rafa Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
"He Would Have Mounds Of Towels": A U.S. Open Ball Person Dishes On The Nicest Players And Oddest Habits
Tennis watched on TV has nothing on tennis watched from the stands. Tennis watched from the stands, in turn, has nothing on tennis watched while standing right on the court. That’s one perk of being a ball person, one of the many workers crucial to the smooth function of a tennis tournament. They en...
Daniil Medvedev's Perfect Loser's Speech Completed His Transformation From Villain To Darling
Tennis is the only sport where the loser of a championship has to stand next to the winner and praise them. It’s a contrived performance, and often feels unfair because the loser is judged not only on how courteously they accept a wrenching defeat, but also on how insightful they are in the moments ...
Daniil Medvedev Nearly Ushered In The Future, But Rafael Nadal Shut The Door
Daniil Medvedev’s run at the U.S. Open, the most absorbing of any men’s non-winner in recent memory, could have ended earlier—well before his final Sunday against Rafael Nadal had a chance to transform from old hat to modern classic. As late as the third set, the 23-year-old Russian was straight-up ...
CNN Wonders If Smartphones Are Why The Tennis Youth Can't Beat Roger Federer
An article over at CNN today formally advances a claim dropped casually by commentators, coaches, fans, and any crank with a taste for caricaturing a whole generation. Here goes: Smartphones are hampering tennis’s young players, which is why they can’t stop the Big Three in the men’s game, who enjo...
Rafael Nadal Played Some Heroic Points Before Roger Federer Wrapped It Up
The match was glowing white-hot for hours, but in the fourth set, the Wimbledon semifinal between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal began to cool off. Federer got an early break to go up 2-1, and a sense of the inevitable washed over the lawn as both players traded holds, Nadal’s traction on the match ...
Eleven Years After The Greatest Match Ever: A Federer-Nadal Wimbledon Liveblog
Novak Djokovic awaits in the final. Either Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal will join him after today’s semifinal. GOATs are grazing everywhere the eye can see. Roger has mastered the grass and Wimbledon is historically his home turf, but Rafa has beaten him here before—famously, in their 2008 final, t...
Nick Kyrgios Executes Perfect Underarm Serve Against Rafael Nadal
The second round of Wimbledon offered Nick Kyrgios the opportunity to do what he loves best, which is to try to beat Rafael Nadal. Though he failed in that quest, falling in four sets in yesterday’s match, Kyrgios was able to realize his other great love, which is to try to annoy Rafael Nadal. No mo...
Dominic Thiem Got Closer, But Rafael Nadal Still Stepped On Him
Last year, in the first major final of his life, Dominic Thiem just seemed happy to be there. Flattened by a Rafael Nadal charging toward his 11th French Open title? That builds character. A dusty tennis great heartlessly roasting you at the trophy ceremony? Whatever, no shame in being outmatched....
Rafael Nadal Is Tennis Jail
“If you want to do or achieve something on the clay, inevitably, at some stage, you will go through Rafa,” Roger Federer said after his French Open quarterfinal, “because he’s that strong, and he will be there.”...
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...
Fabio Fognini Is One Slippery Noodle
When a tennis shot is shanked, shallow, spinless, or otherwise borked, the culprit is often a too-tight arm. The more an amateur tries to muscle the ball, the less they’ll actually accomplish. Power comes from relaxed muscles working in unison. There might not exist a material in the tennis universe...
Dodgers Fan On Life Support After Man Attacks Him In Stadium Parking Lot
Rafael Reyna, a 47-year-old Dodgers fan, is on life support with a fractured skull and other head injuries after he was attacked in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium sometime after Friday’s game against the Diamondbacks. Cops say Reyna was punched in the head by another man and fell to the concrete....
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...
What Does Miguel Almirón’s Record Transfer Mean For The MLS?
You see what you want to see when you look at Miguel Almirón’s reported MLS-record $27 million transfer to the Premier League’s Newcastle United....
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-...
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....
Frances Tiafoe Breaks Down In Tears After Advancing To Australian Open Quarterfinals On His 21st Birthday<em></em>
After beating No. 20 seed Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (1), 7-5 on Sunday, College Park, Md. native Frances Tiafoe celebrated advancing to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal the same way he did just one round earlier: ripping his shirt off, slapping his biceps and chest, and using all the energy...