Tennis Page 53 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Nobody Had More Fun Watching Wimbledon Than Woody Harrelson Did
Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah defeated French duo Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-6(6), 6-7(5), 6-3 in a match that lasted nearly five hours to become the first Colombian players to win a Grand Slam men’s doubles title. It was arguably the best match played at Wimb...
Simona Halep Defeats Serena Williams To Win Her First Wimbledon Title
The best match of Simona Halep’s life could not have come at a better time. The Romanian defeated Serena Williams 6-2, 6-2 to win the first Wimbledon title of career, and also deny Williams the opportunity of tying Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 majors. In a bit of a surprise, Halep needed j...
Rafael Nadal Played Some Heroic Points Before Roger Federer Wrapped It Up
The match was glowing white-hot for hours, but in the fourth set, the Wimbledon semifinal between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal began to cool off. Federer got an early break to go up 2-1, and a sense of the inevitable washed over the lawn as both players traded holds, Nadal’s traction on the match ...
Eleven Years After The Greatest Match Ever: A Federer-Nadal Wimbledon Liveblog
Novak Djokovic awaits in the final. Either Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal will join him after today’s semifinal. GOATs are grazing everywhere the eye can see. Roger has mastered the grass and Wimbledon is historically his home turf, but Rafa has beaten him here before—famously, in their 2008 final, t...
Jelena Ostapenko's Doubles Partner Has Endured Too Much Friendly Fire
Jelena Ostapenko is one of the fiercest power hitters in the women’s game. She hasn’t quite lived up to the promise of her 2017 French Open win, and she had a disappointing first-round loss in the singles draw at this Wimbledon, but she’s still alive in the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles. And sh...
Serena Williams Shares The Apology She Sent To Naomi Osaka After U.S. Open
Serena Williams, currently in the middle of another Wimbledon title hunt, has an essay out in Harper’s Bazaar today that lays out the emotional aftermath of her 2018 U.S. Open final. That match, which resulted in the first major title for then-20-year-old Naomi Osaka, was marred by a long umpire dis...
Damn, Coco Gauff's Prodigious Wimbledon Run Is Over
Any disappointment that a 15-year-old lost to a top seed at Wimbledon is absurd on its face, but that’s just how good Coco Gauff’s tournament has been. The expectations have been warped beyond any recognizable norms....
Nick Kyrgios Executes Perfect Underarm Serve Against Rafael Nadal
The second round of Wimbledon offered Nick Kyrgios the opportunity to do what he loves best, which is to try to beat Rafael Nadal. Though he failed in that quest, falling in four sets in yesterday’s match, Kyrgios was able to realize his other great love, which is to try to annoy Rafael Nadal. No mo...
Sad Naomi Osaka Is The Saddest Sight In Tennis
One endearing thing about Naomi Osaka is that she seems to actually digest and carefully respond to the questions asked of her in press. Where many athletes are ready to spit out some prepackaged platitude—which, in fairness, is about the level of thought that most post-game queries deserve, in any ...
15-Year-Old Coco Gauff Upsets Venus Williams At Wimbledon
Cori “Coco” Gauff is still a teenager, but her legend precedes her. The first story I ever heard involving the American prodigy was about her serving incomprehensible heat while she was barely a teenager. Soon enough there were official figures to back that up. Last year at the Wimbledon junior tour...
This One Weird Trick To Defeat Stefanos Tsitsipas: Be An 18-Year-Old Canadian
Stefanos Tsitsipas, tennis’s vlog prince, has done plenty to be proud of in the last year, with wins over Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer on hard court, a victory over Rafael Nadal on clay, and a current No. 6 ranking in the world. The breakout is nearly complete, and there is little else to wait f...
Untimely Sprinklers Derail Match Point
Life can be rough on the ATP Challenger tour, one rung below the pro tour you see on TV. World No. 317 Adam Pavlásek was just a point away from locking up his second-round win at the Challenger Bratislava over world No. 218 Elliot Benchetrit. Then six sprinklers came to life....
Dominic Thiem Got Closer, But Rafael Nadal Still Stepped On Him
Last year, in the first major final of his life, Dominic Thiem just seemed happy to be there. Flattened by a Rafael Nadal charging toward his 11th French Open title? That builds character. A dusty tennis great heartlessly roasting you at the trophy ceremony? Whatever, no shame in being outmatched....
Tennis Player Loses Match, Reacts With A Virtuosic Racket Smash
Mario Vilella Martínez played Tomislav Brkić today in the first round of the ATP Challenger in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. Vilella Martínez broke in the third set to go up 5-3. With a chance to serve out the match at 5-4, he lost the game at love. Then he lost the next return game and began to crack....
Rafael Nadal Is Tennis Jail
“If you want to do or achieve something on the clay, inevitably, at some stage, you will go through Rafa,” Roger Federer said after his French Open quarterfinal, “because he’s that strong, and he will be there.”...
American Teen Amanda Anisimova's Singular Backhand Tore Up The Defending French Open Champ
Amanda Anisimova has a good backhand, so good as to foreclose any technical critique from the peanut gallery. She’s 17 years old and it has already been described by tennis commentators, perhaps accurately, as the best backhand on tour, and, hyperbolically, as the best of all time. I’ll leave those ...
What The Hell Are These Questions From The French Open Pressers?
Today at the French Open, No. 7 seed Sloane Stephens lost her quarterfinal match. She went to press after, only to field this question, as noted by tennis writer Ben Rothenberg:...
The Greatest Tennis Match Of The Year Was A Filthy, Hectic War
Forget the semifinals, the finals, or the shiny trophy ceremonies. The sweetest spot of a tennis major is the first weekend....
Nick Kyrgios Says He's "Fucking Done" During Tantrum, And It's Hard Not To Believe Him
Of all Nick Kyrgios’s many many many many tantrums, the one he unleashed today at the Italian Open was his most over-the-top display yet. On the heels of a brutally honest interview with tennis writer Ben Rothenberg, in which Kyrgios admitted winning tennis matches doesn’t make him happy, that he do...
Stefanos Tsitsipas Became One Of The Few To Take Out Rafael Nadal On Clay
He’d won over Federer on fast hard court at a major, and he’d won over Djokovic on slow hard court at a masters. Saturday brought an even thornier test for Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Greek had lost all seven sets he’d previously played against Rafael Nadal, five of them on hard court. The last time the...