Kei Nishikori does not own a soccer team or a burger chain

Danielle Elliot
Kei Nishikori of Japan serves to Nicolas Almagro of Spain during their men's singles first round match at the Australian Open 2015 tennis tournament in Melbourne January 20, 2015. REUTERS/Issei Kato

Don't believe everything you hear on ESPN.

During No. 5 Kei Nishikori's first round match, ESPN analyst Chris Fowler offered an interesting story about the rising Japanese star. He said Nishikori, who reached his first Grand Slam final at the U.S. Open in August, is the highest-paid male tennis player in the world. Lucrative endoresment deals in his home country supposedly helped him trump the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Fowler said that, "according to published reports," Nishikori made about $46 million last year through a combination of deals and owning a soccer team, a burger chain, "his own brand of vodka," a perfume, a clothing line, property holdings and stock investments.

"He's come back hungrier than ever despite having more money than he'll ever need," Fowler added.

It sounded unfathomable - and as one of Fowler's Twitter followers soon pointed out, it is.

The analyst quickly admitted the mistake.

According to Deadspin, the information Fowler cited had all be falsely reported by a site called MediaMass. He blames a Google search in his tweet - but did he (or whoever gave him the information) actually Google anything in the article?

If so, he likely would have realized that there is no soccer team named the Matsue Angels (the one Nishikori supposedly owned). The "Fat Nishikori Burger" chain? That's a ruse, too.

He later chalked it up to dropping into the match at the last minute, without researching the players very much.