Tennis Page 81 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Nick Kyrgios Retires From Match After A Nasty Slip On The Grass
Nick Kyrgios’s injury woes continued today in his first-round match at the Queen’s Club Championships, as the tour transitions to a new surface. During his first match on grass—which is well-suited to his ace-hungry game—he slipped and fell, tweaking his knee at an ugly angle. After a medical timeou...
Juan Martin Del Potro's Injury Might Take Him Out Of Wimbledon
There are many ways to describe Juan Martin del Potro: owner of the most devastating forehand in the sport, winner of a Grand Slam at age 20 after beating near-peak Roger Federer, and the dude with the largest heart on tour. But you could hardly describe him as healthy. Years of wrist issues sent hi...
Tennis Player Loses Match After Being Penalized For Calling Himself A "Stupid Person"
Brydan Klein, the Australian-born British tennis player who was banned from the sport for six months in 2009 for racially abusing an opponent, was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty during his ATP Nottingham Challenger match on Thursday for calling himself a “stupid person” after he dumped ...
Cool Reflexes, Man
Lucas Pouille, who at one point projected to be a great tennis player but may end up just a good one, saved a match point against Jan-Lennard Struff today with some nifty reflex volleys. A few points later world No. 16 Pouille notched a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (8) win in his second-round match at the Stu...
Roger Federer Faceplanted On The Grass
That little, fluttery lurch in your stomach? That’s the feeling of your Wimbledon hopes shriveling up just a little bit. Roger Federer, bearing a new haircut and the swollen expectations of fans spoiled by his season to date, was shocked by world No. 302 Tommy Haas in the second round of the Stuttga...
And Now, Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Federer-Nadal Show<em></em>
Rewind the tape all the way back to—sheesh—April 2, the date of Roger Federer’s last professional tennis match, a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Rafael Nadal to win the Miami Open. Afterwards he reportedly told his rival that he, Nadal, would “destroy” the clay court season, and Rafa delivered, piling up a 2...
No One Will Ever Do What Rafael Nadal Has Done
Predictions about whether a feat can or cannot be replicated have always struck me as naive. Earth will be around for a while and, at least until we write ourselves out of its story, will host billions and billions more humans, shaped and sized in novel ways, some of which make them particularly sui...
Rafael Nadal Cruises To Record 10th French Open Title
Rafael Nadal won a record 10th French Open title today by making quick work of Stan Wawrinka, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1. Nadal faced one break point all day, and saved it. It was a brutal, dominating performance, and of a guy who just took out world number one Andy Murray, and notched a title of his own at Rola...
Jelena Ostapenko Wins French Open For First WTA Tour Win Ever<em></em>
Jelena Ostapenko earned her first WTA tour win in a big way: by dispatching Simona Halep 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 today in the French Open final. The Latvian is the first unseeded French Open women’s champion since 1933....
Rafael Nadal Took A Gifted Youth's Lunch Money, And His Will To Live
Towards the tail end of the clay season, even this skeptic had cast aside old doubts: 23-year-old Dominic Thiem is the future. Particularly on the dirt. But as of right now, the future still feels impossibly far away. Rafael Nadal, 31 years old and the best clay court tennis player past and present,...
Root For Stan Wawrinka, The Artful Troll
At his peak, Stan Wawrinka might be the best tennis player alive, but that peak is hard to find. Sometimes—right after winning his third major and reaching his career-high ranking, say—he’s just a bed-headed lump, tumbling out of the first round of tournaments courtesy of the world No. 91 or 72. Thi...
Meet Jelena Ostapenko, The Birthday Girl Who Could Win The French Open Out Of Nowhere<em></em>
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko had quite the day, and quite the last two weeks. The unseeded world No. 47 has booked a spot in the French Open final with a three-set win over Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland—oh, and she turned 20 years old today. Led by the on-court presenter, the crowd serenaded her with...
Kellogg's Sues Tennis Player Over Special K Nickname
Cereal giant Kellogg’s is suing tennis player Thanasi Kokkinakis over his use of the nickname Special K in his native Australia....
Rafael Nadal Is Two Wins From The French Open
Pablo Carreño Busta offered the only blip of diversity in a quarterfinals that was otherwise purely chalk: seeds No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 were all still in play. As nice as it was to see one of those three-name clay courters edge past No. 5 Milos Raonic in five sets and make his way into this rar...
With Her Attitude Adjusted, Simona Halep Makes Incredible Comeback To Reach French Open <em></em>Semis
Simona Halep, the world No. 4 whose participation in the French Open was questionable right up until the start of the tournament due to an ankle injury, played the match of her life against Elena Svitolina in the quarterfinals, coming back from a huge deficit to win in three sets....
Novak Djokovic Got Wrecked
Dominic Thiem has been the second-best player on this clay season, with the realest credential around: the only player to beat Rafael Nadal. During that run, Thiem’s worst loss came not at the hands of Rafa, but Novak Djokovic, who offered a brief flashback to the world-beating Novak of one year ag...
John McEnroe Slams Margaret Court's Bigoted Comment On Number Of Lesbians In Tennis: "Who Gives A Fuck?"
John McEnroe has shared a video of himself condemning Margaret Court’s homophobic bullshit from last week, though he stopped short of joining those asking for the arena that bears her name to be given a new moniker. ...
Gael Monfils Laid It All Out There
Gael Monfils and Stan Wawrinka are genuine late-bloomers—perhaps the only two pros to ever find their best tennis on the cusp of 30—and very good friends, too. Somehow, before today’s round of 16 match at the French Open, they had gone six years on the tour without playing one another. That fact bog...
Novak Djokovic Got Into It With A Fussy Chair Ump
Novak Djokovic’s skills were tested by the diminutive Diego Schwartzman in their third-round match at the French Open, and his patience was tested by the chair umpire, who hit him with a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. Here’s the conduct in question:...
Rafael Nadal Removed A Man's Soul From His Body
This may surprise the casual tennis observer: Even after a straight-sets win that, on paper, resembles a blowout, the loser has often won almost as many points as the winner. The loser just didn’t win them in the right sequence. That’s a quirk of tennis’s scoring system, which bundles points into ga...