girinathan Page 38 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Andre Agassi Will Coach Novak Djokovic At The French Open
Andre Agassi, the eight-time Grand Slam winner who has largely kept his distance from the tour since retiring in 2006, is about to take on his first-ever coaching project: the slumping Novak Djokovic. The world No. 2 revealed this new partnership after his loss to Alexander Zverev in the Italian Ope...

How Dominic Thiem Broke Rafael Nadal's 17-Match Winning Streak <em></em>
“One tournament he can win is Roland Garros. So we’ll see. Hopefully not this year,” Rafael Nadal recently said of today’s opponent, Dominic Thiem, with a wink. It now feels like he willed that version of Thiem—the genuine French Open threat, the hardest-hitting guy on clay—into existence....

Juan Martin Del Potro Earns His Best Win Of The Year
One of 2016's best storylines was the resurgence of Juan Martin del Potro, a U.S. Open winner who sank below No. 1000 during his long absence from the tour to deal with wrist injuries. But his ascent slowed this year, as the 28-year-old Argentine, whose No. 34 ranking still grossly undersells his ta...

Andy Murray Can't Move
Andy Murray fell to Fabio Fognini yesterday in his second-round match at the Italian Open, 6-2, 6-4. While Fognini’s multifaceted game is much bigger than his No. 29 ranking might suggest—he’s one of two people to take a set off Rafael Nadal this clay season—that’s little solace for Murray, who was ...

Bruce Bowen On Zaza Pachulia's Closeout: "Intentional And Definitely Dangerous"
Bruce Bowen can cite a wealth of experience when it comes to stepping under shooters. Whether that makes him the most or least qualified to comment on that infamous Zaza Pachulia closeout is hard to say. Either way, Bleacher Report sought out his take, and as satisfying as it would be to pin Bowen f...

Grigor Dimitrov Thoroughly Ruins His Racket
Grigor Dimitrov lost to Juan Martin del Potro, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 at the Italian Open today. He hit some nice shots in a disappointing first-round exit, but saved his finest technique for this two-part racket devastation: First the spike, then the bare hands....

Roger Federer Pulls Out Of The French Open, And Rafael Nadal's Practically A Lock To Win It
Good news for Rafael Nadal: Roger Federer isn’t going to the French Open....

Rafael Nadal Owns The Dirt And Anyone Standing On It
Watch this guy here, the blond guy playing frantic, brilliant tennis, tracking down a lob for a whirling dervish winner....

Heaven And Heck Prevail
Congratulations to junior tennis players Zion Heaven and Hunter Heck, semifinalists at the Copa Badia....

Grigor Dimitrov And Dominic Thiem Played The Best Tennis Of The Week And It Was Infuriating
For the better part of this week, it looked like Grigor Dimitrov was ready to shake himself out of his stupor—he’d lost his opening match at the last three tournaments, c’mon man—and make these frenzied blogs look a little less stupid. He started this Madrid Open looking like a whole player again, b...

Borna Coric, Lucky Loser, Puts Slumping No. 1 Andy Murray To Bed
It’s been an extremely Andy Murray series of events. The ornery Scot played blisteringly good, 28-wins-straight tennis to finally claim the No. 1 spot for the first time in his career, but has since looked much easier to topple, taking losses to names you wouldn’t immediately recognize: older broth...

Do You Think The Cavs Are Worried About The Celtics Or Wizards?
Let’s check in....

Manu Ginobili And Boris Diaw Had An Adorable Dunk Competition
These days, neither Manu Ginobili nor Boris Diaw do much dunking—the former had just two in the regular season, and the latter managed just one. But after slamming one in Game 7 of the Jazz-Clippers series......

Novak Djokovic Is Flying Solo And Looks No Steadier
Playing his first match after firing his whole coaching staff, Novak Djokovic struggled. Today, in the second round of the Madrid Open, he squared up against world No. 76 Nicolas Almagro—a player he had defeated in all four previous matches, losing only one set in a tiebreak—and teetered on the brin...

Sometimes You Don't Even Have To Hit It Over The Net
The net, you’d think, is an unavoidable fact of tennis. As a ball approaches you, there are many interesting decisions you are free to make—where to play it, what kind of spin to apply, how hard to strike—but one decision is already made for you: you have to hit it over the damn net....

Maybe The Raptors Should Just Be Happy With What They've Got<em></em>
In a press conference today, Raptors president Masai Ujiri said, “I feel talking now is BS, why we need to do this today, might as well talk to me in a month,” but nevertheless offered some 6,303 words of speculation on his team’s future. Those words were interesting, if fogged in layers of nuance, ...

Isaiah Thomas To Heckler: "I Will Fuck You Up, And You Know That"
We missed this gem at the time, but here’s Boston’s wee hero talking some smack to a mouthy Game 3 attendee....

Maria Sharapova Loses To Her Biggest Hater, Exchanges Awkward "Handshake"
Returning from a 15-month doping ban, Maria Sharapova faced some harsh critics, but none harsher than fellow WTA player Eugenie Bouchard, who suggested that she never should have been allowed back at all:...

It's Probably Time To Stop Talking About "LeBron Stoppers"
The Toronto Raptors came into these playoffs with a well-known “LeBron Stopper” on the roster in DeMarre Carroll. The Hawks got swept by the Cavs when Carroll played the role for Atlanta in 2015, and James averaged 26.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 6.7 assists on 62.2 percent shooting when the Cavs bea...

Finally, Some More Shit-Talking In Tennis
Alexander Zverev, one of tennis’s two juvenile prodigies, claimed a tough win over Jan-Lennard Struff today and left the court on a pungent note. After beating his fellow German in this Munich Open quarterfinal, Zverev gestured at the clay and said, unmistakably, “This is my fucking court.” By the s...