Articles by Steve Tignor

Four thoughts on the Davis Cup semifinals, and a big question for 2019

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 02:38:00 +0000

WATCH—Croatia clinches berth in Davis Cup final with five-set win in deciding fifth rubber:

Benoit Paire plays efficient, effective tennis with no blowups or meltdowns and beats a higher-ranked player in straight sets.

Marin Cilic is suddenly unable to hit more than two balls in a row in the court, and gives away a 6-1 lead in a tiebreaker.

Two players, 36-year-old Julien Benneteau and 40-year-old Mike Bryan, are called in as last-minute substitutes, and both go on to lead their doubles teams to victories.

Borna Coric suffers a complete mid-match breakdown, squanders a 5-1 third-set lead and loses the subsequent tiebreaker 13-11, and then comes back to play virtually nerve-free tennis for two sets to clinch a tie for his country.

In what world could any—let alone all—of these these strange developments occur over the course of a single weekend? That would be Davis Cup, of course. If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand or more times: this competition always delivers.

It delivered again this weekend, as France beat Spain (3-0 in live rubbers; 3-2 overall), and Croatia edged the U.S. (3-2 in live rubbers), to set up a final between the same two nations that contested the World Cup last month. This was also the next-to-last weekend for Davis Cup in its current form, which made the two ties bittersweet for many tennis fans. Even as the competition as we know it is ending, we were reminded again of everything we loved about it.

Here are four thoughts on the Davis Cup weekend that was, and one important question it raises for its future.

*****

Noah’s Ark

How much difference can a Davis Cup captain really make? He watches his players for a week, and decides who looks good. After that, the only thing he can do is clap from his sideline chair, right?

Don’t tell that to French captain Yannick Noah. His recent results are proof of how much difference an inspirational leader can make. First, in 2016, Noah took the French women to the Fed Cup final for the first time in 11 years. Then, in 2017, he led the French men to their first Davis Cup title in 16 years. Now he has the Davis Cup team back in the final. Way back in 1991, in an unforgettably emotional weekend, Noah also led France to an upset win over a U.S. team that included Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.

Even as a spectator, you can see what makes Noah a unique captain. First, there’s his stature in the sport; he’s a Grand Slam champ and still may be the most famous tennis player in France; his presence alone on the sideline makes the event seem more important. Then there’s the way he reacts to each point. Unlike most captains, who try to keep a veneer of cool, Noah lets everyone know what he thinking and feeling—the good and the bad, the pleased and the annoyed. Noah gives emotional support to his players, but he also lets them know when he thinks they could have done better. No one wants to let a coach like that down, and a French team that went for nearly two decades without a Cup suddenly has a very good chance to win two straight.

*****

The Paire Effect

Once upon a time, I called it the Safin Effect, or the Nalbandian Effect. Marat Safin and David Nalbandian were two tremendously talented players who weren’t wired to make the most of their talents when they were playing tour matches. It was easy, when they were playing only for themselves, to check out mentally, to throw a temper tantrum, to move onto the next tournament.

It wasn’t a coincidence that both the Russian and the Argentine were close-to-unbeatable in Davis Cup. In those matches, if they allowed themselves to be head cases, they would be letting their country down—or, more specifically and importantly, they’d be letting their teammates down. Voilà, just like that, they weren’t head cases anymore.

Still, I had never thought Benoit Paire was a good candidate for the Safin Effect. Despite his obvious shot-making skills, Paire seemed too hotheaded and hair-trigger to suddenly reign everything in, even for Davis Cup. It seems that others involved with the French team may have thought the same thing; before this weekend, Paire had never been tapped for Cup duty. Now he has, and now he’s 1-0, after a straight-set win over a player, Pablo Carreño Busta, who is ranked 33 spots ahead of him. Yes, Paire double-faulted nine times in the first set. And yes, he was edgy in the early going. But as far as I saw, Paire didn’t smash multiple racquets or dip into his deep well of outlandish shots. Instead, he got better as he went.

Will the Paire Effect outlive his Davis Cup weekend? Don’t count on it. Safin and Nalbandian usually went back to their erratic ways once they were on their own again.

*****

WATCH—Sam Querrey upsets Marin Cilic to force a fifth rubber:

What Lies Beneath

If Davis Cup has a way of turning head cases into super-achievers, it also has a way of revealing the turmoil that can lurk under even the most placid surface. At first glance, Cilic and Coric are similarly calm Croatians. They don’t do anything flashy, they mostly get on with the business at hand, and their level of play doesn’t vary wildly.

Except, apparently, when they try to clinch a spot in a Davis Cup final. On Sunday, Cilic and Coric took turns building seemingly insurmountable leads and looking unstoppable, only to stop themselves dead in their tracks. Cilic won the first set and led 6-1 in the second-set tiebreaker against Sam Querrey. After squandering those five set points, Cilic never recovered; by the end, he could barely hit even the most routine ground stroke over the net. The same thing happened to Coric midway through his match with Frances Tiafoe. Coric won the second set 6-1, and led 5-1 in the third, when he stopped hitting the ball in. An hour later, Coric had lost the set in an epically nervy—i.e., exciting—tiebreaker, 13-11.

While the pressure of Davis Cup brought Coric’s anxieties to the surface, its best-of-five-set format gave him a second chance to calm them back down. After the third set, he relaxed and played nearly flawless, nerveless tennis to beat Tiafoe in five. It was the second time in three years that Coric has eliminated the U.S. in a fifth rubber. This one, coming after his mid-match collapse, was even more impressive than the last.

*****

Getting Your Close-Up, Ready or Not

Here’s another of Davis Cup’s many uniquely charming, and terrifying, aspects: a player, any player, can find himself face to face with the biggest moment of his career, with virtually no warning. That’s what happened to Tiafoe this weekend.

On Friday, he made his Davis Cup debut after Jack Sock and John Isner, the starting singles players for the U.S., had to pull out. When he lost to Cilic in straight sets to put the U.S. down 0-2, Tiafoe probably thought his weekend was over. Not so fast: On Sunday afternoon, he was called back to the court, this time with the tie at 2-2 and a trip to the Davis Cup final—at home, against France—on the line.

Tiafoe acquitted himself as well as could be expected against an older, higher-ranked opponent. The American won the first set, and he stayed calm enough to give himself a chance to come back from 1-5 down in the third. The problem was, during the time when Coric was missing everything, Tiafoe got into the habit of simply putting the ball back into the court, because that’s all he needed to do. When Coric stopped missing, Tiafoe couldn’t adjust and take the points into his hands. Instead, it was Coric who attacked his way to a win.

*****

TenniStory: Davis Cup Changes

The Question for 2019

In the debate over the new Davis Cup format, which will be in place starting in February, we’ve heard about a lot of much-loved aspects of the Cup that will be lost. At the top of that list is the passion engendered by home-and-away ties. And there’s no doubt that’s a big problem. For the new Cup—the Piqué Cup—to succeed, it will need to replicate the energy of home matches at a neutral site. Otherwise, it will feel like just another tournament in a calendar already stuffed with them.

But watching this weekend, I came to think that the success or failure of the new Cup will begin not with the fans, but with the players. Watching Dominic Thiem, leap high in the air after clinching for Austria. Watching Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut embrace after clinching for France. Watching Lleyton Hewitt and Mike Bryan come out of Cup retirement to win in doubles again. Watching Querrey play one of the matches of his career to beat Cilic. Watching all of the emotions ebb and flow between Coric and Tiafoe in the decider. After watching all of that, I thought that the thing that matters most for the future of the Cup is that the players feel the same way about the new format as they feel about the old format.

Will they consider Davis Cup as important and career-defining as they do now? Will they feel the same emotional connection to a one-week event that they do to a four-weekend event? Will they prioritize it? It’s possible—the Olympics are a single week held every four years, and the players have embraced that.

If the passion from the players for the new Cup is there, the fans eventually will be, too.

The 2018 US Open showed how relevant tennis is to this cultural moment

Tue, 11 Sep 2018 12:40:00 +0000

Court Report—the ITF and WTA issue statements about the Serena Williams-Carlos Ramos controversy:

The circus has left town.

That’s the thought I always have when I walk out of the press room and through the grounds on the final evening of the US Open. By that time, close to midnight, the fans are long gone; the player who just won the men’s title is somewhere in Manhattan with a lampshade on his head; and the only sounds come from the clean-up trucks that will soon strip the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center of the last remains of the year’s final Grand Slam.

There’s a lot to wipe away this time around. By any measure, this year’s edition of the US Open circus was a three-ringer.

Remember when the No. 1 women’s seed, Simona Halep, lost the first match in the new Louis Armstrong Stadium? When the humidity was so brutal that the Open created a new heat rule for the men? When Alizé Cornet was penalized for “unsportsmanlike conduct” for taking her shirt off and exposing her sports bra? When umpire Mohamed Lahyani climbed down from his chair to give Nick Kyrgios a pep talk? When Roger Federer hit a highlight-reel shot, and Kyrgios nearly topped it with his reaction? When Millmania (briefly) reigned after John Millman’s win over Federer? When Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem launched missiles at each other until 2 A.M.? I don’t need to ask whether you remember the finale, the unfortunate contretemps between Serena Williams and Carlos Ramos that blew the women’s final to smithereens.

Grand Slams are, on one level, a series of tempests in teapots. What seems like an earth-shattering controversy one day is replaced by a brand-new earth-chattering controversy 24 hours later. This relentless, mostly frivolous parade is what makes the Slams so much superficial fun. When the two weeks are up, the sport moves on to another city halfway around the world, and Flushing Meadows falls silent again.

But this year’s Open wasn’t just sound and fury, signifying nothing. Amid the fluff, there was substance that resonated beyond the courts.

Tennis rightly has a reputation as a conservative, upper-crust game, but it’s also the only major sport in which men and women have always competed on the same courts, by the same rules, at the same tournaments, and together on mixed-doubles teams. Women have been playing at the US Open since 1887, and one of the sport’s first superstars was a woman, Suzanne Lenglen. A century later, that dual-gender tradition makes tennis uniquely relevant for today’s post-#MeToo cultural moment. Nowhere else in sports can we compare, side by side, the way men and women are perceived and treated.

Comparison—and double-standard—No. 1 came when Cornet was penalized for taking her top off on court, while dozens of male players sat shirtless (and sockless) during changeovers in the sweltering heat—never has a Grand Slam event gotten so naked. But while that made for a slightly racy one-day story, it was just a warm-up for the women’s final, and the war that ensued between Serena and Ramos. When the Washington Post described Ramos’ treatment of Williams as a “sexist power play” on its front page the next day, a thousand hot takes and living-room arguments were launched.

If you’re looking for historial evidence of a double standard, it’s not hard to find. In the most famous match ever played at Flushing Meadows, the fourth-rounder between Jimmy Connors vs. Aaron Krickstein in 1991, Jimbo peppered the chair umpire with unprintable insults and didn’t receive so much as a warning. While tennis has punished its “bad boys” at various points, it has also mythologized them.

But in terms of today’s game, and in this particular instance, the double standard isn’t as clear. If Kyrgios, the modern-day bad boy, had said and done exactly what Serena said and did in a match with this umpire, would he also have ended up being docked a game? It’s certainly possible. Kyrgios has incurred that penalty before, and Ramos takes pride in his stickler’s consistency. The first code violation he handed Serena, for coaching, was defensible, and the second, for racquet abuse, was automatic. (Where he made a mistake was the game penalty; it was a trigger pulled too quickly. At that stage of a major final, he should have given Serena a soft warning that a game deduction would be coming if she didn’t stop berating him.)

Whichever side of this debate you come down on, the broader question inspired by the Serena incident—how are men and women expected to behave in competition?—is one that can best be asked in tennis. With her combative approach to the game, Serena has always challenged those expectations.

*****

As in most other walks of life, there has been progress in achieving equality in tennis, as well as retrenchment and lingering chauvinism. Over the last 20 years, dual-gender tournaments have become the norm, and equal prize money the rule at all four Grand Slams. In recent years, Andy Murray has championed the women’s game in a way that no other major male star has. At the same time, many of the men still don’t embrace equal pay, and the ATP tour is planning a men’s-only team event next January, the World Team Cup, which may replace a dual-gender team exhibition, the Hopman Cup. Just before the Open, officials at Roland Garros banned the “warrior princess” catsuit that Serena wore in Paris this summer. And as far as the #MeToo movement itself, Judy Murray—Andy’s mother, and a former British Fed Cup captain—recently told The Guardian that tennis is overdue for a reckoning with sexual abuse.

Yet the Trump-era feminist surge has had its positive effect. In past years, whenever Serena wasn’t dominating, the women’s tour would inevitably be described as mired in “chaos,” and lacking the star-power of the men’s side. For most of 2017 and 2018, Serena hasn’t dominated, but the common view of the WTA has changed. These days we’re more likely to hear praise for the tour’s variety of personalities and story lines. And that praise is warranted. Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki, Sloane Stephens, Naomi Osaka, Jelena Ostapenko, Daria Kasatkina, Garbiñe Muguruza, Venus Williams, Aryna Sabalenka and others: They’ve all put on stirring performances over the last year and a half. That doesn’t mean the women’s tour lacked stories and personalities in the past, of course. It’s just that now, attempts to sneer at women’s tennis or downgrade the WTA specifically are more likely to be seen for the sexist responses they are.

Unfortunately, the women’s event at this year’s US Open ended with a disastrous final. But it also produced a major new star in Osaka. This 20-year-old daughter of a Haitian father and Japanese mother who lives in the U.S. has a compelling story, a quick wit, an excitingly aggressive game and a memorable look. She’s the perfect new star for the traveling tennis circus, and perfect, hopefully, for a multicultural, millennial future. Tennis—its men as well as its women—should be happy she’s here.

What does Novak Djokovic's return to invincibility mean for the game?

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 03:54:00 +0000

Highlights—Novak Djokovic defeats Juan Martin del Potro in the US Open final:

After Novak Djokovic's 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 win over Juan Martin del Potro in the US Open final, Steve Tignor and Joel Drucker discussed the Serb’s return to invincibility, and what it means for the men’s game.

*****

Steve,

What an end to this summer of Slams. I well recall us sitting next to one another in Paris, watching Novak Djokovic lose in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros to 72nd-ranked Marco Cecchinato. Djokovic wasn’t just beaten that day. He was downright sloppy, his footwork and technique betraying him on a number of big points.

And now here he is, champion of Wimbledon and the US Open in the same year—Djokovic’s 14^th Slam, tied with his childhood hero, Pete Sampras. Combine this with Naomi Osaka’s win over Serena Williams and it was quite a weekend for idol worship turned into glory.

In taking three hours and 16 minutes to earn this 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory, Djokovic demonstrated superb craftsmanship this evening. It was quite clear that a key part of his game plan was to go after the Del Potro forehand, be it with wide serves in the deuce court, T serves in the ad court and plenty of crosscourt forehands. Time after time, Djokovic absorbed Del Potro’s big hits and let his excellent set of wheels repeatedly carry him through the rallies. Even more precisely, Djokovic’s balance and recovery is exquisite—remarkably disciplined and flawlessly executed.

The other part of Djokovic’s plan was to return serve deep and down the middle of the court. These often threw del Potro on his heels, making it hard for him to generate angles.

In the second set tiebreaker, serving at 5-4, Djokovic orchestrated a fantastic 17-ball point worthy of a tennis lesson. Deep drives off both sides, but hardly flirting with the sidelines, kept del Potro pinned—and eventually elicited an error off Del Potro’s forehand, an exceptionally demoralizing occurrence for the Argentine. The final point of that 95-minute set also saw Djokovic probe wisely, this time ending a seven-ball rally with a wide crosscourt forehand that pulled Del Potro wide to his forehand and resulted in a drive into the net.

Steve, what do you think have been the keys to Djokovic’s summer resurgence?

*****

Photos by Anita Aguilar

Joel,

This was fundamental, old-school, borderline-unbeatable Djokovic. By the end, it was was as if his two-year dry spell had never happened at all. He dropped a set in each of his first two matches, to Marton Fucsovics and Tennys Sandgren, and then didn’t drop another.

By the end of the tournament, all of the old Djokovic elements were in place again. The heavy serve out wide in the deuce court. The uncanny ability to put so many returns at or near the baseline. The solid ground strokes from both sides. And the speedy, rubbery movement that sets him apart from virtually all of his peers, including Del Potro. Djokovic essentially clinched the match in the second-set tiebreaker simply by making Del Potro hit too many forehands. From 4-4 in the breaker, Delpo missed three straight forehands for the set. Djokovic doesn’t miss those shots, because he doesn’t need to go for as many winners. With his speed and stamina, he can always wait one shot longer.

Despite the straightforward scoreline, tonight we also saw Djokovic’s trademark need to either endure—or manufacture—some adversity along the way. Even when he’s winning, he’s generally unable to make it through three sets without hitting some sort of speed bump. Either he gives back a service break, or gets annoyed at the crowd, or demands that his player box give him more support, or just doesn’t like the way he’s hitting the ball for a few games. It seems like Djokovic functions best when he has a hurdle to clear—adversity energizes him.

Up a set and a break against Del Potro, Djokovic got a little tight; this isn’t unusual when a player reaches that stage. He gave the break back, let Delpo and his vocal fan club into the match for the first time, and nearly lost the set. Only a 20-minute service hold at 3-4 kept Djokovic from having to start over at one-set all. Then, in the third set, Djokovic went up 3-1 and had a game point for 4-1; Delpo appeared to be on his last legs. But for some reason, Djokovic chose that moment to serve and volley. He lost the point, lost his break, and the set was soon tied at 3-3.

All of that may sound counterproductive, and not the way we think most champion athletes’ minds work. But to me, Djokovic’s willingness to court adversity has been the difference in his game this summer. On the court, Djokovic has a reputation for being “clinical” in victory, and off the court he has searched for ways to find a more peaceful equilibrium in his life. In reality, though, he has always won by going to war with himself, and externalizing that struggle. In Indian Wells and Miami he was still injured. During the clay season he was finding his feet and fitness. At Roland Garros and Queen’s, he wasn’t quite ready mentally to close out matches that he should have won. To me, he finally reached fifth gear when he beat Kei Nishikori in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, in a match that he played on an emotional knife edge. That emotion was the final ingredient to his comeback.

This win leaves Djokovic with 14 majors. It must be particularly satisfying because he has lost five US Open finals; if he had won just two of those matches—like, say, against Andy Murray in 2012 or Stan Wawrinka in 2016—he would be within one of Rafael Nadal’s total of 17 Slams. I guess the next question is: Even after a two-year drought, does Djokovic catch Nadal and Federer in the major count?

*****

Steve,

Ah, to think that when the year started we figured the Slam tally race was all about a program best called, “The New Adventures of the Old Roger and Rafa Show.” And now, here’s Novak, his two-Slam ’18 his version of what Federer and Nadal each did last year. Maybe this one: “Welcome Back, Novak.”

In the game of Big Three Billiards, I know this could earn me anger from the Federer and Nadal lovers. But in raw tennis terms, Novak—at least right now—is in a better place technically, tactically and physically than either of his two main rivals. Besides being six years younger than Federer, Djokovic is healthier than both the Swiss and the recently injured Nadal.

If we look at this in mathematical terms, Djokovic is 31. Given that 31 these days in tennis can be considered new 27, he likely has at least two if not three years of superb tennis ahead of him—12 Slams. To win four seems viable. To win more—well, that is less about Federer or even about Nadal, but more a question of which other contenders have the skill and will to step up. Del Potro will turn 30 later this month. Then there are such young guns as Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Denis Shapovolov, Hyeon Chung, Borna Coric, Lucas Pouille and others (including some who have yet to even crack the Top 30). Those talents have had their flurries at smaller events but have yet to make major statements at the Slams.

But as was the case in June 2016, the world right now belongs to Djokovic. It’s amazing how all that appeared absent over the last two years now seems tidily in order. Djokovic is a supreme practitioner of contemporary, attrition-based baseline tennis, patrolling the court in a way that’s efficient and sustainable. And yet, to have seen him play so poorly this spring and then transform himself reveals so much about the mysteries of tennis. How did all that happen, both the bad and the good?

Right now, we are mostly in the conjecture stage. Was the problem in Novak’s elbow? What did he fix in his mind? What insights—words, drills, tactics—did his coach, Marian Vajda, bring to the table when they rejoined forces earlier this year? Which matches during those years in the desert did Novak learn most from—some horrible losses or a resurgent win?

So let’s look at it this way, Steve: What kind of array of tools do you think are required now for beating Djokovic at a major? Is there a single player you believe has these tools? Or would you like to amalgamate weapons from others to construct player who doesn’t yet exist?

*****

An interview with the US Open champion, Novak Djokovic:

Joel,

You’re right that Djokovic, after giving up significant ground in the Grand Slam title race over the last two years, suddenly looks to be in a very good position compared to Federer and Nadal. Federer is 37 and could retire as early as next year. Just as important, now that Djokovic is back at full strength, Federer’s chances of adding to his 20-major count become significantly slimmer. As for Nadal, Djokovic is three titles behind him, but he should have the advantage at three of the four Slams going forward. Most intriguing will be Roland Garros, where Djokovic does own a win over Rafa. How big will the stakes be if they meet in the final in Paris next year? Here’s a prediction: Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic—who are ranked 1, 2, and 3 again, by the way—will each end up with 20 Grand Slam titles.

As for someone who could challenge Djokovic in the future, a person who fits that description should, theoretically, exist. Nadal and Federer have beaten him at least 20 times each, and Stan Wawrinka has had major successes against him. But who among the younger set has what it takes to challenge Novak regularly? So far, Zverev can’t get far enough at a Slam to play him. Shapovalov has the weapons, but he’s still raw and prone to wild swings in form. Chung did it at the Australian Open, and Tsitsipas did it in Toronto, but do we expect either of them to repeat those performances on a regular basis? Nick Kyrgios has the game, and occasionally the mentality, to beat Djokovic; but how often will he go deep enough at a major to face him?

Djokovic will probably be slowed not by any player, but by the normal ups and downs of a career, especially a career that has reached its 30s. Federer went through a four-year Slam drought from 2013 to 2016; Nadal failed to win any in 2015 and 2016; and Djokovic just reemerged from two years in the wilderness. The time away has left him hungrier, but who’s to say when another injury won’t sideline him again?

For now, Djokovic is overjoyed to be back on the mountaintop. Is his re-ascendance is good for tennis? Federer has said that he believes it is, and I agree. There was something weird about seeing the ghost of Djokovic make his brief appearances at Indian Wells and Miami this spring. Tennis is stronger when its best players are living up to their potential, and when the guys who can make history are making history.

For me, there was something satisfying about seeing Djokovic struggle his way through that crucial, never-ending, 95-minute second set against Del Potro on Sunday night. It wasn’t pretty. The games were long and wearying. There were plenty of errors on both sides, plenty of ads handed back and forth. Djokovic was angry at the pro-Delpo crowd, and Delpo was doubled over in exhaustion. But Delpo had the momentum, and there were a lot of moments when it looked as if Djokovic was going to lose, especially when he faced three break points in a 20-minute game at 3-4.

At that stage, every one of Del Potro’s winners was being greeted with a thunderous roar from the top of the arena. Yet I had a feeling Djokovic, alone again on the stage, would find a way through, someway, somehow. That’s what he always done, and that’s what he did on Sunday night. He has found his level again, and no one can match it.

US Open Men's Final Preview: Novak Djokovic vs. Juan Martin del Potro

Sun, 09 Sep 2018 13:50:00 +0000

A look back at the history between Juan Martin del Potro and Novak Djokovic:

NEW YORK—Of all the top-player rivalries on the ATP tour, Djokovic vs. Del Potro may have spent the most time under the radar. They’ve played 18 times over the course of 11 years. They’ve produced a few thrillers in that time—their Wimbledon semifinal and Shanghai final in 2013, in particular, come to mind. And they’ve played two matches at the Olympics that were significant in each other’s careers. If there’s an oddity to their head-to-head history, it’s that while Djokovic leads it 14-4, Del Potro won perhaps their two most emotional meetings, at the London and Rio Games. Both times he ended up with a medal, and Djokovic didn’t.

Now, finally, the Serb and the Argentine will share a proper stage together. This will be their first Grand Slam final, and it will be the first time that Delpo has played a title match at a major since he won the US Open nine years ago. On the one hand, he’ll like the court, the setting and the fans, who will be “Olé”-ing for him from the upper seats all night. On the other hand, he may not like the opponent. Djokovic has won both of their matches in New York, in 2007 and 2012, in straight sets. He has also won their last meetings, which all came in 2017, when the Serb wasn’t recording many other quality wins.

So does Del Potro stand any sort of chance? Yes. The energy in the building will be with him. He has won a US Open final before, against Roger Federer. And while Djokovic is usually too quick and consistent for Del Potro, that consistency also gives the big man a chance to find his groove on his ground strokes. When he does, his shots are more powerful than Djokovic’s, and they could carry him to a win. That’s what happened over the course of five sets against Federer in 2009; once Delpo was locked in, no one was going to stop him.

Still, that’s the less likely scenario on Sunday. The more likely scenario is that Djokovic has success moving Del Potro around, keeping him out of his rhythm, and retrieving and counterpunching his way to victory. Djokovic played with high-level ruthlessness against Kei Nishikori on Friday, and I get the sense he’s hungry enough to keep that attitude and level up with a chance for major title No. 14 on the line. Djokovic has lost a couple of US Open finals—to Andy Murray in 2012 and Stan Wawrinka in 2016—that he’d like to have back; he’s not going to want to regret another. And while the crowd will likely be against him, that’s not always the worst thing that can happen to Djokovic in a big match.

Winner: Djokovic

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How Naomi Osaka answered chaos with calm to win the US Open crown

Sun, 09 Sep 2018 01:34:00 +0000

WATCH—Wrapping up the women’s US Open final:

NEW YORK—“How about that Naomi Osaka, wasn’t she incredible?”

Ideally, those would be the first words out of people’s mouths when they start discussing Osaka’s 6-2, 6-4 victory over Serena Williams in the US Open women’s final on Saturday. Ideally, that discussion would revolve around the 20-year-old wunderkind’s smart mix of serves; her ability to absorb Serena’s pace and send it back with interest, like few others can; her spectacular forehand passing shots; and most of all, her amazing ability to hold her nerve when everything around her was descending into chaos, and close out her first major title in her first major final, against the best opponent of all.

Unfortunately, that won’t be Topic A when it comes to this match on Sunday, or any time soon. Topic A will be the three penalties that chair umpire Carlos Ramos handed out to Williams over the course of the match, and which eventually sent it careening as far off the rails as any Grand Slam final in memory. Before we get back to Osaka, here are some thoughts on Topic A. It was, in terms of tennis’s vast gray area of rules and regulations, an unfortunately perfect storm.

WATCH—Drama unfolds between Serena and Carlos Ramos:

*****

Coaching violation: Ramos gave Serena a code violation for coaching in the second game of the second set. The call was legitimate—strict, but legitimate. Serena’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, later admitted that he was signaling her (to move up in the court, it appeared). That’s not something that’s called the majority of the time, but everyone is aware that it’s illegal.

Racquet abuse violation: When Serena was broken for 3-2 in the second set, she threw her racquet down and broke the frame. That’s an automatic code violation. And because of the previous violation for coaching, the two together added up to an automatic point penalty.

Serena’s reaction: Serena took the coaching penalty personally—“I don’t cheat to win, I’d rather lose”—and said she thought Mouratoglou was giving her a “thumb’s up.” She went so far as to have a discussion with Ramos on the next changeover, to make it clear “that’s never been something I’ve ever done.”

“He alleged that I was cheating,” Serena said later, “and I wasn’t cheating.”

(Photos by Anita Aguilar)

This points up a weird aspect of the coaching rule: While the coach initiates the foul, it’s the player who must deal with the penalty.

The real problems began when Serena slammed her racquet down and received a point penalty. That brought Serena’s mind back to the original coaching violation, which she still disputed. This time she wanted Ramos to apologize and rescind the call.

Game penalty: After Osaka broke for 4-3 in the second set, Serena continued to complain to Ramos, and called him a “thief.” Ramos responded by assessing Serena a rare game penalty, which gave Osaka a 5-3 lead.

Mouratoglou can be blamed for coaching and getting caught. Serena can be blamed for bringing the point penalty on herself with her racquet smash, and for not letting the coaching issue go. But Ramos’s game penalty was still excessive.

A good umpire—and Ramos has been among the most respected for years—has to recognize the stakes in any given situation and adjust for them. Instead, with the US Open title on the line, he tipped the scales of the match significantly because a player called him a thief. (As far as I heard, Serena didn’t curse at him.) Ramos would have been better off warning Serena that if she didn’t stop, a game penalty would be coming.

*****

While Serena was at the center of the storm during the match, she did her part to calm it afterward. Just as the trophy ceremony appeared destined to drown in a sea of Ashe Stadium boos, Serena took the microphone and said, “Congratulations, Naomi. No more booing.”

Serena was equally complimentary of Osaka in her press conference, and refused to pin the result on Ramos’s actions.

“I feel like she was playing really well,” Williams said. “but I feel like I really needed to do a lot to change in that match to try to come out front, to try to come out on top.”

Which takes us back to what should have been Topic A all along: Osaka’s performance.

It began, really, two nights before, when she beat Madison Keys in the semifinals and immediately embraced the chance to play Serena in the final. There was awe in her voice, but no fear, no hesitation, no nerves. She wanted this moment, and she played like it.

Asked on ESPN after the match whether she had been helped by having played Serena earlier this year in Miami, Osaka smiled and said she already knew Serena’s game very well from watching her so closely for so many years—she even “did a whole report on her in third grade.” From the start, Osaka, like a good student, did all of the things that Serena traditionally does to her opponents.

It was Osaka who kept Serena off-balance with serves that curled into the body, slid out wide, and curved away from her down the T.

“I think my serve was important in the whole match,” Osaka said. “She’s such a good returner, and I felt like really had to hit the spots today.”

It was Osaka who took Serena’s hard-hit ground strokes, and sent them back more cleanly and accurately. It was Osaka who, when Serena pushed her wide with an approach, won the point with a better pass. It was Osaka who, when Serena let out a fierce “Come on!” at 1-4 in the first set, answered with a “Come on!” of her own and held with an ace. From a playing standpoint, and from an attitude standpoint, Osaka approached this match with just the right mix self-possession and assertiveness.

In the end, the chaos that engulfed the match and the stadium failed to engulf one person, Osaka. If anything, it only served to emphasize just how calm and collected she was. As Serena argued with officials, Osaka put her head down and walked away. When she looked up, she was suddenly one game away from the title.

“I felt like I really had to focus during this match because she’s such a great champion,” Osaka said, “and I know that she can come back from any point.”

How does Serena close out a match against a great player? She uses her serve. Like a good student again, that’s how Osaka closed out Serena—by not letting her hit the ball. Serving for the championship at 5-3, with 23,000 people baying in the stands and Serena making a goal-line stand, Osaka hit a forehand winner, a service winner, an ace, and, at 40-30, another service winner to end it.

“When I step on the court, I feel like a different person,” Osaka said, “I’m not a Serena fan. I’m just a tennis player, playing another tennis player.”

“But then when I hugged her at the net, I felt like a little kid again.”

Little kid, US Open champion, port in a storm. We’ll remember what happened on Serena’s side of the net in this match for a long time. Hopefully, we’ll remember what happened on Osaka’s side for much longer.

How about that Naomi Osaka, wasn’t she incredible?

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Rafael Nadal's 2018 Slam season ends in defeat, but it was an epic run

Sat, 08 Sep 2018 01:39:00 +0000

Rafael Nadal's five-set win over Dominic Thiem, a US Open classic:

NEW YORK—It was four games into his semifinal with Juan Martin del Potro, and Rafael Nadal had just won a point after an extended rally. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, except that when it was over, he shot a look of concern up at his team, and muttered a longer-than-normal stream of words in their direction. He had, he said later, felt pain in his right knee. Unfortunately, after years of feeling exactly that same pain, he knew what it meant, and he knew that his US Open was probably over.

“After that, I was just trying to see if in some moment the thing can improve during the match,” a downcast Nadal said later, “But no, was not the day.”

Nadal prolonged the inevitable for two hours. He had his knee taped, untaped, and taped again. He had his quadriceps massaged. He looked forlornly toward his team, and even bounced one his water bottles off his legs in frustration. Ignoring the pain, he won eight straight points and pushed the first set to a tiebreaker. But he couldn’t push any farther.

“I waited as much as I can,” Nadal said. “You could imagine very difficult for me to say good-bye before the match finish. But at some point you have to take a decision. It was so difficult for me to keep playing at the same time that way, having too much pain.

“That was not a tennis match at the end, no?”

Rafael Nadal couldn't continue against Juan Martin del Potro in the semifinals. (Photos by Anita Aguilar)

Coming into this semifinal, Nadal had logged more than 15 hours on court in his first five matches. He had survived three punishing battles against opponents—Karen Khachanov, Nikoloz Basilashvili and Dominic Thiem—who were throwing everything they had at him, often on intensely hot and humid days. Rafa and Thiem dueled until 2:00 A.M., and a fifth-set tiebreaker. It’s hardly surprising that over the course of the first week Nadal felt some twinges of knee pain, telltale signs of the tendinitis that he has suffered from for much of his career.

“The knee is always very similar,” he said. “When that happens, yeah, just accept it.”

Accepting it is still hard, though. By the end of his press conference today, Nadal had begun to tear up. “It’s OK,” was his last answer in English.

“Is not about losing,” he said of his disappointment. “Is about [not having] the chance to fight for it.”

So ends Nadal’s Grand Slam season, not with a season-capping triumph, like 2017, but with a twinge and a tear. It’s a disappointing conclusion to what has been a memorably dramatic season for him. He won his 11th French Open, reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and the US Open, and the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, where he was also forced to retire. He’s 45-4, has won five of the nine tournaments he’s entered, and for a second straight season he’s No. 1 in the world.

“I’m having two great years,” Nadal said. “Last year was a fantastic year. This year have been a fantastic year, until this moment. I lost four matches.”

The best part of Rafa’s 2018 for me hasn’t been his win-loss record; it has been the classic Grand Slam matches that he has had a hand in creating. Those included the three best men’s contests of the year—a five-set win over Del Potro in the Wimbledon quarterfinals; a loss, 10-8 in the fifth, to Djokovic in the Wimbledon semifinals; and a win over Thiem, 7-6 in the fifth, at the Open. All of them neared or crossed the five-hour mark.

This hasn’t been Nadal’s very best year, but together those three matches may make it his most characteristic one—they’re a microcosm of what has made him the competitor he is. By this point, he has won enough and lost often enough, in the most nerve-wracking moments and on the most important stages, to have learned to appreciate victory and defeat in equal measure; he has learned to ignore them, as far as they can be ignored. “To treat them,” as the poem says, “just the same.” That’s what we ask of every athlete, but how many can find that perspective? Judging by his words this year, Nadal has come as close as any.

After losing to Djokovic at Wimbledon, Rafa said, “I can say he deserve it, because he deserve it. In my opinion, he deserve it. I deserve it, too. Both of us deserve it. As I say the other day against Del Potro, anyone could win. Today I say the same. The other day was for me, today was for him. That’s it.”

After beating Thiem at the Open, Nadal said, “You know, winning, losing, I lost in Wimbledon a match like this. Today was for me. In some way when you give everything that you have, win or lose—is just that someone have to lose, someone have to win, that’s part of the game. But the personal satisfaction when you give everything and you play with the right attitude is the same.”

These are the types of high-minded words that many of us might say to rationalize a loss, and make it sting a little less. But Rafa also says them after he wins a dramatic match. Coming from him at this stage of his long, illustrious, topsy-turvy career, they no longer sound like platitudes. They sound like the hard-earned truth.

For some, Nadal’s runs at Wimbledon and the Open won’t mean anything, because they won’t add to his Slam-title count—even after 10 combined wins and nearly 30 hours on court at those two events, he’s still at 17. But that just shows how much of a great player’s career, how much effort and emotion, isn’t included in the Slam total. Nadal has won more majors in other years, but few athletes have proven the value, and thrill, of competing for its own sake the way he has in 2018.

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2018 US Open Women's Final Preview: Serena Williams vs. Naomi Osaka

Fri, 07 Sep 2018 18:34:00 +0000

What's on the line for Serena Williams at the US Open? Just tennis history:

NEW YORK—A 36-year-old vs. a 20-year-old; a 23-time Grand Slam champ vs. major-final rookie; an idol vs. an idolizer. This year’s women’s final offers a battle of WTA generations. Osaka says she loves Serena so much, she was inspired to win her semifinal over Madison Keys just for the chance to stand on the other side of the net from her on Saturday.

Will Osaka be so awed by the sight of Williams that she forgets how to compete against her? That’s not what happened the only other time they played, in Miami in April. Serena’s comeback was just getting underway at that stage, and Osaka won easily, 6-3, 6-2. After the last point, Serena looked down and opened her eyes widely, as if to say, “Wow, I’ve got some work to do.” She obviously did the work, and now she’ll have her chance to avenge that loss.

As far as their current form goes, both women played about as well as they could in their semifinals on Thursday. Serena added an entirely new element to her game—net play—in her breezy win over Anastasija Sevastova. By the end she was striking the ball as cleanly from the baseline as she has all year. Osaka was every bit as impressive in her highly controlled, highly mature victory over Keys. Two years ago at the Open, Osaka blew a 5-1 third-set lead against Keys. This time she was determined not to falter, and she didn’t, saving 13 of 13 break points and finding an ideal balance of power and control in her ground strokes.

So if both women are somewhere close to their best, who wins? The answer, in those terms, is obvious: Serena. Aside from a chance to win her 24th major and tie Margaret Court for the all-time record, she’ll also be motivated not to lose to Osaka a second straight time, and not to lose a second-straight Grand Slam final, after her Wimbledon defeat to Angelique Kerber. Unlike Kerber, Osaka will feed her the pace she likes.

As for Osaka herself, will she be just the slightest bit satisfied to have reached a Grand Slam final and earned a place across from her idol? That’s certainly possible. But judging by the way she handled her prime-time semifinal appearance in Ashe on Thursday, I don’t believe Osaka will be overwhelmed by this moment, either. I think she’ll give Serena a fight. I just don’t think she’ll win.

Winner: Williams

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After 23 Grand Slam titles, Serena is still finding new ways to win

Fri, 07 Sep 2018 03:59:00 +0000

WATCH—Court Report from Day 11 at the US Open:

NEW YORK—“I usually come in only to shake hands,” Serena Williams joked after her 66-minute, 6-3, 6-0 win over Anastasija Sevastova in the US Open semifinals on Thursday.

She started a little earlier tonight.

Over the course of her first five matches at this year’s US Open, Serena had won a total of 23 points at the net; tonight she won 24, in 28 trips there.

Serena was quick to point out that she has won her share of doubles titles, so she does know how to volley. But this display of good hands—in its versatility, it’s difficulty, and its mastery—was something we had rarely seen from her, even in all of her 23 major-title runs.

According to Serena’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, coming forward was always part of the plan tonight.

“You want to get into your game,” he told her, “not get into hers.”

(Anita Aguilar)

Sevastova’s game is all about staying steady, mixing spins and speeds, and giving her opponents a heavy dose of something Serena hadn’t seen a whole lot of these two weeks: Slice backhands. When Sevastova went up an early break by shifting between her slice and drive backhands, and throwing in a few deft drop shots, many of us started to think back to another semifinal that Serena played here, against Roberta Vinci in 2015. Were we going to see a repeat of that epic upset tonight?

Serena, it seems, had learned her lesson from that match, as well as her loss to another defensive-minded player, Angelique Kerber, in the Wimbledon final in July. Against Kerber, Serena has often seemed unsure of whether to commit fully to finishing points at net when she has the chance. She’s more comfortable closing rallies with a ground stroke, but Kerber is fast enough to get most of her shots from the baseline back. Faced with a similar dilemma tonight, Serena didn’t hesitate to head forward whenever she could.

In the second game, Sevastova greeted Serena with a backhand pass winner. On other nights, that might have been enough to discourage Serena from venturing up to net many more times. Baseliners, even ones as confident as Serena, are typically quick to retreat after watching a couple of clean passes whistle by them. But the fact that so much of Sevastova’s game revolves around her drop shot essentially left Serena with no choice but to keep looking to sprint forward.

Soon one good volley led to another, and by the second set she was anticipating Sevastova’s passes and sticking the ball into the open court like a modern-day Martina Navratilova. By the end, every part of her game was clicking—the forehand return she drilled up the line to break for 5-0 in the second set may have been the cleanest strike on the ball she’s had all tournament.

As for Sevastova, her coach lamented her inability to make enough first serves. Sixty percent was never going to get it done against Serena, considering that Sevastova won just four of 22 points on her second serve. After a sharp start, her ground strokes also went back into their shell, and she couldn’t get the ball around or over Serena at net. Her presence there alone was enough to keep Sevastova from swinging freely, and she finished with just 10 winners on the night.

After 20 years on tour and 23 major titles, Serena found a new place to go on court, and a new way to win.

“I feel like I’m just getting started,” the 36-year-old has said more than once since returning to the tour this year. Many of us, I’m guessing, didn’t believe her. Maybe it’s time to start.

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Two books examine the contrasting legacies of Arthur Ashe & Stan Smith

Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:05:00 +0000

TennisWorthy, from the International Tennis Hall of Fame: Jackie Robinson's telegram to Lieutenant Arthur Ashe, read by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

NEW YORK—Everything feels new at the US Open this year. The tournament’s five-year rebuilding project has been completed, on schedule. A revamped Louis Armstrong Stadium has met with positive reviews and large crowds. And the grounds have been transformed and modernized with acres of added steel and concrete. Slew Hester, the man who moved the Open to Flushing Meadows in 1978, would have trouble recognizing the graffiti-strewn facility that he first spotted from the seat of an incoming airplane.

Perhaps sensing that the tournament’s past was slipping away underneath them, US Open officials, in partnership with the International Tennis Hall of Fame, have injected a little history into Flushing Meadows this year. Lining the long walkway that connects the side courts near the South Gate are a series of rectangular displays, five feet high, of photographs that bring the ancient Open—the one held at Forest Hills and played on grass courts—into the present in vivid black-and-white.

The photos are from a new coffee-table book called Crossing the Line: Arthur Ashe at the 1968 US Open (Hannibal). It documents the 36 hours that Ashe spent with John G. Zimmerman, a photographer for Life magazine well-known for his portraits of African-American athletes, at the end of the ’68 Open. During that very productive day and a half, Ashe won the US Open singles final in five sets; won a five-set doubles semifinal with partner Andres Gimeno; lost the doubles final with Gimeno to Stan Smith and Bob Lutz; and flew with the U.S. Davis Cup team to Las Vegas, where he appeared on stage with Harry Belafonte. If you were going to be around for any 36 hours of Ashe’s much-too-short life, those were probably the ones to choose.

Zimmerman’s photos mix on-court action with candid off-court shots. We see Ashe eating breakfast at his hotel, doing a crossword puzzle, riding the subway, dressing in the locker room, interacting with reporters, family members, teammates, opponents, fans and people on the streets of Manhattan. The on-court photos are not action shots in the traditional sense; they are, to borrow the title of another book about Ashe, portraits in motion. Even when he’s on court, they’re less about Ashe the player than they are Ashe the person. Supplementing Zimmerman’s photos are series of often-insightful essays from people who knew, or knew of, Ashe in various ways: John McEnroe, Gael Monfils, Tom Okker (the man Ashe beat in the US Open final that year), the author Ishmael Reed, the photographer Walter Ioos, the African-American swimmer Simone Manuel.

“The series is a sociographic study dissecting a character, and the way he moves and acts,” writes Arne de Winde in the introduction to Crossing the Line. “Zimmerman’s match pictures are characterized by an extreme focus on the figure of Ashe. They seem to register every single gesture and movement.”

What did Zimmerman reveal about Ashe in these previously unpublished photos that we didn’t know before? Most of us have read about how Ashe was an African-American pioneer in an overwhelmingly white sport. But to see his isolation in pictures—in literal black and white—is to get a new appreciation for what his life was like on a day-to-day basis. He’s alone, almost constantly, in a small sea of white reporters, players, and fans. Among the few blacks he’s shown with are his father and his aunt.

How easy would it have been, once he had access to this privileged white world, for Ashe to embrace it and not jeopardize his place in it by getting involved in politics? Yet that’s exactly what he did. Winning the Open gave Ashe the confidence to use his platform as a star athlete for purposes beyond sports. The following year he began his quest to become the first black player to enter the South Africa Open.

Crossing the Line makes it clearer than ever what it meant for Ashe to do just that—cross the color line—and how important and commendable it was that he never left the other side behind.

*****

The most surprising and amusing of Zimmerman’s photos isn’t one of Ashe. It’s a shot of his friend, rival, Davis Cup teammate and fellow US Open champion, Stan Smith, standing next to him an airport, wearing a pork-pie hat.

It’s a cheekier image than the one most of have of Smith—the towering, ramrod straight Army Lieutenant turned unlikely fashion icon. That version of Smith, the one we know well, gets his own coffee-table book this week, with the release of Stan Smith: Some People Think I’m a Shoe (Rizzoli)

The title is a pretty fair summation of how far Smith’s reputation has traveled from Ashe’s since they first became friends 50 years ago. Where Ashe is now revered as athlete and activist, Smith’s own outstanding playing career has largely been obscured, even as his name has become ubiquitous. There must be millions of people around the world who would be stunned to learn that the real, live Stan Smith is still walking among us.

But Smith is still going strong, and aging gracefully, at 71. And while this book is sponsored by Adidas, the maker of his world-famous “Stans,” we’re reminded in its pages that he is indeed more than shoe. While Smith wasn’t a pioneer like Ashe, he was a No. 1 player and figure of historical importance in his own right.

Unlike Ashe, Smith was exactly the type of person you thought of when you thought of a tennis player. Six-foot-four, blonde, white, clean-cut, from Pasadena, Calif., he was even the son of a tennis coach. There was nothing revolutionary about him; in the era of the counterculture, Smith symbolized the long arm of the law. In his Wimbledon and Davis Cup duels with with his polar opposite, Romania’s rascally and buffoonish Ilie Nastase, Smith was cast as the defender of American values in a sporting Cold War. But Smith also wasn’t afraid to stand with the rebels. In 1973, he came to Wimbledon as the defending champion, yet he joined 80 other men in boycotting the event to stand in solidarity with a fellow player.

Some People Think I’m a Shoe details this history in bite-size morsels. It also, naturally, details the history of the Stan Smith shoe. We learn that it was created in 1965, that its designers gave it a unique look by turning Adidas’s trademark three stripes into three nearly-invisible perforations, and that it was originally endorsed by French tennis player Robert Haillet, before Smith took over in 1971. The deal that Smith’s agent, Donald Dell, signed with Adidas’ Horst Dassler—son of company founder Adi Dassler—has made it the best-selling “name” shoe in history. Its ultra-clean look has also made it the fashionable sneaker of choice for everyone from David Bowie in the mid-70s to Pharrell today.

Fun fact: The photo of Smith that still graces the shoe’s tongue was taken in 1969, during the only six months of his adult life in which he wasn’t sporting a mustache.

“I wonder sometimes,” Smith says today, with eerie humor, “if I should shave my mustache to look like the shoe.”

While it’s not as serious or essential as Crossing the Line, Smith’s book will appeal to tennis historians and fashionistas in equal measure. Together, the two tomes show the range and power of the Open era. Professional tennis gave Ashe a political platform, even as it turned Smith into a commodity. In very different ways, the sport has made these two old friends immortal.

Tennis Channel’s encore, all-night match coverage will begin every evening at 11 p.m. ET, with the exception of earlier starts on Saturday and Sunday of championship weekend.

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Djokovic's straight-set win over Millman was filled with commotion

Thu, 06 Sep 2018 04:17:00 +0000

WATCH—Court Report from Day 10 at the US Open:

NEW YORK—It’s probably not accurate to say that Novak Djokovic’s 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over John Millman on Wednesday night was, as the saying goes, “closer than the scores indicated.” But it was definitely more eventful. Over its two hours and 48 minutes, the quarterfinal between the Serb and the Australian featured a number of strange occurrences.

Even as Djokovic jumped to an early lead, he was staggered by the humid, airless conditions in Ashe, and a series of arduously long rallies with Millman. Literally staggered—Djokovic nearly fell over after a few shots, and he wandered off in the wrong direction after a few points. It looked for a minute as if Millman were going to score his second TKO over a top player this week. But we’ve seen Djokovic get off the mat before, and he recovered as the match progressed.

In part, that’s because Millman threw him a lifeline. Early in the second set, he suddenly announced that he needed to leave the court to change his sweat-drenched shorts. Djokovic was happy to take a rest, sit back with his shirt off on the sideline, and use the nasal spray his team handed him. While Djokovic struggled to convert break points—he was 1 of 11 by the middle of the second set—he finally broke Millman at 4-4 and ran out the set.

By the middle of the third set, though, Djokovic, lover of drama and difficulty, was ready to throw himself off track again. Up a break, he was given a time warning. On the next point, he appeared to get a second violation intentionally, and then was broken. Again, Djokovic recovered relatively quickly, breaking at 4-4 and holding for the match.

Despite the mental and physical ups and downs, Djokovic was in command when he needed to be. He pushed Millman toward the sidelines and forced him to do most of the running. He returned serve effectively. And he didn’t have much trouble retrieving Millman’s most penetrating ground strokes. Yet Djokovic wasn’t content to just grind Millman down; he also made the mistake of trying to drop shot him, and he kept drop-shotting even after Millman proved he had the wheels to track them down.

As for the Aussie giant-killer, he acquitted himself well in defeat, and showed that, despite being an Ashe Stadium novice, he knows how to command a stage—Millmania lived for a second night. He made the rallies entertaining, and the match competitive. Up to a point: There was always a sense that Djokovic had another gear, provided he could keep his composure and concentration long enough to reach it.

Afterward, Djokovic pronounced himself “very tested.” On the one hand, you might say this match had a lot of crisis and commotion, before resolving itself in routine fashion. On the other hand, you could just call it a Novak Djokovic match at a major.

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A relatable Naomi Osaka made reaching the US Open semifinals look easy

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 19:43:00 +0000

WATCH—A reaction to Rafael Nadal's epic win over Dominic Thiem at US Open:

NEW YORK—Naomi Osaka was asked why she didn’t show more emotion after her 58-minute, 6-1, 6-1 win over Lesia Tsurenko in the US Open quarterfinals on Wednesday. The obvious answer might have been that any win that came so easily didn’t really deserve an over-the-top celebration. But Osaka’s answers are rarely the obvious ones.

“The other time I cried a little bit,” she told ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi of her tearful reaction to her fourth-round win, “and people were making fun of me.” This time she didn’t want to reveal so much.

The crowd in Ashe Stadium wasn’t sure how to react; the quiet in the arena was broken by a few hesitant cheers, as Rinaldi moved on. Osaka didn’t seem to be milking the moment for sympathy. She was, as usual, just saying what she thought, with a dose of her trademark ironic self-deprecation. Osaka had sounded the same comically melancholy note earlier in the tournament, when she talked about her near total lack of friends.

“Oh my God, I literally only have like, one friend that I’m actually completely like, myself, with,” Osaka said. “I feel bad for her sometimes...”

Still, even Naomi Osaka might have trouble being self-deprecating at the moment. So far, the 20-year-old has spent most of this US Open living in her own personal woodshed. In four of her wins, she has surrendered a total of nine games. And in her other win, she beat a player, Aryna Sabalenka, who had made quick work of Petra Kvitova in the previous round, and who many were touting as the favorite to win the whole thing here.

Has Osaka’s first trip to a Grand Slam semifinal come a little too easily? Maybe. None of her opponents are in the Top 10, and the best of them, Sabalenka, was a US Open rookie. Today Tsurenko, who said she woke up with a viral illness, offered virtually no resistance at all. But that’s the thing about building confidence and starting to believe in yourself at major events: Sometimes a young player needs a little luck to accelerate the process. And it’s not as if Osaka hasn’t proven herself against quality competition this year. In Indian Wells in March, she beat Maria Sharapova, Simona Halep, and Karolina Pliskova on her way to the title.

At Flushing Meadows, Osaka has continued to show the same progress she showed in the spring. A risk-taker by instinct, she has developed a safe rally shot, with help from coach Sascha Bajin, and she’s beginning to develop the patience and footwork needed to make it effective. That may sound like an obvious and easy thing for a professional athlete to do, but the examples of players who managed to do it after their careers had begun are few and far between. Going against your instincts isn’t easy, as Osaka explained when she was asked about the “fights she gets in with herself on court.”

“For example, it happened not this match, the match before,” Osaka said, describing her decision-making process after an opponent hits a second serve. “In my mind, right before she hits the second serve, I’m thinking, ‘Do not hit this down the line.’ Don’t go for it, right?”

“And then there’s another part of me that’s like, ‘But if I hit this down the line, there’s a 50/50 chance it will be a winner and you could win the point easily. And then when she’s serving the ball, I’m arguing with myself: ‘Do it. Don’t do it. Do it. Don’t do it.’ And then the ball comes and I hit it down the line and it goes in the net. I’m like, ‘Why did I do that?’”

“Yeah, basically that happens a lot.”

I’m guessing there are more than a few tennis players who have had that conversation with themselves on many occasions. On the surface, Osaka’s comments—about her fear of being laughed at, about how she drives her one friend crazy, about her indecisiveness on the court—may seem a little shocking, or a little exaggerated for effect. But their unguardedness is what makes them relatable—to a certain type of personality, they don’t sound exaggerated at all.

Can someone with Osaka’s sensitivities succeed at the top level in tennis? So far in New York, she’s making it look easy. Soon she may face her biggest challenge yet: How to make winning a Grand Slam title sound embarrassing.

Tennis Channel’s encore, all-night match coverage will begin every evening at 11 p.m. ET, with the exception of earlier starts on Saturday and Sunday of championship weekend.

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Serena turns match around to dispatch Karolina Pliskova at the US Open

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 03:01:00 +0000

Court Report takes a look back at Day 9 at the US Open:

NEW YORK—We all know what a turning point in a Serena Williams match is supposed to look like. More important, we know what it’s supposed to sound like. It’s supposed to involve a winning shot and a roar of epic proportions from Serena, one that shakes up her opponents, and lets everyone know, just in case they had forgotten, that she’s still here, and still planning to win.

That’s the scenario that ESPN commentators Chris Evert and Chris Fowler were anticipating through much of the first set of Serena’s quarterfinal with Karolina Pliskova on Tuesday. Serena was in her second service game; she had watched Pliskova hold at love; and she had faced three more break points at 1-3. Serena avoided the double break by coming up with a service winner on each of those points, but from the ground she was still struggling to put two balls in a row in the court. By the sixth game, she was well into double digits in unforced errors.

(Photos by Anita Aguilar)

Yet the roar never came; this time, it turned out, she didn’t need it. Instead, Serena’s comeback began when she applied pressure to Pliskova’s serve at 3-4 and broke. She followed that by slamming down three unreturnable serves to hold for 5-4. And then she came back from 40-0 down to break again for the set. By now, the errors from Serena’s racquet had turned to winners.

In the 10th game, she hit one from the forehand side, one from the backhand side, and another from the forehand side. By the time it was over, the fight had gone out of Pliskova’s game. Serena won nine straight points to start the second set, and went up a double break at 4-0.

This time, the turnaround had come smoothly and quietly. Serena’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, told ESPN that it happened because Serena “stopped rushing,” when she realized Pliskova wasn’t hurting her, and that she had time to be patient. Two years ago in New York, Pliskova had beaten Serena, and Serena may have over-remembered that loss, and over-rated Pliskova’s power.

Whatever the reason, Serena did play more patiently from 2-4 in the first set to 4-0 in the second, and the result was some of her most gracefully lethal tennis. Rather than go for broke early in rallies, she gradually moved Pliskova out of position, and gradually moved herself into position for finishing shots. And, of course, she always had her serve to back her up. At 4-2 in the second set, Serena faced four break points; she erased them with—what else?—four unreturnable first serves. A few minutes later, she closed out the match in similar fashion, with an imperious three-ace final game for a more-complicated than-it-sounds 6-4, 6-3 win.

“I just thought that I wasn’t playing my best tennis,” Serena said of her mind-set when she was down 2-4 in the first set. “I was just thinking, you know, I can play better. So that was the good news. Then I thought, ‘Just try to make less errors,’ because at that point I was missing a lot of shots. I just had to figure out a way to just try to at least make one, and one at a time.”

Serena has traditionally played some of her best tennis when she dials the power back a notch and settles into rallies; even for her, simply making shots is a confidence builder.

But was there another reason that Serena remained so calm as she turned this match around? Was there a reason the roar never came? The previous day, Pliskova told reporters that she was looking forward to facing Serena in Arthur Ashe Stadium, and she told the New York Times, “She has a big game, but sometimes she behaves bigger than her game is.”

Serena didn’t say anything about those comments; she let her racquet do the talking instead. It was left to her husband, Alexis Ohanian, Sr., that hinted that the message had been received.

“Big game, Serena Williams,” he tweeted after the match, “big game.”

Tennis Channel’s encore, all-night match coverage will begin every evening at 11 p.m. ET, with the exception of earlier starts on Saturday and Sunday of championship weekend.

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Celebrating Millmania: John Millman was ready for his unlikely moment

Tue, 04 Sep 2018 16:45:00 +0000

WATCH—Courier, Navratilova and Wertheim react to Roger Federer's shocking US Open loss:

NEW YORK—Is the world ready for Millmania?

Yes, it’s a thing, or it was a thing. In 2013, when John Millman won a first-round match at his home tournament in Brisbane, a local reporter coined the phrase Millmania to describe the reaction in the area. The Aussie’s new fans even got their own nickname: Millminions.

You see, this wasn’t just any-first-round win. It was the first time, after seven years on tour, that Millman had won an ATP main-draw match.

Then, in the second round, Millman lost to Andy Murray. As far as I know, that was the end of Millmania.

Five years later, the tennis world at large may finally be ready to embrace the phenomenon. On Monday night at the US Open, the 29-year-old Millman, who has never been ranked higher than No. 49, pulled off the biggest win possible, on the biggest stage possible: A 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3) stunner over Roger Federer in a night match in Arthur Ashe Stadium. As if that wasn’t enough, Millman then made himself relatable to sports fans all over America when he said he had to get up at 7 A.M. for an NFL fantasy draft and he couldn’t decide whether to take Todd Gurley or Le’Veon Bell with the second overall pick.

Like last time, Millmania may only last for a couple of days; his reward for beating Federer is a quarterfinal encounter with Novak Djokovic. But it should be celebrated anyway. While few outside of tennis had any idea who Millman was before last night, he has long been one of the most popular figures inside the game. Even after a decade on tour, even after seven years without an ATP-level win, even after shoulder, groin and hip injuries sent him to the sidelines, he retains an infectious enthusiasm for the sport and the work that goes with it. Millman is also an intelligent guy whose TV commentary on the game is always enlightening.

Most of all, Millman should be credited for holding his nerve, and holding steady, against Federer last night. By the second set, it was apparent that Federer, sweating heavily and slumping in his sideline chair during changeovers, wasn’t right physically. Later he confirmed that the high humidity made it hard for him to breathe. Suddenly given the opportunity of a lifetime, many players would have been unable to cross the finish line. It wasn’t as if Federer, despite his struggles and his attempts to end points quickly, couldn’t play at all. Millman still had to win the match.

Millman still had to come up with passing shots when Federer barreled forward, and he did that brilliantly. He still had to break serve at the end of the second set, sneak away with the third-set tiebreaker 9-7, and come back from a break down in the fourth set and close out another tiebreaker. Millman still had to deal with the unexpected enormity of the moment, and keep the large pro-Federer crowd out of it.

In that sense, Federer was playing the wrong opponent for what ailed him. Millman isn’t flashy, but he is steady, with a forehand and two-handed backhand that are sturdily built. He’s also smart and level-headed and not prone to mental meltdowns. All of those traits, which have traditionally made Australians such strong competitors, served him well last night. As the match went on, Millman barked at his coach more, but his shots stayed calm.

“I’ve never played anyone’s reputation,” Millman said. “That’s been a constant for me, ever since I started the game.”

“It was a slightly intimidating environment. At the start I don’t think I was playing so well. But as the match went on, I felt more comfortable, felt pretty good.”

“I’m just glad, you know, I took the chance today.”

Millman said Federer is a hero of his, and they’ve had their share of conversations and practice sessions together over the years. He acknowledged that Federer “didn’t have a great day in the office,” and that he felt “a little bit guilty” about taking advantage of that. When Federer’s last forehand sailed long, Millman just put his head down and walked to the net.

Millman sounded the way millions of tennis fans felt: Sad to see the 37-year-old legend laid low in a way he’d never been laid low before. Monday’s performance may or may not be a sign of Federer’s ultimate decline, but it is a sign that he’s mortal. That fact might seem obvious, and it would seem obvious with just about anyone else. But it was still a shock to be reminded that it’s true for Federer, too. The quiet that came over Arthur Ashe Stadium, where it is never quiet, was the reaction of an audience watching a great dancer who couldn’t get off the ground. Federer’s body was there, but the liveliness had gone out of it, and the magic had gone out of his racquet. This time it was Federer who lost the big points, who let leads slip and drilled easy volleys into the net. This time it was his unheralded opponent, Millman, who took charge when it mattered.

“Even in some bigger matches that I’ve played,” Millman said, “I’ve always felt as if I’ve done a good job of not letting the moment get the better of me.”

When his moment finally came after 10 years on tour, he was ready. Millmania may not last longer than 15 minutes, but it will have been well-earned.

Tennis Channel’s encore, all-night match coverage will begin every evening at 11 p.m. ET, with the exception of earlier starts on Saturday and Sunday of championship weekend.

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Suarez Navarro delivers Sharapova her first loss under US Open lights

Tue, 04 Sep 2018 01:42:00 +0000

WATCH—Daily Mix from Day 8 at the US Open:

NEW YORK—It was supposed to be star time at the US Open on Monday night. This was the final session of a holiday weekend, with longtime evening stalwarts Maria Sharapova and Roger Federer on a glitzy double-bill. These were the moments Sharapova in particular lived for; she brought an unprecedented and frankly incredible 23-0 record in Open night matches with her.

But just when we thought we were in for a show, a tennis match broke out. Sharapova’s opponent, Carla Suarez Navarro, saw to that. The Spanish veteran, who stands just 5'4" and probably averages less than a fist-pump per match, is one of the WTA’s anti-stars, and her between-point amble is an anti-strut. CSN can be up 5-0 or down 0-5 and you won’t know it.

There was little question that she had enough game to stay with Sharapova. Suarez Navarro has one of the sport’s most glorious one-handed backhands, she has cracked the Top 10, and she reached the quarterfinals at the US Open in 2013. The question, as Chris Evert put it on ESPN, was, “Her nerve—will that hold up?”

There was some reason to wonder. Monday was Suarez Navarro’s 30th birthday; in 2013, she lost to Serena Williams 6-0, 6-0 when she turned 25 here, and last year she went out to Serena’s sister Venus on the same day. Would CSN hold up better under the bright lights this time? The answer came quickly. She broke early, went up 4-1, and wowed the crowd with the drive, depth and spin on her one-hander. The action at her end of the court was a lot more entertaining than what was happening on the other side.

Photos by Anita Aguilar

Sharapova started the match without her serve. She double-faulted three times in one game, and finished the match with eight; eventually, she had to resort to spinning the first ball in. She was a step behind from the baseline as well. Three times in the opening set, Suarez Navarro ripped a shot crosscourt that forced Sharapova to throw up a desperate, defensive lob with her left hand.

Sharapova rallied late in the first set, and the momentum seemed to be just a shot or two from swinging in her direction. But she couldn’t find the shot she needed, and she couldn’t defend her serve. While Sharapova was able to break Suarez Navarro three times, CSN returned the favor six times. When Sharapova reached break point at 2-2 in the second set, it looked for a moment as if the match might turn in her favor. The two smacked a series of crosscourt backhands at each other—until Sharapova blinked and sent a ball long. CSN’s one-hander had held up better than Sharapova’s two-hander, and she never trailed after that.

“I tried to be aggressive, be solid, fighting every time,” said Suarez Navarro, who finished with a more-than-solid-enough 15 winners and 15 errors. More important, she did what stars are supposed to do: she won the big points. Sharapova created the same number of break points as CSN—eight—but CSN converted on twice as many.

The loss brings Sharapova’s Grand Slam season to a disappointing close. In her first full year since coming back from a drug suspension, she lost in the third round at the Australian Open, the quarterfinals at the French Open, the first round at Wimbledon and now the fourth round at the US Open. The only time she has found any sort of groove in 2018 was on clay, when she made the semis in Rome and the quarters in Paris. Otherwise, vintage victories have tended to be followed quickly by erratic and subpar performances like the one we saw today.

From her serve to her net game to her forehand, Sharapova doesn’t consistently hit the ball as cleanly as she once did. On Monday, she made twice as many unforced errors as winners. At 31, Sharapova is still a proud competitor, and most of us assumed she would mount a comeback; but when the time seemed right, she faltered. That’s largely been the story of her post-comeback career so far. Sharapova says she’s only looking forward, but the next major isn’t until January, in Melbourne; three months after that, she turns 32.

It was star time in New York on Monday: while Suarez Navarro’s shone brightly, Sharapova saw hers get a little dimmer.

Tennis Channel’s encore, all-night match coverage will begin every evening at 11 p.m. ET, with the exception of earlier starts on Saturday and Sunday of championship weekend.

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Keys was firing on all cylinders in rout over Cibulkova at US Open

Mon, 03 Sep 2018 19:12:00 +0000

WATCH—Lindsay Davenport 1998 US Open:

NEW YORK—There are players who can hit the ball past their opponents by aiming for one corner or another. There are others who can create an opening with one shot, and put the ball away with the next one. Then there are the players who can hit winners by going straight down the middle of the court.

Actually, there’s only one player who can do that on a semi-regular basis: Madison Keys. More than once in her 6-1, 6-3 fourth-round win over Dominika Cibulkova on Monday, Keys sent a return of serve back down the center and into the back wall before Cibulkova had even completed her service motion. Domi saw the ball coming, but all she could do was wave at it helplessly as it blazed by her.

This is the blessing, and occasionally the curse, of being Madison Keys. If you can hit winners at will, without even aiming the ball, why wouldn’t you try to hit one on every shot? Keys’ ground strokes are tennis’ version of the three-point shot in basketball: High risk, high reward.

Over the years, the three-pointer has gone from a shot that was used sparingly and judiciously, to one that is now used constantly—analytics have suggested that, in the long run, the risk is worth the reward, and all the misses are worth the extra point you earn from the makes. Watching Keys against Cibulkova, I wondered what tennis analytics would tell us about how much risk she should take on any given stroke. Should she, as virtually everyone says, dial back the power and rally more? Or is she more effective just going for it, and accepting the errors that come with the winners?

(Anita Aguilar)

If her match on Monday is any example, Keys should probably start out playing it a little safe, see how she feels, and try to find a groove naturally. In the early going against Cibulkova, Keys kicked her serve in, varied the pace on her ground strokes, and kept the ball in play for a few shots before pulling the trigger.

Or, as Patrick McEnroe said after one bullet forehand, “It didn’t look like she was going that big, and then boom!”

By the end of the first set, Keys seemed to have decided that she was feeling good enough to let the ball fly. She had owned Cibulkova in the past, having won all four of their previous meetings—basically, the 5’3” Domi tries to do what the 5’10” Maddy does with much less effort: Tear the cover off the ball. Outside of a brief, two-game hiccup in the second set, that’s what Keys did. When she wasn’t hitting her shots past Cibulkova, she was putting them right at her feet. Keys ended up with 25 winners to just seven from Cibulkova. And she did all of that while making just 57 percent of her first serves.

If there’s one thing that would be a game-changer for Keys it would probably be developing a defensive slice backhand. Too often, when a player goes big into her backhand side, her only option is to try to go bigger in return. For today, power was enough, but will be enough to take her all the way to her first major title? Keys is the highest seed left in the bottom half, and after today she has to be the favorite to reach her second straight Open final.

(Anita Aguilar)

Afterward, Keys was asked how she was able to bounce back so quickly from that two-game skid in the second set—at one stage down the stretch, the American won 12 straight points.

“If it gets a little bit tighter,” Keys said, “you think, ‘Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t try to hit a winner on the first shot.’”

The answer for most players is to wait to pull the trigger. For Keys, that might or might not be the best strategy. Knowing what she can do with the ball makes finding the right balance more difficult. She found it today; now we’ll see how long she can keep it.

Tennis Channel’s encore, all-night match coverage will begin every evening at 11 p.m. ET, with the exception of earlier starts on Saturday and Sunday of championship weekend.

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Sloane Stephens is excited about her game—suddenly, she can’t hide it

Mon, 03 Sep 2018 02:43:00 +0000

Tennis Channel Live: Sloane Stephens' US Open title defense

NEW YORK—Playing Sloane Stephens can be a puzzling proposition.

Do you try to hit through her? If you do, you better hit the ball perfectly. Anything less and Stephens is going to run it down and do what she does best: hit an offensive shot from a defensive position.

Do you try to rally with her? Again, you better hit your targets and not let the ball land short. If you do, Stephens, unlike many counter-punchers, can move forward and create her own heavy pace on her ground strokes. In the French Open final against Stephens, Simona Halep eventually decided that her only hope was to rally and simply “not miss any balls.” It worked for her, but she’s also No. 1 in the world. It’s not going to work for everyone.

Elise Mertens is not No. 1 in the world; she’s No. 15, to be exact. But she did have success against Stephens recently, beating her in straight sets last month in Cincinnati. A Sloane fan might say that there were extenuating circumstances to that one; namely, a couple of days earlier, she had reached the final in Montreal and lost a marathon to Halep.

Photos by Anita Aguilar

More important, as far as Stephens is concerned: Cincinnati is no US Open. This is the tournament she has been pointing toward, and this is the tournament where she has shown more emotion over the course of the first week than she may have shown in the rest of her career combined. And on Sunday, this is where Stephens made herself an unsolvable riddle for Mertens.

Mertens tried to split the difference between attacking Stephens and rallying with her. She would toss up a moonball, and then drive her next stroke hard enough to catch Stephens off guard. Sloane, meanwhile, was trying to move Mertens back with her own looping shots, and move her wide with crosscourt angles. The result was a match that was the diametric opposite of this afternoon’s fourth-rounder between Serena Williams and Kaia Kanepi: that was a shootout; this was a chess match.

Neither player could sustain momentum for long. Stephens broke Mertens five times, while Mertens returned the favor twice. Each ended up with significantly more errors than winners. Mertens had early success attacking Stephens’ second serve; she hammered two winning returns off it to break for 2-3 in the first set. How did Stephens counter that play? Simple: she made 83 percent of her first serves, and gave Mertens precious few looks at second balls.

From the ground, Stephens mixed low slices with hard drives, rolling crosscourt backhands with forehands hit high, heavy and straight down the middle. Most important, Sloane’s speed forced Mertens to go for too much in her quest to end the rallies. Mertens ended up with just 12 winners against 35 unforced errors, though it could be argued that Stephens’ presence alone on the other side of the net means those errors were forced, rather than unforced.

At times in the past, Stephens has been reluctant to put herself on the line as a competitor, and that has manifested itself in a playing style that can err on the conservative side. The first week here has been different. She has allowed herself to show the crowd how much winning at the Open means to her, and the New York fans have responded to that emotion.

“It’s crazy, it’s so special,” Stephens said today. “I think an American playing at the US Open is incredible.”

According to Sloane, who is ranked a career-high No. 3 right now, she’s also motivated by the chance to become No. 1.

“There’s only two more spots to go,” she said. “That’s exciting. It’s something new. I’ve never had that type of, like, challenge before.”

“I’m excited about where my game is, about competing, about being on the court.”

That excitement, and willingness to put herself on the line, may also be translating into a more creative brand of shotmaking. On Sunday, Stephens ran back and hit a forehand pass back over her head for a crosscourt winner. Later, she won an important rally with a big forehand down the line, a curling crosscourt backhand approach, and a swing volley that she hit behind Mertens. And on her first match point, Sloane ranged forward and knocked a confident forehand inside-out for a thumping, authoritative winner.

“That’s pretty good, huh?” she asked ESPN’s Pam Shriver a few minutes later.

For Stephens, who already has the solid and steady down pat, adding the spectacular would be one more piece of an already-difficult puzzle to solve.

Tennis Channel’s encore, all-night match coverage will begin every evening at 11 p.m. ET, with the exception of earlier starts on Saturday and Sunday of championship weekend.

Follow the Race to ATP Finals this fall on Tennis Channel PLUS. Live coverage from the biggest stops including Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai & Paris.

Serena turns it on late in a rocket-fueled win over Kanepi at US Open

Sun, 02 Sep 2018 22:49:00 +0000

WATCH—Tennis Channel Live Day 7 - Martina Navratilova and the US Open:

NEW YORK—It’s always something of a risk to fire a winner past Serena Williams. You win the point, yes, but you may soon find yourself losing much more. If there’s anything Serena likes less than losing, it’s having to watch a ball go by her. After all, belting winners is her thing, not yours.

By the first game of the third set on Sunday, Kaia Kanepi had slugged plenty of balls past the six-time Open champion. Kanepi had hauled off, club-like, on service returns. She had sent on-the-run forehands skidding through the corners and into the backstop. She had even taken some of Serena’s best-hit ground strokes and reflexed them back for winners. While Serena dominated a 6-0 first set, Kanepi matched her shot for shot in the second set and won it 6-4. By the end of that set, the 36-year-old American and the 33-year-old Estonian were hurling thunderbolts at each other to the amazement of the Ashe audience.

Now Serena was serving to start the third set, and Kanepi was still matching her, thunderbolt for thunderbolt. Serena hit a backhand winner for 15-0. Kanepi did the same for 15-30. Serena cracked an ace for 30-30, and a forehand winner for 40-30. On the next point, Serena had Kanepi on the run, but Kanepi came up with perhaps her most spectacular shot of the afternoon, a down-the-line bullet that Serena could only watch from afar.

Serena, we soon found out, had finally had enough. She got the advantage back in that game, and won it with—what else?—a winner, this time from the backhand side. Then she stopped, screamed, pumped her arms, and kept screaming until she was nearly doubled over.

(Anita Aguilar)

Was it a coincidence that the wheels suddenly came off for Kanepi in her next service game? Instead of hitting more winners, she put a forehand into the net, sent a backhand wide, and was broken on a wild forehand error. Each of Kanepi’s misses was followed by a stare from Serena. Kanepi had won the battle with her running forehand, but she would lose the war. Serena would never trail again, and advance 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 in a brisk one hour and 37 minutes.

For the most part, Serena played well. She hit 47 winners and 18 aces, and she put together a flawless first set, winning 24 points to Kanepi’s six. But while 40 percent of Serena’s first serves went for aces, that’s a stat with an upside and a downside. The upside is that she was serving with power; the downside is that she made just 55 percent of her first balls.

Yet Serena’s serve was there for her when she needed it. Up 4-2 in the third, with victory in sight, Serena went down 0-15 when Kanepi cracked a forehand winner. Was Kanepi going to find her range again, now that she was behind in the score? Serena never let her have a chance. She hit a second-serve ace for 15-15, a service winner for 30-15, another service winner for 40-15, and an ace to hold for 5-2.

It was a winning effort for Serena, and it also may end up being good practice. On Tuesday she’ll face another big hitter in Karolina Pliskova, who beat her here two years ago. If their match is anything like this one, it won’t begin in earnest until Pliskova fires a winner past Serena, and Serena returns the favor with a roar.

Tennis Channel’s encore, all-night match coverage will begin every evening at 11 p.m. ET, with the exception of earlier starts on Saturday and Sunday of championship weekend.

Follow the Race to ATP Finals this fall on Tennis Channel PLUS. Live coverage from the biggest stops including Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai & Paris.

US Open: Aryna Sabalenka looks like a Slam champion of the near future

Sun, 02 Sep 2018 03:47:00 +0000

Coach's Corner: the best returners in the women's game

NEW YORK—When most players grunt, they do it for a sustained period of time, and they do it the same way on each shot. Aryna Sabalenka brings a little more creativity and variety to her sonic outbursts. She’ll let out an “unnnh!” here, and an “ahhhh!” there, and when she finally wins a point, she’ll punctuate it with a high squeal of happiness.

Somehow it all makes sense. When she’s playing well, it sounds like a one-woman symphony of exertion.

Pretty much everything makes sense about Sabalenka’s game right now. She’s just 20, but at Flushing Meadows this week she has carried herself with the easy assurance of a champion—of the present, not the future—rather than the US Open rookie she is. And why shouldn’t she? Sabalenka is coming off a semifinal run in Cincinnati, her first career title in New Haven, and, as of Saturday, a win over No. 5 seed Petra Kvitova, 7-5, 6-1, to reach the round of 16. Sabalenka did more than win, really; over the course of the match’s 85 minutes, she made one of the biggest hitters of the last decade virtually disappear.

Photos by Anita Aguilar

It’s easy to be overshadowed by Sabalenka. She’s 6’0”, but it’s her long limbs and sculpted proportions that let you know you’re in the presence of an athletic force. When she walked into Louis Armstrong Stadium on Saturday night, somebody near me said, “She’s kind of a goddess.” And that was before she even hit a ball.

When Sabalenka sets up for her shots and takes her racquet back in a long loop—“unfurls” is the word that comes to mind—it’s sort of hard to believe she’s going to be able to keep everything coordinated. But she does keep it all coordinated, and when she connects, the stroke looks natural, rather than awkward or mechanical. For someone so tall, she’s very good at reflexing balls back from her shoe-tops, and powering through shots from a near-kneeling position. And while the ball toss on her serve may seem too high for most players, it only adds to the overall sense of length and extension she brings to the court. It also works: On Saturday, Sabalenka showed off a flat serve, a kick, and a hand-cuffing slice into the body.

Sabalenka is a power hitter who is always looking to attack, but she doesn’t thoughtlessly go for broke. She creates a surprising amount of spin, especially with her whipping forehand, and she plays with a surprising amount of margin. Best of all is her ability to find the opening in the court and put the ball there; whether it’s crosscourt, down the line, or inside-out, Sabalenka has a knack for zeroing in and hitting her target with precision. She’s already a much steadier and more polished player than she was a year ago.

In March, Sabalenka lost to Kvitova; asked today what the biggest difference in her game is now, she said, “I think I put in more balls. That’s enough.”

In other words, she knows her shots are big enough and good enough to go up against anyone else’s; it’s just a matter of making them. In general, Sabalenka sounds like she has a simple, straightforward confidence in her ability to make her game better and iron out any flaws.

“I have improved everything,” she said. “You can always improve. I will work with everything. Probably moving on the court, probably serve. I would like to make [a higher] percentage on the first serve.

“We will think about it, and we will work, sure.”

While Kvitova, who double-faulted 10 times, faded down the stretch, Sabalenka played with more freedom, and generated even more pace on her shots. She doesn’t just hope she can win, or make a match close; she already looks like she believes she should win.

Of course, that doesn’t mean she can tell you exactly how she’s doing what she’s doing.

“I don’t know,” Sabalenka said when she was asked why she played so well. “I was focused.”

It was an answer that reminded me of a young Monica Seles—it’s the intense focus of youth, and it can be unstoppable.

Is Sabalenka a future Slam winner? That question now sounds a little dated. It’s been replaced with a new one: Is she going to win the US Open, like, next week? We’ll see; her next opponent, fellow-20-year-old Naomi Osaka, is on a roll of her own, and there will be a considerable collision of momentum when they meet on Monday.

For the moment, Sabalenka is still the type of player who comes off the court and, racquet bag slung over her shoulder, enthusiastically walks straight to her press conference by herself—she’ll learn to make us wait. When she faced the media on Saturday night, she was asked what her coach, Dmitry Tursunov, has told her about approaching her first Open.

“He just say to me, like, ‘Don’t think about you have to make the final or something like that. Just enjoy. Because every match, it’s a new story for you in your history.’”

Sabalenka’s history may be starting now. It may not be over for a long time.

Tennis Channel’s encore, all-night match coverage will begin every evening at 11 p.m. ET, with the exception of earlier starts on Saturday and Sunday of championship weekend.

Follow the Race to ATP Finals this fall on Tennis Channel PLUS. Live coverage from the biggest stops including Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai & Paris.

By the end of their match, Kyrgios was another awed Federer spectator

Sun, 02 Sep 2018 03:00:00 +0000

WATCH—Tennis Channel Live talks about the 2018 Laver Cup:

NEW YORK—We hoped for a great match between Roger Federer and Nick Kyrgios, but all we got was a moment.

It consisted of an all-time great shot, and a reaction that was almost as good.

The shot came from Federer. At 3-3 in the third set, Kyrgios flipped a forehand at a short angle crosscourt. The ball bounced wide of the doubles alley, and it looked as if Federer wouldn’t be able to reach it. But his long strides and long reach got him there just in time to flick a forehand about a foot above the court surface, around the net at a diagonal angle, and into Kyrgios’ side of the court for a winner. It looked less like a ball being hit than a stone skidding across water. It will probably go down as the biggest highlight-reel shot Federer has hit at the Open since the tweener winner he sent past Novak Djokovic here in 2009.

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— doublefault28 (@doublefault28) September 1, 2018

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— doublefault28 (@doublefault28) September 1, 2018

The reaction? That came from Kyrgios. Stunned, he was still smiling and shaking his head when he set up to serve the next point.

“That’s probably the greatest shot I’ve ever seen,” he said.

(Anita Aguilar)

Unlike that moment, however, the match—a 6-4, 6-1, 7-5 win for Federer in an hour and 44 minutes—was not one to remember.

The best of it came in the first set. Kyrgios came out firing aces, holding at love, and bounding forward on his returns. He was into it. At 3-3, he went up 0-40 on Federer’s serve and eventually held four break points.

By then, the match had settled into a briskly confrontational pace. A “Come on!” from Federer was matched by one from Kyrgios, as the two traded winners. For a moment, I imagined a world where Kyrgios always played like this. It was a nice thought.

(Anita Aguilar)

But it was hardly a realistic thought. Instead of turning the match in his favor, that 3-3 game marked the end of Kyrgios’ chances, and of the competitive part of the match. Federer saved all four break points, held, and then, at 5-4, broke Kyrgios with a slyly sliding slice backhand return winner. The set was his, and the match soon followed. Kyrgios berated his team on his way to his chair, and lamented not having a coach. From there, Federer took complete control, while Kyrgios went through the motions.

Federer hit 16 aces and 51 winners against just 24 errors, and he was never broken. He said he had trouble finding a rhythm on his backhand early, but he was happy that his level had improved as the match went on. He had particular success with a shot that Kyrgios specializes in, the backhand drop, and he was a highly efficient 21 of 25 at the net.

Early in the first set, Kyrgios imitated Federer’s service motion, and then won the point with that serve. In the end, though, he was no match for the original.

Tennis Channel’s encore, all-night match coverage will begin every evening at 11 p.m. ET, with the exception of earlier starts on Saturday and Sunday of championship weekend.

Follow the Race to ATP Finals this fall on Tennis Channel PLUS. Live coverage from the biggest stops including Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai & Paris.

How Serena turned her 30th meeting with Venus into a one-sided rout

Sat, 01 Sep 2018 02:32:00 +0000

Court Report: It was a Serena Williams rout on Friday night

NEW YORK—There was a point in the third game that should have let us know how the rest of this night would go.

Serena Williams had just taken a medical timeout for what looked to be a problem with her right ankle. Then, when she went back out out to play, she had watched as her sister Venus, to the delight of the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd, had fired a forehand winner to go up 30-15 on her serve. We appeared to have a match on our hands.

After a short rally to start the next point, Serena pushed her sister out of position with a crosscourt backhand. All Venus could do was flip up a weak one-handed backhand that barely made it over the net. At first, it looked as if Serena would have to let the ball bounce, instead, she put on a sudden burst of closing speed and made it there in time to slam home a swing volley into the open court. Yes, Serena’s foot seemed to be OK. Her game, it turned out, was even better.

In their first 29 meetings, the Williams sisters had, understandably, produced few classics. But two of their better contests had come at the US Open, in the 2008 and 2015 quarterfinals; so there was hope for something good tonight. We did get something good, but only from one sister. Serena was at her brusquely efficient best from start to finish. Of the 113 points played, 94 were over in four shots or less; of those 94, Serena won 62.

“She played so well,” Venus said, “I never really got to touch any balls.”

(Photo by Anita Aguilar)

You could see this coming in Serena’s previous match, against Carina Witthoeft. Her forehand return had clicked early, and her serve had followed. Both were clicking again tonight; Serena hit 10 aces and 34 winners to Venus’ 14. More telling, though, was the fact that Venus managed to win just 48 percent of points on her first serve. The harder she hit her serve, the harder it came back, and the harder it went past her.

In the end, Venus-Serena XXX was one of the most one-sided in their reluctant, two-decade-old sibling rivalry. Serena won 6-1, 6-2 in 72 minutes and faced just one break point. Venus said afterward that she hopes her sister can keep that level up. While Serena may meet more resistance from Kaia Kanepi on Sunday, she has to be the favorite for the title at the moment.

The fans in gave Venus a powerful ovation as she waved good-bye; during the match, they did what they could to lift her up. But before you can make any good shots, you actually have to be able to touch your opponents’, right?

Tennis Channel’s encore, all-night match coverage will begin every evening at 11 p.m. ET, with the exception of earlier starts on Saturday and Sunday of championship weekend.

Follow the Race to ATP Finals this fall on Tennis Channel PLUS. Live coverage from the biggest stops including Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai & Paris.