girinathan Page 26 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Naomi Osaka Could Pummel Her Way To A Title
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Naomi Osaka tiptoes through press conferences but rampages through tennis matches. She’s eager to unravel the notion that tennis could ever be a genteel game of rhythmic back-and-forth. Osaka is not here for the back-and-forth. When she sends the ball over, she absolutely does...

Naomi Osaka Is Tearing Up The Tennis Court But Bummed She Can't Play <i>Overwatch</i>
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Naomi Osaka is enjoying an excellent run at Indian Wells. She unseated Maria Sharapova in her very first match, then cleared out the trickiest veteran Aga Radwanska and two more foes to earn a spot across from fifth-seeded Karolina Pliskova in the quarterfinal. The No. 44, 20-...

LeBron James Is Above The Law
The second-best LeBron James highlight from Sunday’s Cavs-Lakers game might’ve been the ball-fake that sent two defenders scrambling, evacuating the lane for a no-look pass to Ante Zizic. In first place was this one, pointed out yesterday by a keen eye on Twitter:...

Very Good Underdog Yoshihito Nishioka Is Out
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Stand within 10 yards of Stan Wawrinka’s backhand and you realize, immediately, that he belongs to a different species. If somehow you find yourself on a tennis court with him, it is must only be to retrieve the ball he’s just pulverized, or to hand him a towel. That is not t...

Serena Williams Is Back, And She's Not In The Mood To Talk Drugs
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The first two points of Serena Williams’s comeback ended on unforced errors, and the arena, just over half-full on a cool desert night, was silent, totally, as if smothered by a heavy quilt. Maybe they weren’t sure to expect, after the childbirth, the complications, the blood ...

Novak Djokovic Might Be Boned
Indian Wells, tennis’s “fifth major,” begins today in southern California. Last year the men’s draw produced one of the most evil sections of a draw you will ever see: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro, Nick Kyrgios, and Sascha Zverev all crammed unhappily into one c...

Kyle Anderson Hurled The Best, Goofiest Alley-Oop Of The Season
The Kawhi-less Spurs are running on fumes, and it took a 23-point explosion from Tony Parker—who hadn’t cleared the 20-point mark in more than two years—to propel them past the league-worst Grizzlies 100-98 last night. Pau Gasol also hurt his shoulder in the game, making matters no easier for Gregg ...

A Shot So Strange And Good You Have To Laugh
Fabio Fognini, tennis’s sleepy pirate and occasional misogynist, is typically the one doing all the comical, soft-handed trick shots in his matches. I’m the irritable eccentric here in my dumbass camouflage-and-skulls getup, says Fabio Fognini, to no one in particular. But while serving out the matc...

Dammit, Rafael Nadal Will Be Out For A While
Subtract Rafael Nadal from any given tennis tournament, and boom—the participants collectively give 10,000 percent less of a shit about winning. He treasures every point of every match in every tournament. The man who won 16 Slams, including two last year, reportedly cried for two hours straight aft...

Shapo Begged On His Knees
Kei Nishikori, you were missed. The Japanese star popped a tendon in his right wrist in mid-August, closed up shop for the year, and then sat out the Aussie Open last month. Since then he’s warmed up with some low-key Challengers, and this week entered just his second tour-level event since his inju...

The Boban Show Is Captivating, Even If The Episodes Are Short
Late in the third quarter, with all their wings whirring and Nikola Jokic calmly calling the shots from the center, the Nuggets stretched their lead over the Clippers to 19. Tuesday’s game took on the shape of a blowout. If you want to radically alter the shape of a basketball game, add 7-foot-3 Bo...

Frances Tiafoe Beat The Rest Of His Class And Got Himself A Title
Twenty-year-old Frances Tiafoe came to Delray Beach as a wild card entry with a wild forehand. He left as the youngest American to win an ATP title since Andy Roddick got his back in 2002, and with an impressive pile of bodies in his wake. Taking down Juan Martin del Potro was the first omen of big ...

Frances Tiafoe Is An American To Root For
Remember this kid? If you do at all, maybe it’s because you saw him last August, thriving in New York’s late summer humidity: dressed in all-black, whaling away with an unruly forehand, and placing his foot on the throat of every Federer acolyte—making them believe God might actually die in the firs...

Jury Finds USTA Liable For Eugenie Bouchard's Slip And Fall In U.S. Open Locker Room
Eugenie Bouchard, currently ranked No. 116 in the world, was a top-five tennis player once upon a time. Rewind back to her 2014 season, when she reached the Australian Open and French Open semifinals, then the Wimbledon final, and surged to a career-high No. 5. Her success slowed in 2015, but in Sep...
![Gregg Popovich On Kawhi Leonard: "I'll Be Surprised If He Returns This Season" [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/u59izuewp7ein9bpyi6e.jpg)
Gregg Popovich On Kawhi Leonard: "I'll Be Surprised If He Returns This Season" [Update]
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said today that he’ll be “surprised” to see Kawhi Leonard, who’s recovering from an injured quad muscle, play again this season. Woof....

Shapo Beats The Bot
A rite of passage, for any young tennis player, is figuring out how to defeat the servebot. A servebot is a large person with two simple desires: to crush serves as fast as possible and to move around the court as little as possible. The servebot will not play long rallies. He will give you no chanc...

Roger Federer Is The Oldest No. 1 In Men's Tennis History And Also Is Everyone's Dad Now
Robin Haase started strong but appeared to vomit into a garbage can during a changeover in the final set of today’s 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 loss to Roger Federer. With the third-round victory at Rotterdam, 36-year-old Roger Federer will become the oldest No. 1. in the history of the ATP, reclaiming the top r...

Report: Ballboy Did Not Hear Ryan Harrison Make Racist Remarks To Donald Young In Tennis Match
Two American tennis players with a history of conflict had a lengthy argument during their New York Open match on Friday, which they followed with another exchange of words during the post-match handshake. That much we know for sure. Everything that came after has been disputed by both parties. ...

Put The Mushrooms In Butter And Then Put The Mushrooms On Toast
Phantom Thread was a sensuous, satisfying movie, and critics agreed that this was mostly because mushrooms finally got their due in popular culture. If you spent the last two decades milling around, stumbling over tree roots, wondering when fungus would appear as a key plot point in a Daniel Day-Lew...

This No-Look Drop Shot Is Hot Shit
Long-time Roger Federer victim Philipp Kohlschreiber just played an excellent match, earning two set points in the first set before dropping the tiebreak, then committing some untimely double-faults in his final service game to lose 7-6 (8), 7-5 in the second round at Rotterdam. Kohlschreiber spent ...