The tennis off-season, all one and a half months’ worth, is nearly half over. Here’s a look at how some of the pros have been spending their time away from the courts: Rafael Nadal The four-time Roland Garros champion loves red dirt, but he’s also partial to blue waters. Joined

Tennis pro Nick Kyrgios is setting up a free-to-access OnlyFans page. Kyrgios is a 28-year-old Australian who was the runner-up to Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon in 2022 but was sidelined by injuries for nearly all of this past season. He played in just one official singles match in 2023. The

by Pete Bodo Roger Federer is approaching 31 years of age, by which time the reflexes and explosiveness of the typical pro are, along with some other qualities, in decline. It ought to be especially true on fast hard courts, but it's a testament to the all-time Grand Slam champion

The Top 10 Female Athletes of All Time list from espnW already includes three tennis pros—Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, and Serena Williams—and it's not done yet. Evert has 18 Grand Slam singles titles, Graf holds 22 Slam singles crowns, and Serena harbors "just" 13 Slam singles trophies but 12 more

With the pro season lulling a bit, here's a junior rec opus to fill the gap; it's a bit longer than intended, I admit. I'll be back Monday to talk about Stuttgart and all other relevant tennis happenings. The end of this year’s playing season, which is upon us in

by Pete Bodo MIAMI, Fla.—Kim Clijsters can talk about the joys of motherhood all she wants. She can wax philosophical about the hardships of a tennis pro's life until the cows come home. Her opinions about the long-term effects and dangers posed by radioactive fallout in Asia might be of

Pros Cons Light and comfortable Limited audio controls Simple to use No equalizer Good battery life One size fits all Website: apple.com Price: $159 ($199 with wireless charging case) The Apple AirPod army is everywhere. Whether on the daily commute, in a coffee shop or walking through a supermarket, the

*Fans2 By Pete Bodo NEW YORK—This year, Marsel Ilhan learned what almost all pros eventually discover: the better you get at tennis, the harder it is to get better. It sounds like a contradiction in terms, but the higher up you go in the food chain, the more difficult it

When Stefanos Tsitsipas was three years old, he was handed a tennis racquet for the first time—as well as a script. Born into a tennis family, Tsitsipas was coached by his dad Apostolos and mom Julia, a former pro, with all three of his younger siblings also playing the sport.

• Picby Pete Bodo* I must confess, I really enjoy what I've come to think of as the ATP and WTA "diaspora weeks." That is, weeks when the pros are scattered all over the current global hot-spots of tennis (these weeks often precede high-octane events like the current Madrid combined).

You all know how the “Secret Santa” ritual works, right? Each person draws the name of another person (usually a friend, colleague, or family member) out of a hat, and is then obliged to get a present for that person. What if the ATP and WTA pros decided to celebrate

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

Howdy. You all known that I don't like to embarrass anyone who's part of the Tribe (pro tennis players are something else; criticizing or poking fun at them is a TennisWorld levy I think of as The Celebrity Tax that the fortunate and well-compensated must pay now and then), but

“I feel as if I’ve been reincarnated,” Jennifer Capriati said one day in 2001. Given all the 25-year-old Capriati had been through, the logic behind this statement was clear. Capriati turned pro the month she turned 14, in March 1990. Just over two years later, Capriati had reached the semifinals

A wise teaching pro once said, “Sometimes all those tactics mean nothing. Sometimes it just comes down to this: nerves and serves.” Those two rhyming factors played a major role in Naomi Osaka’s 6-3, 6-4 semifinal win over Serena Williams. This might well have been inevitable given the occasion and

Three years ago, Alexandra Dulgheru had a predicament. Call it the oft-invisible underbelly of being a lower-ranked player in pro tennis. Returning to week-to-week WTA Tour play after an injury-meets-surgery setback, she was sponsor-less. That also meant kit-less. She contacted, of all people, Venus Williams.

It's back to the grind time. After a six-week retreat together on All England Club grass, the pros go their separate ways on the hard courts of North America. The men are already underway in Toronto, minus a few prominent names, and with a few that seem uncertain how much

Jurgen Melzer is an awkward sort of a guy. Unlike most of the pros, who have perfected a nonchalant but still purposeful between-point strut, he doesn’t look all that sure of himself as he makes his hunched way around the court. He can also get tentative when he argues with

Growing up near the birthplace of pickleball, in Washington state, Chuck Taylor always had a love for the game. First discovering the sport in high school, Taylor was obsessed. At 41 years old, he’s still competing at the top of his game on the PPA Tour. Unlike the majority of

INDIAN WELLS, Calif.—If you’ve ever suspected that the pros are fundamentally different from the rest of us—more assured, less anxious, tougher all around—Sunday’s two finals here should make you think twice about that notion. Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic each raced through the first set of their matches and stood