This is it for me, I’m going back to New York City tomorrow (but, contrary to Dylan, I don't believe I've had enough). By Thursday I may wish I was back in this debilitating desert heat. Here’s a last run through the scribblings in my Reporter’s Notebook (yes, that’s what

Does a yellowish tint coat your TV screen during the Fox Sports broadcasts from Key Biscayne, as if the tournament were being played behind a haze of South Florida humidity? For some inexplicable reason, I like it. The lack of a crystal-clear picture makes me feel as if the tournament

We seem, after three years, an entirely new dual-gender tournament, two new major arenas, and a flip-flop or two in the schedule, to have the clay season straight at last. It’s Madrid first, Rome second, with all the men and women who can make it. Nadal has won his local

The Netherlands was a cradle of capitalism, so maybe it makes sense that the center court in Rotterdam, with its slick black seats and soberly-dressed spectators, looks like a super-sized corporate conference room. Scanning the crowd, you may wonder if blazers are mandatory. But while the place is a little

PARIS—There were a few close calls along the way, but we're going to get the French Open showdown we’ve talked about all spring: Novak Djokovic vs. Rafael Nadal, No. 1 vs. No. 2, each in his own historical duel with one of the game's legends. If Djokovic wins, he becomes

As Serena Williams walked through the tunnel and onto the stadium court at Indian Wells on Friday night, she wasn’t sure what she was going to hear. The last time she had been in this position at the BNP Paribas Open was in 2001, as a 19-year-old, and she had

Tennis Channel's exclusive interview with 2017 US Open champion Rafael Nadal NEW YORK—They say you should never underestimate the heart of a champion. As Rafael Nadal showed in his flawlessly controlled 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 win over Kevin Anderson in the US Open final on Sunday, you should never underestimate the

When Friday’s semifinal at Wimbledon between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal began, the match that was on everyone’s minds was their classic 2008 final on Centre Court. This was the first time that the Spaniard and the Swiss had met in that arena since their legendary dual in the dusk

I’ve already described Court 11 as Wimbledon's sleepy section. Located at the far end of the old grounds and covered with a canopy that ripples in the breeze, it invites a good doze. The fans are happy to take advantage. I went out to 11 during the second set of

Let the Happy Rivalry begin. After facing each other 14 times, standing alone together on the tennis mountaintop for three years, and fending off—for the moment—an upstart partycrasher, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal deserve to enjoy a little friendly competition along the Mediterranean. But you kind of miss the edge,

Roger Federer and revenge is an odd and unpredictable combination. I don’t mean “revenge,” precisely. The word doesn’t apply in today’s professional, above-board, we’re-all-in-it together ATP the way it did when Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe were promising to follow each other “to the ends of the earth.” Let’s say

When the freshman players walked into our coach’s office at Swarthmore College in the fall of 1987, the first things we noticed were the photos. There were a dozen or so of them on the walls, all framed, all black and white. Nearly all of them were of the 1981

INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.—It’s a tradition here to wander the grounds over the course of the first weekend at the BNP Paribas Open, taking in whatever sights and sounds that present themselves. The starkness of the surrounding landscape makes the site itself—known with surprising appropriateness as the Indian Wells Tennis Garden—seem

INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.—“Obviously he’s been on the road for a long time,” Sloane Stephens toldwtatennis.com this week, when she was asked about her new mentor, Paul Annacone. “He’s also coached Pete Sampras and Tim Henman. Way to make a guy feel young, Sloane. It’s true, though, Annacone’s work with Pistol

Joella and I wrap up our discussion of Roger Federer today. You can find Part 1 here; Part II here; and Part III here. ** Joella, By now it's hard for many of us to remember that Federer was once a long-haired enthusiast of heavy metal and pro wrestling, an

At 11:00 Sunday morning two men entered the grounds at Melbourne Park holding the men’s and women’s championship trophies. They brought them in by hand, right out in the open for everyone to see. Not surprisingly, they were head-turners. Every straggling fan who walked past them stopped and looked back

"Vamo . . . vamo . . . vamo," goes the lazy, one-man chant from the corner of the Stadium 2 bleachers. In the distance, a motorcycle guns down an unseen road. Moths make erratic loops around the court's towering lighting fixtures before suddenly dropping to the court. Juan-Martin del

The tough thing about watching sports is how much movement it requires—it can be exhausting. Yesterday a friend and fellow Philadelphia Eagles fan (yes, I’m going to talk football to start, as a man must do on Mondays; skip to the next paragraph for tennis) came over to watch our

PARIS—“Be ready, be ready, be ready!” “Find your pace.” “Hit your shots.” These urgent words of advice are being directed toward Viktor Troicki from the front rows of the Bullring as he begins his match on Saturday morning. While they may sound a little basic and obvious as far as

Today, at approximately 3:00 P.M., after three days of increasingly stinging, increasingly suffocating humidity, the Rogers Cup, otherwise known as the Rogers Death March, boiled over. The most obvious effects of the weather were seen in the stadium court, where Novak Djokovic and Julien Benneteau, hat brims pulled to eye