Page 28 - Tennis

French Open: Muchova, Sabalenka in first ever semifinals at Roland Garros

Aryna Sabalenka and Karolina Muchova are in the French Open semifinals for the first time. The second-seeded Sabalenka overpowered Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday to set up a semifinal against the unseeded Muchova. The Czech beat 2021 runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 7-5, 6-2. Muchova and Sabalenka had never progressed beyond the third round in Paris. Svitolina was booed by some sections of the crowd because she snubbed the Australian Open champion after the final point, instead of shaking her hand at the net. Sabalenka is from Belarus, and Svitolina playing in her first major since becoming a mother is from Ukraine. Belarus aided Russia in its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the war continues. Like other players from Ukraine, including Sabalenka's first-round opponent last week, Svitolina has not been shaking hands with players from Belarus or Russia after matches. Sabalenka's all-risk tennis paid dividends despite 37 unforced errors. Her aggressive ..

French Open 2023: From Medvedev's 'wild' exit to Varillas historic feat

Daniil Medvedev won his first title on clay just before the start of the French Open 2023 and was rated as one of the challengers to Novak Djokovic for the title, but was ousted in the 1st round

French Open: Dominant Djokovic moves into last 8, will face Khachanov next

Two-time champion Novak Djokovic romped to another comprehensive victory at the French Open, reaching the last-eight stage for a record 17th time by beating Juan Pablo Varillas

Djokovic breaks tie with Nadal by reaching 17th French Open quarterfinals

Novak Djokovic broke a tie with rival Rafael Nadal by reaching the French Open quarterfinals for the record 17th time, never truly in trouble during a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Juan Pablo Varillas on Sunday. Djokovic is closing on bettering Nadal in a more prestigious category: Grand Slam singles championships. Both currently sit at 22. For Djokovic, that total includes two at Roland Garros, in 2016 and 2021, and he can become the first man to own at least three trophies from each major tournament. Nadal is a 14-time champion in Paris but is missing this time because of a hip injury; he had arthroscopic surgery Friday night. Against the 94th-ranked Varillas, who had never won a Slam match until this event and then took three in a row in five sets, Djokovic was, not surprisingly, at his dominant best at Court Philippe Chatrier on a warm, sunny day. The 36-year-old from Serbia finished with more than twice as many winners, 35-15, and fewer unforced errors. He went 15 for 17 on trips

French Open: Doubles player disqualified for accidentally hitting ball girl

French Open doubles player Miyu Kato and her partner were forced to forfeit a match when Kato accidentally hit a ball girl in the neck with a ball after a point on Sunday. In the second set on Court 14 at Roland Garros, Kato took a swing with her racket and the ball flew toward the ball kid, who was not looking in the player's direction while heading off the court. At first, chair umpire Alexandre Juge only issued a warning to Kato. But after tournament referee Remy Azemar and Grand Slam supervisor Wayne McEwen went to Court 14 to look into what happened, Kato and her partner, Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia, were disqualified. That made Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain the winners of the match. It's just a bad situation for everyone, Bouzkova said. But it's kind of something that, I guess, is taken by the rules, as it is, even though it's very unfortunate for them. ... At the end of the day, it was the referee's decision. Bouzkova said she did no

French Open 2023: Coco Gauff rallies to beat Andreeva in all-teen showdown

American Coco Gauff rallied from a tough opening set to beat Mirra Andreeva of Russia in an all-teen showdown in the third round of the French Open on Saturday. Experience eventually told as the 19-year-old Gauff, who was the runner-up at Roland Garros last year, prevailed 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-1, sealing the result with a cross-court backhand winner. That ended an impressive Grand Slam debut for the 16-year-old Andreeva, who earlier this week became the the youngest player to win a match in the women's main draw at the French Open since 2005. Last year's men's finalist Casper Ruud also had to recover from losing the opening set to beat Zhang Zhizhen, ending a strong run by the Chinese player. The fourth-seeded Ruud, who lost to Rafael Nadal in last year's final, won 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4. I'm very happy with being through the first three matches. It's tough, Ruud said. "It's been much more pressure, obviously, playing this year compared to last year. "Last year, I could sort of just do my

French Open: Reigning Wimbledon champ Rybakina pulls out due to sickness

Reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina pulled out of the French Open before her third-round match on Saturday because she is sick. The No. 4-seeded Rybakina was supposed to face 132nd-ranked Sara Sorribes Tormo in the day's opening contest on Court Philippe Chatrier. Rybakina was considered among the top contenders for the title at Roland Garros. She has won her past 10 matches, including a tuneup title on red clay at the Italian Open last month.

Nadal has arthroscopic surgery for injury that took him out of French Open

Rafael Nadal had arthroscopic surgery on Friday night for the injured left hip flexor that forced him to sit out the French Open for the first time since he won the first of his record 14 titles there in his 2005 tournament debut. Nadal's spokesman, Benito Perez-Barbadillo, said three doctors were involved in the procedure, which was taking place in Barcelona. Perez-Barbadillo said he expected to be able to pass along information about the operation on Saturday, which is Nadal's 37th birthday. The Spaniard hasn't competed anywhere since he lost to Mackenzie McDonald in the second round of the Australian Open on Jan. 18. Nadal's movement clearly was restricted for much of that match and he ended up with his earliest exit at any Grand Slam tournament since 2016. An MRI exam the next day revealed the extent of the injury, and Perez-Barbadillo said at the time that Nadal was expected to need up to two months to fully recover. He initially aimed to enter the Monte Carlo Masters in March

French Open: Novak Djokovic laments fans who boo him after lengthy win

Novak Djokovic makes no secret of the way he loves to feed off negativity during a tennis match. Doesn't really matter whether he's ahead or behind on the scoreboard. The guy simply finds motivation and inspiration from all manner of slights, real and perceived. Maybe it's how a chair umpire is officiating that particular day ... or the way Djokovic's entourage is sitting in place in the stands instead of rising to encourage him ... or the criticism he receives for wading into a political issue all of which already have happened during this French Open. Or maybe it's how he's treated by the spectators who, as they did on Friday during Djokovic's 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory over 29th-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the third round at Roland Garros, get on his case and jeer him for seemingly no good reason at all. Which is what happened at Court Philippe Chatrier during the longest three-set Grand Slam match of the 22-time major champion Djokovic's long and distinguished ...

Preparation for Paris Olympics will start with UTT season 4: Sharath Kamal

Ace Indian table tennis player Achanta Sharath Kamal says preparations for next year's Paris Olympics will begin with the Ultimate Table Tennis' fourth season, which will be played in Pune from July 13-30. Sharath said preparations for the Hangzhou Asian Games, to be held from September 23 to October 8, are in the final stages but the main focus will be on the bigger prize at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Asian Games is the immediate target but the main goal for Team India is the Paris Olympics. When UTT starts, the countdown would be down to 12 months, for me personally that's when the preparation starts, Sharath told reporters here on the sidelines of the player draft for UTT season 4 on Friday. As for the Asian Games, we are already into the final leg, the preparation is done with. We just have to get into the best physical and mental shape. As on the preparation front, UTT will help us start the preparation for the Olympic Games, he added. He said the strong performance by the India

French Open 2023: First time since 2004, Nadal won't play at Roland Garros

The King of Clay has also hinted that if he is able to get fit for the next Roland Garros in 2024, it would be his last

Alcaraz wins Italian Open debut to regain No. 1 and secure Roland Garros

Carlos Alcaraz will reclaim the No. 1 ranking after beating Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4, 6-1 in his Italian Open debut. Alcaraz will pass Novak Djokovic for the top spot when the rankings are next published on May 22 ensuring he will get the No. 1 seeding at the French Open, which starts on May 28. Alcaraz double-faulted to hand Ramos-Vinolas a break of his serve in the opening game of the match but quickly recovered and used his well-disguised drop shot to set up the key break at the end of the first set. Alcaraz produced nearly three times as many winners as Ramos-Vinolas, 28-11, despite slow conditions on a rainy day at the Foro Italico. Coming off titles in Barcelona and Madrid, Alcaraz extended his winning streak to 12 matches and improved to 20-1 on clay this year. In other second-round matches, sixth-seeded Andrey Rublev beat Alex Molcan 6-3, 6-4; 2021 semifinalist Lorenzo Sonego defeated Yoshihito Nishioka 7-5, 6-3; J.J. Wolf eliminated 14th-seeded Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 6-4; a

Wimbledon allows Russian, Belarusian players to compete under neutral flags

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Wimbledon barred players from Russia and Belarus last year. In 2022, Wimbledon's ranking points were taken away due to the ban

Sania Mirza to play farewell exhibition tennis match in Hyderabad

Sania Mirza's farewell will occur on March 5 at Hyderabad's Lal Bahadur Stadium. Sania Mirza will participate in a handful of exhibition matches as part of the tournament

Carlos Alcaraz, Cameron Norrie withdraw from Acapulco ATP 500 due to injury

World no 2 Carlos Alcaraz withdrew from the ATP 500 tournament in Acapulco with a right hamstring strain while Cameron Norrie pulled out due to fatigue, the tournament organisers said

KSLTA cancels Bjorn Borg's felicitation ceremony without citing reason

The Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association, which had organised a ceremony to felicitate tennis legend Bjorn Borg on Tuesday, cancelled the event without citing any reason. A KSLTA official claimed that the ace tennis player was busy watching his son Leo Borg's match with Taiwanese player Hsu Yu Hsiou and hence it was 'put on hold'. However, some reports claimed that Borg, who won 11 Grand Slam titles in his career, was upset with the delay in arrival of Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai at the venue. Bommai was supposed to attend the event at 10.30 am, according to the schedule. The Chief Minister's Office (CMO) had said in the daily schedule of the programme that Bommai will only interact with Borg and another legendary tennis player from India Vijay Amritraj. Bommai was late by about an hour. The KSLTA official whom PTI spoke to said, "Borg was not unhappy. He was enjoying his son's match. We did plan his felicitation but he was busy watching the match." An official fr

Tennis player Borg declines 'honour' as CM Bommai arrives late by 2 hrs

Borg was to be honoured on February 21 by Basavaraj Bommai, the chief minister of Karnataka state in Bengaluru

I still have lots of motivation: Novak Djokovic at Australian Open

Novak Djokovic clearly is not done dominating his sport. He says so. His coach says so. And, most importantly, his performances throughout a draining run to a record-extending 10th Australian Open championship and record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title, plus his return Monday to No. 1 in the ATP rankings, say so. His message Sunday night, essentially, was: Look out. I still have lots of motivation. Let's see how far it takes me. I really don't want to stop here. I don't have intention to stop here, the 35-year-old Djokovic said after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas, a man more than a decade his junior, by a 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) score in the final at Melbourne Park. I feel great about my tennis. I know that when I'm feeling good physically, (and) mentally present, I have a chance to win any Slam against anybody. Hard to argue. Not only has no man won more major trophies ( Rafael Nadal also has 22; Margaret Court, with 24, and Serena Williams, with 23, are the only players in history with

Title eludes Sania in last Grand Slam; loses to Brazil in mixed doubles

Sania Mirza will end her career with six Grand Slam titles after failing to win the Australian Open mixed doubles trophy with compatriot Rohan Bopanna here on Friday. Unseeded Bopanna and Sania lost 6-7(2) 2-6 to Brazilian pair of Luisa Stefani and Rafael Mataos in the final at Rod Laver Arena. Coming into her final Major tournament, Sania had three women's doubles and as many mixed doubles trophies in her cabinet. The 42-year-old Bopanna has one French Open mixed doubles title to his credit.

Tennis Australia bans Russian, Belarusian flags at Australian Open

Tennis Australia has banned Russian, Belarusian flags at the Australian Open after a controversy erupted over the Russian flag seen hanging outside the court