tennis Page 23 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Juan Martin Del Potro Is No Longer A Hypothetical<em></em><em></em>
Many years could have been the year of Juan Martin del Potro. So many of them weren’t....

The Kyrgios-Zverev Rivalry May Not Be So Much Fun After All
Almost one year ago to the day, Nick Kyrgios and Alexander Zverev had themselves a beautiful baby: a match-long highlight reel starring two ornery geniuses. That was a different time: Kyrgios had embarked on a focused tear through Indian Wells and Miami, playing as well as he ever has; Zverev was ab...

Tennis Players Squabble Over The Identity Of One Guy's Father: "That's My Fucking Dad"
The Miami Open’s feisty this year. A few days after Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas were entangled in some midmatch tennis toilet beef, Fernando Verdasco and Thanasi Kokkinakis generated some juicy dad beef....

Caroline Wozniacki Says Unruly Fans Threatened Her And Her Family During Miami Open
Monica Puig came roaring back after a dispiriting first set to beat Caroline Wozniacki, 0-6 6-4 6-4, in a Friday Round of 64 match at the Miami Open. Highlights make it seem like the crowd was broadly pro-Puig, which makes sense—Puig is American, by way of Puerto Rico, and lives in Miami, whereas Wo...

BBC Makes Shirtless Andy Murray And Geri Halliwell Sing Spice Girls Songs In Bed
This video of Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, along with excessively cheery host Michael McIntyre, prompting Andy Murray to fill in the blanks on Spice Girls songs is so weird and delightful....

Tennis Toilet Beef Leads To One Player Telling Another To "Shut Your Fuck Up"<em></em>
Daniil Medvedev, best known for melting down and tossing money at an umpire at Wimbledon last year, got into a tense battle of toilet breaks and unwritten rules today as he defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 at the Miami Open....

"Oh God, It's About Grunting Again": An Official Stenographer Dishes On Transcribing Tennis Players<em></em>
Tennis players do press constantly; it’s part of their job. They field questions about all the unforced errors on their forehand, why their first serve was so effective, or what does it feel like to pull off an upset like this, and they generally give tame and compact answers. So the journalists can...

What Color Are Tennis Balls?
This has been a heated topic of debate for many years, most recently in The Atlantic and on the Hello Internet podcast: Are tennis balls green or yellow?...

For Gael Monfils, The Play Is The Reason For The Work
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Within five minutes of sitting down to watch Gael Monfils, you realize that this one practice session—practice!—has given fans more joy than entire swathes of the Indian Wells Masters main draw. They’d trade this one session for a dull quarter of the men’s singles tournament, ...

Naomi Osaka Could Pummel Her Way To A Title
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Naomi Osaka tiptoes through press conferences but rampages through tennis matches. She’s eager to unravel the notion that tennis could ever be a genteel game of rhythmic back-and-forth. Osaka is not here for the back-and-forth. When she sends the ball over, she absolutely does...

Naomi Osaka Is Tearing Up The Tennis Court But Bummed She Can't Play <i>Overwatch</i>
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Naomi Osaka is enjoying an excellent run at Indian Wells. She unseated Maria Sharapova in her very first match, then cleared out the trickiest veteran Aga Radwanska and two more foes to earn a spot across from fifth-seeded Karolina Pliskova in the quarterfinal. The No. 44, 20-...

Venus Williams Beats Serena 6-3, 6-4 At Indian Wells
The first tournament run of Serena Williams’s comeback ended at the hands of a familiar opponent—her sister, Venus Williams, who defeated her 6-3, 6-4 tonight in the third round at Indian Wells. ...

Very Good Underdog Yoshihito Nishioka Is Out
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Stand within 10 yards of Stan Wawrinka’s backhand and you realize, immediately, that he belongs to a different species. If somehow you find yourself on a tennis court with him, it is must only be to retrieve the ball he’s just pulverized, or to hand him a towel. That is not t...

Serena Williams Is Back, And She's Not In The Mood To Talk Drugs
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The first two points of Serena Williams’s comeback ended on unforced errors, and the arena, just over half-full on a cool desert night, was silent, totally, as if smothered by a heavy quilt. Maybe they weren’t sure to expect, after the childbirth, the complications, the blood ...

Here Are Some Tennis Contraptions You Really Don't Need
All you really need to play tennis is a friend....

Novak Djokovic Might Be Boned
Indian Wells, tennis’s “fifth major,” begins today in southern California. Last year the men’s draw produced one of the most evil sections of a draw you will ever see: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro, Nick Kyrgios, and Sascha Zverev all crammed unhappily into one c...

Serena Williams's Comeback Starts Now, Ready Or Not
On Thursday at Indian Wells, Serena Williams will play her first tour event in more than a year. Is she ready? Yesterday in an interview with the BBC, Williams heaved a sigh and answered:...

A Shot So Strange And Good You Have To Laugh
Fabio Fognini, tennis’s sleepy pirate and occasional misogynist, is typically the one doing all the comical, soft-handed trick shots in his matches. I’m the irritable eccentric here in my dumbass camouflage-and-skulls getup, says Fabio Fognini, to no one in particular. But while serving out the matc...

Now Here Is One Cool-Ass Tennis Move With Potential Dick-Punishing Consequences
Second-seeded Fabio Fognini defeated third-seeded and three-time defending champion Pablo Cuevas in the Brasil Open semifinals today in Sao Paolo, 6-4 6-2. But hell with the results: the real winner here is Cuevas, for pulling off this slick-ass move in the second set:...

Dammit, Rafael Nadal Will Be Out For A While
Subtract Rafael Nadal from any given tennis tournament, and boom—the participants collectively give 10,000 percent less of a shit about winning. He treasures every point of every match in every tournament. The man who won 16 Slams, including two last year, reportedly cried for two hours straight aft...