“Top 14” has never been a common phrase in any sport, but this weekend tennis commentators and pundits—including myself—gave it a workout. That’s because just one of the Top 14 men in the ATP rankings, Novak Djokovic, participated in the first round of Davis Cup. That’s a dismal percentage, and

Is there a women’s tournament happening at Wimbledon this year? You might be hard-pressed to say for sure at the moment, with all the pre-game attention that the men’s side has been garnering. But the WTA is in London as well, and while they haven’t watched their first seed and

INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.—We knew coming into the semifinals on Saturday that one player would be living by his serve. That was John Isner, of course. What we didn’t know was that another player, Roger Federer, would be doing the same—not just living by his serve, but soaring by it. Federer

Whether it’s a real or a random phenomenon, upsets can seem to spread like wild fire at the Grand Slams. Last year we witnessed Black Wednesday at Wimbledon; this year it looked, early on, as if Roland Garros would respond with a Black Tuesday of its own. Li Na and

LONDON—Doesn’t Wimbledon aim for moderation and understatement in all things? It does, except, it seems, when it comes to its second Monday. Then the tournament suddenly snaps, throws all of that pent-up caution and discretion to the wind, and schedules everyone all at once all over the grounds. That’s where

MELBOURNE—Tennis classics come in all shapes and sizes. On Sunday Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka, two pros from different countries and of similar ages, put each other through a supreme test of skill and stamina; their round-of-16 matchup was a five-hour exhibition of the sport at its finest. Compared to

To historians of the American psyche, 1973 is known as the Year of the Nervous Breakdown. Rock critic Lester Bangs coined the term that summer, when he used the title “1973 Nervous Breakdown” for his review of a Rolling Stones record. Three decades later, author Andreas Killen borrowed the phrase

ROME, Italy—Danielle Collins is doing her last trip to the Internazionali BNL d’Italia her way, down to the dessert. “They don’t have much that’s dairy-free here in Rome,” observed the American, whose well-documented health struggles and desire to start a family have fueled her desire to play one last season

Elena Vesnina has made good on her pre-Olympic promise to ROC(k) us. In the hunt for two medals this weekend, the reigning Olympic doubles champion will play for a second gold medal on her 35th birthday after she and countryman Aslan Karatsev edged past Novak Djokovic and Nina Stojanovic, 7-6

"What I say the other day is the real thing. Today is very hard to speak about having chances of nothing. Is not the right moment to talk about that. It’s the moment to really give to this victory the right value." Is it any surprise that Rafael Nadal would

These are called, for a reason that escapes me, the dog days of summer. I know the term from America’s own summer game, baseball. While the rest of the world heads for the beach, or the mountains, or just deeper into the air conditioning, major league baseball players are often

Is this the Age of Power in men’s tennis? Of Big 3 dominance? Or is it the Age of Emotion? The tears, the screams, the hugs, the kisses, the leaps, the bounds, the first-pumps, the chest slams: The men’s game is a dramatic place these days. All of which made

All eyes were on us,” Luca Corinteli remembers. It was the spring of 2016, and the University of Virginia junior was playing in the final of the Division I NCAA Championships in Tulsa, OK. Two of the three doubles matches between Virginia and its opponent, the University of Oklahoma, had

This year marks the 50th anniversary of TENNIS Magazine's founding in 1965. To commemorate the occasion, we'll look back each Thursday at one of the 50 moments that have defined the last half-century in our sport. Night after night, Betty Chang and her 17-year-old son Michael would turn on the

The ATP's rankings have been largely settled, but its final event is as unsettled as it’s ever been. You would think that 11 months of duking it out against each other would leave the men’s game with an established pecking order, but for the moment, the 2011 hierarchy has largely

So, OK, it was hotter out here today, which I really didn’t think was possible—102 in the shade, if there was any to be found. The nice thing is: you don’t sweat. It’s more of a cumulative effect, like eating too much. You feel good, you feel good, you feel

Tennis Channel Live: Thoughts on Agnieszka Radwanska's retirement from the game

Nick Kyrgios strode—OK, burst—onto the world tennis stage against Rafael Nadal five years ago, brimming with the unaccountable confidence of youth. When the 19-year-old Australian beat the Spanish Hall-of-Famer in the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2014, the sport seemed to have found a new star, and the ATP a

We’ve seen a lot on the WTA tour this season: New and old stars rising, friendships beginning and ending, comebacks, upsets, blowouts, viral dances, victory dances, and beatdowns of epic proportions. But did you ever expect to catch Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova giggling in the corner together, having a

I was up late last night and back in front of the TV early this morning—I pretty much staggered into the living room at 8:00 A.M. and got right to the Roddick-Safin match. I’ve never fast-forwarded between points before, but I guess there’s a first for everything. Who said these