By Colleen Meosky Here we are again folks; watching rivals compete for the Stanley Cup while Buffalo’s hockey players are well into their golf seasons....

After winning the ATP Cup on February 2, World No. 4 Daniil Medvedev stepped up to give a speech on behalf of Team Russia. Medvedev first congratulated Team Italy on making the final before turning his attention to one teammate in particular, Aslan Karatsev. Karatsev did not play a significant role in terms of Russia’s win, as both Medvedev and Rublev won all of their singles matches, but that did not mean he didn’t have an impact. Medvedev said, “Aslan, I’m not joking, was our secret weapon for doubles.” The little known Russian from Vladivkavkaz was only playing the ATP Cup because third ranked Russian Karen Khachanov decided not to participate. Just two weeks later, Karatsev made the semifinals of the Australian Open and leapfrogged into the Top 50 after never being inside of the Top 100 during his entire career. So, how did he get there?

After underwhelming clay seasons, both Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic entered the Italian Open in Rome with the hopes of gaining confidence before the upcoming grand slam, Roland Garros. Nadal entered the Italian Open with a 9-2 record on clay this season, suffering losses in the quarter-finals of both the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters and Mutua Madrid Open to Russian Andrey Rublev and German Alexander Zverev.

Ever since Kyrie Irving started writing “Allah” in parentheses next to whenever he wrote “God” in his tweets of prayers and statements, there has been speculation about whether Irving had converted to Islam.