novak-djokovic Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
What if the Saudis come for tennis next?
Let’s paint a picture for a moment. It’s two, maybe three years from now. The Saudi Golf League has taken off, gotten its sponsorships and TV deals, and superstar commitments. It’s expanded its tournaments, the majors are now allowing defectors to return, and — all in all, it’s a success....
You can’t run from yourself and beat Novak Djokovic
We’ll never know what Nick Kyrgios really thinks, late at night when he’s all alone and there’s no one to impress or deflect to (and he may have a lot of those nights to himself soon). Maybe he genuinely doesn’t care that he lost his first Grand Slam final, considering the way that most people have ...
USWNT qualifies for World Cup, but we still don’t have all our answers
It’s hardly a surprise, but the USWNT walloped Jamaica 5-0 in the CONCACAF Women’s Championship to qualify for the 2023 World Cup, where they carry the heavy but illustrious burden of being two-time defending champs....
Get to the net, Taylor Fritz!
American tennis, on the men’s side, has been a desolate wasteland for over 20 years now, pretty much. Since Andy Roddick took the U.S. Open in 2003 and then spent the rest of his career getting clubbed by Roger Federer in the biggest matches of his career, no Yank has taken a major. No Yank has even...
Novak Djokovic only has to slightly turn the knob
It’s getting to the point where whenever Novak Djokovic gets down two sets at a Grand Slam, he’ll be an even bigger favorite than he was at the start of a match. If he isn’t already....
Nick Kyrgios is driving everyone nuts at Wimbledon
No matter where you stand on Nick Kyrgios, it’s impossible to not feel just about everything when watching him. And his run to the quarters (so far) at Wimbledon has been perhaps the most shining example of that in his career. The fact that he’s doing all this before he possibly heads off to prison ...
Sundowning GOATS are playing longer than ever, but a changing of the guard is here
Serena Williams’ 2022 Wimbledon lasted longer than her last appearance at the All-England Club. In 2021, she left in tears after slipping on the court and suffering a hamstring injury.. Not having played in a year, her rustiness was evident in her error-prone play and she was promptly escorted off 7...
Kyrie probably figured out no one wanted his wormhole-brained ass
It was one of the shorter turnarounds in the recent history of NBA free agency becoming the world’s biggest soap opera (the dawn of which is probably “taking my talents to South Beach”). Sometime yesterday, rumors broke that Kyrie Irving and the Nets could see eye-to-eye with Irving heading into a p...
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....
The last chapter of the greatest rivalry?
It’s a testament to their greatness that whenever Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic line up in a major, where everyone projects they might meet, everyone starts girding up for it. Be it the quarters, semis, or final, everyone knows to block out half a day and gather the supplies necessary. Because whi...
IDIOT OF THE MONTH: It’s pretty much downhill from here
Welcome, once more, to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH, in which we catalogue the most bleak recesses of professional athletics and mock them. Hooray!...
Tennis world puts hypocrisy on full display with Djokovic set to play Wimbledon
Priorities, right? Let’s ban all Russian and Belaruisan athletes who are blameless, even if they’ve spoken out on national television against soulless Vladimir Putin in Russia’s brutal ongoing war against Ukraine. But unvaccinated Novak Djokovic is allowed to compete at Wimbledon without getting a j...
Let them play!
A ban from the FIFA World Cup didn’t stop any needless aggression from Russia in its brutal war on Ukraine. Even those Russians brave enough to speak out against Vladimir Putin’s needless invasion have felt the consequences of the barbaric actions of the Russian army, like Fedor Smolov. As another h...
Tennis doesn’t want Naomi Osaka around
Naomi Osaka loves tennis, but tennis doesn’t seem to love her back. ...
Novak Djokovic is still a selfish jackass
You would think that after watching Rafael Nadal become the first player to reach 21 grand slam wins, Novak Djokovic would have gained some sort of perspective, knowing that he himself had cost himself the chance to be the first one to do it, which he’ll never have again. That maybe, just maybe, he ...
Tennis is having the goldenest of all Golden Ages
It’s strange how normalized greatness is during something’s golden age. If you look at music for example, hip-hop peaked in the ’90s for a lot of people like classic rock did in the ’60s and ’70s. However, even when 2Pac and Biggie were at the apex, rappers like Nas and Jay-Z weren’t in the picture ...
IDIOT OF THE MONTH: The usual suspects are back at it
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH, the most electrifying ceremony in sports media. Following up on the hotly contested 2021 IDIOT OF THE YEAR awards, we have for you today, well, many of the same ninnies and twits who appeared on that vaunted list. The calendar year, it turns out, is not some...
Rafa Nadal had just enough
Whether Rafa Nadal likes it or not, and he probably doesn’t mind because he seems an amiable sort, he’ll be more closely linked to Roger Federer than Novak Djokovic. It was Federer who was unchallenged for years until Rafa built a base on clay, and then slowly ate into his advantages on grass (beat ...
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...
Turns out, rumors of OBJ’s football demise were greatly exaggerated
Everything’s coming up Odell in 2022. Halfway through the fall, Odell Beckham Jr.’s future in the league looked dim. Season after season had been shortened by one injury or another, and he was in the middle of what was quickly turning out to be the worst year of his career — he hadn’t scored a singl...