Another major tournament, another round of sartorial outrage. Adidas' zebra effect at Roland Garros bred ballyhoo over Nike's so-called "negligee" at Wimbledon. Even so, the all-white dress code that the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club enforces on all competitors makes for rather constraining creative options—unless, say, your name

Though they may be lower-ranked than the seeds and the rest of the field that was able to gain direct entry into the US Open, the players who fought through the qualifying rounds can be primed to make waves in the main draw. With multiple matches under their belt before

Every week, Baseline will select a “Player of the Week.” That player will not always win the highest-level tournament that week, but he/she will perform the best compared to their recent playing history.

In the span of three months, three different WTA players have claimed the No.1 ranking: Garbine Muguruza, Karolina Pliskova, and Simona Halep. Only one have them has a major trophy to her name. Some will always decry a system that empirically anoints a player as currently the “best,” even if

You wouldn't know it from the way he keeps his chestnut-colored hair just so, or how crisply and neatly he's always attired, but Roger Federer is a guy who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty once he steps onto a tennis court. If tennis were anything like auto repair, Federer

From Roger Federer’s side of the net, there were two competing narratives at work in the third set of the London final on Sunday. On the positive side, there was the story of his late-season form. For the second straight year, Federer was trying to outlast his rivals and finish

NEW YORK—The sound of squeaking sneakers signaled the depths of Ana Ivanovic’s desire. Muted in majors in suffering three first-round exits in her last five Grand Slam appearances, Ivanovic returned to Arthur Ashe Stadium determined to make some noise this Saturday night. Though she seldom spoke during tonight’s showdown with

Temperatures have been mild in Melbourne. Then Rafael Nadal stepped on court with flames on his back and an inferno of intensity firing from within. You didn't need to see the swooping fire graphic on the back of Nadal's shirt to feel the heat he brought in extinguishing American qualifier

NEW YORK -- Andy Murray smiled a few times during his match at Madison Square Garden. This is a player who rarely cracks a grin after winning Grand Slam titles, but Monday night's meeting with friend and rival Novak Djokovic was an exhibition, and even Murray was happy to play

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Top-seeded Rafael Nadal advanced to the third round at the Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 win over Australian wild-card entry Thanasi Kokkinakis on Thursday. Nadal won the match in 1 hour, 53 minutes and was rarely troubled under the roof at Rod Laver Arena in

PARIS (AP) -- For once, not everything seems so obvious heading into the French Open. Yes, Rafael Nadal will still be favored by most to win the clay-court Grand Slam tournament yet again. He is, after all, 59-1 for his career at Roland Garros, winner of a record eight championships,

LONDON (AP) -- Novak Djokovic held his breath. Radek Stepanek knelt on the Wimbledon turf and folded his hands in mock prayer. After more than three hours of fierce tennis, with both players diving and tumbling all over Centre Court, it all came down to a video replay on match

Maria Sharapova called the shots pushing Samantha Stosur around the court in the past. But the red clay resembled a slippery slope as the seventh-seeded Russian stared down a one set, 3-4 deficit today. Refusing to stumble, Sharapova stepped up to the baseline and charged back like a woman running

Toronto fans serenaded Roger Federer, singing "Happy Birthday" during the opening coin toss. An ornery David Ferrer muted the revelry in the second set, but couldn't prevent Federer from orchestrating a familiar refrain. Asserting his all-court game after a lapse, Federer celebrated his 33rd birthday by subduing the Spanish party

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Rafael Nadal has joined Roger Federer on the sidelines at the Australian Open, taking their combined 31 Grand Slam singles titles with them. On the women's side, second-seeded Maria Sharapova, who beat Eugenie Bouchard on Tuesday, and Ekaterina Makarova are still around and will play an

GHENT, Belgium (AP) Andy Murray kept Britain in contention in the Davis Cup final when he beat Belgium's Ruben Bemelmans in straight sets to leave the two nations level at 1-1 after the opening singles Friday. Murray, ranked No. 2 in the world, made a smooth transition to clay and

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) Before the sneezing and sniffling set in, the world's No. 2-ranked women's tennis player listed her goals for the year. Top priority: ''Just to stay healthy,'' Simona Halep said without hesitating. Almost as an afterthought, the rising 24-year-old Romanian who was a finalist at the 2014 French

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) With the kind of 2015 Serena Williams had, and her form so far at this Australian Open, it begs the question: Does it really matter who's across the net from her in Saturday's final? Angelique Kerber is the only player who can answer that now. The No.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) Sloane Stephens invited a friend to come watch her play at the Volvo Car Open. ''And I was like, `Well, I've never won a match there, so the earlier in the week you could come, the better,''' Stephens said, laughing. Turns out, the rising 23-year-old American had

Dedicated Ana Ivanovic fans are by necessity an anxious lot, because their heroine personifies the essentially meek and amenable young lady trapped in the body of a competitive athlete. The contrast is especially sharp when the pleasant girl from Serbia is thrown into the ring with someone as stone-cold aggressive