Category: Tennis

• Former US Open champion has lost four matches in a row
• 22-year-old opts to bypass qualifying for tournament

Emma Raducanu will continue to try to arrest her losing run against the best players in the world after taking another wildcard into the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

The former US Open champion is enduring the worst sequence of her career having lost four successive matches. Raducanu failed to capitalise on wildcard entries into tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Doha over the last two weeks, losing in the first round both times, to Marketa Vondrousova and Ekaterina Alexandrova.

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• Errani and Vavassori criticize ‘pseudo-exhibition’
• Poland’s Zielinski says USTA didn’t consult players

The US Open’s revamped mixed doubles format is a “profound injustice” that disrespects the players, reigning champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori have said.

On Tuesday, the year’s last grand slam announced that the mixed doubles competition, which will offer a $1m winners’ prize, is scheduled for 19-20 August – the week before the singles main draw.

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• Event will start before singles tournament in 2025
• Similar exhibition event worked well last year

The US Open is moving its mixed doubles tournament to the week before singles play begins, hoping a revamped format and $1m prize will persuade top players to chase a grand slam title.

This year’s event will feature 16 teams competing over two days in shorter matches. Tournament organizers believe that can attract the sport’s biggest stars, many of whom have passed on doubles to keep themselves fresh for singles.

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• British No 2 beaten by Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 7-5
• Player never lost more than three matches in a row before

Emma Raducanu’s struggles continued as she suffered a fourth straight loss for the first time in her career.

Raducanu began her season with victory over Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova in the first round of the Australian Open but could not repeat the feat at the Qatar Open in Doha. A 6-3, 7-5 loss to Alexandrova followed first-round defeats by Marketa Vondrousova in Abu Dhabi and Cristina Bucsa in Singapore as well as a third-round defeat by Iga Swiatek in Melbourne.

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• Former world No 1 makes announcement to home fans
• ‘I’ve always been realistic with myself and with my body’

The former world No 1 Simona Halep has announced her retirement after enduring a resounding defeat in her first match of 2025.

Halep belatedly got her season under way in her home event, the Transylvania Open, in Romania on Tuesday, after being handed a wildcard. But the two-time grand slam title winner secured just two games as Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti powered to a 6-1, 6-1 victory in just 59 minutes.

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• Third loss in a row for British No 2 after 6-3, 6-4 defeat
• Raducanu still seeking a new coach after Cavaday’s exit

Emma Raducanu suffered a third straight defeat in the opening round of the Abu Dhabi Open. The 22-year-old was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by the former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova to add to her losses to Iga Swiatek in the third round of the Australian Open and to Cristina Bucsa in Singapore last week.

Originally given a wild card into qualifying, the British No 2 was bumped up to the main draw and handed a tricky opener against Czech Vondrousova, who has struggled with injury since last summer.

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• Australia defeat Sweden 3-1 to seal home tie in next round
• Peers-Ebden beat Bergevi-Goransson 6-7 (7-9), 6-3, 6-2

Olympic champions John Peers and Matt Ebden have reunited to seal an emphatic Davis Cup triumph in Sweden and celebrate their Australian team earning a rare tie back on home soil.

With Lleyton Hewitt’s outfit 2-0 overnight in the first-round qualifying tie after the first-day singles in Stockholm, the golden veterans teamed up on Saturday for the first time since their Paris triumph to win the tie-clinching doubles rubber.

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• Jacob Fearnley and Billy Harris lose final-day singles
• Japan’s 3-2 win means GB face September playoff tie

Great Britain face a relegation playoff in the Davis Cup after a makeshift team were beaten 3-2 by Japan.

Debutant Jacob Fearnley’s impressive singles win on Friday had given Leon Smith’s side hope of victory despite being without grand slam semi-finalists Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie.

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• World No 8 defeates Mikael Ymer 7-5, 6-1 in qualifier
• Aleksandar Vukic beat Leo Borg 6-4, 6-4 for 2-0 lead

Trusty Davis Cup old hand Alex de Minaur and late-blooming new boy Aleksandar Vukic have put Australia well on the road to victory in their first-round qualifying tie against Sweden in Stockholm.

World No 8 de Minaur, in his first outing since his Australian Open quarter-final drubbing by Jannik Sinner, had to subdue comeback man Mikael Ymer before running away to a 7-5, 6-1 victory on Friday (Saturday AEDT).

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• Kyrgios withdraws from Sweden tie due to more injury concerns
• Jordan Thompson and Thanasi Kokkinakis also ruled out

Captain Lleyton Hewitt has not given up on a potential return to Davis Cup action for Nick Kyrgios despite the former Wimbledon finalist having predictably pulled out of Australia’s first-round qualifying tie with Sweden because of more injury concerns.

In the meantime, Hewitt is happy to rely on Alex de Minaur, a hungry newcomer Aleksandar Vukic and the veteran Olympic champion doubles pairing of Matt Ebden and John Peers to steer his side to victory in Stockholm.

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• Spain’s Cristina Bucsa beats Raducanu 5-7, 7-5, 7-5
• Briton’s first match since split with coach Nick Cavaday

Emma Raducanu came up short in a three-hour marathon to crash out in the first round of the Singapore Open. The British No 2 lost 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 to Spain’s Cristina Bucsa in a match featuring 17 breaks of serve.

Raducanu, the world No 56, was playing in her first match since splitting with coach Nick Cavaday, who stepped down last week because of health issues. Instead, the 22-year-old had her mother Renee for company in the stands, as well as new fitness trainer Yutaka Nakamura. But Raducanu still flagged as the finish line approached at the end of a brutal encounter.

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Jannik Sinner beat Alexander Zverev with plenty to spare, winning the Australian Open for the second year in a row

Sinner is 94% on hard courts since winning in Australia in 2024, beating Zverev in their only meeting this year. Alcaraz gives him grief because of how quickly he plays, but he moves so well and hits so consistently, even a unique genius must play lights out to put one over on him.

So how will our match today go? Sinner is favourite partly because he knows he can do it, 2-0 in finals relative to Zverev’s 0-2. But he also hits more consistently and, tough both shots have improved, Zverev can struggle on forehand and volley with Sinner good enough to target both. I expect the champ to sit on the baseline, plant feet if he can, and look to keep Zverev moving and guessing; Zverev will, I think, hope to draw him in, in order to hit passes.

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The American tennis player Madison Keys said that 'lots of therapy' helped her secure her Australian Open title, after she beat the world No 1, Aryna Sabalenka, in the final on Saturday. 'Actually getting help, talking to someone, not just about tennis but how I felt about myself,' she added. 'If I hadn't done that, I don't think I would be sitting here.'

At 29, Keys is the oldest first-time women's Australian Open champion in the Open era. 'I’m just really proud of myself,' Keys told a reporter. 'I didn’t always believe that I could get back to this point.'

• Madison Keys stuns Aryna Sabalenka to win thrilling Australian Open final

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