No Federer in the men’s draw, no Serena in the women’s final? Neither was a problem for the 2016 U.S. Open. This Grand Slam, which produced must-see matches on a near-daily basis and ended with two very fine finals, was a victory for tennis as a whole. Even in celebrity-saturated

The first Wednesday of Wimbledon in 2013—forever to be known as Wimblegeddon—was famous for its carnage. Six current or former No. 1 players were ushered out of the tournament that day, which ended with Roger Federer’s earliest defeat at a Grand Slam—in the second round—in nine years. The first Thursday

PARIS—This year’s men’s event at Roland Garros feels like the culmination of seven clay-court seasons past. Not the culmination, perhaps, but a peak moment nonetheless. Since spring 2005, when Rafael Nadal emerged to challenge Roger Federer, what was once a relatively sleepy two-month stretch has been transformed into the most

Before his French Open semifinal with Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic was interviewed in the corridor leading to Court Philippe Chatrier. As the man who had yet to lose a match in 2011 began to answer the first question, he stopped for a split-second to take a breath. I thought: Uh,

More than with most sports, to watch a tennis match is to concentrate and meditate on every miniscule aspect, every tic, of the two people on court. You can know a player by his forehand and his kick serve, but you can also know him by his grunt, his headband,

INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.—Tennis tournaments always come through in the end, don’t they? Sunday’s women’s final was hardly a match; but the emotion, from the surprise winner and the crushed loser, will never be forgotten. And on the men’s side, a draw that had looked ravaged early in the week finished

At this time last year, Novak Djokovic stood significantly behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on the list of the most prolific champions ever at the major events, and slightly beneath Pete Sampras. With his 12 Grand Slam tournament titles, Djokovic was eight behind the Swiss Maestro, four back of

“At this time last year, I was somewhere in Europe getting treatment for my shoulder, just trying to find different medical perspectives on how to treat it and how to get it better.... It’s definitely great to be a year later in a situation where this is my fourth title

Are you a fan of 1970s men’s tennis and esoteric statistical investigations? If so, you’re going to love Netflix’s new documentary about Guillermo Vilas, and his long-running quest to be retroactively crowned a world No. 1 player. And if you care about the triumphs and heartbreaks of great athletes, you

Everything is heightened on the day of a final. You can feel it and even see it around the grounds. Today at the Foro Italico the sky was clearer, the temperature was higher, the sun was brighter, the women were better looking. The ballgirls had shorter shorts and the line

Was it just five days ago that this headline appeared in our paper of record, the New York Times: “Federer’s Ability to Dominate May Be Coming to an End”? Yes, it turned out to be a ridiculously premature statement, and I thought so at the time. But coming after his

“Tennis doesn’t have an idea problem,” former US Open tournament director Arlen Kantarian told a group of editors at TENNIS Magazine nearly 20 years ago. “It has a get-it-done problem.” The idea, and the question, we were discussing that day was an age-old one: Why doesn’t tennis have its version

by Pete Bodo Well, the days and matches are dwindling down to a precious few, and the thumbs up/thumbs down meme is beginning to outlive its usefulness. That's okay, because this was to be the last day for that approach anyway. I'm off, and off to, Easy Ed McGrogan's big

Gasquet [I'm happy to introduce an exciting new voice at TW, that of the comment poster many of you know as Gauloises. This is a wonderful piece of writing, and I'm hoping to get more of the same as as the week goes on -- Pete] by Gauloises, Contributing Writer

Peter Bodo continues his year-end awards—12 in all, for 2012—with the Newcomers of the Year. You can see rest of his selections as well as the upcoming awards at the end of this article.

[[ I asked a friend of mine who was in Chennai last week to write a little bit about his experience, to give us a sense of the atmosphere and people there. His report follows below. Vivek played competitive junior tennis but now plays just rec tennis, partly because his

*101641983 by Pete Bodo It was 3-2 in the tiebreaker, mini-break to Francesca Schiavone, when she felt the surge of energy flooding her entire being. It was that primal gift that sometimes goes by the name "killer instinct," but in polite company is more likely to be called "focus," or

NEW YORK -- Right from the start, Roger Federer looked very little like, well, the Roger Federer who routinely reached the final weekend at Grand Slam tournaments. In the opening game of his fourth-round match at the U.S. Open, the owner of 17 major titles got passed at the net

What is most noticeable when entering Kevin Anderson’s home is just how normal it is. Situated on a stretch of Highway A1A just north of Delray Beach, Fla., the townhouse is gray and nondescript from the outside, and stylish but utterly un-tennis-like on the inside. There are no trophies on

HIGHLIGHTS: Wawrinka falls to Coric at the Shanghai Masters