With most players at the quarterfinal stage of a Grand Slam, we consider it a good sign if they’ve been cruising through their matches in straight sets. With Karolina Pliskova, the opposite may be true. When she’s on her game and coolly lasering aces and winners into the corners, few

The name of the surface at the WTA Finals in Singapore is DecoTurf-Portable. Caroline Wozniacki, it seems safe to say, would like to take it with her wherever she goes. We knew at the start of the week that Wozniacki enjoyed playing on this court, which grips the ball and

NEW YORK—“Here I am, baby!” Stevie Wonder sang over the loudspeakers in Arthur Ashe Stadium during the first set between Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep on Monday night. The words could have been written for Sharapova herself. Here she was, just as we remembered her. There was the stony game

WATCH—Tennis Channel Live Day 7 - Martina Navratilova and the US Open:

No matter what your opinion is of Maria Sharapova, it’s hard to ignore that her comeback is a huge boost to the game—just one look at Wednesday’s sold-out crowd in Stuttgart confirmed that. After 15 months away, the Russian took out Roberta Vinci, 7-5, 6-3, on Wednesday night and then

Tennis fans following the WTA Finals this week were hoping to witness a fitting conclusion to a compelling season for the top eight players in the world. Four different women were victorious at the majors this season, and each of these eminent performers—Naomi Osaka, Ashleigh Barty, Simona Halep and Bianca

We didn’t get the first 12-12 final-set tiebreaker in Wimbledon history, but we got an incredible match—and a compelling example of why the new format may be the perfect compromise for an age-old debate. First, let’s dig into the match, which featured two Czechs named Karolina. One, Karolina Pliskova, was

LONDON—It wouldn’t be Manic Monday without a good, old-fashioned court-assignment controversy. With so many stars in action, and only two top-level show courts to put them on, there are always some big names and tantalizing matches exiled to the boondocks at the All England Club. The most obvious victim this

Welcome to Underrated Week! From May 4 through 8, TENNIS.com is focusing on the most overlooked aspects of the sport, from stats to achievements to tactics, and beyond. We're also featuring 10 players because of something they do extremely well, but which isn't their signature quality. It's a series we're

Looking back over the vast landscape of Maria Sharapova’s illustrious career, it is apparent that this pugnacious competitor has always prided herself on elevating her game for auspicious occasions. Sharapova is, after all, a career Grand Slam champion, and deservedly so. She took her first of the four prizes at

WTA FINALS HIGHLIGHTS: Elina Svitolina d. Karolina Pliskova, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3

When Novak Djokovic was asked about world No. 114 Aslan Karatsev ahead of their surprise semifinal meeting at the Australian Open, the 17-time major champion asserted his opponent was there for a reason. “I have seen him play during the tournament here, and he impressed me, impressed a lot of

Seeing Italian tennis fans slouch in their comfortably nonchalant way at the Foro Italico wouldn’t seem like the stuff of memories, but it has been for me every spring since 2007. That was the first and thus far only year I attended the Rome Masters, an experience that has stayed

This week, TENNIS.com editor Kamakshi Tandon and I are discussing John Newcombe's Bedside Tennis, a collection of anecdotes and observations by the legendary Aussie player published in 1983.

“It’s unbelievable what he’s been doing,” Andy Murray said of Radek Stepanek after coming back to beat the 37-year-old Czech, 3-6, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 7-5, on Tuesday at Roland Garros. “I don’t expect to be doing that at his age.” After spending three hours and 41 minutes, and the better

PARIS—These are the long days, the ones that start at 8 A.M. and finish at 11:30 P.M., the ones where the U.S. press, with our latest of all deadlines, has to wake up the security guards to let us out of the place. The mornings, afternoons, and evenings are hectic,

The New York Times is nothing if not a hotbed of dubious trend stories—how else would a daily newspaper (or a blog, for that matter) fill all that space if reporters weren’t allowed to transform a few scraps of anecdotal evidence into sweeping cultural theories? A few weeks ago, the

With the benefit of hindsight, it should seem obvious now that Novak Djokovic would win his third Paris Masters title over the weekend. That’s not because the signs looked good for him at the start of the event. If anything, they pointed in the opposite direction. Coming to Bercy, Djokovic

PARIS—The Grand Slam Grounds Pass tradition will, provided my alarm continues to work, return each morning from Roland Garros. As play begins, I’ll try to mix news stories, observations from the courts, and a look at the day ahead. For now, since the only thing that’s really happened here so

Wherever you see her, whether it's kicking a ball on the training field, battering a backhand on the practice court, or grunting her way to a tough win in the high heat on Stadium 3, 19-year-old Victoria Azarenka of Belarus (and now Arizona) always looks hungry. Not in the I-need-to-eat