Tennis Page 55 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

‘King Richard’ is not a movie to be overlooked during the Oscars
Sports movies often get overlooked during Oscar season. The last time a sports film won Best Picture was 2005 when Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby took home the night’s most coveted award. Since then, it’s been crickets. Some sports movies and short films have been given some recognition with l...

Can anyone fill the void left by Serena Williams and now Ash Barty?
Ash Barty’s retirement from professional tennis was a blunt instrument between the eyes of the WTA community. Barty was coupled with Naomi Osaka as the future of women’s tennis. At 25, she was coming into her own after winning the Australian Open in January, Wimbledon in 2021 and the 2019 French Ope...

Tennis doesn’t want Naomi Osaka around
Naomi Osaka loves tennis, but tennis doesn’t seem to love her back. ...

Coco Gauff continues to be the adult in the room/state of Florida
Count me among the cynical who aren’t surprised that a 17-year-old tennis player knows better than the entire Florida GOP....

Why you never dance with devils
The reckoning has finally come for the sports organizations that have played footsie with autocratic nations. And not just FIFA and the International Olympic Committee, but for the Premier League, Formula One, and any sports league that has cashed checks from questionable international sources while...

What if Serena Williams did what Alexander Zverev did?
Before this week, for most sports fans, German tennis player Alexander Zverev’s name didn’t ring a bell. Others likely remember the domestic abuse allegations levied against him before the 2021 U.S. Open. But now, everyone should be aware as a recent video showed him cursing out an umpire and smashi...

Tennis menace Alexander Zverev whacks umpire with racket
When in doubt, blame the officials. It’s a common behavior in sports. When in doubt, smash a tennis racket against an umpire’s chair, nearly striking him, which could’ve caused major harm? Deeply disturbing and pitiful. And that’s exactly what German tennis player Alexander Zverev did Tuesday....

Peng Shuai ‘retires,’ most of the world barely notices
Since Peng Shuai bravely penned details of her sexual abuse at the hands of former Chinese vice-premier Zhang Gaoli in November, the 36-year-old tennis star has become a symbol for the extent of Chinese censorship. Saying that China has handled Shuai’s accusations against a high-ranking Chinese gove...

Tennis is having the goldenest of all Golden Ages
It’s strange how normalized greatness is during something’s golden age. If you look at music for example, hip-hop peaked in the ’90s for a lot of people like classic rock did in the ’60s and ’70s. However, even when 2Pac and Biggie were at the apex, rappers like Nas and Jay-Z weren’t in the picture ...

Rafa Nadal had just enough
Whether Rafa Nadal likes it or not, and he probably doesn’t mind because he seems an amiable sort, he’ll be more closely linked to Roger Federer than Novak Djokovic. It was Federer who was unchallenged for years until Rafa built a base on clay, and then slowly ate into his advantages on grass (beat ...

An older, more economical Rafa Nadal can still fight
Because he’s five years the junior of Roger Federer, it’s been interesting to watch Rafa Nadal’s career kind of trail in Federer’s wake and how much it follows this same path. At 35, much like Federer did at age 35, Nadal entered this Australian Open off a huge injury layoff, as he didn’t play after...

Novak Djokovic threw a temper tantrum for the ages
Novak Djokovic has effectively chosen to remain unvaccinated over his bid to break the men’s Grand Slam singles record. That may not have been his aim, but his choice nonetheless has consequences....

Novak Djokovic finally loses in Australia
It’s finally over. Novak Djokovic’s appeal of the revocation of his visa by Australia’s Immigration Minister was rejected, and the country finally got to punt his water-mutating brain elsewhere. Which means Djokovic will not be breaking the record for most Grand Slam titles in Melbourne, though that...

Hit the road, Novak
No-vax Djokovic is having a hell of a time trying to play in the Australian Open, a Grand Slam he has won a record nine times, because it turns out this pandemic is serious business. He had his visa revoked for a second time and faces deportation because he’s not vaccinated, according to ESPN. He’s ...

Remember when Novak Djokovic called out Naomi Osaka for not following the rules?
I’m as sick of Novak Djokovic as you are, and as my colleague Grace McDermott wrote yesterday, we’d stop writing about him if he’d stop making us. ...

What did Novak know, and when did he know it?
We’d stop writing about the guy if he stopped giving us fresh crap to write about....

The Djokovics are making steamed hams
Perhaps in the social media age, or just our vindictive society, being the best ever at something is going to cause a mass amount of idiocy around you. Then again, when you’re the author of that idiocy, maybe we have to admit that to be the best ever to play any sport, it takes such a singular focus...

Let me breakdown this Djokovic-Aussie mess
Let’s just begin by talking about Novak Djokovic’s skills. He is very, very good at hitting fuzzy, yellow, bouncy tennis balls. He can hit them very hard, and yet he can also hit them very softly. He makes people clap with delight with how he hits tennis balls. He wins very large trophies. Hitting f...
![Novak Djokovic denied entry into Australia over visa issue [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/b66888400ab4c7e638ff0fb6a8e5618c.jpg)
Novak Djokovic denied entry into Australia over visa issue [Updated]
The Australian Open might have given the controversial OK to unvaccinated tennis star Novak Djokovic, but the Victorian State Government in Australia has not proved quite as accommodating....

Aussie Open rules don’t apply to Novak Djokovic
Yet again, the major sports set out to prove that the rules don’t apply to the moneymakers — even when the rules are in the interest of public health and ending an ongoing pandemic. Twenty-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic will be allowed to play in the Australian Open after receiving a medical ...