The 1997 French Open final pitted a two-time Roland Garros champion, Sergi Bruguera, against an unknown 20-year-old from Brazil named Gustavo Kuerten. Kuerten was ranked No. 66, and he hailed from a country that hadn’t produced a major champion in 30 years. But over the course of two weeks, the

Once upon a time, I wrote a semi-regular column consisting of five or 10 non-tennis-related items every couple of weeks or so, just because . . . just because I felt like it, I guess. The break from thinking about forehands and backhands—and occasionally volleys—was needed. I’ve been wanting to

MELBOURNE — The Day 1 schedule at the Australian Open featured 15 Americans hitting the bright blue courts of Melbourne Park. Only three remained in the draw by the time day turned into night. No. 13-seeded Sloane Stephens kicked things off for the red, white and blue inside Margaret Court

From a WTA perspective, we might call this year’s event in Indian Wells the tournament that Serena Williams almost played. For the first time in more than a decade, the world No. 1 was willing to entertain the idea of ending her boycott, which began when she was heckled off

It really would be nice to have a full grass-court season, wouldn’t it? This weekend you could see the variety that it would bring to the tours. After two months of clay-lovers having their way, it was time for the turf warriors to take a turn, and a title or

I walked past Maria Sharapova a couple of times at the Open this year and immediately noticed two things. (1) She walks around with her “game face” on; the stern frown that’s apparently meant to intimidate opponents on court is kept in place to keep gawking fans at bay. (2)

Roger Federer himself put it quite simply recently: "How can I think of winning the French Open?" After all, the 20-time major champion will be entered in his first Grand Slam tournament in more than 15 months when play begins on the red clay of Roland Garros in the leafy

On Thursday, one of the most accomplished—and popular—players in the history of women’s tennis, Kim Clijsters, announced her return to professional tennis for the upcoming 2020 season. “For the past seven years, I’ve been a full-time mum. And I love it. I really, really do,” she said. “But I also

We’re back in the groove, it seems, after a few weeks of off-season, a few weeks of Slam season, and a couple weeks of let-me-find-out-what-time-zone-I’m-in-again season. To mark the occasion, I’ll get back to some topics that have bubbled below the comment line for the last couple of weeks. the

by Pete Bodo Don't you all love the way Rafael Nadal returned to the business at hand last week at Monte Carlo, winning that Masters 1000 event for the fifth time? One of the things that most struck me about the effort takes us back to Miami, and the puzzling

LONDON (AP) The Latest from Wimbledon (all times local): 10:30 p.m. A Wimbledon spokesman says a small electrical fire broke out inside the Centre Court building on Wednesday, causing an evacuation after play had finished for the day. Johnny Perkins, a spokesman for the All England Club, said the fire

HALLE, Germany (AP) Roger Federer will face wild card Tommy Haas of Germany in a bid to win the Gerry Weber Open for a record sixth time on Sunday. The 87th-ranked Haas defeated defending champion Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6 (5), 7-5 on Saturday. Federer eased past Mikhail Youzhny of Russia by

Li Na is thrilled that Justine Henin’s former coach, Carlos Rodriguez, has agreed to become as her new coach on trial basis. Li was scheduled to meet him face to face for the first time on Wednesday night in Cincinnati. Last week in Montreal, when the ninth-ranked Li reached the

MONACO(AP) Novak Djokovic reached the final of the Monte Carlo Masters for the first time, rallying from a set down to defeat Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 on Saturday. The Serb, a French Open semifinalist the past two years, raised his game at the start of the third set. Wawrinka

Novak Djokovic arrives in Belgrade on Thursday hoping to practice for the first time since winning the U.S. Open on Monday night. Djokovic is scheduled to open Serbia's Davis Cup semifinal against Argentina on Friday against David Nalbandian, but DavisCup.com reports that he may opt out. Davis Cup rules state

Grand Slam champion John Newcombe tells The Age that he expects world No. 1 Novak Djokovic to have a hard time at the start of the 2012 season, and could see No. 3 Roger Federer re-taking the top spot. "Djokovic is really going to struggle the first six months of

This week we’re counting down our Top 5 Stats Of The Year, one day at a time… … and coming in at No. 3 is Rafael Nadal becoming the first man to spend 800 consecutive weeks in the Top 10 in ATP rankings history, which he achieved on January 18th

SHANGHAI (AP) — Sebastian Korda reached the semifinals at a Masters tournament for the first time by rallying to beat Ben Shelton 6-7, (10), 6-2, 7-6 (6) Thursday at the Shanghai Masters. It was the first all-American Masters quarterfinal match since 2017 and both players were two points from winning

Novak Djokovic has split with long-time fitness coach Marco Panichi in the latest shakeup to his team ahead of the season’s second major. On Tuesday, Djokovic published a warm message of gratitude for everything Panichi helped him accomplish in their journey together. “Grande Marco, what amazing years of collaboration we’ve

SINGAPORE (AP) — Venus Williams returns to the year-end WTA Finals for the first time since 2009 and will face Karolina Pliskova on Sunday. The top eight players in the world will play in the round-robin event, which also features No. 1 Simona Halep, Garbine Muguruza, Elina Svitolina, Caroline Wozniacki,