Tennis Page 87 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
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...
Roger Federer Wins Australian Open For First Grand Slam Title In Five Years
Thirty-five-year old Roger Federer took down old rival Rafael Nadal in five sets to win the Australian Open—his 18th Grand Slam title, but his first in five years. ...
Serena Williams Is No. 1 Again
In terms of what it actually was, Serena Williams’s Australian Open victory was fairly straightforward; in terms of what it means, it’s totally overwhelming....
Roger Federer And Rafael Nadal Will Face Off In A Throwback Australian Open Final
This photo’s from 2005—they were about to meet in a Grand Slam for the first time, the 2005 French Open, a semifinal match Rafael Nadal won before claiming the title, his first of many. They’d then spend about a decade at the top of the game, sucking up all the available oxygen, dominating all major...
Old Man Federer Survives To Reach Australian Open Final
Thirty-five-year-old Roger Federer sputtered his way to the championship round of the Australian Open. Though his all-Swiss semifinal against Stan Wawrinka looked like a gutsy struggle on paper—five sets! 7-5, 6-3, 1-6, 4-6, 6-3!—it actually lasted just over three hours, and the two major inflection...
![Venus Williams Is Very, Very Happy To Be In The Final Of The Australian Open [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/dkyx6k7jbtyj4hirtqdn.jpg)
Venus Williams Is Very, Very Happy To Be In The Final Of The Australian Open [Updated]
All evidence suggests that 36-year-old Venus Williams is feeling good about reaching the final of the Australian Open. She defeated CoCo Vandeweghe 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2 to become the oldest women in a Grand Slam final since Martina Navratilova in 1994....
Now It's Just Rafael Nadal And A Bunch Of Gorgeous One-Handers
Rafael Nadal dug around and exploited two glitches in the Milos Raonic serving machine—two successfully converted break points, that is—to win his Australian Open quarterfinal 6-4, 7-6 (7), 6-4. And now he’s surveying a field full of the prettiest one-handed backhands in all the land. Roger Federer’...
Venus Williams Becomes Oldest Woman To Ever Reach Australian Open Semifinals
Venus Williams, aged 36, ranked No. 17, hasn’t dropped a single set en route to the semifinals at the Australian Open. Her 6-4, 7-6 (3) win over No. 27 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova made her the oldest woman in the Open era to run this deep into this tournament. ...
Stan Wawrinka Drained Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's Will To Live
The notion of athletes “wanting it more” than one another must be one of the most insufferably inane tropes of sports analysis, but halfway through an Australian Open match between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Stan Wawrinka the commentators began flinging it, and at some point it actually began to stick. ...