Rafa_161 By Rosangel Valenti, TW Contributing Editor As many of you know, I spent several days watching tennis live last week, at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona. It was the tenth stop on the 'Rafa Euro-Spectator Slam'. It was even hotter than Monte Carlo last week - I now

• Picby Pete Bodo* If it really is true that "getting there is half the fun," the United States Fed Cup team is going to have a whale of a time in its upcoming tie at the Superior Golf and Spa and Resort in Kharkiv, Ukraine. When Team USA captain

• Picby Pete Bodo* It's an inevitable conversation that takes place the minute they crown the Australian Open champion. Can (fill in the name of the winner) be the first player to complete a calendar year Grand Slam since Rod Laver last did it in 1969 on the men's side,

• Murray by Gauloises, Contributing Writer* Paris - It’s 1.13 a.m., and I’m thinking about the match I’ve just seen - the last match I’ll see at the Palais Omnisports in 2010. Andy Murray beat Marin Cilic, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, in a contest that started on Thursday in a packed

• Picby Pete Bodo* **WIMBLEDON, England—While Andy Roddick, fresh off a straight-sets win before the smart set on No. 1 Court, was waxing philosophical in the main interview room—a thoughtful veteran of almost 30, savvy enough to know he'd better take the time to smell the roses before the petals

• 201203291503542298684-p2@stats.comby Pete Bodo* MIAMI—It can’t always be easy being Maria Sharapova. For all of the accolades and rewards she’s earned, she’s too much of a competitor—too much the jock—to be content to sit back and smell the roses. Sharapova is still a focused, ambitious tennis player and, despite having

Eight matches worth watching on the opening day of the 2013 U.S. Open: THE WOMEN (12) Kirsten Flipkens vs. Venus Williams Head-to-head: Tied 1-1 They opened the U.S. Open Series squaring off in Toronto, where Flipkens rallied for an 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 win, saving 11 of the 16 break points

Never before has a virus had such strange symptoms: Whiffing on a swing at a tennis ball; having trouble bouncing and catching the ball. Double Faults. But that’s just what Serena Williams was doing when we last saw her, at Wimbledon, in the moments before she and sister Venus defaulted

• Picby Pete Bodo* We tend not to think of the USA and France as rivals in anything other than, periodically, the mutual contempt department. Their food and cultural history may be superior, but we have a better record against Germany in combat, and whoever heard of a great French

• Picby Pete Bodo* He's getting to be like the guy who's still dancing with a lampshade on his head and crying, "Whoo-hooo!" while everyone else is played out and leaving the party. Or like the ex-boyfriend who just won't go away—and just may end up marrying the fickle beauty

*Henin-flipkens by Bobby Chintapalli, TW Contributing Editor Like any serious tennis nerd I devoured the Australian Open draw as soon as it was released, checking who Justine Henin will face in the first round (Kirsten Flipkens), how early the Williams sisters could meet (semifinals) and, yes, how rosy things look

• Picby Pete Bodo* It's a good time to measure how much traction various players have as we enter a time of year that is absolutely loaded with meaning. Before the month is out, we'll have watched two ATP Masters events, three WTA Premier events, and a good portion of

Blake5 By Andrew Friedman, TW Contributing Writer Most professional athletes, or celebrities of any kind, love nothing more than to talk about themselves James Blake is not that athlete. I know this firsthand because I had the privilege of coauthoring his autobiography Breaking Back last year, and got many of

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The feud between Australia's Davis Cup captain and an exiled player escalated at the season-opening major when Lleyton Hewitt said Bernard Tomic threatened him and his family. Tomic, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist in 2011, followed his first-round loss at the Australian Open by saying Hewitt should quit

MASON, Ohio -- The vintage rematch ended with Rafael Nadal pumping his arms after a final forehand. He was a little bit better than old nemesis Roger Federer once again. Nadal advanced to the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 win over Federer on

WATCH: Ostapenko booked a blockbuster semifinal with Victoria Azarenka after winning a titanic three-setter over Shelby Rogers.

Initially, I figured that there were so many weird stories coming out of, or associated with, Australia this year, that the winner in this category would simply be Australian tennis. But then I got to thinking that the great island continent actually is no worse off or less confused than

• Picby Pete Bodo* Venus Williams was bumped out of the Rome combined event today by Maria Sharapova, but she must feel contented with the way her tournament went from at least one angle: While I'm neither a math whiz nor a compulsive ranking-points monitor, it looks to me like

by Pete Bodo It's as powerful and predictable a natural event as the great caribou migration in Alaska, the flight of Monarch butterflies to Mexico, or the hazardous journey freshwater eels undertake in order to reach the Sargasso sea. As soon as the last ball at the French Open is

So the draw is made for the year's first Grand Slam, and the more ambitious among you have already worked out the semifinal pairings (nice of you to not give away the final results, why ruin the suspense for the rest of us?). Is this what is meant by "jumping