United States Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez says world No. 1 Serena Williams’ participation would make her team the favorite against defending champion Italy in the first round of next year’s tournament. The tie, which will be held at Cleveland’s Public Auditorium, February 8-9, will mark the fourth meeting

She doesn’t play on the Fed Cup team, her compatriots don’t always have the kindest words to say about her, and she’s never really seemed to be embraced by her country, but tonight, Marion Bartoli might be the most popular woman in France after becoming just the fourth Frenchwoman of

Sloane Stephens says she continues to struggle with wrist problems coming into Indian Wells, but is looking to play more convincing tennis after suffering first-round losses at the recent Doha and Dubai tournaments. Stephens told USA Today that her wrist injury stemmed from a ligament problem that had begun affecting

LONDON—Bernie Tomic is receiving backing from some fellow players, who say he should not have been fined all his first-round prize money at Wimbledon. Tomic fell 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in less than an hour and was fined $56,000 when the referee decided he had not performed up

Serena Williams pulled out of the Australian Open, saying she wasn't completely ready yet, and now, thanks to a revealing feature in Vogue, the world knows exactly why. The 36-year-old had her daughter, Alexis Ohanian Jr., in September via C-section, and complications ensued. The C-section went well, but Williams felt

Growing up, master mimic Novak Djokovic aspired to serve like his tennis role model, Pete Sampras. Today, the 14-time Grand Slam champion says Djokovic has grown into an all-surface champion capable of matching his record of six straight seasons as year-end world No. 1. Sampras held the year-end top spot

As we say goodbye to another year, Baseline will take a look at the moments that made the 2021 season so special. 1. Australian Open Quarantine Craziness Watch what happens when 250 players find themselves trapped in their hotel rooms for two weeks Down Under. It sounds like a reality

She's sporty and she's chic: Iga Swiatek is the fitting cover model for the June issue of \Elle \magazine in her native Poland. "Honestly, it was great because I really had fun," Swiatek said in her Media Day press conferenct at the Internazionli BNL d'Italia. "I would say posing wasn't

Before each day of play at Indian Wells, we'll preview and predict three must-see matches. For full coverage of the season's first Masters, go to our men’s and women’s tournament pages. KEI NISHIKORI [4] VS. DAN EVANS The records say that Evans and Nishikori are 1-1. I remember their last

Tennis players over the age of 30 all say the same thing: It’s harder to recover the next day. That’s what 34-year-old Venus Williams seemed to be telling us with every step she took during her first set against Andrea Petkovic on Friday. In her previous match, a win over

This one was an ambush. Novak Djokovic must have known that his opponent, David Ferrer, would be, as they say, a tough out. He must have known that he would need to play well, with aggression and margin and consistency, from start to finish. He must have known that Ferrer,

The ATP and WTA have told players the monetary amounts that lower-ranked pros will receive during the tour hiatus. According to La Nacion, the ATP has notified players through its official channels, saying that those ranked between No. 101 and 500 in singles will receive $8,650 in two installments, with

Vasek Pospisil knows all about taking the road less traveled. It's in his blood after all, with his parents fleeing communism in the Czech Republic to give their future son a better life. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Canadian veteran is unafraid to fight, whether it's

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) At 23, Maria Sharapova says she has entered a new phase of her tennis career, more relaxed and looking toward the future. `This is where I'm trying to find my groove after being gone for a while,'' said Sharapova, who missed nine months because of a shoulder

From individuals to organizations, weekend warriors to professional players, minute observations to big-picture ideas, tennis has been top of mind across the board over the past two years. “I feel like this is the tennis boom part two,” says Trey Waltke, general manager of the Malibu Racquet Club in southern

There's nothing like Paris in the springtime, they say. As these 10 epics—the 10 most memorable French Open matches of the Open Era—show, there's also nothing quite as stirring or sensation as tennis in Paris at this time of year. You only have to listen to the two men who

Fans of the NBA like to talk about “statement” games. Generally speaking, these are regular-season contests between top teams that, while they may not have an effect on the standings, will be remembered come playoff-time. To import the concept to tennis, we might say that the weeks leading up to

We like to say that certain tournaments on certain occasions are wide open, that there are no clear-cut favorites or safe bets. But usually anything can’t happen. Usually there’s a player—his name might be Roger Federer—who at least qualifies as the default choice to hold up the champion’s trophy in

Rao2 by Pete Bodo It wasn't right up there with, say, losing the Olympic men's hockey gold medal to Sweden in the Lillehammer games in 1994, but on the whole yesterday was a pretty lousy day for Canadian sports—as the Toronto Star's Damien Cox painfully elaborated, tracking the fortunes of

MELBOURNE—One of the pet sayings of Novak Djokovic’s former coach, Boris Becker, was that tennis years were like dog years. If we accept Becker’s assessment, then what to make of the half-year that had passed since Djokovic had last played a tournament match? As Djokovic took the court for his