Category: Tennis

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.

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• 19-year-old is youngest Australian to win a match at WTA 1000 level
• World No 78 beats Carlota Martinez Cirez 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in first round

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.

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• The 54-year-old is a former world No 1 in tennis
• He’ll play mixed doubles as the pickleball US Open

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.

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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.

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• ITIA responds after reminder about anti-doping rules
• Mark Petchey says that the statute is ‘unacceptable’

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.

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• Australian goes down 7-5, 6-3 against the world No 2
• Victory gives the Spaniard a 4-0 record in head-to-heads

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.

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• Serena Williams calls out hypocrisy of Sinner ban
• Williams says ‘I would have gotten 20 years’ if caught
• World No 1 Sinner twice tested positive for clostebol

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.

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• French tennis player suggests Dove ‘collab’ on Instagram
• Dart apologises for telling umpire Boisson ‘smells bad’

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.

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• ‘She smells really bad,’ says British player of Lois Boisson
• Dart spoke to umpire during defeat at Rouen Open

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.

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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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• Spanish second seed wins 3-6, 6-1, 6-0
• Musetti suffers leg injury in final set

Carlos Alcaraz stormed back to a 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory against an ailing Lorenzo Musetti to win the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters in Monaco.

The second-seeded Spaniard claimed his sixth ATP Masters 1000 title and first since Indian Wells in March 2024. It was the 18th career title for the four-time grand slam winner, who turns 22 next month.

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• The Australian reaches last four of Monte Carlo Masters
• He will play either Stefanos Tsitsipas or Lorenzo Musetti

Alex de Minaur has humbled Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov 6-0 6-0 to feast on the first “double bagel” of his professional career while powering into the Monte Carlo Masters semi-final.

The Australian was in merciless mood against the out-of-sorts veteran, taking only 44 minutes to hand the world No 18 one of his most embarrassing defeats on the Monte Carlo Country Club’s main arena, Court Rainier III, on Friday.

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• Spaniard beats British No 1 6-3, 6-7 (6) on clay court
• Serve abandons Draper, who records 10 double faults

Jack Draper crashed out at the last-16 stage of the Monte-Carlo Masters following defeat to Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Fifth seed Draper, who dispatched Marcos Giron in a comfortable 6-1, 6-1 victory on Tuesday, struggled with his serve, accounting for 10 double faults during the 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-4 loss.

“Today I didn’t feel at my best or at my best mentally with my strategy,” Davidovich Fokina said on court after the win, in which he made 57 unforced errors to his opponent’s 46. “It was a rollercoaster with my mind, I didn’t know how to control the emotions and I didn’t respect myself or my team. I am so sorry with how I did today and I am happy with the win and I will be ready for tomorrow.

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• Kim Birrell and Maya Joint lose singles in straight sets in Brisbane
• Storm Hunter and Ellen Perez win doubles in BJK Cup qualifying tie

Kazakhstan have placed Australia on the brink of Billie Jean King Cup elimination with a 2-1 victory in their qualifying tie in Brisbane.

Big-hitting former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina out-gunned Kim Birrell to secure victory for Kazakhstan before the hosts picked up a precious point with success in the not-so-dead-rubber doubles.

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