Tennis Page 79 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Roger Federer Is Just Making Stuff Up Now
Roger Federer is 35 and, increasingly, plays like he has no time to waste. That manifests in a very literal way: He barely waits for the ball to hit the ground. ...
This Is How Hard It Is To Rip A Winner Past Gael Monfils
Gael Monfils is content to camp out eight feet behind the baseline and beat back whatever you send his way; it’s how the world No. 12 has made his living. He’s springy and long-limbed and you’re probably going to get tired before he does. But Mohamed Safwat, ranked No. 199, played Monfils’s game tod...
Thiem's Tweener Was A Winner
Dominic Thiem breezily dismissed Diego Schwartzman in today’s 6-2, 6-3 quarterfinal at the Rio Open, and the highlight was this tweener that he slapped down the line for a winner:...
Kei Nishikori Is Shook
Kei Nishikori is the fifth-best tennis player in the world and even his practice sessions get mobbed in his native Japan. His trademark shot is the down-the-line backhand, a smoothly flicked frozen rope. You might have last seen him in January taking Roger Federer to five sets in the quarters of the...
Even You, Wasting Time At Your Job Right Now, Are Not Phoning It In As Badly As This Tennis Player
Bernard Tomic is the second-best prospect from Australia and now, miraculously, the first-best at not giving a shit. That’s quite an accomplishment given the oeuvre of his close friend and compatriot Nick Kyrgios, who tanked his way to a $25,000 fine and hit a tweener at the climax of a fifth-set co...
Alexandr Dolgopolov's Best Weapon Is The Screwiest Game In Tennis
One complaint lobbed at today’s game is that everyone is content to play the same style of tennis: Just stand at the back of the court and hit hard topspin groundstrokes over and over until your opponent, who’s attempting the same, can’t keep up. We live in a “power baseline” era, and it didn’t use ...
Old Man Federer Signs New Deal, May Keep Playing Until Humanity Leaves For Mars
The saner Roger Federer fans treated his Australian Open title as a late-night dessert—one they really didn’t expect or deserve!—snuck in before the long sleep. The more delusional might have seen it as the beginning of a late-career resurgence, promising fresh titles to come. I sat somewhere in bet...
Grigor Dimitrov Just Blessed Us With The Best Tennis Point Of The Week
Watching a lot of Grigor Dimitrov lately, I’ve noticed a pattern: There’s a concrete moment, usually early in the second set, when he’s adequately warmed up from the first set and he decides to flip on God Mode. From there on out, you’re watching a qualitatively different player. Above is that momen...
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Could Get The Best Of Tomas Berdych This Time<em></em>
World No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won two tiebreaks against World No. 7 and tournament top seed Marin Cilic on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the Rotterdam Open, where he’ll face a familiar foe: Tomas Berdych. ...
I Don't Think Grigor Dimitrov Will Lose Anytime Soon
This afternoon I burped and realized Grigor Dimitrov is playing tennis as well as anyone alive. Lesser players come at him and might startle him for a little—like Mischa Zverev did in the first round here at Rotterdam—but after the opening set, he remembers that he can swarm the whole entire court,...
Alexander Zverev, The Best Teen In Tennis, Goes Cold In The First Round
Second seeds are supposed to feast on easy prey in the first round of tournaments. But easy doesn’t describe Alexander Zverev, the best young prospect in the world, just a few days removed from an ATP title. (And just a few weeks removed from a five-set test of Rafael Nadal’s mettle in the third rou...
Is Uncle Toni, Rafael Nadal's Longtime Coach, Really Cool With Stepping Down?<em></em>
Rafael Nadal will split ways with his longtime coach, Uncle Toni, at the end of the 2017 season, according to an interview Toni Nadal gave to the website Il Tennis Italiano over the weekend. Instead of traveling with his nephew, Toni Nadal said he will spend next season overseeing the Nadals’ tenni...
Marin Cilic Sucks Now
The seventh-ranked player in the world, Marin Cilic, has shambled through some smelly losses to start the new year....
ESPN Sued By Tennis Broadcaster Fired Over Venus Williams Remark
Tennis broadcaster Doug Adler, who didn’t return to ESPN’s Australian Open broadcast after commenting on Venus Williams’s “gorilla” or “guerrilla” style of play—that’s the big question here—has sued ESPN and two ESPN executives in charge of tennis broadcasts in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging w...
Grigor Dimitrov Is A Guy To Know
Halfway through February, Grigor Dimitrov—not long ago ranked No. 40, written off as a burnt-out prodigy who’d never rise to meet the hype—has already racked up two ATP titles and a Grand Slam semifinal. This past weekend the 25-year-old beat David Goffin to win the Sofia Open in his homeland of Bul...
U.S. Performs Nazi-Era "Deutschland, Deutschland Über Alles" Before Fed Cup Match Against Germany<em></em>
The USTA has apologized to Germany for performing the antiquated first verse of that country’s national anthem—the “Deutschland, Deutschland Über Alles” one, last used by the Nazis—before yesterday’s Fed Cup match between German Andrea Petkovic and American Alison Riske....
Nobody In The Whole World Wants To Practice With Poor Ivo Karlovic
Today from the ATP, here’s an item about world No. 18 Ivo Karlovic that gets progressively sadder:...
Gael Monfils, Snubbed By France For Davis Cup, Fucks Around With Obscure Sport Instead
Gael Monfils, the best living tennis player from France, was curiously not chosen to play the first round of the Davis Cup, the most important international tournament in the sport. He can blame his long-simmering beef with team coach Yannick Noah, national tennis legend—and father of Knicks sharpsh...
Science! Shows That Roger Federer's Backhand In Fact Defeated Rafael Nadal
Yesterday we argued that Federer’s unusually strong backhand anchored his Australian Open win over Rafael Nadal, and today we found a startling statistical basis for that claim. It comes courtesy of the always helpful Jeff Sackmann at TennisAbstract. Relative to other sports, tennis remains fairly d...
Roger Federer Played Free And Gave His Archrival The Back Of His Hand<em></em>
“I’m a different player due to Rafa’s presence,” Roger Federer said in a 2015 press conference, and if you needed it, yesterday’s 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 Australian Open win offered the clearest possible evidence. When your defensive-genius nemesis applies crushing pressure on you for more than a de...