Maria Sharapova — Getty ImagesThe Australian Open starts next week, but even if Maria Sharapova gets bounced in the first round she is off to a hot start in 2013. Why? Because her candy line, Sugarpova, has been killing it for the four-time Grand Slam champion.

According to a Bloomberg report, Sharapova is set to more than double her initial investment in the candy company in just the first year as projections skyrocket for the gummy candy introduced in the United States in August.

Sharapova put up $500,000 for the candy company, chump change for an athlete as marketable as the 2012 French Open champion, but the 25-year-old gets somewhere around $1.10 per bag sold of the $5.99 bag of gummy candy and people seem to be interested.

John Isner — Getty ImagesAmerican tennis is on the decline. Nobody has won a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick did it in 2003 (Roddick has since retired from competitive tennis), and while we've seen glimpses of talent come through the ranks, nobody has really taken the reigns as an American that could really make some noise in the upper echelon of professional tennis.

And it keeps getting worse. Top-ranked American John Isner, who won two titles in 2012 and made it to the third round of the Australian Open a season ago, has pulled out of the first Grand Slam of the year in Melbourne with bone bruising in his right knee.

Isner, who broke the top-10 a year ago before finishing No. 14 in the world, was the highest ranked American, leaving Sam Querrey with that title at No. 22 with Isner pulling out.

It's just been a strange few years for Americans. Roddick came on the scene with that booming serve and quick forehand, but he never seemed to have all the pieces to compete in today's tennis. Now the U.S. has a guy like

Rafael Nadal — Getty ImagesHealth has always been a concern with Rafael Nadal, but things are starting to get so serious that his opportunity to ever be competitive again in Grand Slams could come into question.

The 11-time Slam champion officially announced he would not be at next month's Australian Open (also skipping Qatar Open) because of a stomach virus, but some think it might have more to do with his aching knee than something bad he ate.

Nadal said in a statement, "My knee is much better and the rehabilitation process has gone well as predicted by the doctors, but this virus didn't allow me to practice this past week, and therefore I am sorry to announce that I will not play in Doha and the Australian Open."

[Related: Novak Djokovic the odds-on favorite for Aussie Open]

Problem is, others aren't necessarily buying it. Spain's Nicolas Almagro said in a media session on Friday that he is a little shocked that Nadal won't be making the trip to Australia, and he didn't mention much about the virus when

Novak Djokovic — Getty ImagesDon't look now, but we're just more than two weeks away from the first Grand Slam of the season kicking off. The Australian Open in Melbourne starts on Jan. 14, and while this could be the most up for grabs tennis season in recent memory in terms of picking a winner, there is still an obvious favorite to win on Rod Laver.

Novak Djokovic, winner of the last two Australian Opens, is listed as the betting favorite by Bovada. The 25-year-old is 5/4 to win the first Slam of 2013, with Andy Murray right on his heels and Roger Federer right behind.

[Related: Rafael Nadal officially withdraws from Australian Open]

Here are the players listed at better than 100-t0-1 to win.

Novak Djokovic -- 5/4
Andy Murray -- 3/1
Roger Federer -- 9/2
Juan Martin Del Potro -- 14/1
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga -- 33/1
Tomas Berdych -- 33/1
Milos Raonic -- 33/1
David Ferrer -- 40/1
Bernard Tomic -- 66/1
John Isner -- 50/1

With no Rafael Nadal in Australia, it seems that you'd have to think one of those top two names are

Andy Murray -- Getty ImagesIn the minutes, hours and days following the terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook elementary in Newton, Conn., plenty of politicians, celebrities and athletes offered up support, donations and heart-felt sorrow for the victims of this horrible tragedy. But few people actually know from experience how tough this can be.

Andy Murray, the 2012 U.S. Open champion, was part of a 1996 school shooting at Dunblane Primary in central Scotland that left 16 students and a teacher dead, and offered up his support for the Connecticut community on his Facebook page this last weekend.

"My heart goes out to all those poor children, their families and the community in Newtown in Connecticut, so, so sad," Murray said.

[Slideshow: Sports world honors Connecticut shooting victims]

The shooting in 1996, according to this USA Today report, was a very similar situation to that of Sandy Hook, and while Murray doesn't talk much about this, understandably, he has mentioned at times of what happened all those years

Tennis players have a habit of impersonating one another for a laugh while in exhibition matches, and one of the more notable, for any number of reasons, is Caroline Wozniacki's overstuffed take on her friend Serena Williams. This past weekend, playing a match in Sao Paolo against Maria Sharapova, Wozniacki added a bit of padding and played a point "as" Williams.

Funny little goof, right? Because Wozniacki and Williams are friends, and especially because Williams herself has no problem making fun of her own figure? But no, this is an era where no joke goes unscrutinized, and no humor apparently exists without sinister subtext.

In other words: People are actually saying Caroline Wozniacki was performing a racist act.

Caroline Wozniacki does her best impression of Serena Williams (Photo: Eurosport)

One blogger on Tumblr wrote, "this isn't 'harmless fun' as one article described it. its racist. out and outright racism. mocking and making fun of the bodies of black women for a laugh? real funny, stupid white girl. real real funny." (Link not provided because of

Why is this man smiling? Donkey cheese! (Getty Images)We know that "Novak Djokovic is buying the world's entire supply of donkey cheese" sounds like the kind of headline that would show up around April Fool's, but it's apparently legit. The world No. 1 is spending millions to purchase all of the rare cheese made from, uh, donkey milk.

The cheese, known as pule, is white, crumbly and made from donkey's milk. It runs over $500 per pound, in part because one pound of the cheese requires over three gallons of milk. It's produced in Djokovic's native Serbia, and he plans to use it in his soon-to-open chain of restaurants.  (Too much to hope that the restaurants are named "Donkey Cheese"?)

Pule recently received the distinction of the "world's most expensive cheese." Created at one farm in one town in Serbia, the cheese is derived from milk on one of Serbia's most well-known natural reserves. Djokovic purchased the farm's entire year's supply.

"It will save a lot of effort having to deal with various restaurants, with only one customer buying

[Censored] yes, that was in! (Getty Images)Tennis can be a frustrating game. When you play your heart out and lose the point, screaming out a "[censored]" or "[censored]" or "[censored] you, you [censored] [censored] ball" feels really, really good. Problem is, if the world's watching, cursing like you're in a Tarantino film lacks a certain decorum.

As such, Andy Murray, reigning U.S. Open champion and swearing maestro, has decided that he'll clean up his mouth, starting with next month's Australian Open, according to Scotland's Daily Record.

"Obviously, me saying [censored but starts with 's'] or whatever is bad and wrong, and it's something I want to try to stop doing," he said, then added the kicker: "But it isn't as bad as some of the stuff the foreign players come out with. I wouldn't want to name any names, but some of what they say is ghastly. It's just that all of the umpires speak English." (Someone needs to start a website with translations of foreign tennis player curse translations, pronto.)

Noise on the court is,