NEW YORK -- The question posed to Serena Williams was rather simple. Is it fair to say Sloane Stephens has emerged as a rival heading into their fourth-round showdown Sunday at the U.S. Open? Stephens is, after all, one of only three women to beat Williams this season. She's also

INDIAN WELLS, Calif.(AP) Two-time champion Lleyton Hewitt beat Jan Hernych 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday. Hewitt, once the top-ranked ATP Tour player in the world, won this event in 2002 and 2003 and lost to Roger Federer in the 2005 final.

BASTAD, Sweden (AP) Benoit Paire of France advanced to the second round of the Swedish Open with a 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over Markus Eriksson on Monday. Paire's next match will be against top-seeded David Goffin of Belgium. In Monday's other first-round match, wild card entrant Christian Lindell of Sweden

NEW YORK (AP) Maria Sharapova is out of the U.S. Open, upset in the third round by Flavia Pennetta. The 2006 champion lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to the 26th-seeded Italian on Friday. Sharapova had been 12-0 in three-set matches this year, including her first-round win. Pennetta broke serve to clinch

Stan Wawrinka says that he is taking positives from playing his first event since experiencing a knee injury at the Australian Open, despite a first-round exit in Dubai. Wawrinka, the defending champion, fell in straight sets to Damir Dzumhur. "When you come back from injury, you always think a little

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)—Top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland beat Slovakia's Polona Hercog 6-3, 6-3 to reach the second round of the Korea Open on Tuesday. Defending champion Radwanska converted five of eight break points to defeat Hercog at Olympic Park Tennis Center in 1 hour, 15 minutes and set up

STUTTGART, Germany(AP) Second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko rallied to beat Ivan Navarro 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the Mercedes Cup on Monday. Navarro, a Spaniard ranked No. 104, used an unusual serve-and-volley game on the slow clay court to surprise the Russian and also played many drop shots from

MELBOURNE, Australia(AP) Defending champion Serena Williams has won her third-round match at the Australian Open, beating Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-0, 6-3. The top-seeded Williams, who beat Dinara Safina in last year's final, emerged from a marathon final game in Saturday's opening set, facing five break points and 13

WIMBLEDON, England(AP) Lleyton Hewitt of Australia has overcome a slow start to defeat Argentina's Maximo Gonzalez in four sets in the first round at Wimbledon. Hewitt, the 2002 champion, took a little more than two hours to complete a 5-7, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 win on Monday. Hewitt dropped the first

Darkness suspended play on Saturday; rain interrupted it today. Conditions extended this third-round clash of power players, and Sabine Lisicki's volatility terminated it. The 19th-seeded Lisicki commanded rallies in the final set, blasting past Ana Ivanovic, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, to roll into the Wimbledon round of 16 for the fifth

LONDON-- Maria Sharapova has been knocked out of Wimbledon by a 131st-ranked qualifier on a day when injuries forced the withdrawal or retirement of seven other players. The third-seeded Sharapova, the Wimbledon champion in 2004 champion, lost 6-3, 6-4 to Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal in the second round

EASTBOURNE, England (AP) — Novak Djokovic downplayed his chances of capturing a fourth Wimbledon title after winning his first match on grass this year at the Eastbourne International on Wednesday. Djokovic beat Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-3 in a second-round match that was carried over from Tuesday because of rain, setting

UMAG, Croatia (AP)—Fifth-seeded Tommy Robredo cruised into the second round of the Croatia Open on Tuesday, beating Jan Hajek 6-3, 6-2. Robredo mostly kept to the baseline and needed only 71 minutes to outplay Hajek. The Czech, ranked 133, was nowhere close to the level he showed last week in

PARIS (AP) Maria Sharapova was nearly perfect in the first round of the French Open, winning all 12 games to produce a ``double bagel.'' The second-seeded Russian easily beat Alexandra Cadantu of Romania 6-0, 6-0 Tuesday, needing just 48 minutes to advance to the second round. She finished the match

WATCH: Mussetti defeats Djokovic in round three of the Monte Carlo Open

HALLE, Germany (AP) Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine needed three sets to beat Robin Haase of the Netherlands and advance to the second round of the Gerry Weber Open. The seventh seeded Dolgopolov dropped the first set before coming back for a 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4 win on Monday. Earlier in

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Latest from the Australian Open on Friday (all times local): 11:30 p.m. French Open champion Garbine Muguruza has advanced to the fourth round of the Australian Open with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Anastasia Sevastova. The pair had played twice before — both on hardcourts

SYDNEY(AP) French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova beat fellow Russian Alisa Kleybanova 6-2, 6-7 (3), 7-5 on Sunday in the first round of the Sydney International. The third-seeded Kuznetsova, also the 2004 U.S. Open winner, trailed 2-0 in the deciding set before breaking back to take control. Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova cruised

No. 3 seed Naomi Osaka’s nightmare first round turned out to be a sweet dream as she dispatched three-time Australian Open quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-1, 6-2, to lead a trio of stars into into the second round in Melbourne. Osaka delighted the Rod Laver Arena crowd as she gamely answered