Madrid Open Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Aryna Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula kick off Madrid runs with easy wins
No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus was among the seeded players to start the Mutua Madrid Open with straight-sets wins on Friday in Spain.,Following a first-round bye, Sabalenka topped Russia's Anna Blinkova 6-3, 6-4. Sabalenka won 27 of 36 first-service points (75 percent) and saved 6 of 7 break...

Home favorite Paula Badosa (back) WDs in Madrid
Home favorite Paula Badosa withdrew ahead of her second-round match Friday at the Madrid Open due to a back injury.,The ninth-seeded Spaniard was replaced by lucky loser and countrywoman Cristina Bucsa for the match with Russia's Veronika Kudermetova.,Badosa, 27, said before the start of the WTA 100...

Gael Monfils becomes oldest player to win a match at Madrid Open
Gael Monfils earned his first Madrid Open victory since 2022, and at age 38 became the oldest player to win a match at the event with a 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Croatia's Borna Gojo on Wednesday.,The two-time quarterfinalist continued his success at the event, rallying from a one-sided, 21-minute loss...

Mat Ishbia can still flop like the college scrub that he is
How do you know that Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia made being a go-hard his entire lifestyle?...

Stefanos Tsitsipas Became One Of The Few To Take Out Rafael Nadal On Clay
He’d won over Federer on fast hard court at a major, and he’d won over Djokovic on slow hard court at a masters. Saturday brought an even thornier test for Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Greek had lost all seven sets he’d previously played against Rafael Nadal, five of them on hard court. The last time the...

No One But Gael Monfils Could Have Pulled Off This Shot
Gael Monfils got wrecked in the opening set of his Madrid Open second-round match today, but he worked his way back into it. By the tail end of the second set, Monfils was feeling himself enough to test out this leaping ... forehand passing shot with all his weight hurtling in the opposite direction...

Dominic Thiem Did All The Dirty Work And Claimed None Of The Glory
Assume by default that Rafael Nadal wins any big event on clay. Take it as a given that his teeth are pressing into the trophy well before the first match gets underway. This has been true for many long swaths of the last decade, but it has maybe never been truer than right now, with Rafa still bull...

Dominic Thiem Resists Clay Colossus Rafael Nadal, Ends 50-Set Streak
Rafael Nadal’s incomprehensible streak of consecutive sets won on clay has ended at 50. And it was ended by the last person to have scraped a set off him on the surface, a full 51 weeks ago: Dominic Thiem. The upset demanded huge hitting from the world No. 7, who has had a somewhat uninspired week...

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....

Pablo Cuevas Hits Incredible Behind-The-Back Winner, Downs Alexander Zverev
Early in the second set of 31-year-old Pablo Cuevas’s three-set quarterfinal win over young phenom Alexander Zverev in the Madrid Open, the veteran Uruguayan chased down a lob on the baseline and nailed this incredible no-look, crosscourt winner....

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...

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...