Category: Tennis

• Gaudff wins 6-4, 6-2 but loses in doubles

• Sabalenka into Brisbane final; Alcaraz beats Sinner in exhibition

A statement victory for Coco Gauff over her great rival Iga Swiatek proved to be insufficient to the American’s hopes of leading her team into the final of the United Cup. Poland showed their depth in an excellent team performance to close out a 2-1 win over the United States at the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney.

Poland, who finished runners-up to the US last year, exacted their revenge courtesy of the doubles specialists Jan Zielinski and Katarzyna Kawa, who maintained their unbeaten run in the competition by defeating Christian Harrison and Gauff 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in the decisive third rubber. Poland face Switzerland in the final on Sunday after the Swiss defeated Belgium 2-1.

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After a breakout week in Auckland that saw her defeat world No 15 Emma Navarro, injuries that have dogged the 25-year-old’s career have bitten again

During the first weeks of last year’s clay-court season, Francesca Jones found herself fighting through a breathless three-set tussle in Bogotá that was rapidly falling out of her control. Trailing 5-3 in the final set of her second-round match, an exhausted Jones began her service motion. As she tried to leap into the air and strike the ball, however, she staggered forwards and collapsed to the ground. Two points from defeat, she was steered off the court in a wheelchair.

This was an extreme experience for Jones, but it was also painfully reflective of her career until that point. Her biggest adversary has so often been her own body. In 2024 alone, she contested 20 tournaments – seven of which ended in a mid-match retirement and she also withdrew mid-tournament from another event. In 40% of the events she took part in that year, her body simply did not allow her to play tennis.

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Tennis Kenya said a controversial wildcard granted to Hajar Abdelkader should not have happened after the young Egyptian’s performance at a professional tournament in Nairobi went viral. The 21-year-old won three points and served 20 double faults on her way to a 6-0, 6-0 defeat against the German world No 1,026, Lorena Schaedel. Videos shared on social media showed the Egyptian struggling to serve and position herself on the court.

• Tennis Kenya admits to wildcard error after player’s heavy defeat goes viral

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• Home team eliminated after losing mixed doubles rubber

• Alex de Minaur had kept hopes alive with battling win

Australia have been knocked out of the United Cup by Poland despite a battling performance by Alex de Minaur that lit up the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney.

The Australian men’s No 1 repelled everything Hubert Hurkacz could fire at him before sealing a pulsating 6-4 4-6 6-3 victory over the power-serving former Wimbledon semi-finalist on Friday night.

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• Special Ks lose topsy-turvy match 6-0 1-6 (10-6)

• Performance bodes well for Kyrgios’s wild card hopes

Nick Kyrgios was a motivational speaker, a part-time masseur and a dancer on the way to an entertaining doubles loss in Brisbane, with the defeat unlikely to harm his Australian Open wildcard hopes.

Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis looked set for an embarrassing Brisbane International loss after copping a first-set “bagel” in their round-of-16 doubles match against No 6 seeds Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul.

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Duo begin 2026 again troubled by physical problems and hoping this will finally be the year things change

From the moment news of Great Britain’s planned team for the United Cup was announced in October, jokes began to fly. On paper, it was a dream. Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu, the top tennis players in the country and figureheads of a new generation, finally united on the same side of the court.

However, recent history has shown that things are never straightforward with Britain’s two greatest hopes. Both players have had to navigate injuries and physical problems in their young careers, so to some fans and onlookers the real question was which player would withdraw first. Draper won that race, but on the first day of the 2026 season neither player was physically prepared to take to the court.

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• Djokovic says values no longer align with PTPA

• Players’ group sued tours and grand slams in March

• Serb was not named as plaintiff in lawsuit

Novak Djokovic is cutting ties with the Professional Tennis Players Association, a group he co-founded that sued the sport’s governing bodies last year, writing on social media on Sunday that “my values and approach are no longer aligned with the current direction of the organization”.

The 24-time grand slam champion announced at the 2020 US Open that he and the now-retired Canadian player Vasek Pospisil were launching the PTPA. They said they were aiming to offer representation for players who are independent contractors in a largely individual sport.

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• ‘Special Ks’ reunite for 5-7 6-4 10-8 defeat of Matt Ebden and Rajeev Ram

• Kokkinakis had donor achilles tendon attached to shoulder in radical surgery

Thanasi Kokkinakis’s tears after a doubles match told the story as the injury-plagued Australian won in his latest and most dramatic return to the sport alongside old friend Nick Kyrgios.

The 29-year-old hadn’t played in almost a year, after groundbreaking pectoral surgery that involved attaching a donor’s achilles tendon to his shoulder.

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• Williams to return to Melbourne Park at age 45

• Seven-time major champion earns wild-card entry

• Set to become oldest woman in Open main draw

Seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Venus Williams has received a wild-card entry for the Australian Open beginning 18 January in Melbourne.

The tournament said Friday that the 45-year-old Williams would make a return to Melbourne Park 28 years after her first appearance. In 1998, she defeated her younger sister Serena in the second round before losing in the quarter-finals to fellow American Lindsay Davenport.

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Nick Kyrgios won 6-3, 6-3 against Aryna Sabalenka in an intriguing Dubai contest with celebrity interruptions

Nick Kyrgios won tennis’s latest Battle of the Sexes against Aryna Sabalenka in a dispiriting contest in Dubai that veered uneasily between exhibition, gimmick and outright circus.

The Australian, who has won only one competitive singles match since the end of 2022 and has slipped to 671 in the world rankings, was sweating heavily and breathing hard as early as the fifth game of the match. Yet to no one’s great surprise, the extreme power of his serve, combined with the spin and velocity of his groundstrokes, proved too much for the women’s No 1 player.

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World No 1’s clash with Nick Kyrgios is on track to being one of the most inane tennis events ever conceived

2025 was the year of Aryna Sabalenka for so many reasons. She reached three of the four grand slam finals, winning her fourth major title at the US Open and further positioning herself as a generational great. From her humble origins as a volatile, one-note ball-basher, the 27-year-old has admirably evolved into an increasingly complete player. Sabalenka is the best player in the world for a second year in succession.

The fleeting tennis off-season is usually an opportunity for players and spectators alike to reflect on such great feats before the new season is upon them. This year, however, the December discourse has been derailed by the fast-approaching train wreck Sabalenka stands at the heart of.

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• Draper forced to withdraw from US Open with arm injury

• British No 1: ‘It’s a really, really tough decision’

Jack Draper has announced he will miss next month’s Australian Open after admitting he is not quite ready for a return to top-level competition. The British No 1 has played just one match since Wimbledon, with bone bruising in his left arm curtailing his 2025 season, and he is set to be on the sidelines for a little while longer.

Draper, ranked 10th in the world, said in a video on X on Boxing Day: “Unfortunately, me and my team have decided not to head out to Australia this year. It’s a really, really tough decision, obviously [with] Australia being a grand slam, it’s one of the biggest tournaments in our sport.

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Jannik Sinner dominated for three hours and 43 minutes, but the Spaniard somehow prevailed in an adrenaline-filled fifth set and all-time classic

It was not until what appeared to be the dying moments of the French Open final between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz that I realised it could be worth taking a photo of such a monumental occasion. This was, after all, the first grand slam final between the two players who seemed set to lead men’s tennis for many years to come.

For three hours and 43 minutes Sinner had dominated Alcaraz and he earned three championship points while leading 5-3 in set four. Just before the Italian’s second championship point, I thrust up my phone and took a quick photo before my hand returned to my laptop, ready to file immediately an article that hailed his third consecutive major title and first triumph in Paris.

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