Tennis Page 70 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
What More Details Do Rafael Nadal And Novak Djokovic Need To Cancel Their Saudi Arabia Exhibition?
As of now, world No. 1 Rafael Nadal and No. 2 Novak Djokovic are still slated to play in a December exhibition in Saudi Arabia, and have yet to decline the invitation even as details about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi continue to emerge. Nadal and Djokovic cited the duration of their com...
This Tweener Lob Is Devious And Perfect<em></em>
It’s hard to pinpoint why Robin Haase, a journeyman ranked No. 47, stars in so many unusual highlights for a player of merely solid status. But the bendy Dutchman has a taste for loose, weirdo shot-making, and today, without warning, he briefly turned a first-round Basel Open match against Sascha Z...
Wimbledon Weenies Finally Make A Little Progress With New Fifth-Set Tiebreak Rule
In order to solve the problem of damagingly long and pointless marathon men’s matches at Grand Slams—like this year’s men’s semifinal between Kevin Anderson and John Isner, which lasted a painful six and a half hours, including a three-hour fifth set which Anderson eventually took 26-24—Wimbledon br...
After U.S. Open Debacle, Serena Williams's Coach Says Coaching Rules Should Be Changed
Serena Williams’s long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou—who, during the U.S. Open final in September, was deemed by the chair umpire to have coached Williams from his seat in the stands, thereby earning her a code violation, which set off one of the weirdest and most controversial sports meltdowns ev...
Ellen DeGeneres, Drunk With Power, Tries To Set Up Naomi Osaka With Michael B. Jordan
Life came fast at Naomi Osaka. After she skipped the hype machine of the junior circuit, went pro, and won some local fame in Japan, Osaka won her first professional title of any kind at Indian Wells this year, and her second at (sheesh) the U.S. Open. Within days of hoisting that second trophy, she...
Ukrainian Tennis Twins Banned For Life And Fined $500,000 For Match-Fixing
Two 35-year-old low-level professional tennis players you’ve never heard of, Ukrainian twins Gleb and Vadim Alekseenko, have been banned for life and fined $250,000 each, after being found guilty of match-fixing over an eight-month period in 2015 and 2016, the Tennis Integrity Unit said in a statem...
Novak Djokovic Is On A Blistering Tear
At Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic reascended, and he’s more or less stayed there ever since. It took awhile to fully jar himself out of his blue period, but the Serb is back to dominating in all in the old ways, barely leaving so much as a scrap for anyone else. When Novak Djokovic is in full flow, he ta...
Rafael Nadal And Novak Djokovic Look Forward To Being Pawns In Saudi Arabia's Shameless Image Rehab
On Oct. 7, one day after Reuters first reported the alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who Turkish officials later said was tortured and dismembered by Saudi agents in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Head of Saudi Arabia’s General Sport Authority Turki Al-Alshaikh announce...
Roger Federer Literally Couldn't Hit This Ball
Today at the Shanghai Masters, Roger Federer played his first match since he left the U.S. Open looking like he’d fallen in the pool. Federer barely survived a sharp Daniil Medvedev to win 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, but the Russian, who ripped through seven wins last week to qualify and win Tokyo, made the shot...
Nick Kyrgios Is Just Another Grump Railing At The Umpire Now
Nick Kyrgios is no longer playing well or amusingly enough to justify the usual apologist disclaimer, so let’s just get to the point. On Monday at the Shanghai Masters, where he has tanked for two years running, he once again flirted with nihilism as he lost to world No. 104 Bradley Klahn, 4-6, 6-4,...
Three Thai Tennis Umpires Banned For Life For Betting And Match-Fixing
Three Thai tennis umpires have been banned for life after being found guilty of match-fixing and betting offenses at low-level tournaments, according to a release from the Tennis Integrity Unit, an anti-corruption group....
Kei Nishikori Shows That Sometimes It Pays To Play Dead<em></em>
Like all games when played at the highest level, tennis often requires managing and toying with an opponent’s expectations. Do you think they’ll hit the ball cross-court? Ready yourself for that ball. But maybe they think you think they’ll hit it cross-court? Stay vigilant for the down-the-line. Wha...
Naomi Osaka Has Various Tea-Related Feelings About Her Bizarre U.S. Open Final
Naomi Osaka dominated a whole major for two weeks, including the final match, but collective memory has been dominated by the argument between Serena Williams and umpire Carlos Ramos. Everyone with any feelings about that has, by now, aired them out in public: Williams, Ramos to an extent, former pl...
Sloane Stephens Feuds With Opponent: "Fucking Bitch Tried To Hit Me"
In the very first round of the China Open on Sunday, a new baby beef was slapped on the grill. Down 2-5 on return in the second set against Sloane Stephens, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova called for the physio to treat her right shoulder. The timing of that request—down two breaks, with the set on the opp...
No Man Under 30 Has Won A Tennis Major<em></em>
Happy birthday to Marin Cilic, who turns 30 today, and thanks for making tennis history. As of Sept. 28, no men’s tennis player under the age of 30 has won a major. This has never occurred before in the sport. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Juan Martin Del P...
Reddit Founder Logs On To Defend His Wife Serena Williams, Wrestles With His Own Creation<em></em>
Reddit’s co-founder Alexis Ohanian has been steadily posting online in support of his wife, Serena Williams, after her well-documented spat with an umpire in the U.S. Open final. One recent tweet by Ohanian called attention to an infamous Roger Federer outburst at the 2009 U.S. Open final, drawing a...
This 84-Shot Rally At The Davis Cup Is Tennis Hell
Over the years and across dozens of blogs, Deadspin has tried to make a case for watching and enjoying tennis, the sport being played in last weekend’s Davis Cup rubber between France’s Nicolas Mahut and Spain’s Marcel Granollers....
Umpire Who Gave Nick Kyrgios Pep Talk Gets Suspended For Two Tournaments Without Pay
During a second-round U.S. Open match on Aug. 30, umpire Mohamed Lahyani descended from his chair to give a mopey Nick Kyrgios a pep talk that included the words “I want to help you,” raising questions as to whether he overstepped boundaries as a neutral party. Lahyani has now been punished for his...
Tennis Umpires Aren't The Enemy Here
The Times of London reported Tuesday that some anonymous tennis umpires had considered boycotting Serena Williams’s matches after her spat with umpire Carlos Ramos derailed her U.S. Open final against Naomi Osaka. As this story has been picked up, shorn of context, and redeployed in unfamiliar conte...
Hypothetical Grievances Presented By An Australian Newspaper To Defend Its Big-Lipped Serena Williams Cartoon, Ranked<em></em>
To riff on Serena Williams’s spat with umpire Carlos Ramos in the U.S. Open final, the Melbourne Herald Sun published an illustration of the tennis player, drawn by editorial cartoonist Mark Knight, which has since been met with international disgust. Today, like any normal newspaper, the Herald Sun...