australianopen Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Coco Gauff-Aryna Sabalenka is tennis' best rivalry
Women’s tennis hasn’t had a great rivalry in some time. The tour was dominated by Serena Williams for so long and no one could have managed to look her in the eye for very long. The closest was her sister Venus, yet matches between the two regularly and mostly were hard on the eyes, because both see...
Taking the Daniil Medvedev ride at the Australian Open
Most of my life, I have found tennis very easy and yet very hard to watch. It’s easy in that it’s a beautiful sport to gaze upon, the players’ ballet-like movements and the steady rhythm of the sound of the ball hitting the racket and then the court over and over can lull one into a lovely state of ...
Novak Djokovic was the boulder, Taylor Fritz was Sisyphus
It has to be hard enough to work through the mental gymnastics it takes to take the court against Novak Djokovic, convinced you can win. That’s what professional athletes do, of course, it’s part of the job. But they’re also still human, and it gets hard to shut out the list that makes Djokovic the ...
In the headlines: History for Michigan sports; Jim Dolan sex assault case; Insanity at Australian Open
Sports are about numbers, and that isn’t just because scores are kept. A player’s height and weight matter, they’re ages, too. But the best moments are when things occur that haven’t happened in a long time, as sports are also a marker of time. We just witnessed the best seven days that a place with...
This year’s Australian Open is drunk
The Australian Open is already kind of geared for weirdos, at least on these shores, given that you have to sacrifice sleep and any usefulness the next day to enjoy it. But this year’s edition has been off the rails, making it even more worth it for those of us who are prepared to throw ourselves of...
Ben Shelton feels limitless
There’s been a lament, until recently, that on the men’s side American tennis just had a ceiling. And that ceiling wasn’t anywhere close to winning a Grand Slam. Which is a little unfair to Andy Roddick, who without the existence of Roger Federer would have been a multi-Wimbledon champion and probab...
History has its eyes on Carlos Alcaraz and his early quest to become tennis’ GOAT
Tennis is undergoing its Steph Curry moment. The way Carlos Alcaraz controls the country club sport through his racket is unlike anything we’ve seen before. Nearly a decade after Curry’s rise to superstardom, every high school sophomore thinks swishing a 40-footer is routine. It’s not, and every air...
So you’re telling me there’s a chance!
Tommy Paul didn’t play collegiate tennis. Instead, he came up through the junior circuit and turned pro in 2015. He’s one of the rare Americans who plays best on clay, yet his career breakthrough has come on the hardcourt of the Australian Open. Paul took down fellow American Ben Shelton on Wednesda...
Rafael Nadal winning the French Open is still the most inevitable outcome in sports
Rafael Nadal’s dominance on clay courts is to be expected. When he enters Roland Garros, his path to the title is Jordanesque, Gretzky-like, Ruthian, or whichever GOAT athletes of the last century come to mind....
An older, more economical Rafa Nadal can still fight
Because he’s five years the junior of Roger Federer, it’s been interesting to watch Rafa Nadal’s career kind of trail in Federer’s wake and how much it follows this same path. At 35, much like Federer did at age 35, Nadal entered this Australian Open off a huge injury layoff, as he didn’t play after...
Hit the road, Novak
No-vax Djokovic is having a hell of a time trying to play in the Australian Open, a Grand Slam he has won a record nine times, because it turns out this pandemic is serious business. He had his visa revoked for a second time and faces deportation because he’s not vaccinated, according to ESPN. He’s ...
Let me breakdown this Djokovic-Aussie mess
Let’s just begin by talking about Novak Djokovic’s skills. He is very, very good at hitting fuzzy, yellow, bouncy tennis balls. He can hit them very hard, and yet he can also hit them very softly. He makes people clap with delight with how he hits tennis balls. He wins very large trophies. Hitting f...
Aussie Open rules don’t apply to Novak Djokovic
Yet again, the major sports set out to prove that the rules don’t apply to the moneymakers — even when the rules are in the interest of public health and ending an ongoing pandemic. Twenty-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic will be allowed to play in the Australian Open after receiving a medical ...
For the 50th Earth Day, Let’s Remember the Threat Climate Change Poses To The Sports World
The Australian Open was hot this year. Unusually hot. Temperatures reached 111 degrees fahrenheit. Play was postponed, the roof on Rod Laver Arena closed, and one athlete forfeited her match due to smoke caused by the nearby wildfires. The extreme weather was not confined within the gates of the gra...
Massages, Five-Star Hotels, Porsches, And... Mayo-Slathered Sushi?: Tennis Writers Reveal Best (And Worst) Tournament Perks
As a rube who has only ever covered one tennis tournament—the U.S. Open (once in 2017 and once this year)—I was blown away by the perks given to credentialed media: $25 per diem to spend on food around the grounds or in the media cafeteria! Great seats! Free parking! Shuttles to and from the hotels!...
Right Now There Is No Answer To Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic heaped pre-match praise on his final Australian Open opponent, because it was a deeply familiar one. “Nadal has historically throughout my life and career been the greatest rival that I ever played against on all the surfaces,” he said of their 52-match tug-of-war, which had split 27-...
Naomi Osaka Found Herself In Danger, Turned Into A Robot, And Held It Down
It could have unraveled so quickly for Naomi Osaka. Up a set and 5-3, having whittled Petra Kvitova’s service game down to 0-40, Osaka had three straight opportunities to claim her first Australian Open. None of them got her there. First Kvitova tore the court open with her fiercest groundstrokes, l...
Today In Awkward Photos
Love a good congratulatory fondle....
It's Happening Again
Rafael Nadal had booked his room in the final, with two whole days to ready himself for it. He drained the blood out of Stefanos Tsitsipas, just as he did to the last two kids trying to prematurely usher in the future. All Novak Djokovic had to do was wrap up one last errand today, and he didn’t daw...
All Hail The Rafael Nadal Banana Shot
Rafael Nadal gored YouTuber Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 today. Their Australian Open semifinal match took just 1:46, but in that span the winner erected a monument to one of tennis’s historic shots: the Rafa banana forehand. Above is as pristine a specimen as has ever appeared in nature....