for their energy drink, but has developed a reputation in the world of sport. They have been involved in the sponsoring of sports such as motorsport, football, ice hockey and e-sports. According to financial documents, their flagship Red Bull Racing Team achieved a net profit of £8.4 million in 2016.

Once Red Bull officially unveils their initiative, they may officially launch it during this year’s Next Gen finals. The tournament will be held during the second week of November.

Former world No.1 Maria Sharapova has admitted that her long-term deal with Nike is set to end later this year, according to a report by The Sun Newspaper.

It has been claimed by the British tabloid that Sharapova has told close friends that she believes the sporting brand will not renew her contract when it expires. Sharapova has been signed with the company since the age of 11 and the deal is estimated to be worth $10 million a year.

Nike has been loyal supporters of Sharapova throughout her entire career. During her 15-month doping suspension after testing positive for meldonium, the company chose to stand by the Russian. Sharapova has insisted that she never deliberately took the substance to enhance her performance. Meldonium was added to the list of prohibited substances by the World Anti-Doping Agency at the start of 2016. During her suspension, she was also able to maintain ties with Porsche, Evian, HEAD and NetJets.

The most recent deal Sharapova struck with Nike was back in 2010. An eight-year contract reportedly worth $70 million with the 31-year-old also receiving a cut from the sales of her own branded clothes.

According to findings by American financial news website The Street, Sharapova’s business net worth has been valued as high as $195 million. Although this figure is disputed by some sources. In 2016 Forbes magazine ranked her 88th in the list of the highest paid athletes in the world. Since then, she has fallen outside the top 100.

Once dubbed as the most marketable female athlete in the world, Sharapova’s has been yet to regain her best form since returning for her doping ban. Winning just one title at the 2017 Tianjin Open in China. Within that time period she has defeated three top 10 players (Jelena Ostapenko twice, Simona Halep and Karolina Pliskova), but is yet to break back into the world’s top 20.

Sharapova has ended her 2018 season early due to a shoulder injury. Winning 20 out of 31 matches played.

There has been no comment from Sharapova’s team in regards to the speculation over the future of her Nike deal.

UPDATE: 20:00 GMT

Sharapova’s agent Max Eisenbud has now dismissed the claims made by The Sun newspaper, according to website tennis.life. In a statement he has claimed that Sharapova has a ‘lifetime’ deal with Nike.

“It’s just incredible how a publication can make up lies and not be held accountable. Even worse is how other publications run with the story as if it is fact. It’s a huge issue,” Eisenbud said.