Tennis Page 103 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Watch Novak Djokovic Steal The U.S. Open Crowd, Momentum And Semifinal Match From Roger Federer
Momentum in sports, if you believe it exists, which I do, is a fickle thing. Take today's U.S. Open semifinal match between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, for instance....

Your U.S. Open Semifinals Open Thread
Weather permitting — and it's expected to do just that — both the men's and women's semifinals will be played in Flushing Meadows, NY today....

Grantland Republished David Foster Wallace's Epic 2006 Essay on Roger Federer, And You Should Go Read It Now
The late author's profile, written for the now-defunct Play, "constituted a dream pairing of writer and subject" that "still stands as one of the most stirring, illuminating essays ever written about the beauty of sport at its highest level," according to the Grantland introduction provided by Mich...

This Evening: The Guy In The Blue Shirt Behind Brooklyn Decker Would Like You To Know He Plays With Himself
Your p.m. roundup for Sept. 8, the day we learned a cow had died in Brooklyn. H/T to Brad for the U.S. Open photo. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

Andy Roddick Totally Flipped Out Over The Court Still Being Wet At The U.S. Open (Video)
And ESPN's cameras captured much of his tirade, which was directed at tournament referee (and USTA pro circuit director) Brian Earley during Roddick's fourth-round match this afternoon against David Ferrer. The match eventually was moved to the much smaller, 584-seat Court 13, where Roddick won in a...

Listen As Mardy Fish Calls Jo-Wilfried Tsonga A "Dumbass" During Their U.S. Open Match
Fish doesn't speak French, you see. Though it was Tsonga who eventually ousted Fish, the highest-seeded American, in five sets yesterday....

Rafael Nadal's Leg Cramps Made For An Awkward Press Conference Yesterday
This video will make anyone who's ever suffered from a muscle cramp cringe. Rafael Nadal was settling in for a post-match press conference after a straight-set win over David Nalbandian yesterday when he was suddenly hit with the pain of a stiffened calf muscle....

Ron Artest Has Never Looked More Graceful
Your morning roundup for Sept. 5, the day Arizona (against all odds) got a little bit worse. Photo of Artest at rehearsal via @LakerNation. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

There Was A Guy With A Sock In His Mouth At The U.S. Open This Afternoon
Tipster James M. writes in that, "It's pretty weird! I have people offering $5.62 for this pic but I'm an avid Deadspin reader and I want you guys to break the story so I'm willing to go as low as $3.27."...

An Instructional Video On How To Pretend To Hit A Forehand Like Rafael Nadal
This is cool, if you're a tennis player/fan, or just a fellow lefty who believes in the general supremacy of lefties. Rafael Nadal hits his forehand with an average topspin of 3,200 RPMs, which is more than any human to ever play the game of tennis. The New York Times explains how he does it. [NYT]...

Presenting A Great Point From Novak Djokovic's U.S. Open Match Against Some Guy Tonight
At the end of this crowd-rousing point tonight at Arthur Ashe Stadium, No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic was four games away from a triple-bagel win (6-0, 6-0, 6-0) over Carlos Berlocq. Novak would drop the next game — earning Berlocq some crowd adulation — and another before closing his foe out, but he a...

Holy Balls Christina McHale Is Ripped Too
Photographer Paul Frederiksen points out that Marion Bartoli's opponent, 19-year-old American Christina McHale, also has a Hulk arm. What deserves credit for this phenomenon? It may just be that the backhand shot is especially flattering to muscle definition—or it may just be that the rest of the wo...

Gael Monfils Took The Tennis Trick Shot To A New Level Today
Monfils and Juan Carlos Ferrero are currently deadlocked in the second round at the U.S. Open. Ferrero took the first set, 7-6 (5), Monfils took the second at 7-5, and Ferrero is up 6-5 in the third. Monfils, though, got the psychological (and bullshit) advantage with this trick shot early on....

Holy Balls Marion Bartoli Is Ripped
France's Marion Bartoli had a great run at Wimbledon back in June, but she and her Incredible Hulk arm are done at the U.S. Open already. She fell 7-6, 6-2 to 19-year-old American (yes, American! Alert the youth revivalists!) Christina McHale in the second round today. Perhaps she cut back on le pro...

Ernests Gulbis, Latvian Tennis Playboy, Says "Everybody Should Spend A Night In Prison" And Learn A Lesson
The New York Times has a story today on Ernests Gulbis, who defeated Mikhail Youzhny at the U.S. Open yesterday. Gulbis has decided to start living clean and serious at age 23, and this makes us sad. He is capable of so much more debauchery, and so many more hungover early exits. Yet now he's lookin...

Tennis Players Awkwardly Navigate The Post-Match Kiss
Gael Monfils beat Grigor Dimitrov in the opening round of the US Open last night, 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-4, and then met at the net for the most awkward kiss since middle school. (Although it is certainly possible that it only seems that way to unsophisticated Americans like us.)...

Serena Williams Cannot Really Recall That Line Judge Incident From "Like, Two Years Ago"
Remember that time at the 2009 U.S. Open, when Serena Williams told a line judge she was going to shove a tennis ball down her throat? Of course you do. Everyone remembers. Except for Serena....

The Officeworker’s Viewing Guide To The U.S. Open
There is no excuse for anyone to miss a single serve of tennis or a single Sasha Vujacic hair toss at the U.S. Open this year, unless he or she is employed, disinterested, or has basic life responsibilities that might keep one from watching every hour of a two-week long sporting event. But! Just in ...

Tastes Like Sugarpova: Deadspin's 2011 U.S. Open Preview
For two weeks every year, hardened New Yorkers become prissy tennis fans, and Queens—not the Bronx—becomes the sports capital of the Big Apple. You could argue that the U.S. Open is, perennially, the biggest sporting event in New York, with the possible exceptions of the '94 Rangers-Knicks run and 2...

Here Is Andy Samberg Playing Both 70s Bjorn Borg And John McEnroe On The Cover Of <em>NYT Magazine</em>
OK, this is kind of cool. Tennis and the New York Times being weirdly not-stodgy, everybody!...