I can’t wait for the Australian Open tennis to commence in Melbourne on Monday and listen to Channel Seven commentators call: “Sir Andy double faults” or, “15-love to Andrew Murray, OBE.”
However, what is more important, to be knighted or have an asteroid named after you?
What have tennis champions Rafael Nadal, Kim Clijster and Justine Henin in common?
Asteroids have been named after them; asteroid 128036 Rafaelnadal after Nadal, asteroid 11947 Kimclijster after Belgian tennis player Kim Clijster and asteroid 11948 Justinehenin after fellow countrywoman Henin.
If you recall, Clijster was nicknamed Aussie Kim after her brief engagement with Lleyton Hewitt.
Why are asteroids named after Nadal, Clijster and Henin and not after Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, Rod Laver, Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong, Ken Rosewall, Billie Jean King, Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker, John Newcombe…?
Search me or rather the entire galaxy!
Asteroids are irregular objects that orbit the sun, are about three kilometres long and are found between Mars and Jupiter.
Asteroid number 128036, designated as Rafaelnadal 2003 KM18, was discovered on 28 May 2003 at the Observatorio Astronomico de Mallorca. It was named to honour the tennis prodigy who was born in Mallorca.
When going through over thousand asteroid names on Google search, I also came across an asteroid named Federer. I believe that it was not named after Roger but after Charles and Helen Federer, founders of Sky and Telescope Journal.
However, a recent entry in Google names an asteroid named Rogerfederer (230975).
So once again my query: what has Nadal got which many other tennis greats lack? Perhaps asteroids have more clay than grass!
Karpov, asteroid 90414, was named after Anatoly Karpov, Russian chess grand master and world champion for 16 years. Nurmi (1740) and Zatopec (5910) were named after famous Olympians Paavo Nurmi and Emil Zatopec.
Asteroids were also named after Australia’s great sports stars Don Bradman, Bradman (2472), Greg Norman, the golfing great internationally respected as The Great White Shark and swimming sensation Shane Gould, officially declared Living National Treasure. She is the only person – male or female – to hold every world freestyle-swimming record from 100 to 1500m simultaneously and the only swimmer to win three Olympic gold medals in world record time.
Asteroid 16051 is named Gregnorman and asteroid 25058 is designated Shanegould.
Two asteroids have been named after women excelling in different sports.
Lynnecox (asteroid No.37588) honours American long distance swimmer and writer Lynne Cox. Born in 1957, she twice held record for the fastest crossing of the English Channel in 1972 and 1973. She swam in near freezing water of Antarctica for more than a mile.
For this feat she was praised by both Ronald Reagen and Mikhail Gorbachov. The two Presidents joined hands to congratulate Lynne, thawing out the cold war somewhat.
Katarinawitt (asteroid 36800) was named after Katarina Witt, born in 1965. She was the German figure skater, Olympic gold medalist in 1984 and 1988 and four times world figure-skating champion.
Jens Weissflog was a German ski-jumper born in 1964. He was the most successful German ski-jumper of all time and was nicknamed The Flea. Asteroid 22168 is named Weissflog in his honour.
What about a new asteroid Curiouserandcuriouser (606060) to be named after Nick Kyrgios?
The list is far from complete. Roarer PhDs, you are requested to add to my list as you listen to the Australian Open commentaries on the top-seeded Sir Andrew Barron Murray volleying to win the first round.
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