tennis Page 20 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Let's Watch This Never-Ending Monstrosity Together: Your Hastily Made Anderson-Isner Wimbledon Liveblog
It would be difficult to endorse the ongoing John Isner vs. Kevin Anderson Wimbledon semifinal as a sports-viewing experience, per se—maybe more as a masochistic endurance sport. It’s been over four-and-a-half hours. Serves are big. Points are short. When they are not, they are not exactly ... good,...
Wimbledon's Tall Men Semifinal Might Be Dull, But Don't Miss A Novak-Rafa Classic
Back by popular demand, Various Tall Men have thrived once again at the Wimbledon Championships: Kevin Anderson and John Isner will face off in a men’s semifinal. The universe is stupid and cruel, so it is not possible to rule out the outcome that Isner will win that match, then serve 120-something ...
Serena Williams Is Into The Wimbledon Final, Now Let's Get This Over With
Serena Williams beat Julia Görges 6-2, 6-4 in the Wimbledon semifinals today, giving her the chance to play in her 30th major final, win her eighth Wimbledon title, clinch her 24th grand slam, and, oh there they are again, all those futile numbers and stats lined up in an attempt to encapsulate the ...
Top Seed Simona Halep Upset By Unseeded Hsieh Su-wei, Wimbledon's Women's Side Remains In Total Chaos
No. 1 seed Simona Halep was upset at Wimbledon Saturday by unseeded Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, continuing the insane and chaotic run of upsets on the women’s side....
The Women's Side At Wimbledon Is Chaos<em></em>
Alison van Uytvanck beat defending Wimbledon champion and No. 3 seed Garbiñe Muguruza 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 to advance to the third round. It’s just the latest upset to send a top-seeded women’s player packing in the first few days at Wimbledon....
Roger Federer Signs Enormous Sponsorship Deal For Scalp-To-Ankle Region Of His Body
Roger Federer won his first-round match Monday at Wimbledon in straight sets, but as the tennis media would tell it, the most meaningful thing he did was pick out his wardrobe before the match. Try as I’d like to resist the perverse Rovellian fascination here ... I can’t. It’s weird. It feels weird....
An Anti-Doping Agent Occupied Serena Williams’s Property And Everyone Is Being Squirrelly About It<em></em>
Depending on your perspective, this is a story about Serena Williams getting upset over an unannounced drug test, or the alternately sinister and clownish nature of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, or Serena Williams being unfairly targeted for drug tests by USADA—or, perhaps, the perils of talking too ...
Nick Kyrgios Got Fined €15,000 For Pretending To Jerk Off With A Water Bottle
Tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios got caught pleasuring (then drinking?) his water bottle on the sideline during his straight-set loss to Marin Cilic at the Queen’s Club Championships in London on Saturday. The mimed masturbation was a playful little gesture, fairly subtle but also in clear full view of a...
U.S. Open Will Change Its Seeding Protocol To Take Pregnancy Into Account
The New York Times reports that the U.S. Open has decided to change the way it seeds its players to take into account a player’s return to the game following a pregnancy....
Nick Kyrgios Has Made Grass His Playground
Caring about Nick Kyrgios is a generally unpredictable and unhappy ride with occasional moments of vindication. So do not let the following get your expectations up, but ... it’s been a little while since he’s looked this good on the grass coming into Wimbledon....
Nick Kyrgios Goes Through The Legs, Up And Over
Overuse the tweener and it loses its luster. Theoretically, anyway: this is not a problem any normal professional player has ever struggled with to date. But no professional tennis player has opted for the shot as often as Nick Kyrgios, who persistently and gratuitously shoehorns it into points and ...
Birdsong Is The Best Color Commentary
Tennis itself produces good sounds, but it is not always surrounded by good sounds. That’s 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...
Make Tennis Trick Shots Worth Two Points
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 winner—it make...
Roger Federer Has Returned To Grass, And His Backhand Winners Are Vintage
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....
These Two Points Adequately Represent Rafael Nadal's Ridiculous Clay Season
Rafael Nadal won the French Open on Sunday, and there’s little new to say that wasn’t already said after last year’s title. After the preposterousness of 10, 11 doesn’t feel so different. But even into the double-digits, it’s worth remembering that the points are fucking absurd....
Simona Halep Won The French Open By Remembering How She Lost It
Simona Halep, by age 26—something like the physical prime in modern tennis—had it all, almost. There was still a void at the center of everything. It wasn’t money: She’s made over $26 million in her career and played this French Open in full swoosh gear, hinting at a recent off-court windfall. It wa...
Dominic Thiem Owned By Rafael Nadal In French Open Final, Owned Again During Trophy Presentation
If you missed the men’s 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 N...
Rafael Nadal's French Open Is A Confrontation With His Only Real Threat
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, “Rafael Nadal has won 10 French Opens.” There is only the slimmest chance that Thiem ...
Simona Halep Claims First Slam Title, One Year After Roland Garros Collapse
A year after she blew a one-set lead in the French Open final to allow unseeded Jeļena 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, 3–6, 6–4, 6-1....