PARIS (AP) For more than a decade, whatever the state of her health or her game, no matter the opponent or arena, Serena Williams always won first-round matches at Grand Slam tournaments. Always. Until Tuesday at the French Open. Until Williams came within two points of victory nine times, yet

BAD GASTEIN, Austria -- Annika Beck of Germany rallied to beat Mandy Minella of Luxembourg 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 Thursday and reach her fifth quarterfinal of the season at the Gastein Ladies. The second-seeded Beck double-faulted five times in the opening set and saved 12 break points in total. She will

LINZ, Austria (AP) Despite being docked a game for a time violation, Ana Ivanovic defeated Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-3, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of the Generali Ladies. Ivanovic asked for a bathroom break after the opening game of the match on Thursday. The umpire gave her four penalty points

One day you’re saving two match points and coming back to win; the next day your opponent is doing the same to you. That’s what life was like for Roger Federer this week, when he returned to Madrid for the first time in four years, and to a clay court

NEW YORK—Victoria Azarenka swooped forward to greet the ball in mid-air and smacked a forehand swing volley winner to reach match point. On a day when holding serve was a struggle, Azarenka used her whiplash strokes to maintain her grip on the match. The second seed broke serve seven times

The upsets kept coming at Wimbledon on Friday as Venus Williams—a five-time champion, last year’s finalist and this year’s No. 9 seed—lost in a nail-biter to Kiki Bertens, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 8-6. In their only previous meeting, Venus had to save three match points to win—in the third round of

Mardy Fish and Jurgen Melzer have reached career-high rankings, with Fish cracking the Top 10 for the first time, at No. 10, and the Austrian moving to No. 8. Fernando Verdasco dropped four spots to No. 12 as he failed to defend final-round points from Monte Carlo. After winning his

Simona Halep and Jessica Pegula had gone to war for two hours and 10 minutes in their semifinal in Toronto on Saturday. Each had won a set. Each had broken serve five times, and squandered many more break points. Each had committed a lot of errors—85 between the two of

LONDON (AP) — Kei Nishikori hit a backhand so good it threw Roger Federer off his game as the 20-time Grand Slam champion earned a code violation before capitulating in a surprise defeat at the ATP Finals on Sunday. Two points away from losing the opening set and on the

NEW YORK (AP) -- Juan Martin del Potro closed out countryman Leonardo Mayer in a 20-point tiebreaker, which included a shot by Mayer that bounced off the net post while seemingly headed wide and landed in, to return to the fourth round of the U.S. Open for the first time

SAN DIEGO—For all Landon Donovan accomplished on the soccer field, there’s one side of him that wonders what life would look like if a point in time was replayed. As a child, Donovan and his brother split their time participating in soccer and tennis. The Ontario-born, California-raised kid was inspired

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will make his return to competition this coming week in Dubai, and if history is anything to go by, it should be a strong starting point to the season for the 20-time Grand Slam winner—he’s a five-time champion at the ATP 500 event in 2009,

Iga Swiatek has strengthened her hold at No. 1 on the WTA rankings after winning the Mutua Madrid Open for the first time. When she arrived in the Spanish capital, she led Aryna Sabalenka by 2,712 ranking points (10,560 to 7,848). But by winning the WTA 1000 event she’s now

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) Five-time champion Venus Williams rallied to defeat Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-7 (6), 6-3, 8-6 and reach the third round at Wimbledon. Williams trailed 5-1 in the first set Wednesday and saved three set points before holding her own set point at 6-5. Williams saved four more in the

BARCELONA, Spain (AP)—For Rafael Nadal, the Barcelona Open is more than merely a warm-up for the French Open. The top-ranked Spaniard, who skipped the event last year, will collect 500 points if he wins for the sixth time. That would help hold off the challenge of second-ranked Novak Djokovic, who

All week we’ve been highlighting stats from Serena Williams’ unparalleled career that will in all likelihood never be broken, including winning three majors from match point down, beating No. 1 and No. 2 at the same event eight times and—perhaps the most untouchable one—completing a Career Golden Slam in both

Andy Murray and Carlos Berlocq get into a spat during their fourth-round match at Indian Wells, which Murray won. Berlocq complained to the chair umpire that Murray was taking too much time in between points, then Murray complained about the Argentine’s grunting. “When you’re doing it that loud, but you

There was something spooky about Court Central at the Rolex Paris Masters on Monday. Six matches were slated for a jam-packed day of play. When all was said and done, poetically at 2:22 a.m. local time on Halloween, Dominic Thiem became the third player to survive from match point down.

Carla Suarez Navarro took the court at the US Open for the last time on Monday and fought valiantly as she always does. The Spaniard could have easily lost the second set against Danielle Collins by a landslide, having faced eight break points. But she scrapped and clawed her way

PARIS (AP)—Local favorite Gael Monfils of France survived three match points in a thrilling second round match against Fabio Fognini that was suspended because of darkness at the French Open on Wednesday. Play was halted shortly before 2200 local time (2000 GMT) at 5-5 in the fifth set. The 13th-seeded