Rafael Nadal Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Rafael Nadal refutes links to Real Madrid presidency
Tennis legend Rafael Nadal shot down reports that he is a candidate for the president's position at global soccer powerhouse Real Madrid.,"I have read reports that link me to possible candidacies for the presidency of Real Madrid. I would like to clarify that these reports are not true," the 22-time...
'Big Four' gather as Rafael Nadal honored at Roland Garros
Back on the clay court Sunday where his legend was cemented, Rafael Nadal was saluted at Roland Garros by a capacity crowd and three fellow greats of the game.,A 14-time French Open winner from Spain, Nadal was given a farewell ceremony in Paris in one more must-see event on center court where he wo...
French Open to pay tribute to 14-time champ Rafael Nadal
The French Open will honor 14-time champion Rafael Nadal in a ceremony next month on the opening day of play at Roland Garros in Paris.,Nadal, coming off of injuries, lost in the first round to Alexander Zverev at the French Open last summer in his final tournament appearance. The Spaniard retired l...
Rafael Nadal's career ends with Spain's Davis Cup exit
Rafael Nadal's legendary tennis career ended Tuesday not in victory, as had so often been true for the 22-time Grand Slam champion, but with a loss in his singles match for Spain against the Netherlands in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.,With a tremendous home-country advantage making for an electric a...
Rafael Nadal to retire from tennis at end of season
Superstar Rafael Nadal announced Thursday that he will retire from professional tennis at the end of the season.,A 22-time Grand Slam champion who owns a record 14 French Open titles, Nadal has been hampered by foot and abdominal injuries in recent years. ,"Hello everyone. I'm here to let you know t...
Marketa Vondrousova (hand) WDs from U.S. Open
The upcoming U.S. Open will be contested without another major champion in Marketa Vondrousova.,Vondrousova bowed out of the New York-based tournament due to a hand injury on Friday. The 18th-ranked native of the Czech Republic hasn't played since sustaining a first-round loss in her title defense a...
Rafael Nadal pulls out of US Open
Four-time U.S. Open champion Rafael Nadal withdrew from the tournament on Wednesday, announcing on social media that he didn't believe he could give full effort later this summer in New York.,The 38-year-old Spaniard, a 22-time major champion, is coming off of playing singles and doubles at the Pari...
Rafael Nadal wins, sets up Olympics showdown with Novak Djokovic
PARIS -- Spain's Rafael Nadal made a triumphant return to the city on Sunday to blast his way into the second round of the Olympic tennis tournament and set up a blockbuster clash with nemesis Novak Djokovic of Serbia.,That the Nadal-Djokovic clash will not determine gold was the only slip in the Ol...
Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic on course for early clash at Olympics
Tennis legends Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal could have an early showdown at the Paris Olympics.,Draws for the Olympic tournament were held Thursday at Roland Garros, with No. 1 seed Djokovic set to face Australia's Matthew Ebden in the first round.,If Nadal defeats Marton Fucsovics of Hungary in ...
ATP roundup: Nuno Borges jolts Rafael Nadal in Nordea Open final
Seventh-seeded Nuno Borges captured his first ATP Tour title by posting a 6-3, 6-2 win over Rafael Nadal on Sunday at the clay-court Nordea Open in Bastad, Sweden.,Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, was making his first appearance in a final since winning the French Open in June 2022. Borges, of ...
ATP roundup: Rafael Nadal back to winning in Sweden
Spain's Rafael Nadal shook off any rust and defeated Leo Borg -- the 21-year-old son of tennis legend Bjorn Borg -- 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the Nordea Open on Tuesday in Bastad, Sweden.,Nadal, 38, had not played in an ATP Tour match since May 27, when he lost a first-round match to Alexander ...
Rafael Nadal not closing door on French Open
Rafael Nadal isn't ready to say "au revoir" to Roland Garros, his personal playground.,After all, he's won the men's singles portion at the French Open on the clay courts in Paris a record 14 times. Given Nadal's previous comments on the topic of retirement, it had been thought that 2024 would be hi...
USWNT win the most CONCACAF game ever
We realize the enormity of saying “the most CONCACAF game ever,” as this particular region of the soccer world is literally where people throw ducks at balloons and nothing is the way it seems. Just about anything can happen when the North and Central American Federation is in charge, and boy did it...
The ATP tour and Saudi Arabia agree to another round of woke pandering
We need a more menacing term than sports washing because it’s not working. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the ATP tour agreed to a five-year sponsorship Wednesday, with courtside ads slated for the season-ending ATP Finals, Indian Wells (of course), Miami, Madrid, and Beijing....
Saudi Arabia doesn't grant women equal rights, but plans to host WTA Finals
Saudi Arabia has already invested heavily in several sports. Now, the nation plans to make headway into women’s tennis and host the 2024 WTA Finals — if a deal can be reached....
Oh, you thought you were different, Lions?
Really thought you’d built something, didn’t you, Detroit Lions? The uniform change, the positivity, the belief, the empty catchphrases, whatever they were. Thought you’d shed that old Honolulu blue-and-silver skin and become something new, something better, didn’t you? Were sure you’d left the deca...
Novak Djokovic had a bad day at the office, for once
If beating Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros is sport’s toughest assignment, beating Novak Djokovic in Melbourne can’t be too far behind it. He hadn’t lost there in some 3,000 days (a COVID deportation playing some role in that), he’s won the tournament 10 times and he was still coming off a previous se...
Coco Gauff-Aryna Sabalenka is tennis' best rivalry
Women’s tennis hasn’t had a great rivalry in some time. The tour was dominated by Serena Williams for so long and no one could have managed to look her in the eye for very long. The closest was her sister Venus, yet matches between the two regularly and mostly were hard on the eyes, because both see...
Taking the Daniil Medvedev ride at the Australian Open
Most of my life, I have found tennis very easy and yet very hard to watch. It’s easy in that it’s a beautiful sport to gaze upon, the players’ ballet-like movements and the steady rhythm of the sound of the ball hitting the racket and then the court over and over can lull one into a lovely state of ...
The case <i>against</i> Deion Sanders as Sportsperson of the Year
We are on the brink of our last full college football Saturday slate before bowl season. So, it’s apropos that Deion Sanders’ overhype earned him Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year. After announcing Sanders as the recipient of the honor, Sports Illustrated is dodging tomatoes from the Int...