Articles by Steve Tignor

ATP Finals Preview: No No. 1 at stake, but London showcase is special

Fri, 09 Nov 2018 16:15:00 +0000

Court Report: Looking ahead to the Nitto ATP Finals in London

Two weeks ago, the Nitto ATP Finals in London looked as if it would be the sight of a photo finish for the year-end No. 1 ranking. Rafael Nadal, who dominated the clay season, and Novak Djokovic, who dominated everything after, were separated by only a few dozen points in their race for the top spot.

Unfortunately for lovers of suspense—i.e., sports fans—that race ended it before it ever reached the homestretch. Nadal pulled out of this event and underwent ankle surgery, which means that instead of a photo finish, the ATP Finals will host a coronation. Djokovic comes to London having already clinched his fifth year-end No. 1, tying him with Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer for second on the all-time men’s list behind Pete Sampras.

So what’s left to watch at the O2 Arena? What we always watch at a season-ending event: A weeklong showcase, in a theatrically darkened stadium, of the eight best players of 2018—or at least the eight best players who happen to be healthy after 10 months of tennis. They won’t start playing until Sunday, but they’ve already been split into the customary pair of four-man groups. Here’s a look at how they might play out.

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Sunday's matches at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Group Lleyton Hewitt: Roger Federer, Dominic Thiem, Kevin Anderson, Kei Nishikori

Roger Federer
2018 record: 46-8; career record vs. group: 12-5; career record at ATP Finals: 55-13

Federer, who reached the semifinals in London last year, can’t catch Djokovic for No. 1, but he could pass Nadal for No. 2. He certainly has the experience advantage over his group-mates: Federer has played this event every year since 2002, with the exception of his injury-shortened 2016. With his recent title in Basel, and his semifinal run at Bercy, the 37-year-old also happens to be playing some good tennis at the moment. Still, his 12-5 record against his round-robin competition isn’t quite as one-sided as we might expect from him. Federer is just 1-2 against Thiem, and he lost to Anderson in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. It will be interesting to see him try to get the better of those two this time around. He probably will.

Dominic Thiem
2018 record: 53-18; career record vs. group: 5-10; career record at ATP Finals: 2-4

The fact that Thiem is still standing, and even thriving, at this late stage of the season should probably be considered progress. In past years, the hardest-working man in pro tennis has typically faded down the stretch. Not in 2018: This fall, he has reached the quarterfinals at the US Open, won a tournament in St. Petersburg, won two Davis Cup matches for Austria, and reached the semifinals at Bercy. At 25, with a Roland Garros runner-up finish on his résumé, this would seem to be the year for Thiem to advance past the round-robin stage in London for the first time.

Kevin Anderson
2018 record: 45-17; career record vs. group: 10-11; career record at ATP Finals: 0-0

Anderson is the neophyte in this group; he’s making his ATP Finals debut at the unlikely age of 32. Will the dip into uncharted waters have an effect? Possibly. The cerebral South African doesn’t gravitate toward the spotlight, and he never found anything close to his A game in his first US Open final last year, or in his first Wimbledon final this summer. As far as his record against his group-mates, though, Anderson should be ready. He’s nearly .500, he has a 6-2 record against Thiem, and he beat Federer at Wimbledon. At 6’8”, with a serve to match, he should also like the controlled conditions at the 02. Both of Anderson’s titles in 2018, in Vienna and on Long Island, came on indoor hard courts. His run in Vienna also included wins over Nishikori and Thiem.

Kei Nishikori
2018 record: 42-19; career record vs. group: 10-11; career record at ATP Finals: 4-7

Nishikori’s return from injury in 2018 hasn’t been quite as spectacular as Djokovic’s, but it has been impressive nonetheless. He’s qualified for his fourth ATP Finals despite missing the Australian Open and Indian Wells at the start of the year. To make it, Nishikori played some of the best tennis of his career over the second half of the season, reaching the semifinals at the US Open and finals in Tokyo and Vienna. While his 4-7 record in London might not sound auspicious, it has been enough to advance him to the semis in two of his three appearances there.

Semifinalists: Federer, Thiem

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Monday's matches at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Group Gustavo Kuerten: Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Marin Cilic, John Isner

Novak Djokovic
2018 record: 49-11; career record vs. group: 25-5; career record at ATP Finals: 31-11

It’s getting to the point, already, where there aren’t any praises left to sing—Djokovic is back, Djokovic is No. 1 again, Djokovic is the best player in the world, Djokovic has won this tournament five times of the 10 times he’s played it, Djokovic looks unbeatable at the moment. Is he? The Serb has won his last 23 matches dating back to early August, and has lost just once since the start of Wimbledon. Probably the most we can say against him as far as this tournament goes is that each of the three players in his group has the potential to challenge him. Cilic beat him at Queen’s Club this year, and took a set from him at Bercy last week. Zverev has a 1-1 record against him. And Isner has two wins at Masters 1000s over him. But Djokovic is still 25-5 against them overall.

Alexander Zverev
2018 record: 54-18; career record vs. group: 10-3; career record at ATP Finals: 1-2

Which Zverev will we see, the one who won three tournaments by the beginning of August, or the one who looked lost down the stretch, and suffered losses to players like Malek Jaziri, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Marius Copil? Can Zverev salvage his second half and give himself a little momentum for 2019, or is it too late to hope for anything new and better from him at this late date? His round-robin opposition should help his cause: Zverev is 10-3 overall against them, including a 4-1 record against Isner and a surprising 5-1 record against Cilic. He’s probably lucky he’s only played Djokovic twice.

Marin Cilic
2018 record: 41-18; career record vs. group: 10-24; career record at ATP Finals: 1-8

Numbers-wise, this week looks like a struggle for Cilic. He’s 2-16 against Djokovic, 1-5 against Zverev, and he’s recorded just one victory in three appearances at this event. Facing the best doesn’t bring out the best in Cilic; if anything, it exposes the fact that he doesn’t have a higher gear than the normal, everyday level he uses to beat his lower-ranked opponents.

John Isner
2018 record: 34-19; career record vs. group: 6-19; career record at ATP Finals: 0-0

It has been a big year for the big guy. He has become a father; won his first Masters 1000 title, in Miami; and reached his first Grand Slam semifinal, at Wimbledon. Now, at 33, with help from withdrawals by Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro, he will make his appearance at the ATP Finals. How will Isner fare? The numbers are against him. He comes to London with the fewest wins (34) in 2018 of any of the eight competitors, and he comes in with losing records against all three of his round-robin opponents. Still, Isner does have two wins over Djokovic. With his serve, and what you have to expect will be a nothing-to-lose attitude, there’s always a chance.

Semifinalists: Djokovic, Zverev

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Semifinals: Djokovic d. Nishikori; Federer d. Zverev

Final: Djokovic d. Federer

This Week on Tennis Channel:

Fed Cup Final (Sat. 11/10 to Sun. 11/11)
Petra Kvitova leads the Czech Republic against defending champions USA. Live coverage begins Saturday at 8:00 am EST.

Khachanov’s sturdy game is a welcome addition to ATP's top tier

Sun, 04 Nov 2018 22:02:00 +0000

WATCH—Karen Khachanov shocks Novak Djokovic in Paris final:

Karen Khachanov had come a long way over the course of a week in Paris.

In the fourth round, he had survived a three-tiebreaker shootout against John Isner, closing it with the shot of his life, a laser backhand-pass winner on his fifth match point. In the quarterfinals and semifinals, the 22-year-old Russian had dispatched the two most accomplished players of his up-and-coming generation, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem, in straight-set runaways. Now, in his first Masters 1000 final, against Novak Djokovic, Khachanov had bounced back from an early 1-3 deficit to level the first set at 5-5. For 10 games, he had gone toe-to-toe and backhand-to-backhand with the world No. 1 and had held his own.

To actually take a set from Djokovic, though, Khachanov would have to do more. He had earned a break point for 6-5, but, right on cue, Djokovic had immediately taken control of the next rally with his best crosscourt backhand and down-the-line forehand of the match. He was upping his game and challenging Khachanov to respond. Challenge met: Just when Djokovic looked to have the point won with a crosscourt approach shot, Khachanov lunged to his left, took a backhand at his shoe-tops, and reflexed a low-lining passing shot that Djokovic couldn’t handle. As he swung his racquet, Khachanov also let out an extended grunt, the kind of sound that Djokovic and others traditionally make when they know they’ve hit a match-changing winner.

Khachanov had taken Djokovic’s best shot, and responded in exactly the way Djokovic would have responded, by ranging behind the baseline and turning the tables with a one sharp, compact swing of his racquet. With that unexpected knockdown counter-punch, the Russian had put Djokovic on the ropes, and he never trailed again. After 97 minutes, Khachanov had his first win over a member of the Big 3 in eight tries, and his first Masters 1000 title, 7-5, 6-4. He had been good enough to create his chance in the first set, and calm enough to make the most of it in the second.

“It means the world to me,” said Khachanov, who closes the year at a career-high No. 11. “I couldn’t be happier to finish the season like this.”

While Djokovic had to be feeling the effects of a hard-earned three-set win over Roger Federer the previous day, he was also on a roll—he had won his last 22 matches—and he had a major edge in experience. Coming in, Djokovic was 4-0 in finals at Bercy, and 72-31 in finals for his career.

“I want to talk about how well he played all week,” Djokovic said. “So all the credit to him. He deserves it. He’s a young player up and coming...He showed great quality today and he showed why we’re going to see a lot of him in the future.”

WATCH—Tennis Channel Live reacts to Khachanov's stunning win over Djokovic:

It was Khachanov, rather than Djokovic, who repeatedly got in the first blow in a rally, with his lethally reliable serve-forehand combination. It was Khachanov who closed more assuredly and effectively at the net. It was Khachanov who held his nerve with a lead in the second set, and who didn’t let Djokovic ripcord his way back into the match, the way he has on so many occasions when faced with defeat. It was Khachanov who, judging by his words afterward, didn’t just come in hoping to belt his way to a one-off victory. He had a well-thought-out game plan, and he never seemed to be playing beyond his limits or at a level that he won’t be able to reach in the future.

“One thing with Novak, you can’t just go to the net, because he has unbelievable passing shots,” Khachanov said. “You have to really prepare your coming through. You have to really sort out the right shots when you can go to the net.”

Did we just see a career-changing week in Khachanov’s life? Does the sport have a new major-title contender for 2019? Most signs point to yes, at least on the first count.

It’s true that Jack Sock won here last year, and he obviously didn’t go onto greater things this season. And it’s true that Khachanov was one point from elimination against Isner in the quarterfinals. But Khachanov has been building up to this performance. He won two other tournaments in 2018, and his four-set loss to Rafael Nadal at the US Open was one of the best matches of those two weeks. Along with Stefanos Tsitsipas, who reached a Masters 1000 final in Toronto, and Borna Coric, who reached one in Shanghai, Khachanov’s victory at Bercy makes the ATP’s Next Gen pool a little deeper going forward.

As a player, Khachanov is prototypical of the moment: He’s a rangy and athletic 6’6”, and he plays a straightforward power-baseline game, without much in the way of bells or whistles or variations. The only visible aberration in his game is the way he holds racquet face down on his forehand side when he takes it back. In the past, that windup has made the shot erratic, especially on low balls, but he was consistent with his forehand this week. The take-back also helped him pull off his most spectacular shot against Djokovic, a bolo-punch crosscourt forehand pass hit on the full run.

Just as welcome as Khachanov’s game is the personality he brings to the court. At first glance, it doesn’t look like much. Like his style of play, Khachanov appears to be a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. He lumbers a little between points, wears his hat backwards, and doesn’t show a lot of emotion. He doesn’t have the leaping flash of Denis Shapovalov, the heir-apparent presumption of Zverev, the edgy unpredictability of Nick Kyrgios, or the deep-thoughts soulfulness of Tsitsipas. All of which makes Khachanov, in many ways, a relief to watch: Rather than adding his own personal drama to a match, he just gets on with it. He doesn’t throw tantrums, and from what I’ve seen, when he loses, he accepts it and moves on. In general, he doesn’t act as if he’s the next great champion in waiting.

“I have the same goals I had last year,” Khachanov said of what he hopes to do in 2019. “Finish as high as I can, and work with my team to try to keep getting better.”

Khachanov came a long way this week, and, with a sturdy game and a level head, he looks destined to go a lot farther.

Why Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal shouldn't play in Saudi Arabia

Fri, 02 Nov 2018 11:39:00 +0000

WATCH: Roger Federer on his decision not to play in the Saudi Arabia exhibition

The tennis world was hoping to see its two best male players, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, face off in a final in Paris this coming Sunday. The Serb and the Spaniard began the week locked in a neck-and-neck race for the season-ending No. 1 ranking with just two tournaments remaining.

Alas, that showdown won’t happen: On Wednesday, Nadal announced that he was pulling out of the Paris Masters with an abdominal strain. The withdrawal completed Djokovic’s beyond-meteoric, three-month rise back to the top ranking. It doesn’t look like he’s going to surrender that spot again anytime soon.

What made this development doubly painful for tennis fans was the fact that there actually is an upcoming match between Nadal and Djokovic that many hoped would be cancelled this week. But, alas again, that showdown—better known as the The King Salman Tennis Championship—is still on for December 22 in Jedda, Saudi Arabia. That’s the same Saudi Arabia that, since the murder of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the country’s Istanbul consulate on October 2, has become an international pariah. The same Saudi Arabia that has admitted responsibility for the killing, and has changed its story about how it happened multiple times.

Many of us have waited, as the news has trickled out and the evidence has piled up, for Nadal and Djokovic to back out of their $1 million dollar match. These are two players who, aside from being among the best ever on court, have also been among the sport’s best ambassadors. They’ve each won the ATP’s Humanitarian of the Year award, and have each won the Laureus Sportsman of the Year award, given out by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation.

Yet this week Nadal and Djokovic both said that they need to hear more.

“We are looking at how evolves the situation,” Nadal said, “and I hope things will clarify as soon as possible.”

“We have the commitment with them for over a year,” Djokovic said. “...right now we just don’t have obviously enough information, and we have to look into that a bit more and then we’ll make our decision soon.”

Judging by the information that has been reported this week—that Khashoggi was strangled to death as soon as he entered the consulate—the story isn’t likely to get any better by December. And it’s not likely to get any easier to justify, especially now that we know Roger Federer turned down a similar invitation to play in Saudi Arabia.

The story has been compared, rightfully, to the decision that John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg faced in 1980, when they were offered $1 million each—the most in tennis history at the time—to come to South Africa to play an exhibition that was billed as a Grand Slam tiebreaker. Borg had won at Wimbledon that year, and McEnroe at the US Open; this best-of-five-set match at Sun City would be the putative decider.

But there was another, older, wiser player who had something to say about it. Arthur Ashe, a longtime anti-apartheid activist, wrote a column in the Washington Post criticizing the idea, and urged McEnroe’s father, who doubled as his manager, to have his 21-year-old son drop out. The McEnroes eventually agreed. In a recent interview, John Jr. said he has never regretted the decision.

I don’t think Djokovic and Nadal would regret making the same decision. Yes, a million dollars is a million dollars. Yes, they want to honor their commitments, which were made well before Khashoggi’s murder. And Saudi Arabia isn’t the only country that could be considered controversial. Both tours travel to Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and it’s not unimaginable that a player could decide to boycott the US Open at some point, to protest the actions of this country or its president.

But the Saudi match is a one-off exo that will have no bearing on Djokovic’s and Nadal’s career records. It is also, through its name—the King Salman Tennis Championship—specifically linked to the ruling regime.

Nadal and Djokovic have made this era a Golden Age for men’s tennis not just with their play, but with the way they’ve handled themselves as people. For more than a decade, they’re represented tennis as well as anyone ever has. They’ve earned the right to be called ambassadors for the game, and they’ll be remembered for staging some of the greatest contests in its history. But in a year in which they played what may have been their very best match, at Wimbledon, do they also want to be remembered for playing a match in Saudi Arabia?

This Week on Tennis Channel PLUS:

ATP Paris (Mon - Sun 10.29 - 11.4)
- Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic headline the ATP Rolex Paris Masters. Watch live coverage from three courts on Tennis Channel PLUS beginning Monday 10/29 at 6:00 AM EST.

WTA Zhuhai (Mon - Sun 10.29 - 11.4)
- Tennis Channel PLUS has live action of Zhuhai starting Tuesday 10/30 at 12:30 AM EST

USTA Tyler (Tue - Sun 10.30 - 11.4)
-Tennis Channel PLUS features live competition and on-demand coverage of every WTA match from USTA Tyler beginning Tuesday 10/30 11:00 AM EST

What's at Stake: Nadal, Djokovic start their battle for No. 1 in Paris

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 13:07:00 +0000

Tennis Channel Live breaks down the main draw in Paris:

Two players, two tournaments, one ranking: That’s what’s left of the 2018 ATP season as we prepare to enter its final month. The players are Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the tournaments are the Paris Masters and the ATP Finals, and the ranking is the year-end No. 1. With two weeks left, Nadal and Djokovic are in a virtual dead heat, separated by just 35 points.

On Monday, their two-week stretch run begins in Bercy. Who will get a leg up? Here’s a look ahead.

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First Quarter

Nadal leads Djokovic by 35 points, but it feels as if the Spaniard is a long shot in their two-man race. That’s because he’ll be forced to defend quarterfinal points in Bercy, while Djokovic has nothing at all to defend the rest of the year. In 2017, Rafa tried to play in Paris despite a knee injury, before finally withdrawing in the quarterfinals. Does he wish now that he had never entered the event at all?

Unfortunately for Nadal, he also may be experiencing a strong sense of déjà vu. As in 2017, he comes to Paris with knee problems—or recent knee problems, anyway. This year he was forced to retire in the semifinals at the US Open and skip the Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, two tournaments that were won by Djokovic. How ready will Rafa be to resume the fight, at a tournament he has never won, and which he has only managed to play six times in his 15-year career? We’ll find out when he opens against either Fernando Verdasco or Jeremy Chardy.

Also here: Dominic Thiem. He leads Kei Nishikori by 325 points in the race for the No. 8 spot in London; that could become the No. 7 spot if the injured Juan Martin del Potro pulls out of the year-ender.

Player Of Interest: Jack Sock. The reckoning has come for the American, who won this title last year, and whose ranking will drop drastically if he makes an early exit. Sock will start against either Richard Gasquet or Denis Shapovalov.

First-round match to watch: Gasquet vs. Shapovalov

Semifinalist: Nadal

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Second Quarter

Alexander Zverev is the highest seed in this section, but the player with the most on the line is John Isner. The American trails Nishikori for what could be the final London spot by 155 points. More daunting is what he’s defending: While Isner was reaching the semis in Bercy last year, Nishikori was in absentia. The upside of that story, of course, is that Isner likes these courts. He made the final here in 2016, and the quarters in 2015. The first seed he could face this time is Kyle Edmund.

First-round match to watch: Karen Khachanov vs. Filip Krajinovic. The Serb is defending runner-up points after his trip to the final last year. On the plus side, he seems to be rounding into (very) late season form again; last week in Basel, Krajinovic pushed Roger Federer deep into a third set.

Semifinalist: Zverev

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Third Quarter

Federer and Kevin Anderson are the top seeds here, and they’re coming off titles in Basel and Vienna, respectively. Will they have much motivation left for Paris, considering that they’ve both clinched spots in London? Federer hasn’t played here since 2015; last year he won the title in Basel and withdrew.

Who would benefit most if Federer and Anderson aren’t at their sharpest or most motivated this week? That would be Nishikori. He’s coming off a final-round appearance in Vienna, he has no points to defend from last year, and he seems to be on a mission to make it to London, despite having missed a significant stretch of the season. Nishikori was a semifinalist in Paris in 2014; this time he’ll start against either Adrian Mannarino or Ugo Humbert.

First-round match to watch: Milos Raonic vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. They’ve staged a few epics in the past.

Semifinalist: Nishikori

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Fourth Quarter

Djokovic, suddenly, is sitting pretty. Since July, he has won two majors and two Masters 1000 events, and he has no points to defend in Paris—last year’s famine has turned to this year’s feast for the Serb. And unlike his rival Nadal, who has never won this tournament, Djokovic is a four-time champion with a 28-7 record in Paris. Who knows, he may even get a chance to exact a little revenge along the way this time. Djokovic could start against the player who knocked him out of the French Open, Marco Cecchinato; after that he could face the player who knocked him out of Toronto, Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Also here: Marin Cilic, who is closing in on his fourth appearance at the season-ender in London.

Partnership to watch: No. 9 seed Grigor Dimitrov was spotted on court in Bercy with Andre Agassi.

Semifinalist: Djokovic

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Semifinals: Nadal d. Zverev; Djokovic d. Nishikori

Final: Djokovic d. Nadal

With flawless week in Singapore, Svitolina turned her 2018 around

Sun, 28 Oct 2018 18:00:00 +0000

HIGHLIGHTS: Svitolina d. Stephens, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, at the WTA Finals

In recent years, we’ve seen players like Serena Williams, Petra Kvitova, and Maria Sharapova cap triumphant, breakthrough seasons by walking away with the title at the WTA Finals. But Elina Svitolina’s championship run in Singapore this week was something different. It was the opposite, really: She wanted to salvage what she could of a breakthrough season that had gone puzzlingly wrong.

“For me, going into this tournament was very important mentally to bounce back,” Svitolina said on Thursday. “You know, I had a really, really tough second part of the season.”

After winning three tournaments early in 2018, and routing world No. 1 Simona Halep in the Rome final in May, the 24-year-old Ukrainian had hit a wall, physically and mentally. Over the second half of the season, she crashed out early at the last three majors, reached just one semifinal overall, and watched as younger players like Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka won Slams and grabbed headlines. Svitolina’s spot in Singapore wasn’t guaranteed until late in the fall, and few expected much from her when she arrived there.

Even worse, when Svitolina wasn’t playing tennis, she was hearing from online critics. She lost a significant amount of weight early in 2018, a fact that became—unfortunately, predictably—fodder for social-media chatter. As Svitolina put it this week, “There’s a thousand opinions, a million opinions.”

“I stopped with my coach, Thierry, and it was not easy,” Svitolina said of her September break-up with the man who had helped her reach the Top 5, Thierry Ascione. “With all the things going on social media, with the opinions about my physique, it wasn’t easy.”

What was easy to see right away in Singapore was that Svitolina had come there with the intention of putting the last five months behind her. She looked stronger, her grunt was louder, and she was hitting the ball with a single-mindedness that had largely been missing since May. Just as important, she was also competing with a sense of single-mindedness. There was a hopeful desperation to Svitolina’s body language at this event, and it showed in her results.

She opened the week with her first win over Petra Kvitova after seven straight defeats. She followed that with just her third win in eight tries against Karolina Pliskova. She out-fought defending champion Caroline Wozniacki in a win-or-go-home shootout. She edged Kiki Bertens in a three-set slugfest in the semifinals. And she closed with a patient, convincing comeback win, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, over Sloane Stephens for the biggest title of her career.

Before the final, I wrote that this contest would pit Stephens’ cool control against Svitolina’s redemptive resolve. In the end, it was Svitolina’s emotion, her stubbornness, her desire to redeem her season, and her willingness to do the hard baseline work needed to break down Stephens that made the difference. After dozens of grueling, entertaining rallies, Sloane finally couldn’t match Svitolina’s desire.

Unfortunately for Stephens, the Singapore final unfolded much like her French Open final against Halep had.

In both cases, Stephens’ blend of consistency and weight of shot—her topspin really got up and spun away from her opponents on the Singapore surface—was impossible for either Svitolina or Halep to hit through in the early going. In both cases, Stephens won the first set with ease, before letting her nerves slow her momentum midway through the second set. In both cases, when Sloane hesitated, her opponent dug in her heels.

Much like Halep in Paris, Svitolina stopped trying to the ball past Stephens, and instead hit it directly at her. In doing so, Svitolina took away one of Stephens’ strengths, her ability to defend and counter-punch while she’s on the run; she isn’t as comfortable or effective hitting from a stationary position. Instead, it was Svitolina who grew more comfortable as she worked the rallies over the last two sets.

“It’s amazing, I’m very, very pleased with my performance this week,” Svitolina told BT Sport afterward. “There were definitely nerves, but I was just trying to fight for every ball, and I think that’s what made the difference in the end. I refused to give away free points.”

Stephens walks away from Singapore the same way she walked away from Paris: Knowing that her game is difficult for anyone to counter, and knowing that once she settles into an event, there’s no limit to how far she can go. But she also walks away knowing that, when her opponent raised her level in the final, she didn’t have an answer. She couldn’t find another gear against Halep or Svitolina. But Stephens also must know that, with her speed and ball-striking skills, that gear exists. Whether Sloane can find it or not on the big stages will be one of the intriguing WTA stories of 2019.

What does this win mean for Svitolina as we look to 2019? Recent Singapore history renders a split verdict: In 2017, Dominika Cibulkova also recorded the biggest win of her career at the WTA Finals, but she has largely been a non-factor since. In 2018, though, Wozniacki used her title run in Singapore as a springboard to her first Slam win, three months later at the Australian Open. Those are footsteps that Svitolina, who has yet to play her best at the majors, wants to follow.

“I’m very pleased with my week here,” she said. “I have proven a lot of things to myself, that I can play well.”

Whatever happens to Svitolina next year, she has shown that she can bounce back from adversity, and use it as motivational fuel. Over the course of one brilliant, whirlwind week, she made 2018 into the breakthrough season it was supposed to be all along.

WTA Finals preview: Sloane Stephens vs. Elina Svitolina

Sat, 27 Oct 2018 16:04:00 +0000

WTA FINALS HIGHLIGHTS: Sloane Stephens d. Karolina Pliskova in the semifinals

A week ago, when the WTA’s season-ending championship was getting underway, few believed that Elina Svitolina and Sloane Stephens would be the last women standing in Singapore. Stephens was a rookie at this event, and she has never played well in Asia. Svitolina had been in a slump since May, and had failed to advance to the semifinals here in her only previous appearance, in 2017. But the WTA Finals, with its limited draw and round-robin format, tends to take on a life of its own over the course of a week. In 2016 and 2017, few expected the eventual champions, Dominika Cibulkova and Caroline Wozniacki, to walk away with the title when the tournament began.

As this week unfolded, it quickly became clear that Stephens and Svitolina were playing the best tennis in their respective groups. The speedy American used the slow surface to wait out her opponents, while the Ukrainian brought a renewed, grunt-fueled relentlessness to her baseline attack. Each went 3-0 in round-robin play, and each made a gritty goal-line stand in the semifinals on Saturday. Stephens survived a bagel first set to beat Karolina Pliskova in three, while Svitolina fought off break points at 5-4 in the third set against Kiki Bertens.

Stephens and Svitolina have played three times, and Stephens has won twice; that includes a straight-set victory in their only meeting of 2018, in Montreal. The surface here will also favor Stephens, as it has all week; it seems tailor-made for Sloane’s unique blend of impenetrable defense and high, heavy counter-punching—you have to be on, for a long time, to beat her. And while she has never played a season-ending final before, Stephens has won a US Open, and she’s 6-2 in her career in finals. Typically, in big matches, her steadiness serves her well against opponents who get the jitters.

WATCH HIGHLIGHTS: Elina Svitolina d. Kiki Bertens in the Singapore semifinals

Will the 24-year-old Svitolina get a little jittery in her first season-ending final? She has never made it past the quarters at a Grand Slam event, or played a match of this importance. If anything, though, her track record in finals is even better than Stephens. She’s 12-2 for her career, and 3-0 in 2018.

Perhaps more important, it feels like Svitolina has been on a mission in Singapore. From January until May, 2018 had appeared to be a breakout season for her. Then, after losing a significant amount of weight, she was inundated with comments and criticism about her physique, and her game and results cratered. This week a recharged, and physically stronger, Svitolina has been determined to salvage what she can of 2018, and put that criticism behind her.

Which will win out: The cool control of Stephens or the redemptive resolve of Svitolina? Either way, it’s a match that should go the distance, and should, hopefully, send an entertaining 2018 WTA season out on a deserved high note.

Winner: Svitolina

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Stephens, Bertens, Pliskova, Svitolina: WTA Finals semifinal previews

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 14:39:00 +0000

Interview: Sloane Stephens, semifinalist at the WTA Finals

After an unusually competitive week of round-robin play at the WTA Finals, the top four seeds are out, while the bottom four remain—two of whom are also rookies at this event. For three of the four surviving semifinalists, a win in Singapore would be the biggest of their careers thus far. It might also change their careers going forward.

Here’s a look ahead at Saturday’s semis.

*****

Sloane Stephens vs. Karolina Pliskova

The American and the Czech have played three times, and none of the matches have been what you would call a classic: Of their nine sets, not one has been closer than 6-3. Stephens won their first two meetings, before Pliskova won their last one, in Madrid in May.

Oddly, Pliskova’s only win came on clay, a surface that should be to Stephens’ advantage. It’s also a surface that bares some resemblance to the notoriously slow indoor hard courts in Singapore. As expected, those courts have been to Stephens’ liking this week; she was 3-0 on them in round-robin play. But the more offensive-minded Pliskova has also thrived on them. She was 2-1 this week, and she also reached the semifinals on them last year.

With her serve and her low-percentage laser strikes from the baseline, Pliskova has the ability to blow Stephens off the court. But if both women play in the middle range of their capabilities, Stephens has the better chance of grinding Pliskova down, and making her hit one more ball than she can keep in play. As Sloane says, she’s tough when she settles into an event, and she looks settled in right now. Winner: Stephens

Elina Svitolina vs. Kiki Bertens

Bertens and Svitolina are surprise semifinalists for different reasons: Bertens because she has never been ranked higher than No. 22 at the end of a season; Svitolina because her 2018 campaign took a turn for the worse at the French Open, and didn’t turn back until this week.

As far as their head-to-head goes, they’ve split two matches. Svitolina won a 2016 meeting in Asia, while Bertens won, in straight sets, in Cincinnati this summer. Judging from Svitolina’s form and fight so far in Singapore, though, she seems primed to turn that result back around. She went 3-0 in her group, and she played her best, most determined tennis at the most crucial moment, at the end of the second set in her semifinal-clinching win over Caroline Wozniacki on Thursday. Whoever comes out on top in this one, the rallies should offer toe-to-toe, nothing-held-back entertainment. Winner: Svitolina

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Svitolina's final-week resurrection has been the story of Singapore

Thu, 25 Oct 2018 19:06:00 +0000

HIGHLIGHTS: Svitolina d. Wozniacki, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3, at the WTA Finals

Coming into this year’s WTA Finals, there was no shortage of potential story lines. Would Caroline Wozniacki raise her game to the same heights she reached in Singapore last year? Could Petra Kvitova finally play her best at a big event? How would Finals rookies Sloane Stephens, Naomi Osaka, and Kiki Bertens fare?

What about Elina Svitolina? She was one player that didn’t seem destined to generate much buzz. The 24-year-old Ukrainian was enduring a stretch of mediocrity that dated all the way back to the French Open. After trouncing Simona Halep in the Rome final, Svitolina had arrived in Paris as one of the favorites; but little did she, or anyone else, suspect that it was all going to be downhill from there for her in 2018. She lost early at Roland Garros, even earlier at Wimbledon—the first round, to be exact—and she hasn’t reached a semifinal since early August. Along the way, Svitolina split with her coach, Thierry Ascione.

As disappointing as her on-court performances were, what Svitolina had to hear and read when she came off court may have been even tougher to take. She had lost a substantial amount of weight through the early part of 2018, and social media had a lot to say about it. As Svitolina admitted in Singapore today, it was a difficult stretch, especially in a year when expectations for her had been so high—Grand Slam title high. But those early expectations only made her more determined to salvage what she could of 2018 in Singapore.

“For me, going into this tournament was very important mentally to bounce back, and you know, I had a really, really tough second part of the season,” Svitolina said today. “I was actually surprised, because I was very positive and just keep fighting.”

“I stopped with my coach, Thierry, and it was not easy. With all the things going on social media, with the opinions about my physique, it wasn’t easy.”

Svitolina showed up in Singapore looking stronger than she had at mid-season; lean but not overly thin. And she showed up with what appeared to be a more aggressive mindset—she was grunting loudly, and swinging with a forcefulness, a single-mindedness, and a controlled assertiveness that had been missing for the last six months. She opened by breaking a seven-match losing streak to Petra Kvitova, then followed that up with a three-set win over Karolina Pliskova, a player she had lost to in five of their previous seven meetings. Suddenly Svitolina’s resurrection was the story of Singapore.

“The period of six months I think after my bad performance at Roland Garros, and then continued few tournaments that I didn’t play my best tennis I think made me stronger,” said Svitolina, who credited a “mysterious man” for giving her good advice. “I just decided what I have do on court, off court, and that’s more clear now.”

Still, Svitolina’s two wins weren’t enough to qualify her for the semifinals. On Thursday, she had to win a set from the defending champion, Wozniacki; Judging by their last meeting, that wasn’t going to be easy; 12 months ago in Singapore, Wozniacki beat her 6-2, 6-0. When Wozniacki snuck away with the first set on Thursday, 7-5, and went up an early break in the second, it looked like Svitolina’s turnaround would go for naught.

But Svitolina had come too far not to keep fighting until the last point was lost. Throwing everything she had into every shot, she broke back, nosed ahead 6-5, and finally closed out Wozniacki—who was also playing for a spot in the semis—on her fifth set point. Svitolina’s eventual 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 win left her 3-0 in round-robin play, won her the White Group, and got her to her first semifinal at the WTA’s season-ender.

Afterward, she felt as if a weight—an on-court weight and an off-court weight—that had been growing for six months was off her shoulders.

“By knowing that I have to look only on my path and to don’t—there is a thousand opinions, a million opinions,” Svitolina said when she was asked what she had discovered about herself this season. “I just have to do my job and go on court. I’m trying to win every point. I’m not giving any free points.”

“Today I saw, you know, this challenge. I’m really, really happy the way I could handle it.”

In this season of WTA stories, Svitolina’s resurrection comes as a final-week surprise. But it also may be the most important and intriguing going into 2019.

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In match of the week so far, Kerber battles past Osaka at WTA Finals

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 15:45:00 +0000

HIGHLIGHTS: Kerber edges Osaka at WTA Finals

“Both of these players know, they must win,” the play-by-play commentator intoned as Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka took the court in Singapore on Wednesday. These two women had lost their opening matches at the WTA Finals, which meant that if they harbored any reaonable hopes of advancing to the semifinals this weekend, they needed to turn their form around in a hurry and come out a winner today.

Both of them knew it, and both of them played like it. The result was the match of the tournament so far, fought with raw intensity and leave-it-all-on-the court athleticism for two and a half hours, and eventually won by Kerber, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. It was fitting, if unfortunate, that the one un-intense shot of the evening was the one that made the razor-thin difference between victory and defeat.

Like so many match-ups at this event, Kerber and Osaka offered an obvious contrast in styles. Osaka was going to attack, and Kerber was going to defend; Osaka was going to try to end points with winners, while Kerber was going to try to win them by forcing Osaka into errors.

But once the match began, that stylistic contrast wasn’t quite as obvious as it first appeared. Kerber won the first set because she was the player who was moving up more quickly and aggressively for her shots, while Osaka was hesitating. Kerber won because she found ways to set up her kill shot, the forehand down the line, and to nail it whenever she saw an opening. Kerber won because, when she went down 0-40 while serving for the set at 5-4, she patiently pushed Osaka back during rallies, and closed with two service winners.

Kerber’s patient aggression looked like it was going to be good enough to win the second set as well. Again, she was the more creative and consistent player, and again, she served at 5-4. But the German was also fighting a second battle in her head: could she close? On Monday, she had won the first set over Kiki Bertens, only to let the lead and the match slip away in three. On Wednesday, Kerber temporarily lost that inner battle again. She was broken by Osaka at 5-4, and broken again for the set at 5-6.

Now it was Osaka who had the momentum, and control of the points. Kerber, meanwhile, had to be filled with a terrible sense of déjà vu. That feeling likely grew worse when she faced a break point at 1-2; one more winner and Osaka would have her first lead of the match. She came within an inch of getting it, but her crosscourt backhand rocketed just wide of the sideline, and Kerber survived for 2-2.

That backhand miss would have haunted Osaka—if she hadn’t made an even more costly and memorable mistake two games later. Serving at 3-3, Osaka went up 40-15, and had the easiest of swing volleys, with the most wide open of open courts, to end the game. Except that she didn’t hit it into the open court. She hit right back to Kerber, who hadn’t bothered to move from her spot in the corner of the court. Kerber, surprised, reflexed up a lob that went over Osaka’s head. Osaka, perhaps because she was frustrated at having to hit another shot, never got herself in the right position, and ended up trying a frying-pan-style, two-handed backhand over her head, which landed short of the net. She smiled afterward, but she wasn’t smiling a few minutes later, when Kerber came back to break her.

That was all the opening Kerber needed. She grabbed onto the lifeline and held on tight over her last two service games. The final rally was fitting: Osaka moved Kerber side to side, and seemed to have the point won half a dozen times. But finally, after she had worked her way forward for the easiest putaway of all, she drilled the ball into the net. It was Osaka’s 50th unforced error of the day.

“One or two points decided the match,” Kerber said. “We both played at a really high level tonight. You push yourself to the limits, it’s the last tournament of the year.”

With the loss, Osaka may have reached her limit, and her breakthrough season may be over. Kerber, to her delight, has some more running to do.

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HIGHLIGHTS: Wozniacki truly begins WTA Finals defense with Kvitova win

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 17:17:00 +0000

HIGHLIGHTS: Caroline Wozniacki d. Petra Kvitova, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2

You might think a match between Petra Kvitova and Caroline Wozniacki would be a straightforward affair. Offense vs. defense, power vs. speed, dogged consistency vs. roller-coaster inconsistency: the Czech and the Dane offer one of the sport’s purest contrasts in style.

You might also think that the result of any match between them would rest entirely on Kvitova’s racquet. She’s the one who hits the big shots and takes the big risks, after all. The last four times she had played Wozniacki, Kvitova's shots went in; the last four times they played, she won.

Yet by the time Wozniacki had ended that losing streak with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Kvitova in Singapore on Tuesday, neither of the assumptions I just made in the last two paragraphs seemed to be true anymore. This choppy, sometimes scratchy, sometimes riveting, never predictable match, which took two hours and 16 minutes, was anything but straightforward.

Yes, Kvitova hit far more winners and made far more errors—40 each, to be exact. And yes, Kvitova lived up to her P3tra nickname with her up-and-down play over the course of three sets. But at crucial times, Wozniacki found a way to win with offense as well as defense. And the difference in the match came down to the a shot that you don’t always associate with either of these players: the return of serve.

In the first set, Wozniacki used excellent depth on her return to open up a 5-3 lead. Kvitova scrambled back to 5-5, and reached break point; she was leaning into her shots and belting them for easy winners into the corners. But at break point, she couldn’t get a relatively simple backhand return over the net. It was the beginning of a pattern. Time and again, Kvitova missed easy returns at crucial moments; it was a big reason she converted just five of 13 break points.

This miss was especially costly. It allowed Wozniacki to stem the tide and hold for 6-5. Wozniacki then opened the following game with a return of serve winner, jumped out to a 0-40 lead, and broke for the set. It was a two-game swing that may have won Wozniacki the match. Instead of letting herself get run over by the Kvitova freight train, she had turned the match into a war of attrition.

That type of contest will always favor the ever-steady Wozniacki, and work against the feast-or-famine Kvitova. While Kvitova found her groove again long enough to win the second set, she couldn’t keep it going in the third; Wozniacki, naturally, was ready and waiting to take advantage of her letdown.

COURT REPORT: WTA Rankings update

The match’s second crucial passage came in the opening game of the third set. Kvitova had broken to win the second, but rather than show any signs of frustration, Wozniacki came out looking determined to break to start the third. She did it by suddenly stepping forward, taking the initiative, and forcing Kvitova to defend. When Wozniacki broke with a backhand winner after a long point, Kvitova was left doubled-over in exhaustion, and the match had completely turned around again. Kvitova would manage just one more game.

“I played much better today,” said Wozniacki, who lost her opening match to Karolina Pliskova. “I returned really well, served pretty well, moved well.”

Wozniacki understood coming in that a match with Kvitova can go in any direction. Knowing that, it seems, allowed her to stay calm when the tide turned against her in the second set.

“Against Petra, a player who’s so powerful, you have to stay on your game,” Wozniacki said. “You never know what’s going to happen, so I just tried to stay focused.”

While the match wasn’t straightforward, the result felt like it put the WTA Finals back on track. Wozniacki’s title defense in Singapore has officially begun.

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What’s at Stake: Isner, Nishikori eye London; Federer's back in Basel

Mon, 22 Oct 2018 17:32:00 +0000

WATCH—ATP Race to London update:

While the women are closing out 2018 in Singapore, the men will continue their stretch run through Europe. This is something of a warm-up week, before the Masters 1000 event in Paris, and the eight-man World Tour Finals in London that end the season. Still, the two events beginning Monday, in Basel and Vienna, are both ATP 500s, and both have sneaky-strong draws.

Swiss Indoors (ATP)

Basel, Switzerland
$3,000,000; 500 ranking points
Indoor hard court

Draw is here

The tour returns to Basel, and so does the city’s most famous native, Roger Federer. What does Federer, an eight-time champion in his old hometown, have to play for, other than to entertain the locals once again? The year-end No. 1 ranking is probably not going to happen for him, but Federer can improve his position in the ATP Race to London—he trails Juan Martin del Potro, who is sidelined with a patella fracture, by 140 ranking points.

Del Potro’s absence means that his traditional final-round face-off against Federer in Basel is off, too. Since 2012, the Swiss and the Argentine played three title matches here; Delpo won the first two in three sets, before Federer got his revenge, also in three sets, last fall. This year, Federer will start against Filip Krajinovic, and could play the man who knocked him out of the US Open, John Millman, after that. Also in Federer’s half are recent Next Gen tournament winners Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev.

At the bottom of the brackets, Alexander Zverev has taken the spot normally occupied by Del Potro. If there’s a top player who could use a title, or a little late-season momentum, it’s Zverev. While he reached the semifinals in Shanghai two weeks ago, he put up distressingly little resistance against Novak Djokovic in that round.

Also here: Stan Wawrinka, who starts against Adrian Mannarino, and could play Zverev in the third round.

First-round matches to watch: Federer vs. Krajinovic; Ernests Gulbis vs. Jack Sock; Marin Cilic vs. Denis Shapovalov.

Erste Bank Open (ATP)

Vienna, Austria
$3,200,000; 500 ranking points
Indoor hard

Draw is here

Austria’s own Dominic Thiem is the top seed here, followed by Kevin Anderson and Grigor Dimitrov. But the suspense surrounds the No. 4 and 5 seeds, John Isner and Kei Nishikori. With Del Potro questionable for the ATP Finals, Isner and Nishikori are currently next in line to qualify for the eighth and final spot. This week Nishikori will start against Frances Tiafoe, and could play Karen Khachanov after that. Isner, meanwhile, will open with British lucky loser Cameron Norrie, and play either Gael Monfils or Steve Johnson in the second round.

Also here: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Kyle Edmund, Borna Coric and wild card Felix Auger-Aliassime.

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HIGHLIGHTS: Sloane Stephens survives WTA Finals opener vs. Naomi Osaka

Mon, 22 Oct 2018 16:05:00 +0000

WTA FINALS HIGHLIGHTS: Sloane Stephens d. Naomi Osaka, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1

Sloane Stephens and Naomi Osaka are two of the WTA’s best athletes, but they use their athleticism in opposed ways. Osaka is the aggressor: she pounces on balls and belts them flat and hard, and sometimes for winners. Stephens is the reactor: she uses her quickness and strength to get everything back, with depth and weight. In 2017 and 2018, these skills earned each of them a surprise US Open title; but as far as how they would match up against each other at the WTA Finals on Monday, it was difficult to say. Stephens had won their only previous meeting, in Acapulco in 2016, but that was a full year before Osaka became the player we know today.

Even after two sets in Singapore, it was still difficult to say who had the upper hand, or who would have it in the end. Osaka and Stephens are both WTA Finals rookies, and they began playing like it. Each misfired frequently in the early going, and struggled to find a rhythm on a court that doesn’t play like any other that the women see during the season. The momentum, such as it was, wobbled from one side of the net to the other, until Stephens broke at 5-5 and held at 6-5 on her third set point. It seemed that neither player knew exactly how to approach the other: Should they take the initiative? Should they wait for an error? From the opponent to the court to the event, it really did look like new territory for both Osaka and Stephens.

With that scrappy first set out of the way, though, the play picked up on both ends. Both women decided that they had to play their games: i.e., Osaka stepped forward to attack, and Stephens stepped back to defend. Stephens saved four break points—one of them with a rare, brilliant stab volley—and Osaka came back to save two break points of her own to hold for 3-2. From there to the end of the second set, their opposed styles made for an entertainingly competitive run of tennis. Osaka went up 5-2, Stephens came back to 4-5, and Osaka finally won the set on a Sloane double fault.

WTA FINALS INTERVIEW: Sloane Stephens

But that was the last foot that Stephens would put wrong. The American, it seemed, decided that she couldn’t win this match playing defense alone. With a series of smoothly struck winners—an inside-in forehand, a pair of down the line backhands—Stephens went up an early break in the third. At 3-1, she essentially sealed the win with her most memorable shot of the match, a running forehand pass that darted under Osaka’s racquet.

Osaka had no answer for it, or for Stephens’ consistency down the stretch. She also, unfortunately, had no answer for chair umpire Marija Cicak, either. Serving at 1-0 in the third set, down break point, Stephens hit a second serve that was called long. Cicak overruled it, Osaka didn’t challenge, Stephens won the point to get back to deuce—and we subsequently learned that Stephens’ serve really had been out and the game should have been Osaka’s.

But that was just one point among many in this erratically compelling, two-hour and 24-minute opening match. There were 11 breaks, and 31 break points. Osaka made 46 unforced errors, and Stephens double faulted six times. With her 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 win, Stephens takes a big step forward in the Red Group. As Sloane has said in the past, she can be dangerous once she settles into a tournament. You have to survive before you can settle down, and that’s what Sloane did today.

WTA Finals preview: Tour’s elite-only, season-ending showdown

Sat, 20 Oct 2018 12:49:00 +0000

WATCH—Angelique Kerber leads WTA Finals lineup:

Coming into the WTA Finals in Singapore, two opposing questions come to mind: (1) Should we be bummed that Serena Williams and Simona Halep, the tour’s biggest draw and its No. 1 player, respectively, are absent? Or (2) Should we be pleased to see the WTA’s other eight top performers of 2018, including such fan favorites as Naomi Osaka and Petra Kvitova, face off against each other in a weeklong, elite-only showdown?

To me, the tours’ season-enders are the sport’s dessert options. After the four courses of the Slams, the WTA Finals might not be strictly necessary, but it’s fun. Now that the players have qualified, and the groups have been made, here’s a look at where each woman stands, and what we can expect from them over the next week. The No. 1 ranking isn’t on the line; Halep has clinched that. So it’s just matches, between the year’s best, for the next eight days. For tennis fans, that should be enough.

*****

Red Group

Angelique Kerber (2018 record: 45-17; WTA Finals record: 6-8; Record vs. group: 6-6)

Kerber won two tournaments in 2018, but one of them was Wimbledon; hence her No. 3 ranking, and her top billing in the Red Group. Since then, she has been OK, but not good enough, apparently, to keep working with the coach who took her back to the top of the game, Wim Fissette—they broke up earlier this week. Kerber is 6-8 in WTA Finals, but she did reach the title match in Singapore in 2016, and the low-and-slow surface there should theoretically be to her liking. Kerber, more than most, is a momentum player and a confidence player; how she fares in her first match, against Kiki Bertens, should tell us a lot about how she’ll fare all week. But she has to like the fact that she’s the only player in this group who’s not a WTA Finals rookie.

Naomi Osaka (2018 record: 42-17; WTA Finals record: 0-0; Record vs. group: 2-4)

Like Kerber, Osaka won two tournaments this year. Also like Kerber, one of them was a big one, the US Open. The other, in Indian Wells, wasn’t too shabby, either. Unlike some players, Osaka hasn’t fallen off the face of the earth after her breakthrough win. Since the Open, she has reached the final in Tokyo and the semifinals in Beijing. How will she react to her first year-end championship, on an indoor surface that seems to be unlike any other, against all-quality opponents? It’s an interesting question; once she’s rolling, Osaka tends to keep rolling, over any opponent who happens to be in front of her.

Sloane Stephens (2018 record: 33-17; WTA Finals record: 0-0; Record vs. group: 6-1)

Despite winning just one event in 2018, the 25-year-old American will be making her first trip to Singapore. The late-year Asian swing hasn’t traditionally been Sloane’s time to shine, and that was true again this year. Since the US Open, she’s 2-3. But Stephens is 4-1 against the highest-ranked player in this group, Kerber, and 2-0 combined against Bertens and Osaka. If she can build a little early momentum, Sloane can beat anyone on any given day, on any given slow surface.

Kiki Bertens (2018 record: 43-19; WTA Finals record: 0-0; Record vs. group: 1-4)

Talk about wild cards. While Bertens is 26, she has never been in contention for the WTA Finals before, and only announced herself as a potential elite player over the second half of 2018. But with three titles, including one in Hong Kong late last month, Bertens should come to Singapore with confidence. No one is unbeatable in this group.

Semifinalist: Kerber, Osaka

*****

White Group

Caroline Wozniacki (2018 record: 40-15; WTA Finals record: 13-8; Record vs. group: 12-14)

It isn’t often that Wozniacki enters a big event as the favorite. Should she be one in Singapore this week? There are a lot of reasons to say yes. She’s the top-ranked player in the tournament. She just won a Premier Mandatory in Beijing. She thoroughly dominated in Singapore last year. And she loves the surface. There’s only one problem: her opponents. Wozniacki is 12-14 against her group-mates Kvitova, Elina Svitolina, and Karolina Pliskova.

Petra Kvitova (2018 record: 47-14; WTA Finals record: 10-8; Record vs. group: 18-6)

If Wozniacki should be favored to come out of the White Group because of the surface and her current form, Kvitova should be favored because of her record against her three opponents: She’s 18-6, which includes a 10-1 mark against Svitolina and Pliskova. Kvitova won this event in 2011, and reached the final when it was held in Singapore in 2015. While she hasn’t been past the quarterfinals at any tournament since August, in some ways this is a dream draw for her.

Elina Svitolina (2018 record: 37-14; WTA Finals record: 1-2; Record vs. group: 6-13)

Svitolina has won three tournaments this year, but none since Rome. Her last semifinal came in Montreal in early August. She lost her opener in Beijing two weeks ago to Aleksandra Krunic after winning the first nine games. Worst of all, she’s just 6-13 against her group-mates. Svitolina could be a spoiler, but she seems like a long shot for the semis.

Karolina Pliskova (2018 record: 43-19; WTA Finals record: 3-4; Record vs. group: 8-11)

Pliskova may be the wild card of the Whites. She’s 8-11 against Kvitova, Svitolina, and Wozniacki, and just 3-9 against Caro and Petra. But Pliskova is coming off a title in Tokyo and a runner-up finish in Tianjin this fall, and she liked the courts in Singapore enough to reach the semis there last year. A couple of good serving days, and she could be back.

Semifinalist: Wozniacki, Kvitova

*****

Semifinals: Wozniacki d. Osaka; Kvitova d. Kerber

Final: Kvitova d. Wozniacki

With the WTA Finals approaching, let's look back at the 2018 season

Fri, 19 Oct 2018 17:50:00 +0000

WATCH—Court Report on Simona Halep pulling out of WTA Finals:

With the year-ending—or almost-ending—WTA Finals set to begin, this seems like the ideal moment to look back at the 10-month journey that brought the 2018 women’s season to its resting place in Singapore.

As with any tennis campaign, 2018 has lasted a long time, and spanned a mind-bogglingly wide variety of events. Does Caroline Wozniacki’s Australian Open win feel like it happened this past January, or six years ago? Did it really occur in the same season as Naomi Osaka’s victory over Serena Williams at the US Open?

What was different, and better, about the 2018 women’s season was the way it was perceived. In the past, when one player—i.e., Serena Williams—wasn’t dominating the tour, we inevitably heard that the WTA was “in a state of chaos,” while trolls everywhere worried about what would happen to the women’s game when Serena finally retired.

Well, in 2018, nobody dominated. Four different players—Wozniacki, Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber, and Osaka—won the four Slams. Four different players—Osaka, Sloane Stephens, Petra Kvitova, and Wozniacki—won the tour’s Premier Mandatory events, in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, and Beijing. From Osaka to Aryna Sabalenka to Daria Kasatkina to Kiki Bertens to Mihaela Buzarnescu to Qiang Wang, many of the biggest success stories of 2018 involved newcomers and previously little-known players. At the same time, well-known names like Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, and Victoria Azarenka struggled.

Yet I never heard the word “chaos” used to describe the state of the WTA in 2018, at least not from any credible, narrative-creating sources. Instead, a new, more positive word in vogue: “personality.” Rather than leading to anarchy, the lack of a dominating star in 2018 helped reveal the wide variety of characters and talents that currently make up the women’s tour.

What changed in the popular perception of the WTA? How about the fact that this really was a good year for women’s tennis stories. Wozniacki and Halep made long-awaited breakthroughs. Kvitova bounced back into the Top 10 a year after suffering a violent attack. Serena bounced back into two Slam finals less than a year after having a baby. Osaka wowed the world with her US Open win. All of these triumphs felt right, not random.

So as the Top 8 women begin to tie a bow on 2018, I’ll highlight a few of the season’s most memorable performances. This WTA season was a good one in a lot of different ways.

Hot Shot-Makers: Aryna Sabalenka & Daria Kasatkina

One of them, Kasatkina, made her move over the first half of the season; the other, Sabalenka, made hers over the second half. Together the 21-year-old Russian and the 20-year-old Belarusian showed us that there are still many different, and equally riveting, ways to hit a ball and win a match.

At 5-foot-7, Kasatkina reached the final at Indian Wells, and the quarterfinals at the French Open and Wimbledon with spin, speed, guile, and finesse. At 6-feet, Sabalenka rocketed up to No. 11 in the rankings with power, precision, and fearlessness. Even their personalities are at opposing ends of the athletic spectrum—where Kasatkina is drolly fatalistic, Sabalenka is artlessly enthusiastic. We shouldn’t be surprised if these two opposites match wits and strokes in a Grand Slam final someday soon.

Welcome Return: Petra Kvitova

As far as her raw results went, it was a tale of two seasons for Kvitova. She won five WTA titles and returned to the Top 10, but she also failed to make it out of the third round at a major. As far as her, and our, emotions went, though, it was a year to celebrate Petra’s presence. After coming so close to never playing again, she competed with a new calmness, and a new appreciation for her life in tennis. And the fans appreciated her back. We realized again that there’s nothing quite like Kvitova in full roar—shot-wise and “Pjod!”-wise—and there never will be.

Two-Week Warrior: Angelique Kerber

There are moments during tennis seasons that feel like harbingers—Osaka’s win at Indian Wells, for instance. But there also moments in tennis seasons that feel self-contained, destined to last only for the two weeks in which they occur. Kerber’s first Wimbledon win, which came largely out of nowhere, and largely led to nowhere, seems to have been the latter. By the end of the year she was no longer working with the coach, Wim Fissette, who helped her reach those heights.

But two-week stories are part of unpredictable beauty of the game, too, and despite their ephemerality, they can be just as sweet as any other, more historically significant victory. Kerber’s Wimbledon win was about determined opportunism. When the other seeds were losing their matches during the first week, Kerber kept her head, saw her chance, and took it. For me, her tumble onto a sunny Centre Court after the last point of the final is the most lasting image of this season—there was pure joy and pure surprise in that fall.

Coolest Customer: Naomi Osaka

In 2018, there was the US Open women’s final, and there was everything else. Few modern matches have generated so much chatter, and divided humanity so thoroughly, as that New York nightmare. To me, there was blame to go around, between Patrick Mouratoglou for coaching, Serena for coming unglued, and Carlos Ramos for his itchy game-penalty trigger finger.

But when I think of that final, I don’t think of any of that. Instead, what comes to mind first is the sight of the 20-year-old Osaka ignoring it all—the disorder on the court and the hysteria in the stands—and stepping to the line at match point to fire a service winner. Funny, self-deprecating, disarmingly real, and now a Grand Slam champion: Osaka can’t get any cooler, can she?

Player of the Year: Simona Halep

Is it better to watch a tournament live or on TV? Which viewpoint gets you closer to the truth? With its commentary and statistical information, a television broadcast can be tough to beat. But there was nothing like being inside Court Philippe Chatrier for Halep’s long-delayed victory at Roland Garros this spring.

Inside the stadium, you could feel the weight of the moment on Halep’s racquet as she fell behind Sloane Stephens. After squandering a set and a break lead over Jelena Ostapenko in this same match a year earlier, and after losing another heartbreaker to Wozniacki in the Australian Open final, it seemed that a major title wasn’t in Halep’s destiny. But maybe that’s exactly what Halep needed to believe; once she told herself this match was “gone,” she couldn’t be stopped. Halep didn’t just rip balls, though, the way most players do when they’ve thrown in the mental towel. She played with more patience, with more stubborn determination, and it paid off.

When Stephens’ last shot found the net, Halep dropped her racquet and found her way to her coach, Darren Cahill, for a victory hug they may never have been sure was coming. Her destiny, it turned out, was to win a Slam, and to do it the hard way. In a year of good stories, Halep’s was the best.

What's at Stake: The races to the year-end finals aren't over yet

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 14:20:00 +0000

WATCH–The WTA race to Singapore:

With the men having just completed a Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, and the women about to begin the WTA Finals in Singapore, this might feel like an in-between week. Tennis being tennis, of course, an in-between week can actually involve more, rather then fewer, events; between the ATP and WTA, there are five on the docket starting Monday. Here’s a preview of what to watch for, and what might still be at stake, at each of them. The races to qualify for the tours’ year-end championships aren’t quite over yet.

VTB Kremlin Cup (WTA)

Moscow

$867,776; Premier

Indoor hard court

Draw is here

For a tournament that’s happening the week before the WTA Finals, the Kremlin Cup has drawn an elite crowd. It includes world No. 1 Simona Halep, and three other members of the Top 10, Karolina Pliskova, Sloane Stephens and Kiki Bertens. The rest of the field isn’t chopped liver, either: Anastasija Sevastova, Daria Kasatkina, Anett Kontaveit and Elise Mertens round out an entertaining 28-player draw.

WATCH—Simona Halep clinches year-end No. 1 ranking:

Along with the quality, there’s a sliver of drama left to unfold in Moscow. At the moment, Pliskova and Elina Svitolina hold the final two positions in Singapore, but a strong showing by Bertens in Moscow could catapult her past them. Bertens will face either Mihaela Buzarnescu or Aliaksandra Sasnovich to start, while Pliskova will open against a qualifier.

And then there’s Halep. The tour’s top player suffered a back injury that basically ended her Asian swing before it began. She’ll do what she can this week to find a little momentum before trying to cap her best season with her first title in Singapore.

Intrum Stockholm Open (ATP)

Stockholm, Sweden

$850,000; 250 ranking points

Indoor hard court

Draw is here

No one in tennis was happy to hear that Juan Martin del Potro fractured his right patella bone while falling to the court in Shanghai last week. But if there’s a player who could benefit from that unfortunate accident, it’s John Isner. Before Sunday, the top seed in Stockholm was a long-shot to qualify for the ATP’s year-end championships in London. Now that Del Potro, who was in the No. 3 position in the race, is in doubt, Isner will begin this week 70 points behind Kei Nishikori for the eighth and final spot. The American starts against either Bradley Klahn or Marius Copil in Stockholm.

Also here: Fabio Fognini, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Hyeon Chung, Denis Shapovalov, Lucas Pouille, Alex de Minaur, and Isner’s countrymen Jack Sock and Taylor Fritz.

WATCH— Juan Martin del Potro falls in Shanghai:

European Open (ATP)

Antwerp, Belgium

$850,000; 250 ranking points

Indoor hard court

Draw is here

When Belgium’s David Goffin was forced to end his season early due to injury, Antwerp lost a potential home-crowd draw. As it is, the relatively new addition to the calendar—it began in 2016—will have to make do with Kyle Edmund as its top seed.

Also here: Defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who is returning after a long injury layoff; 2016 champion Richard Gasquet; two-time runner-up Diego Schwartzman; and No. 3 seed Milos Raonic.

BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open (WTA)

Luxembourg

$300,000; WTA International

Indoor hard court

Draw is here

Julia Goerges is the top seed in Luxembourg, followed by Garbine Muguruza, who has taken a wild card into the final regular-season event of 2018. But No. 4 seed Camila Giorgi, who won a title last week in Linz and has had a career season, who may be in the best form here.

WATCH—WTA announces player of the year nominations:

VTB Kremlin Cup (ATP)

Moscow

$936,435; 250 ranking points

Indoor hard court

Draw is here

Making a Grand Slam semifinal has its benefits, and Marco Cecchinato, surprise semifinalist at Roland Garros, is still reaping them. Despite winning just two matches since July, he’s the top seed in Moscow. Just behind him are two local favorites, Daniil Medvedev and Karen Khachanov.

First-round match to watch: Nick Kyrgios vs. Andrey Rublev

The future of the men’s game belongs to Novak Djokovic again

Sun, 14 Oct 2018 17:46:00 +0000

WATCH—Highlights from Novak Djokovic's win over Borna Coric in Shanghai:

Life, Borna Coric found out quickly, was not going to be as fun for him on Sunday as it had been on Saturday in Shanghai.

On the first point of his final against Novak Djokovic, Coric powered a backhand into Djokovic’s backhand. It was the type of shot that had brought the 21-year-old Croatian to his first Masters 1000 title match, and had helped him record a convincing straight-set win over Roger Federer the previous day. Instead of settling into rallies in against Federer, Coric had hit the ball aggressively, with more depth and pace than he usually dares, until Federer’s one-handed backhand eventually broke down.

But Djokovic doesn’t have a one-handed backhand, and it’s not a shot that you can pound into submission. He took Coric’s first-point missile, and guided it right back into the opposite corner with his two-hander. The message was clear: As well as Coric had played against Federer—it might have been the best match of his career—he was going to have to play even better to beat Djokovic.

Coric was going to have to hit unreturnable serves, rather than merely good ones, if he wanted any free points. He was going to have to hit two or three perfect ground strokes, rather than just one, to win a point. Every time he left a ball short, he was going to have it punished by a player whose footwork was as sharp as it has ever been. Every time he served, he was going to have to deal with a deep, neutralizing return and an arduous rally. Every time he set up for his own return, he was going to face a serve from a guy who hadn’t been broken all week. When Coric had Djokovic on the run, he was going to have dig out a low volley to close out a rally. And when he thought he had a ball past Djokovic at the net, he was going to have to watch as the Serb reached out for a brilliant stab-volley winner.

In other words, Coric was going to lose.

The scores were 6-3, 6-4, and the match was about as close as those routine scores indicate. Coric should probably be commended for keeping the second set as competitive as he did after going down 0-2. Instead of a blowout, this match was just another immaculate, never-in-serious-doubt win in a long string of them for Djokovic. He’s 27-1 since the start of Wimbledon, with two Grand Slam titles and two Masters 1000 titles. He has now overtaken Federer for No. 2 in the rankings, and it’s conceivable that he could he end what appeared to a be a lost season at No. 1. He trails Rafael Nadal in the year-end race by just 35 points, and has nothing to defend over the last three weeks. For Rafa and Federer, it must feel like 2006 all over again, with Djokovic racing up in their rearview mirrors; unlike in ’06, though, there doesn’t seem to be any way to slow him down.

“I thought I was actually playing really well,” Coric said. “I’m feeling good on the court. I was not serving particularly well, because I think he was returning extremely well.”

WATCH—Djokovic beats Alexander Zverev in the Shanghai semifinals:

Djokovic was also serving extremely well. Rather than try to up his pace and take on more risk with his deliveries, he let the fast Shanghai court do it for him.

“This was definitely one of the best service weeks that I’ve had in my career,” said Djokovic, who won his fourth Shanghai Rolex Masters title, and his 72nd title overall. “I was saying before that I never played on faster courts here in Shanghai, so this year more than ever I needed a lot of success with first serves in, and I have had plenty of success with first serves, and a high percentage of first serves in every match. So obviously that brings me a lot of joy.”

Djokovic didn’t drop a set this week, and wasn’t broken in 47 service games. At Wimbledon and the US Open, he won with emotion; even when his game went off, he wouldn’t let himself lose. In Shanghai, the emotion wasn’t necessary, because his game never went off. This was the return of Djokovic the tennis clinician, and right now there’s little reason to think he won’t close out 2018 in the same unbeatably efficient form. Finishing No. 1 would be a fitting capstone for his meteoric re-rise.

It would also be a signal to everyone else on tour. This has been a year when we’ve seen various potential successors to the ATP crown appear and then disappear again, from Hyeon Chung to Sascha Zverev to Dominic Thiem to Stefanos Tsitsipas and now to Coric. But as we contemplate the end of 2018 and the start of 2019, the future of the men’s game looks like it belongs to Novak Djokovic again.

Shanghai Semifinals Preview: Djokovic v. Zverev; Federer v. Coric

Fri, 12 Oct 2018 18:28:00 +0000

WATCH—Juan Martin del Potro's injury scare in Shanghai:

Novak Djokovic vs. Alexander Zverev

ATP fans have been waiting for this one. Djokovic is a former, and probably future, world No. 1; Zverev is the man many expect to replace him there someday. Even better, they’ve met just once, last year in Rome. On that day, Zverev was in breakthrough mode; the 20-year-old was playing in his first Masters 1000 final. Djokovic, meanwhile, was in fade-out mode; after largely dominating the tour for five years, he would fail to win any majors or Masters 1000 events in 2017.

Seventeen months later, everything is different. Djokovic is back in top form, having won Wimbledon and the US Open, while Zverev, despite owning a tour-high 49 wins this season, has hit a roadblock at the Slams. The slick hard-court surface in Shanghai is also very different from the red clay in Rome.

What will it all add up to? Lots of rallies; these are two of the steadiest shotmakers in the game, and neither is overly comfortable at net. But on this surface, I’d also expect them to try to take control of those rallies a little earlier than they usually do. Judging by his form over the last three months, his desire to get back to No. 1, and his three previous titles at this event, I’m going to say Djokovic will be the one who wins more of them.

Winner: Djokovic

Roger Federer vs. Borna Coric

How often do we have a day in which two members of the Big 4 both come in having lost their last matches against their opponents? It will be true on Saturday: Djokovic lost to Zverev in Rome last year, and Federer lost to Coric this summer in Halle.

The next question is: Will that loss have an effect on this match? I’d say it will have two effects, which could cancel each other out. If Coric builds an early lead, he should have confidence that he can close it out. As for Federer, he’ll be determined not to lose to Coric two straight times.

More important, of course, will be their forms. Coric had some good fortune on his road to the semis: In the third round, Juan Martin del Potro retired against him, and in the fourth round, he faced 76th-ranked Matthew Ebden. Granted, Federer also made a couple of fortunate escapes in his first two matches, winning 6-4 in the third set over both Daniil Medvedev and Roberto Bautista Agut. But against Kei Nishikori in the quarters, Federer showed off his old spring and aggression, as well as his new, more powerful backhand. Even when his form went off late in the second set, he found his way though against a fired-up opponent. Could we see a repeat of that scenario on Saturday?

Winner: Federer

This Week on Tennis Channel PLUS
Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev headline the ATP Rolex Shanghai Masters. Watch live coverage from five courts on Tennis Channel PLUS beginning Saturday, 10/6 at 12:00 am ET.

The Race to the ATP Finals is heating up. Watch all the action on Tennis Channel PLUS.
Live coverage from Shanghai, Basel, Vienna & Paris all lead into the ATP World Tour Finals this November!

Ms. October: In fall, Caroline Wozniacki is the last woman standing

Mon, 08 Oct 2018 19:44:00 +0000

Stories of the Open Era: Tennis in Asia

“Has Caro always had that serve?”

That’s what I found myself asking more than once this weekend, as I watched Caroline Wozniacki walk away with her biggest win in nearly 10 months, at the WTA’s fourth and final Premier Mandatory event in Beijing. Over the course of a week, it seemed, Wozniacki transformed her serve from a way to start a point, into a way to win one, and the rest of her game followed suit.

The transformation was sudden, but it wasn’t the first time Caro has made it. Last October, I remember asking a similar set of questions—“Has she always had this serve? This forehand? This backhand? Has she always been this aggressive?”—while watching her roll to the most important win of her career up to that point, at the WTA Finals in Singapore. There’s something about October that works for Wozniacki. Coming into the China Open, she hadn’t won two straight matches at any event since June, which was when she won her last title, in Eastbourne.

“I didn’t feel great going into the tournament, to be honest,” said Wozniacki, who didn’t drop a set in her six matches in Beijing. “But I think after kind of the second match I started feeling like I was hitting the ball well and I could see the ball really well. Then I started believing that I’m really hitting my form, playing myself into shape.”

Her 6-3, 6-3 win over Anastasija Sevastova in the final was, in many ways, vintage Wozniacki. While Sevastova went was up and down, Wozniacki stubbornly kept to her even keel. She won because she was steadier, but she was also won from the front of the court, closing out points with smashes and putaway volleys. She won with her underrated athleticism, chasing down Sevastova’s viciously well-measured drop shots and flicking them for winners.

“I just at one point was like, ‘You know what, just try to make her move, try and do something, keep the margins slightly bigger, then wait for your chance.’”

As that statement suggests, Wozniacki has a productive way of not asking herself to do much. She lets her opponents take the risks and come up with the memorable winners, but she knows those winners will also come with errors—simply making her opponent move is often all she needs to do to guarantee that the errors will outweigh the winners.

No matter how many great shots an opponent hits against her, Wozniacki typically looks as if she doesn’t believe she can do it again. She never lets herself look defeated or pessimistic, never hangs her head or slumps her shoulders. Wozniacki is always signaling to her opponent, “I’ll be here, waiting for your next miss, so you better be perfect.” That’s a tough mindset to combat.

“This week, it was just kind of like slow and steady wins the race,” Wozniacki said. “Every day just kind of getting better and better.”

“Slow and steady wins the race” is an apt description not just for this past week, but for the 28-year-old Wozniacki’s year, and her career. Despite her frenetic schedule, she’s typically one of the last women standing at the end of the season—her multiple titles at late-year events in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Moscow, Kuala Lumpur, and now Beijing attest to her remarkable staying power.

The flipside of that reliability is that Wozniacki struggles to lift her game at more important events, or peak for the majors, the way other players do. This was her 30th career title, but only one, the 2018 Australian Open, has come at a Slam. At those tournaments, opponents who may be erratic elsewhere tend find a way to hit enough winners to beat her. The loss that sent her into a tailspin this year came at the hands of Ekaterina Makarova in the second round at Wimbledon. Wozniacki had beaten Makarova in their first seven meetings, none of which came at a major. Now she has lost two straight to her, both at Slams.

Wozniacki’s Beijing run finally ended that half-season slump. Last year, her excellent form at the WTA Finals carried over in Melbourne. Might we see a repeat of those back-to-back wins? Simona Halep is ailing, Serena Williams is sidelined, and the court in Singapore, which tends to play low and slow, is still to Wozniacki’s liking. Don’t be surprised if the tortoise passes all of the hares at the finish line, and Wozniacki is the last woman standing again.

The Race to the ATP Finals is heating up. Watch all the action on Tennis Channel PLUS.
Live coverage from Shanghai, Basel, Vienna & Paris all lead into the ATP World Tour Finals this November!

ATP Shanghai Preview: Djokovic vs. Federer, or more Del Potro in Asia?

Mon, 08 Oct 2018 14:16:00 +0000

WATCH: The best shots from Beijing and Tokyo

Last week it was the WTA's turn to stage their mandatory Asian-swing showcase, in Beijing. This week the men follow suit at the ATP Rolex Shanghai Masters. The defending champion from 2017, Roger Federer, is there, but the man he beat in the final, Rafael Nadal, is not. He’s been replaced at the bottom of the draw by his old rival Novak Djokovic.

Federer has 1000 points to defend; Djokovic, who has been gobbling up points over the second half of the year, is looking to pass Federer for the No. 2 spot in the rankings this week. Can anyone prevent them from meeting in the final? Here’s a look ahead at how Shanghai, which is contested on one of the tour’s quickest courts, may play out.

*****

First Quarter

In the past, the conventional wisdom has been that fast courts help Federer, and that has generally been the case in Shanghai, where he has been winning titles since the days when this arena hosted the year-end Tennis Masters Cup. But this summer Federer expressed some reservations about his need for speed; he said he found it hard to control the ball on the similarly fast courts in Cincinnati, where he lost to Djokovic in the final. How will Federer adjust in Shanghai, after more than a month off from tournament tennis? While Federer has won this tournament twice, he’s also lost early in Shanghai twice.

This year he could face a challenge in his opener, from Daniil Medvedev, a young Russian who just beat Kei Nishikori in the final of the 500-level event in Tokyo. On a more reassuring note, the closest seed in Federer’s quarter, Milos Raonic, has already been knocked out, by Mackenzie McDonald.

Semifinalist: Federer

*****

Second Quarter

How will Juan Martin del Potro react after his week at the China Open in Beijing? On the plus side, he reached the final without dropping a set. On the minus side, just when he appeared to be the man to beat, he was beaten, in the final, by relatively unheralded Nikoloz Basilashvili. Delpo reached the final in Shanghai in 2013, and the semis last year; more important, what looked to be a difficult section of the draw has opened up a bit in the last 24 hours, as Nick Kyrgios and Stan Wawrinka have been sent packing.

Who’s left? Borna Coric, potentially, in the third round, and Dominic Thiem in the quarters. By now, the No. 4-ranked Del Potro has a pretty good head of steam built up; he’s usually tough to stop when he does.

Semifinalist Del Potro

*****

Third Quarter

Alexander Zverev remains the tour’s question mark of the moment. The German is 46-15 this year and has established himself as a Top 5 player. But he’s been borderline-reeling for two months now. After winning the Citi Open in August, he lost early in Toronto, Cincinnati and at the US Open; last week, even with Ivan Lendl in tow, Zverev failed to close out 61st-ranked Malek Jaziri in his second match.

A turnaround will come eventually, but is Shanghai the place for it to start? Maybe not. Zverev is just 3-2 in his previous two trips to this event, and so far in his career he’s shown a preference for slow courts rather than fast. He could also be tasked with a tough opener, against either Denis Shapovalov or Basalishvili; both of those guys will bring the rallies to Zverev, and may be better equipped for this surface.

Also here: Marin Cilic. He reached the semifinals in Shanghai last year, and has the type of draw that could allow him to do the same this week.

Semifinalist: Cilic

*****

Fourth Quarter

In the old days—the very good old days—Djokovic swept through the Asian swing like he was on automatic pilot. That included three titles in Shanghai in four years. Have those good old days, the days when we could pencil in a Djokovic title virtually every week of the year, returned in full? We’ll get another answer this week when he tries to leapfrog Federer for the No. 2 spot in the rankings, and bring himself 1,000 points closer to Nadal at No. 1.

Djokovic’s draw shouldn’t hinder him. He starts against Jeremy Chardy; the first seed he could face is Marco Cecchinato; and the second-highest seed in his section is Kevin Anderson.

Second-round match to watch: Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Karen Khachanov

Semifinalist: Djokovic

*****

Semifinals: Del Potro d. Federer; Djokovic d. Cilic

Final: Djokovic d. Del Potro

The Race to the ATP Finals is heating up. Watch all the action on Tennis Channel PLUS.
Live coverage from Shanghai, Basel, Vienna & Paris all lead into the ATP World Tour Finals this November!

Naomi Osaka feels pressure and privilege of being new Grand Slam champ

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 16:38:00 +0000

WATCH—Naomi Osaka continues to dominate:

We’ve seen a lot of players do the “I’m-not-impressed” dance after missing a shot. They put their hands on their hips, move their lips to one side of their face, and shake their head in frustration. But Naomi Osaka is the first one I’ve seen continue to look unimpressed even as she began the next point.

Early in her quarterfinal against Zhang Shuai on Friday in Beijing, Osaka drilled a first serve into the net. As she tossed the ball and began her second-serve motion, she had stopped shaking her head, but she still had her lips pushed to one side of her face, McKayla Maroney-style.

It was that kind of pessimistic day for the 20-year-old Osaka, who lost the first set, fell behind in the second, and trailed 1-4 and 3-5 in the third, before rallying to win 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. Osaka wiped away tears multiple times, sat with a towel over her head on changeovers—she kept it on even when she took a drink of water—and seemed to spend half her time with her visor pulled down over her face in mortification.

After coming back from the brink of defeat in the second set, she was still inconsolable. Her coach, Sascha Bajin, spent the changeover struggling to convince her that she could still play pretty well, and that everyone has days like this.

“Do you think this happens a lot?” Osaka asked Bajin, in her most tentative voice.

It was as if she had forgotten what a bad day felt like. But that’s tennis: Just because you’ve faced down Serena Williams in the US Open final, and just because you’ve been woodshedding your opponents in general this fall—she had dropped a total of four games in her last two matches—doesn’t mean that it all can’t fall apart again. By the middle of the second set, Osaka had grown so frustrated that she was hitting her second serve harder than her first, throwing borderline-hopeless drop shots high into the air, and barely moving at the baseline. She seemed to be one lost point away from going full Nick Kyrgios.

“I guess I stopped thinking about winning or losing too much,” Osaka said afterward. “I just thought that the way I’m acting right now, I’m probably going to regret it if I don’t change it.”

Osaka eventually changed her behavior. By the third set, she was fist-pumping, and, for the first time all day, moving her feet in the aggressive fashion to which we’ve become accustomed since she hired Bajin. There’s pressure in being a Grand Slam champ, much of it self-imposed: “Why can’t I play the way I did against Serena?” will be something Osaka has to learn to avoid thinking.

But there’s also a privilege that comes with winning a major, a very useful privilege: It suddenly becomes a much bigger, and more nerve-wracking, deal to beat you. Zhang had beaten Osaka in straight sets the last time they played, in Madrid in May. But that was before Osaka became a world-famous cool customer in New York. This time, whenever Zhang built a lead, she grew tight, missed routine shots and threw in double faults at exactly the worst moments.

Did Osaka “do what champions do” to come back? In one sense, yes: Like Serena and Novak Djokovic, she showed that she has the ability, when she swings away and doesn’t care where the ball goes, to crack clean winners anyway. Like them, her superior athleticism can make her just as dangerous after she pulls the mental ripcord. Zhang, who couldn’t match that athleticism, had no way to stop her.

We don’t know if winning a Grand Slam title will turn Osaka into a different, better player. What we do know is that her opponents will perceive her differently, and sometimes, like on Friday, that will be enough.

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