Tennis itself produces good sounds, but it is not always surrounded by good sounds. Thatâs because tennis happens all over the world, and not always in some majestic tucked-away corner of it. In Paris and Rome, to take just two recent examples, the on-court action is occasionally soundtracked by the faraway wail ofâŚ
Discipline and rhythm and mental gruel are just a few of the things that make tennis such a compelling sport. Two players blasting crosscourt forehands at each other until one of them finally blinks and throws in a down the line shot or a drop shot that could set one of them up with a winnerâit makes you grit yourâŚ
After hibernating through the clay season, with good reason, Roger Federer has woken up again. Today at the Stuttgart Open, he played his first match since March. Millions of fans and also his wife were pleased by this development.
Rafael Nadal won the French Open on Sunday, and thereâs little new to say that wasnât already said after last yearâs title. After the preposterousness of 10, 11 doesnât feel so different. But even into the double-digits, itâs worth remembering that the points are fucking absurd.
Simona Halep, by age 26âsomething like the physical prime in modern tennisâhad it all, almost. There was still a void at the center of everything. It wasnât money: Sheâs made over $26 million in her career and played this French Open in full swoosh gear, hinting at a recent off-court windfall. It wasnât ranking: SheâsâŚ
If you missed the menâs French Open final yesterday, you missed three quick sets of Rafael Nadal being Rafael Nadal and winning his 11th French Open trophy. But you also missed the trophy presenter, former Grand Slam winner Ken Rosewall, providing some unusually honest, slightly unfair analysis of Nadalâs opponentâŚ
Dominic Thiem and Rafael Nadal will play each other in the French Open final on Sunday. Only one outcome has ever resulted from a French Open final involving Rafa. For a reality check, pinch yourself and say aloud, âRafael Nadal has won 10 French Opens.â There is only the slimmest chance that Thiem will topple thatâŚ
A year after she blew a one-set lead in the French Open final to allow unseeded JeÄźena Ostapenko to claim victory on the clay, Simona Halep bounced back from losing the first set to defeat Sloane Stephens and seize the first Grand Slam title of her career, 3â6, 6â4, 6-1.
In September 2015 an NYPD officer tackled and handcuffed James Blake outside a Manhattan hotel, mistaking the former American tennis player for a suspect in a credit card scam; a month later, an independent panel ruled that police used excessive force in the arrest. That panel, the Civilian Complaint Review Board,âŚ
Tennis, particularly the menâs side, has fallen into a certain rhythm, and if youâre a certain kind of old-school clay-court fogey, this rhythm might be boring. Boom, boom, boom, boom. The serve is the most powerful offensive tool in the game. It is the only shot in the game completely within a playerâs control: ThrowâŚ
Marco Cecchinato is 25 years old. Until this week, he had never won a match at a majorâfirst-round losses in all four tries. Until last month, his biggest splash on tour might have been a 2016 suspension for match-fixing, later overturned on appeal. At No. 72 in the world, he has become the lowest-ranked man to makeâŚ
Serena Williams withdrew from her fourth-round French Open match today against Maria Sharapova with a right pectoral injury that she said prevents her from serving. The decision was announced just before the match between the two rivals was slated to begin.
After winning their second-round French Open doubles match in straight sets today, Venus and Serena Williams, who laugh and joke during most of their matches together, were asked what itâs like to play on the same side of the net. For someone talking about her and her sisterâs sheer domination in the sport, SerenaâŚ
Momentum shifts in tennis are common, often slight, and always tenuous. Good tennis players capitalize on these tiny shiftsâan unlucky bounce, an untimely double fault, a net cord. Great players, though, force the change themselves. Thatâs what Serena Williams did in her second-round French Open match againstâŚ
American Jared Donaldson had an incredible performance in todayâs second-round French Open match against the fourth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, pushing the Bulgarian to the brink in the fifth set, before fatigue was the ultimate decider. Donaldson resorted to trickery to get around his cramping, but it only went so far.
The fan experience of tennis has become exponentially richer with the advent of streaming. When a draw has 128 entrants, like the singles events at all four Grand Slams, its early days are stuffed with matches, and no single live broadcast can depict all the action worth watching. Itâs an obsolete model, a totalâŚ
Jack Sock, who just a few months ago was hoisting the coolest-looking trophy in tennis and leaping to a career-high No. 8 ranking, has doddered through the 2018 season. Itâs late May and the American has yet to log two consecutive wins. Sock lost at the French Open today in five sets to world No. 136 JĂźrgen Zopp; hisâŚ
In a series of events that sounds more like a TV comedy than real life, Argentine tennis player Marco Trungellitiâwho had returned home to Barcelona after losing in the French Open qualifiers last weekâlearned that he had an opportunity to play in the main draw after a spate of players withdrew at the last minute.âŚ
The Tennis Integrity Unit, an anti-corruption watchdog, ruled today that Argentinian player Nicolas Kicker fixed two professional matches three years ago. Kicker, currently ranked No. 84 on the menâs tour, was âfound guilty of contriving the outcomeâ of two matches in 2015âone at the ATP Challenger in Padova, ItalyâŚ
Our beloved colleague Dave McKenna tells good stories. Heâs done a lot of cool shit, met many weird people in weird ways, and had his run-ins with the law. And after selfishly squirreling all his stories away in Slack and our brains for years, weâve realized we have a societal obligation to share.
