open Page 19 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
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...
Roger Federer Booted Up The Wii Tennis
To kick off their Miami Open quarterfinal Thursday night, Roger Federer handed Kevin Anderson a bagel. It was one of just six sets the big-serving Anderson has ever lost 6-0 in a 12-year ATP career, and his first-ever bagel in an opening set. Here’s how Federer chose to cut it up:...
Hell Is Trying To Get Into A Ballpark On Opening Day
Opening Day is here again, and you know what that means: hot dogs, dingers, the smell of the freshly mowed grass, and also the experience of standing in a line for 45 minutes because overdramatic security measures and some pointless new technology means that fans are slowly being let into the ballpa...
Tennis Wunderkind Félix Auger-Aliassime Is Ready To Face The Best
Ah, to be 18 again. A skeleton with no aches, the ability to deplete whole pantries of food without adverse effect, the optimism of seeing all your best years before you, and a lifetime 5-0 record against top-20 players in professional tennis. Fine, maybe that last trait is unique to Félix Auger-Ali...
Which Online Edgelord Mishaps Will Derail Trevor Bauer's Season?
It’s Opening Day, folks, and you know what that means: It’s time to speculate and make predictions about the upcoming major league baseball season. Which teams will win the divisions, wild cards, pennants, and World Series? Who’s gonna sock a ton of dingers? Which bizarre Internet Libertarian ailmen...
The Underarm Serve Trick Shouldn't Only Be Used By Nick Kyrgios<em></em>
The serve remains the biggest offensive weapon in the game of tennis. If a player can’t find a way to solve a dangerous server, they’ll struggle to find any traction in a match. So that returner has to find a counter of some kind....
Angelique Kerber To Teenager Who Beat Her Twice In One Week: "You're The Biggest Drama Queen Ever"
Angelique Kerber, a 31-year-old three-time major champion, couldn’t stomach losing to Bianca Andreescu, a prodigious 18-year-old, twice in one week. The first encounter was a gutting three-set loss to the wild card in the Indian Wells final; on Saturday, it was another three-set loss in the third ...
Nick Kyrgios Was More Than Happy To Be The Villain And Crush Some Forehands<em></em>
The crowd in Acapulco booed Nick Kyrgios all through his upset of Rafael Nadal, and kept that energy for his quarterfinal against three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka. When Kyrgios tripped in the first set and required treatment for a nickel-sized, oozing wound on his hand, they booed. When he hit ...
Nick Kyrgios Was More Than Happy To Be The Villain And Crush Some Forehands<em></em>
The crowd in Acapulco booed Nick Kyrgios all through his upset of Rafael Nadal, and kept that energy for his quarterfinal against three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka. When Kyrgios tripped in the first set and required treatment for a nickel-sized, oozing wound on his hand, they booed. When he hit ...
Nick Kyrgios Got Under Rafael Nadal's Skin In Front Of A Jeering Crowd<em></em>
First it was the upset stomach, then it was the wrapped knee, then it was the taped-up back. Ordinarily just one of these is a sufficient reason for Nick Kyrgios to pack it in and retire from a match, especially if it’s some rando across the net who doesn’t fully capture his fickle attention. But ag...
Nick Kyrgios Got Under Rafael Nadal's Skin In Front Of A Jeering Crowd<em></em>
First it was the upset stomach, then it was the wrapped knee, then it was the taped-up back. Ordinarily just one of these is a sufficient reason for Nick Kyrgios to pack it in and retire from a match, especially if it’s some rando across the net who doesn’t fully capture his fickle attention. But ag...
Tennis Prodigy Félix Auger-Aliassime Is Past The Internet Hype And Looks Like The Truth
As of today there are only two teenagers in the top 100 of men’s tennis. The game skews older than ever, and a player breaking into its top tier before even fully growing into his body has never seemed more difficult. There are no more Rafa-like wunderkinds ripping off major titles, and as baseline ...
Huge American Servebot Reilly Opelka Will Render John Isner Obsolete<em></em>
John Isner, the leading American man in tennis, has a simple calling card: being 6-foot-10 and serving bombs. He’s the most prominent purveyor of the American Man Style of tennis: giant delivery, giant forehand, full stop. That’s been enough to make him a top-20 fixture, a historically successful h...
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...
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....
Naomi Osaka Floats On To Another Slam Final
My exact moment of religious conversion on Naomi Osaka came while watching her play Karolina Pliskova from a few feet away in Indian Wells. Pliskova was and still is a spindly winner machine, and she sent balls bounding into the corners with no desire to see or deal with them ever again. Osaka was d...