Tennis News
Alex de Minaur has charged into the fourth round of the Madrid Open with a powerful performance as electricity returned to Spain.
The Australian No 1 took less than 90-minutes to defuse the big-serving Canadian Denis Shapovalov with a straight sets 6-3, 7-6 win on Court Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.
Continue reading...Grand slam doubles champion Max Purcell has accepted an 18-month ban for breaching anti-doping rules, with the Australian saying he has developed a nervous tic and anxiety because of the case.
The 27-year-old entered a voluntary provisional suspension in December after admitting to breaching Article 2.2 of the Tennis Anti-Doping Program “relating to the use of a prohibited method”.
Continue reading...While Alex de Minaur looks more comfortable and impressive on the clay with every passing match, the great Novak Djokovic seems to be losing his magical powers on the red stuff.
For while Australia’s No 1 kicked off his Madrid Open quest with a clinical 6-2, 6-3 victory over Italian Lorenzo Sonego on Saturday, all the talk at the Caja Magica surrounded another dismal first-round defeat for Djokovic, whose quest for 100 titles took another savage hit.
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Continue reading...After opposing the war in Ukraine and coming out as gay, the 27-year-old made a ‘tough’ choice to change nationality
Over the past three years, Daria Kasatkina has slowly come to terms with a painful truth: the country she was born in, grew up in and represented to great success in the most prominent women’s sport steadfastly rejects her existence.
Four months after Kasatkina came out as gay in 2022, the Russian government enacted a slew of laws aimed at cracking down on and criminalising homosexuality. Last year, Russia began to convict individuals charged with displaying pro-LGBTQ+ imagery. While travelling the world for her profession, already competing under a neutral flag in the grim shadow of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the 27-year-old spent much of her time ruminating over whether it was time for her to depart.
Continue reading...Australia’s teenage tennis sensation Maya Joint has eclipsed one of Ash Barty’s records by earning her first WTA 1000 match triumph at the Madrid Open.
On her tour-level clay-court main draw debut in the Spanish capital, the 19-year-old Queenslander outlasted local wildcard Carlota Martinez Cirez 6-2 2-6 6-4 for a third win in three days.
Continue reading...Former tennis world No 1 Andre Agassi will make his professional debut in the fast-growing sport of pickelball next week when he teams up with top ranked Anna Leigh Waters for the mixed doubles at the US Open Pickleball Championships.
Invented in 1965 by a group of American friends, pickleball is a fast-paced paddle sport similar to tennis and badminton played on smaller courts using a perforated plastic ball, and interest has skyrocketed in recent years.
Continue reading...Britain’s wheelchair tennis legend shares how the sport helped her accept her disability and her dreams of greater access across the world
“There are thousands of people out there that have a disability. Just because you have one doesn’t mean you have to stop living,” says Lucy Shuker as she calmly reflects on her journey of more than two decades and the message she hopes it conveys. It is fair to say Shuker has embodied those sentiments in full. At 44 years old, she has been an unceasing presence at the highest level of wheelchair tennis, making her one of the most successful British players.
This journey began with life-changing adversity. Aged 21, shortly after graduating from university and passing her driving test, Shuker was involved in a motorcycle crash that left her paralysed from the chest down. She spent 10 months in hospital as she tried to come to terms with the reality that three-quarters of her body no longer worked.
Continue reading...Studies have shown that failing to control feelings has a negative effect on outcomes – but there are exceptions
Two scenes from an extraordinary week. The first: Justin Rose, a gentleman in a bearpit as Augusta hollered loud and long for Rory McIlroy. The second: the British tennis player Harriet Dart, causing a stink by asking for her French opponent to apply deodorant as “she’s smelling really bad” before succumbing to a 6-0, 6-3 thrashing.
Pressure does strange things, of course. But the wildly different reactions of Rose, Dart and indeed McIlroy, whose final round became part white-knuckle ride, part pass‑the‑parcel, raises an intriguing question: when the heat is on, should sport stars let their emotions out or bottle them up to improve their performance?
Continue reading...The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has come under fire after it issued a reminder about anti-doping rules, saying players chosen to give samples must remain in full view of chaperones if they choose to take a shower first.
In a note sent to players via the tours that has found its way on to social media, the ITIA said although it had worked hard to ensure that showers after matches can amount to permissible delays to doping control it was not an “entitlement”. It requested players opting to freshen up first to strictly adhere to the requirement to stay in full view of the chaperone observing them at all times, and that failure to do so would be taken extremely seriously by the ITIA.
Continue reading...Alex de Minaur’s 50th tour-level quarter-final has ended in defeat, the Australian No 1 beaten 7-5 6-3 in 100 minutes by defending champion Carlos Alcaraz at the Barcelona Open.
De Minaur began well, breaking the top seed in the third game before taking a 3-1 lead, and breaking again in the seventh after Alcaraz had broken back. But the Spaniard took four of the last five games to claim the set.
Continue reading...Serena Williams says she would have been hit with a 20-year ban if she had failed drug tests like men’s world No 1 Jannik Sinner, who received a three-month suspension in February.
“I love the guy, love this game,” Williams, the 23-time Grand Slam winner, told Time magazine this week after being named one of its 100 most influential people. “He’s great for the sport. I’ve been put down so much, I don’t want to bring anyone down. Men’s tennis needs him.
Continue reading...French tennis player Lois Boisson has responded to Harriet Dart’s on-court claim that “she smells really bad” with a social media post that pokes fun at the incident.
During a change of ends in Tuesday’s match at the Rouen Open, Dart asked the umpire: “Can you tell her [Boisson] to wear deodorant because she smells really bad?” Her comments were picked up by a courtside microphone and quickly attracted attention and criticism on social media.
Continue reading...Harriet Dart has apologised after requesting her opponent at the Rouen Open put on deodorant because she “smells really bad”.
The British No 4 was beaten 6-0, 6-3 by the French player Lois Boisson in the first round.
Continue reading...The GB squad are into the finals for the second year running – a far cry from the early 2000s nadir
The turn of the millennium marked one of the most significant periods in women’s tennis. An audacious, charismatic generation had stormed the tour, usurping the old leaders and transforming the image of the sport. Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati and Anna Kournikova often generated more attention and higher TV ratings than their male counterparts. Some transcended the sport as global superstars.
At the same time women’s tennis was thriving around the world, it had reached a grim nadir in the UK. For years, not a single woman reached the top 100. They competed almost exclusively on the lower-level ITF circuit, making fleeting cameos on the tour through wildcards at Wimbledon and during the grass season.
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