open Page 34 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Tennis Dogs Are Snatching Balls And Dropping Dung
The Brazil Open brought rescue dogs on court to retrieve tennis balls, in an effort to promote local animal shelters in Sao Paulo. Just like last year, the practice—like the dogs—was very good. This year’s crop of pups: Cindy, Nanda, Pretinha, Mia, Arlete and Ovelha. I couldn’t tell you which one of...
Will Serena Williams Be Ready For The French Open?<em></em>
It’s only March and the French Open isn’t until the end of May, but there’s reason to wonder (or in my case, as a devoted Serena disciple, worry) if Serena Williams will be ready to win the next grand slam of the year. She hasn’t played a competitive match since her Australian Open win and she annou...
When Nick Kyrgios Gives A Shit, He's The Future Of Tennis
Bless Nick Kyrgios for doing so much without ever really seeming to care. I’m not referring to those especially dumb, fringe cases—the forehands sliced for no reason, or the shameless tweeners during high-tension rallies—although he does plenty of that. I just mean just the way he hits the average ...
Novak Djokovic Gets The Best Of Juan Martin Del Potro, Who's Still Missing Something
The last time these two matched up, last August at the Rio Olympics, they delivered the best tennis storyline of 2016: Juan Martin del Potro, rising from the dead after two years of surgeries to both wrists, upsets a Novak Djokovic who’d then had a vice grip on the No. 1 spot for two whole years. Th...
Frances Tiafoe, America's Best Young Prospect, Is Getting Closer To Stardom
Frances Tiafoe, the best American teen in the men’s game, hasn’t taken down any giants yet, but every few months he gets quite close. Back at the U.S. Open, he took literal giant John Isner to a fifth-set tiebreak, and last night in Acapulco, the 19-year-old took Juan Martin del Potro to a third-set...
Thiem's Tweener Was A Winner
Dominic Thiem breezily dismissed Diego Schwartzman in today’s 6-2, 6-3 quarterfinal at the Rio Open, and the highlight was this tweener that he slapped down the line for a winner:...
Kei Nishikori Is Shook
Kei Nishikori is the fifth-best tennis player in the world and even his practice sessions get mobbed in his native Japan. His trademark shot is the down-the-line backhand, a smoothly flicked frozen rope. You might have last seen him in January taking Roger Federer to five sets in the quarters of the...
Alexandr Dolgopolov's Best Weapon Is The Screwiest Game In Tennis
One complaint lobbed at today’s game is that everyone is content to play the same style of tennis: Just stand at the back of the court and hit hard topspin groundstrokes over and over until your opponent, who’s attempting the same, can’t keep up. We live in a “power baseline” era, and it didn’t use ...
Old Man Federer Signs New Deal, May Keep Playing Until Humanity Leaves For Mars
The saner Roger Federer fans treated his Australian Open title as a late-night dessert—one they really didn’t expect or deserve!—snuck in before the long sleep. The more delusional might have seen it as the beginning of a late-career resurgence, promising fresh titles to come. I sat somewhere in bet...
Grigor Dimitrov Just Blessed Us With The Best Tennis Point Of The Week
Watching a lot of Grigor Dimitrov lately, I’ve noticed a pattern: There’s a concrete moment, usually early in the second set, when he’s adequately warmed up from the first set and he decides to flip on God Mode. From there on out, you’re watching a qualitatively different player. Above is that momen...
I Don't Think Grigor Dimitrov Will Lose Anytime Soon
This afternoon I burped and realized Grigor Dimitrov is playing tennis as well as anyone alive. Lesser players come at him and might startle him for a little—like Mischa Zverev did in the first round here at Rotterdam—but after the opening set, he remembers that he can swarm the whole entire court,...
Alexander Zverev, The Best Teen In Tennis, Goes Cold In The First Round
Second seeds are supposed to feast on easy prey in the first round of tournaments. But easy doesn’t describe Alexander Zverev, the best young prospect in the world, just a few days removed from an ATP title. (And just a few weeks removed from a five-set test of Rafael Nadal’s mettle in the third rou...
Is Uncle Toni, Rafael Nadal's Longtime Coach, Really Cool With Stepping Down?<em></em>
Rafael Nadal will split ways with his longtime coach, Uncle Toni, at the end of the 2017 season, according to an interview Toni Nadal gave to the website Il Tennis Italiano over the weekend. Instead of traveling with his nephew, Toni Nadal said he will spend next season overseeing the Nadals’ tenni...
ESPN Sued By Tennis Broadcaster Fired Over Venus Williams Remark
Tennis broadcaster Doug Adler, who didn’t return to ESPN’s Australian Open broadcast after commenting on Venus Williams’s “gorilla” or “guerrilla” style of play—that’s the big question here—has sued ESPN and two ESPN executives in charge of tennis broadcasts in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging w...
"Steele Fucks My Mom!"
Brendan Steele is currently battling for the lead at this weekend’s Phoenix Open, and the Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale is full of its usual cast of drunken characters....
Science! Shows That Roger Federer's Backhand In Fact Defeated Rafael Nadal
Yesterday we argued that Federer’s unusually strong backhand anchored his Australian Open win over Rafael Nadal, and today we found a startling statistical basis for that claim. It comes courtesy of the always helpful Jeff Sackmann at TennisAbstract. Relative to other sports, tennis remains fairly d...
Roger Federer Played Free And Gave His Archrival The Back Of His Hand<em></em>
“I’m a different player due to Rafa’s presence,” Roger Federer said in a 2015 press conference, and if you needed it, yesterday’s 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 Australian Open win offered the clearest possible evidence. When your defensive-genius nemesis applies crushing pressure on you for more than a de...
Roger Federer Wins Australian Open For First Grand Slam Title In Five Years
Thirty-five-year old Roger Federer took down old rival Rafael Nadal in five sets to win the Australian Open—his 18th Grand Slam title, but his first in five years. ...
Serena Williams Is No. 1 Again
In terms of what it actually was, Serena Williams’s Australian Open victory was fairly straightforward; in terms of what it means, it’s totally overwhelming....
Roger Federer And Rafael Nadal Will Face Off In A Throwback Australian Open Final
This photo’s from 2005—they were about to meet in a Grand Slam for the first time, the 2005 French Open, a semifinal match Rafael Nadal won before claiming the title, his first of many. They’d then spend about a decade at the top of the game, sucking up all the available oxygen, dominating all major...