Page 15 - Tennis

Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal withdraws from Laver Cup in Berlin

Rafael Nadal withdrew Thursday from next week's Laver Cup in Berlin, leaving it unclear when the Spanish great will play again. The Laver Cup the tournament where Roger Federer retired in 2022 after teaming up with Nadal in doubles would have been Nadal's first event since the Paris Olympics and potentially one of his last ever. I'm really disappointed to share that I won't be able to compete at the Laver Cup in Berlin next week," the 38-year-old Nadal said. This is a team competition and to really support Team Europe, I need to do what's best for them and at this moment there are other players who can help the team deliver the win. The 22-time Grand Slam champion didn't address his current fitness after a spate of injuries in recent years, or when he might play again. Nadal withdrew last month from the U.S. Open, meaning he missed three of the four Grand Slam tournaments in 2024. He last played in reaching the men's doubles quarterfinals at the Olympics, where he also lost in th

Davis Cup 2024: United States takes unassailable 2-0 lead over Chile

Brandon Nakashima and Reilly Opelka won their singles matches Wednesday to give the United States an unassailable 2-0 lead over Chile in the group stage of the Davis Cup Finals at Zhuhai, China. Nakashima beat Alejandro Tabilo 7-6 (5), 2-6, 7-6 (3) after Reilly Opelka defeated Cristian Garin 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (3) to give the Americans an early lead following the 2 hour, 26-minute opener. The two singles matches lasted more than five hours, and there was a doubles match still to be played. Four groups are playing in four cities this week to qualify for the Final 8 knockout stage to be held in Malaga, Spain, in November. The top two countries in each four-team group will advance. The US, which has a leading 32 Davis Cup titles its most recent in 2007 was over Russia is bidding to reach the quarter-finals for the second time since the Davis Cup Finals were introduced in 2019. In the qualifiers this year, the Americans defeated Ukraine 4-0 on neutral ground in Vilnius, Lithuania. Later .

Jannik Sinner is already world number 1 and has 2 Grand Slams at 23

New US Open champion Jannik Sinner is making big strides in a short amount of time. And that, he figures, bodes well for what's to come. Just 23, Sinner already reached No. 1 in the ATP rankings a few months ago and, on Sunday, collected the second Grand Slam trophy of his career and of the year by defeating Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 in the final at Flushing Meadows. Add that to his Australian Open in January, and Sinner is the first man since Guillermo Vilas all the way back in 1977 to pick up major titles No. 1 and No. 2 within the same season. I've gone through a lot things quickly, said Sinner, Italy's second US Open singles title winner, joining 2015 women's champ Flavia Pennetta. I'm still young. That gives me confidence I still can get better, because at 23, you haven't perfected everything. So my team and I know we have to improve. In what ways? He pointed to the match against Fritz. Today, I played well from the back court. I felt good there, said Sinner, who was ...

Navarro reaches career high no 8 in ATP rankings, Fritz back in top 10

US Open men's runner-up Taylor Fritz returned to the top 10 in the ATP rankings at No. 7 on Monday, and women's runner-up Jessica Pegula rose to No. 3 in the WTA list, while semi-finalist Emma Navarro climbed to a career-best No. 8. Men's champion Jannik Sinner nearly doubled his lead as the ATP's No. 1 a spot he's held since June a day after defeating Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5, and women's champion Aryna Sabalenka stayed at No. 2 in the WTA behind Iga Swiatek, who lost to Pegula in the quarter-finals. I mean, I'm not trying to focus on ranking, to be honest. Not like I'm checking where I'm going to be after the tournament, Sabalenka said Saturday after her 7-5, 7-5 victory over Pegula in the final. I'm just trying to focus on myself, and I know that if (at) each tournament I'll be able to play my best tennis ... I'll be able to become world No. 1 again. So, my focus is on myself, on improving myself as a player and as a person. Hopefully, one day, I'll see myself (back) on the top of t

US Open 2024 men's singles final, live telecast and streaming

Taylor Fritz will be looking to create history as he is the first American man to play in a Grand Slam final in over 15 years. Sinner will be aiming to add a US Open title to his collection.

US Open: Aryna Sabalenka beats Jessica Pegula to win 3rd Grand Slam title

Aryna Sabalenka left the U.S. Open in tears 12 months ago as the runner-up. She exited in the semifinals each of the two years before that, other losses that were difficult to digest. On Saturday, Sabalenka was in a joking mood after winning her first championship at Flushing Meadows and the third Grand Slam title of her career. Sabalenka, the No. 2 seed, got past No. 6 Jessica Pegula 7-5, 7-5 in a rollicking final under a closed retractable roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium, displaying her typical power while sprinkling in some variation to add this triumph to those at the Australian Open each of the past two seasons. I had a lot of tough lessons here ... especially last year, Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus, said after grabbing the last two games of the first set and the last four of the match. In those tough moments (Saturday), I was just trying to stay strong and trying to remind myself that I have been through a lot and I'm strong enough to hold under this pressure. Sitting n

US Open women's singles champions over the years; see full list of winners

Playing in her second consecutive final, Sabalenka won the tie against USA's Pegula in straight sets (7-5, 7-5)

US Open 2024: Jessica Pegula sets final date with Aryna Sabalenka in final

Jessica Pegula shrugged off a sluggish start and came back from a set and a break down at the U.S. Open to defeat Karolina Muchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 for a berth in her first Grand Slam final. The No. 6-seeded Pegula, a 30-year-old from New York, has won 15 of her past 16 matches and will meet No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka for the title on Saturday. Sabalenka, last year's runner-up to Coco Gauff at Flushing Meadows, returned to the championship match by holding off a late push to beat No. 13 Emma Navarro of the U.S. 6-3, 7-6 (2). Things did not look promising for Pegula early: Muchova, the 2023 French Open runner-up but unseeded after missing about 10 months because of wrist surgery, employed every ounce of her versatility and creativity, the traits that make her so hard to deal with on any surface. The slices. The touch at the net. The serve-and-volleying. Ten of the match's first 12 winners came off her racket. The first set lasted 28 minutes, and Muchova won 30 of its 44 points. Muchova gra

Jessica Pegula upsets No. 1 Iga Swiatek to reach first Grand Slam semifinal

The questions wouldn't stop for Jessica Pegula: Why was she 0-6 in Grand Slam quarterfinals heading into her U.S. Open matchup against No. 1 Iga Swiatek? What could Pegula do to change that? Came up during her on-court interview after winning in the previous round. And again at the news conference that followed. And again during a brief TV interview right before striding onto the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday night. If that all weighed on Pegula, the 30-year-old American hid it well, pulling off a big upset by easily beating Swiatek 6-2, 6-4 at Flushing Meadows and earning a debut trip to the semifinals at a major. There have been so many freaking times, and I just kept losing, said Pegula, who has won 14 of her past 15 matches, all on hard courts. "I know everyone keeps asking me about it, but I was like, I don't know what else to do. I just need to get there again and, like, win the match.' So thank God I was able to do it. And finally finally! I can say, ...

US Open 2024: Tiafoe, Fritz, Pegula and Navarro advance to semifinals

To hear Frances Tiafoe tell it, Taylor Fritz predicted this sort of moment for the two of them. And for American men's tennis. It was during an early morning plane ride together a few years ago that the conversation turned to the future and possibilities, Tiafoe recounted after setting up a U.S. Open semifinal on Friday against Fritz, another 26-year-old American, that guarantees the United States will have a man in a Grand Slam title match for the first time since Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2009. He's a pretty to-himself kind of dude, and he's, like, Bro, I think me and you are going to be the 1-2 Americans and leading the way.' ... I was, like, 'Dang, dude, (it's) 6 a.m., I'm pretty tired, but let's do it.' Why not? He's kind of had that mindset, and he's pushed me a lot, you know what I mean? Tiafoe, who is from Maryland, said about the chat with longtime pal Fritz, a Californian. Times I'm playing really bad, or whatever the case may be, and he's doing i

US Open 2024: Jessica Pegula pulls another upset, beats Iga Swiatek in Q/F

The questions wouldn't stop for Jessica Pegula: Why was she 0-6 in Grand Slam quarterfinals heading into her U.S. Open matchup against No. 1 Iga Swiatek? What could Pegula do to change that? Came up during her on-court interview after winning in the previous round. And again at the news conference that followed. And again during a brief TV interview right before striding onto the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday night. If that all weighed on Pegula, the 30-year-old American hid it well, pulling off a big upset by easily beating Swiatek 6-2, 6-4 at Flushing Meadows and earning a debut trip to the semifinals at a major. There have been so many freaking times, and I just kept losing, said Pegula, who has won 14 of her past 15 matches, all on hard courts. "I know everyone keeps asking me about it, but I was like, 'I don't know what else to do. I just need to get there again and, like, win the match.' So thank God I was able to do it. And finally finally! I can say, ...

US Open 2024: World number 1 Jannik Sinner beats Daniil Medvedev in Q/F

Top-ranked Jannik Sinner reached the U.S. Open semifinals for the first time by getting past 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Wednesday night. Sinner, who took over as the title favorite after Week 1 exits by Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, is the only man remaining in the field with a Grand Slam trophy. He won his first at the Australian Open in January by beating Medvedev in the final in five sets after dropping the first two. As reflected by the accurate-as-can-be score, this matchup was unusually topsy-turvy as they took turns dominating a set at a time. First, it was Sinner who was superior. Then that role was played Medvedev. Then Sinner regained the upper hand in the third. In the fourth, from 3-all, Sinner surged, saving a pair of break points, then breaking Medvedev to lead 5-3. Sinner a 23-year-old from Italy who was cleared in a doping case less than a week before the U.S. Open started after testing positive twice for trace amounts of an anabolic ..

US Open: Mixed-doubles pair of Bopanna and Sutjiadi enters semifinals

Veteran Indian tennis star Rohan Bopanna and his Indonesian partner Aldila Sutjiadi entered the semifinals of the US Open mixed doubles with a hard-fought win over Australian Matthew Ebden and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic here. The eighth seeded Indian-Indonesian pair registered a 7-6(4) 2-6 10-7 win over fourth seeds Ebden and Krejcikova in the quarterfinal that lasted one hour and 33 minutes on Monday night. Bopanna and Sutjiadi had earlier defeated Australian duo of John Pears and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 0-6 7-6(5) 10-7 in a second-round match. Bopanna and Sutjiadi will play American pair of Donald Young and Taylor Townsend in the semifinals. The 44-year-old Bopanna had already crashed out of the men's doubles competition after he and his partner Ebden, seeded second, lost 1-6 5-7 to the 16th seed Argentine combination of Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni in the third round.

US Open: World No 1 Iga Swiatek to face Jessica Pegula in quarterfinals

Jessica Pegula is back in the quarterfinals at the US Open after a 6-4 6-2 victory over Diana Shnaider, her seventh trip to that round at a Grand Slam tournament. Now comes the hard part: Pegula is 0-6 in major quarterfinals over her career and this next one will come against No 1 Iga Swiatek. The No. 6-seeded Pegula, an American whose parents own the NFL's Buffalo Bills and NHL's Buffalo Sabres, is on quite a run at the moment, having won 13 of her past 14 matches, all on hard courts. That included her second consecutive title in Canada and an appearance in the final at the Cincinnati Open, where she lost to No 2 Aryna Sabalenka. "I feel like there's been more pressure this year, because I did so well coming into this tournament," said the 30-year-old Pegula, the oldest woman left in the field on Monday. "I want to keep working my way and hopefully bringing my best tennis for the later rounds this time." Swiatek was tied at 4-all with No 16 Liudmila Samsonova on Monday night bef

US Open: Top-seed Jannik Sinner to face Daniil Medvedev in quarterfinals

Top-seeded Jannik Sinner reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals by shaking off a slow start and coming through in the clutch at the end of tiebreakers that decided the first two sets, then pulling away to get past No. 14 Tommy Paul 7-6(3) 7-6(5) 6-1. Two weeks removed from being cleared in a doping case stemming from two positive tests in March, Sinner moved into a showdown against 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev, the only past winner at Flushing Meadows still in the men's field. Sinner, a 23-year-old from Italy, claimed his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January by defeating Medvedev in five sets in the final after dropping the first two. They also met in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in July, and Medvedev won that one. "It's going to be a lot of running," Sinner said, "so hopefully (I'll) be ready physically." Against Paul on Monday night, Sinner was not at his best at the outset, falling behind by a double-break at 4-1 after 20 minutes at Arthur Ashe Stadium. "That's

Tennis star Rafael Nadal believes Jannik Sinner's doping was unintentional

Rafael Nadal told a Spanish television show that he doesn't think Jannik Sinner intended to use a banned substance and that the current No 1-ranked man didn't receive preferential treatment when he was cleared of doping after testing positive twice in March for trace amounts of an anabolic steroid. "I trust that he wasn't punished because those who judged this case determined quite clearly that there was nothing to punish. ... I don't believe the sentence has anything to do with him being No 1 in the world," 22-time major champion Nadal said in an interview with "El Hormiguero" on Monday. Sinner played Tommy Paul in the fourth round of the US Open on Monday night. The International Tennis Integrity Agency said on August 20 that it was determined the banned performance-enhancer entered Sinner's system unintentionally through a massage from his physiotherapist, and that is why the player was not suspended. Asked about the matter in New York before the US Open began, Novak Djokovic sa

US Open 2024: Men's doubles champions from last three editions eliminated

Three-time defending US Open men's doubles champions Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury were eliminated in the third round by the 13th-seeded American duo of Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow 7-6(3) 6-3. Ram, who is from the US, and Salisbury, who is from Britain, had won 20 consecutive matches together at Flushing Meadows. They were seeded third this year. A year ago, they became the first men to win three US Open doubles titles in a row since Americans Tom Bundy and Maurice McLoughlin from 1912-14. In the quarterfinals, Lammons and Withrow will face the 11th-seeded pair of Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic. Koolhof and Mektic were the last team to defeat Ram and Salisbury in New York, doing so in the semifinals in 2020.

US Open 2024: France's Tiafoe beats Alexei Popyrin to enter quarterfinals

Frances Tiafoe returned to the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the third straight year, beating Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3. The No. 20 seed will attempt to match the best Grand Slam result of his career when he faces No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday for a berth in the semifinals. Tiafoe lost to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in that round in 2022, and was eliminated last year in the quarterfinals by Ben Shelton. Tiafoe is the first American man to reach three consecutive U.S. Open quarterfinals since Andy Roddick from 2006-08. He turned the match late in the second set, when Popyrin was serving with a 5-3 lead and was a point away from evening it at one set apiece. Tiafoe won the next five points to break, and quickly took control of the tiebreaker by jumping to a 4-1 lead. Popyrin, the No. 28 seed from Australia, upset defending champion Novak Djokovic on Friday to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time.

US Open 2024: Chair umpire gives a wrong call after video replay confusion

The U.S. Tennis Association acknowledged that the wrong call was made on an illegal shot during a third-round U.S. Open match between Anna Kalinskaya and Beatriz Haddad Maia a night earlier because the chair umpire was not shown the relevant replay by the video review official. After the review was complete, an additional angle was seen on the broadcast, USTA spokesman Brendan McIntyre said. The chair did not see this footage prior to making the call." McIntyre said the tournament referee's office has reinforced to the people who send replays to officials during a match that all applicable angles should be passed along. The point in question happened 11 minutes into the match Saturday night at Louis Armstrong Stadium, with the 15th-seeded Kalinskaya leading 2-0, and the 22nd-seeded Haddad Maia serving at deuce. Kalinskaya, a Russian, hit a drop shot that Haddad Maia, a Brazilian, ran forward to try to reach. She hit the ball just at about the same time as it was landing on the cour

US Open 2024: Bhambri, Bopanna enter pre-quarters with respective partners

India's Yuki Bhambri and Albano Olivetti advanced to the men's doubles third round of the US Open with a hard-fought win over 15th seeds Austin Krajicek and Jean-Julien Roger here. The Indo-French pair defeated the USA-Dutch team 4-6 6-3 7-5 in the second round that lasted two hours and five minutes on Friday. This is only the second time that Bhambri has reached the third round at a Grand Slam, having reached the same stage at the Australian Open back in 2014. Second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden also moved to third round with a 6-2 6-4 win over Spain's Roberto Carballes Baena and Federico Coria from Argentina. Bopanna also won in the mixed doubles with Indonesian partner Aldila Sutjiadi. Seeded eighth, they won 7-6 (7) 7-6 (5) against Germany's Tim Puetz and Dutch player Demi Schuurs in the opening round. However, another Indian in the fray, N Sriram Balaji and his Argentine partner Guido Andreozzi exited the US Open after losing to Michael Venus of New Zealand and Neal