Each day during the Australian Open, Richard Pagliaro will preview three must-see matches—and offer his predictions. 1. (14) MARIA KIRILENKO vs. (20) YANINA WICKMAYER Third Round; Hisense Arena, first match Head-to-head: First meeting

PARIS -- Top-seeded Rafael Nadal advanced to the third round of the Paris Masters on Wednesday, and Roger Federer qualified for the ATP Finals for a 12th straight year. Nadal beat Marcel Granollers 7-5, 7-5 in an all-Spanish meeting, and Federer topped Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4. "I didn't play well

MONACO -- Defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia raced into the Monte Carlo Masters quarterfinals on Thursday, dispatching Pablo Carreno Busta 6-0, 6-1 in just 47 minutes. Eight-time champion Rafael Nadal also had little trouble reaching the last eight, beating Italian Andreas Seppi 6-1, 6-3, while fourth-seeded Roger Federer shook

As a confessed fan of boxing, Andy Murray must have known the old maxim: You don’t beat the champ in a decision, you have to knock him out. If Murray was unaware of that, he learned it tonight in a rugged, grueling, five-set Australian Open semifinal with Roger Federer, the

PicMIAMI—Destiny has cast David Ferrer into the role of the perpetual foil. The guy who’s incredibly good—but not great—and therefore fated to serve the few men touched by genius. Ferrer has all of the tools, but none with quite sharp enough an edge, or sufficiently heavy a head, to get

By TW Contributing Editor, Ed McGrogan(11:00 AM Wednesday update - raining again here.) The last time I saw Donald Young play in person was at the 2006 U.S. Open, when he faced a then unknown Novak Djokovic in the first round. Young won the first set that day, but

Signs of stress — an unruly second serve, escalating errors, the ominous cluster of clouds that darkened the sky and a stubborn opponent who kept crunching drives into the corners — all seemed to conspire against Serena Williams. Pushed to the limit by 74th-ranked Caroline Garcia, Williams showed her multi-tasking

With five tournaments taking place across the globe this past week, there was a lot of movement on the rankings. But the most significant move was made by someone who didn’t even have to hit a ball, as **Dominic Thiem passed Roger Federer to set a new career-high ranking of

McGrogan's Heroes ATP - Tomas Berdych This is a tough call. Albert Montanes pulled a rabbit out of his hat in the Estoril final, saving two match points against James Blake before winning the title in three sets (taking the final set 6-0, no less). But Tomas Berdych, hardly known

Greetings, Tribe. I've got to make this one pretty quick, because I need to bolt before 3 PM to make the run up to the farm in game-rich Andes. This is a bit of a bummer. My wife Lisa and I had planned to go to a holiday party given

PARIS—The television camera found Pablo Carreno-Busta just as he was about to emerge from the tunnel leading from the locker rooms to the Court Philippe Chatrier here at Roland Garros. He looked dazzled by the bright light for a moment, and the skin on his boyish face was white as

Let's take a little break from our ongoing Q-and-A (I'll try to get back to it later today, or early tomorrow). Some of you may have checked out the link submitted in previous post by TW's saucy Sydney Bureau Chief and Warrior Moment badge distributor, Lucy. It's on the state

The blue Porsche parked behind the corner of the court overlooked her shoulder as Ana Ivanovic revved another flat forehand that left Jelena Jankovic lunging at air. In an all-Serbian semifinal of former world No. 1 players, Ivanovic drove the ball down the line convincingly powering past Jankovic, 6-3, 7-5,

BASEL, Switzerland (AP) -- Top-seeded Roger Federer won a sixth Swiss Indoors title on Sunday, comfortably defeating David Goffin of Belgium in straight sets to end a run of two successive final defeats at his hometown tournament. Federer took just 52 minutes to win 6-2, 6-2, delighting the partisan crowd

Elena Rybakina vs. Elina Svitolina A year ago at Wimbledon, taking inspiration from her role as a representative of war-ravaged Ukraine, Svitolina beat Iga Swiatek and made the semifinals. Over the past week, she has thrust herself back in the same role. Donning a black ribbon after a recent Russian

Daniil Medvedev’s 6-4, 7-6 win today over Milos Raonic in the semis of the Rolex Paris Masters blended extensive dominance with traces of suspense. This was a vivid style contrast, at the most simple level a conflict between Medvedev’s movement and Raonic’s firepower. But as this match revealed repeatedly, those

There were two major breakthroughs among the upper echelon of the ATP rankings this week, with Daniil Medvedev crashing the Top 5 and Roberto Bautista Agut debuting in the Top 10 after both men put together impressive runs during the US Open lead-up season over the last few weeks. Having

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- An agitated Roger Federer spat out the question that Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova easily could have asked the players who pushed them to the limits in the second round of the Australian Open. ''Do you have to be that close?'' Federer snapped at a TV

MASON, Ohio (AP) — Two unexpected champions embraced their first Rookwood championship trophies, concluding a week that brought more questions than clarity to the upcoming U.S. Open. Who's going to be healthy on the women's side? Will stumbles in the men's bracket at the Western & Southern Open carry over

NEW YORK (AP) At 34, and more than three years removed from his most recent Grand Slam title, Roger Federer arrived at this U.S. Open with some changes in store. There's his much-discussed ''SABR'' - ''Sneak Attack By Roger'' - tactic, in which he half-volleys the occasional second-serve return. He