australian-open Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Novak Djokovic And A Heckler Reach An Amicable Consensus
Novak Djokovic was, by one metric, historically bad last night for a Grand Slam match winner. He held on to beat Frenchman Giles Simon 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the round of 16 at the Australian Open, but he committed 100 unforced errors. In a way, this is more indicative of Simon’s style (as y...

Even Roger Federer Went Nuts Over This 27-Stroke Rally Between Maria Sharapova & Lauren Davis
American Lauren Davis has forced a third set against fifth seed Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open after winning a second-set tiebreak. That came despite her unforced error at the end of this remarkable 27-stroke rally—one that got Roger Federer, awaiting his turn against Grigor Dimitrov, out of...

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Stops Play To Assist Injured Ball Girl
A lovely little moment at the Australian Open today—lovely for everyone except the ball girl who got whacked in the face with a ball and had to be helped off the court....

Australian Open Ball Boy Takes 121-MPH Serve Straight To The Dong
Feliciano López was facing Adrian Mannarino in the Australian Open yesterday. López advanced when Mannarino succumbed to the heat in the fourth set. Good for López! Now let's talk about this dong shot. ...

Fowler Falls For Fake Website, Makes Crazy Claims About Tennis Star
Tonight's Australian Open coverage on ESPN2 featured announcer Chris Fowler explaining to the audience that Japanese pro Kei Nishikori is, among other things, the highest-paid tennis player in the world and the owner of a restaurant chain, a soccer team, and clothing and perfume lines. None of tho...

Christina McHale Pukes All Over Australian Open Tennis Court, Still Wins
American tennis pro Christina McHale overcame several episodes of puking during the third set against France's Stephanie Foretz to win her Australian Open first round match today 6-4, 1-6, 12-10. It was a gutsy performance, one ESPN showed in all its slow-motion vomiting glory....

Stanislas Wawrinka Dominates An Injured Nadal, Wins Australian Open
Rafael Nadal hadn't dropped a set to Stanislas Wawrinka before today's Australian Open final. Wawrinka promptly changed that by winning the first set, eventually taking the match in four sets, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. But Wawrinka didn't come out on top only because of Nadal's injury. The Swiss was in ch...

Li Na Wins Australian Open, Sasses Husband In Victory Speech
Li Na defeated Dominika Cibulkova 7-6, 6-0 to win the 2014 Australian Open and gave a delightfully hilarious speech following the match. Among other things, she thanked her agent for making her rich and congratulated her husband for now being famous in China, thanked him for fixing her drinks (edit...

Rafael Nadal's Hands Are Disgusting
Rafael Nadal will play Roger Federer on Friday (overnight for U.S. audiences) in a semifinal match at the Australian Open, but forget about that for a minute. Look how gross Rafa's hands are. ...

Here Comes The Federer-Nadal To Possibly End All Federer-Nadals
Maybe every Federer-Nadal is a Federer-Nadal for the ages, and when we look back we'll marvel at our luck that these two comets coincided for a decade. But let's say with a bit of boldness that the upcoming Federer-Nadal — in a date punched when they respectively dispatched Andy Murray and Grigor Di...

It's Still Really Fucking Hot At The Australian Open
[Practicing before his loss to Florian Mayer, Jerzy Janowicz basks in the mist. Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty]...

Players Are Fainting, Puking, And Hallucinating At The Australian Open
It is fucking hot in Melbourne. Temperatures soared to 108 degrees today, weather unfit for human existence, let alone playing world-class tennis. A short compilation of bad things to happen to tennis players so far at the first Grand Slam event of the year:...

There Was A Kangaroo Delay At The Australian Open
This fantastic photo was taken on the ninth hole of the LPGA Australian Open at Canberra, as Karrie Webb waited for a troop of kangaroos to clear the fairway. This is the same tournament where a Swedish golfer suffered a Black Widow spider bite while attempting to qualify. Australia, you're terrifyi...

Justin Gimelstob Would Like You To Watch The Australian Open Mixed Doubles Final
Former professional tennis player and all-world manly man—as in sex-with-ladies manly man—Justin Gimelstob is at it again (here, "at it again" is open to interpretation, but most likely means "reminding you he is a thing that exists"). Gimelstob is currently an announcer for the Tennis Channel and l...

Can Anyone Think Of Another Reason Sloane Stephens Is Considered Serena Williams's "Protégé"?
This evening, Serena Williams plays 19-year-old American phenom Sloane Stephens in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. The two played for the first time just three weeks ago in Brisbane, when No. 3 Williams cruised past No. 25 Stephens, 6-4, 6-3. But tonight's match has something of a differen...

The USTA Will Make The U.S. Open The Most Fogeyish Grand Slam Tournament
For years, the U.S. Open was the antidote to Wimbledon and Roland Garros' fussiness (the Australian was basically just irrelevant and a big Whatever). At the Open there were ungodly late matches, bigger stadiums, the made-for-TV scheduling bonanza in Super Saturday, loud music, longer commercial bre...

Your "Oh No, It's 3:30 A.M. " Liveblog Of Federer-Nadal At The Australian Open
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are set to meet in the Australian Open semifinals on Thursday, in a match scheduled to begin at 3:30 a.m. ET. It's the 27th time the pair have met on a tennis court, with the Majorcan matador holding a 17-9 edge all-time, 7-2 in Grand Slams. The meeting is notable, con...

Novak Djokovic Gives Appropriately Stupid Answer To Jim Courier's Incredibly Stupid Question
The television networks employ former athletes as analysts because of the uncommon insight they can offer from having been there. Those ex-athletes will, on occasion, uphold their end of the bargain by informing us of something we might not have known or understood without the benefit of their per...

Do Not Refuse The Post-Match Handshake Or Australians Will Boo The Shit Out Of You
Czech Tomas Berdych faced deafening boos and squeals (which are apparently some kind of Australian version of hissing) after refusing to shake the hand of Spain's Nicolas Almagro following Berdych's four-set win today in Melbourne....

Marcos Baghdatis Calmly Destroyed Four Consecutive Tennis Rackets Between Sets Last Night
After falling behind by two sets to Stanislas Wawrinka in the second round of the Australian Open last night, Marcos Baghdatis went to his chair and calmly smashed four consecutive Tecnifibre rackets. The rage propelled him to win the following set, but Wawrinka took the match, 7-6, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1....