Articles by Steve Tignor

In vintage, 11th-hour Sveta style, Kuznetsova returns to center stage

Sat, 17 Aug 2019 15:30:00 +0000

“Nothing surprises me anymore,” Svetlana Kuznetsova said this week at the Western & Southern Open. “You know, I expect any result.”

By now, nothing should surprise us about Kuznetsova, either. The 34-year-old Russian has been on tour since the turn of the century, and she has pretty much seen and done it all. She’s won two major titles, and been ranked as high as No. 2 in the world. She’s been around long enough to have played doubles with Martina Navratilova, played Justine Henin in Grand Slam finals, and traveled up and down the rankings more times than she can remember. Every year or so, just when you think she can’t possibly make another comeback, she shows up and beats everyone in town.

But Sveta’s latest resurrection in Cincy has been unconventional—astounding, really—even by her standards. She began the summer by losing in the first round at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Then she was temporarily unable to secure a visa to play in the U.S., which meant she couldn’t defend her title at the Citi Open in D.C., which meant her ranking plummeted even farther. But a wild card in Cincinnati was all she needed, apparently.

This week she has beaten four players who were seeded in the Top 11, and she has done it in vintage, 11th-hour Sveta style. She beat Anastasia Sevastova 6-4 in the third set. She saved match points and beat Dayana Yastremska 6-2 in the third set. She was down a set and 3-5 to Karolina Pliskova before winning 6-3 in the third. And just for fun, she also beat Sloane Stephens, 6-1, 6-2, and Ashleigh Barty, Saturday, 6-2, 6-4.

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How does Kuznetsova explain it? She says that not playing for a month left her with no expectations, and thus no worries.

“Now I just feel different inside,” she said after beating Stephens. “You know, I’m just happy and I just try to take things simple and just play each point. It comes to this, anyway.”

There are times when you watch Kuznetsova play that you get the feeling she’s simply not going to let herself lose, no matter how bad the score gets, or how weary she looks, or how slowly she walks between points. I had that sense while watching her against Pliskova, and sure enough, even though the Czech appeared to be in control up until 5-4 in the second set, Kuznetsova found a way, with a crucial backhand pass, to break her in the nick of time.

Then there are other times when you watch Kuznetsova and you marvel at her tennis IQ, and all of subtle ways she makes life impossible for her opponents. Saturday was one of those days. Kuznetsova left Barty, who has been the WTA’s player of the year so far, at a loss for what to do. The Aussie—who admittedly wasn’t helping herself by making just 50 percent of her first serves—even resorted to a rare on-court call to her coach, Craig Tyzzer. He warned her not to “get caught in [Kuznetsova’s] type of rally, where she’s dictating from the middle of the court.” But Barty never found an escape.

In truth, it’s hard to define what Kuznetsova’s “type of rally” is, because she doesn’t fit into any of the normal tennis-player categories. She can be a grinder who hits with heavy topspin. She can be a scrambler who seemingly gets her racquet on everything. She can be a net-rusher who knows how to hit slice approaches and knock off high volleys. Often, she’s all of these things at once over the course of a single point.

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Against Barty, Kuznetsova did a little bit of everything, and did it all masterfully. She won many of her points by defending first, and then turning the tables and going on offense in the middle of the rally. She won others with perfect passing shots, others with nice stretch volleys, others with heavy topspin forehands, others with biting underspin backhands. The only thing she didn’t do was win a point with a tweener—Kuznetsova tried one, but sent it wide. As Barty said to her coach, most of the time she was just too good today, even for a world No. 1.

A few weeks ago, Kuznetsova was wondering if she would be able to travel to the States. Now she’s in the Cincinnati final, and giving lessons to her younger colleagues on the art of tennis. That’s the Sveta way. She’s been around too long to think that anything is beyond her.

Earlier in the week, Kuznetsova was asked how it felt to have been on tour for so long.

“I let this go, otherwise, it’s impossible,” she said. “If I let all the facts, this tournament would be very difficult.”

“Just play,” she said, “and just enjoying.”

Twenty and into the Top 20: Sofia Kenin savoring summer surge

Fri, 16 Aug 2019 19:56:00 +0000

“This wasn’t how I wanted to win,” Sofia Kenin told the crowd in Cincinnati on Friday, after she had advanced past Naomi Osaka 6-4, 1-6, 2-0 ret., to reach the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open.

Just as the match seemed poised for an entertaining race to the finish line between the two young players, Osaka pulled up with a left leg injury. She had it taped but ultimately couldn’t continue. Between Osaka and Serena Williams, who withdrew from Cincy due to back pain, last year’s US Open women’s finalists may both be hurting as they return to New York.

While Kenin would rather have out-played Osaka than had the victory handed to her, the way it ended doesn’t take anything away from what the 20-year-old Floridian has accomplished this summer, on all three surfaces. She began it by beating Serena to reach the fourth round at the French Open on clay. She followed that with a title run at the Mallorca Open on grass. And now she has reached the semifinals at the last two North American hard-court events.

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Along the way, she has beaten two world No. 1s, Osaka and Ashleigh Barty, and another Top 10 player, Elina Svitolina, twice. Kenin has also shown herself to be a quick study: In Toronto, she turned the tables on the women who had knocked her out of the French Open and Wimbledon, Barty and Dayana Yastremska.

“I guess revenge is the key, so I’m just going to keep it going,” Kenin said with a smile in Toronto.

In reality, Kenin, who is currently the fourth-ranked U.S. woman, and who will make her Top 20 debut this coming week, credits her surge to the number of matches she has been able to play. The more she wins, the more she plays, the deeper her groove becomes.

“I think it’s the match play,” Kenin said last week. “Having these really good wins under my belt against these really tough players and top players, I think it’s always good and it just gives me more confidence. It’s helping me to keep the rhythm going.”

And the more Kenin plays, the more we can see that there’s a lot to like about her game, and a lot more to it than first meets the eye. Unlike so many of her U.S.-based peers—Osaka, Madison Keys, Amanda Anisimova, to name three—Kenin is not a wildly streaky, hot and cold, all or nothing player. She makes mistakes and goes into funks like anyone else, but she’s able to balance aggression and consistency. Winning points with a single shot isn’t her game, so she doesn’t try to go that risky route.

Instead, Kenin wins with solid, varied serving; with aggressive service returns hit deep and down the middle; with heavy crosscourt forehands; with an instinct for when to close the net, and when to throw in the occasional short slice and high-arcing moonball to change the pace. Against Osaka, Kenin showed that she could hold her own in forehand-to-forehand rallies with one of the tour’s biggest hitters.

The same goes for Kenin’s mental approach. She’s fiery, and she gets annoyed when she misses, but she doesn’t sulk or beat herself up unnecessarily. Like the young player who she lost to in Canada last week, Bianca Andreescu, Kenin seems to have a healthy lack of perfectionism.

U.S. women’s tennis has strength in numbers these says—Serena, Venus, Keys, Anisimova, Danielle Collins, Alison Riske, Jessica Pegula, Jennifer Brady, and others are all trending in the right direction as the US open approaches. Right now, Sofia Kenin looks like the most reliable of all of them. She may not have won the way she wanted to win today, but she’ll be happy to try to do it again tomorrow.

In defeating Federer, Rublev scores crucial Cincinnati win for NextGen

Thu, 15 Aug 2019 17:44:00 +0000

The ATP’s Next Gen has taken its lumps of late. While the tour’s 30-somethings continue to hoover up major titles, their supposed successors have continued to spin their wheels.

Over the first three days at the Western & Southern Open, those trends seemed destined to continue. Until Thursday, all signs in Cincy pointed to another title for either Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. At the same time, two of the game’s hopes for the future, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, made opening-round exits. As for Nick Kyrgios, we know how his Cincy story ended.

But all of that changed in the course of 62 stunning minutes on Thursday. That’s how long it took for 21-year-old, 70th-ranked qualifier Andrey Rublev of Russia to knock Federer out of the tournament, 6-3, 6-4 in the third round. Neither Federer, nor the near-capacity crowd that greeted Rublev’s winners with stone-cold silence, knew what hit them.

Roger Federer's 6-3, 6-4 loss to @AndreyRublev97 in 62 minutes was his quickest loss since 2003 @SydneyTennis 1R, when he lost 6-2, 6-3 in 54 minutes to Franco Squillari. #CincyTennis
— ATP Media Info (@ATPMediaInfo) August 15, 2019

What hit them was a once-promising player whose career has been stalled by injuries, but whose shots remain as sturdy and lethal as they were when he reached the US Open quarterfinals in 2017. Federer and Rublev had never played, but it was the older player who looked taken aback—and was pushed back—by the pace the younger player was getting on the ball, and the relentlessness with which he attacked it. Up a break point in the fourth game, Rublev tracked down a Federer drop shot and whipped a forehand crosscourt that Federer wasn’t ready to handle.

It was obvious that Rublev was on his game. He was reading Federer’s serve, and passing him when he came to net. In the early going, Federer tried different spins and speeds to disrupt the Russian’s rhythm and elicit mistakes, but none came; Rublev finished with 17 winners and just six errors. Instead, it was Federer who couldn’t find a rhythm. The longer a rally went, the more likely it would end in a shank from his frame.

In the past, Federer has feasted on fast courts like the ones in Cincinnati, where he’s a seven-time champion. Last year, though, he talked about struggling to control the ball on the quick surface there, and he talked about it again this time around. “Conditions are fast,” Federer said after his first-round match. “It was just bang-bang tennis.” That likely went double in the afternoon heat on Thursday. Whatever the reasons, Rublev always had plenty of time to hit the ball, while Federer was constantly rushed. Bang-bang tennis is a pretty good description of how Rublev plays on any type of court.

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Rublev had to qualify for this event, but in reality it was a long-awaited win for him. He has been ranked as high as No. 31, and he hits the ball too cleanly, and has had too much success in the past, not to rise to this kind of occasion at some point. He seemed to know it, because there were no signs of nerves when he closed out both sets. Serving at 5-3 in the first set, 30-30, Rublev hit a forehand winner and an ace. Serving at 5-4 in the second, he came up with two straight unreturnable forehands.

How much can one man’s, or one player’s, life change in an hour? We’ll find out from Rublev the rest of this season.

Barty sets a diabolical trap for Sharapova to secure win in Cincinnati

Wed, 14 Aug 2019 20:14:00 +0000

Ashleigh Barty is the one of the nicest people in tennis, but she set a diabolical trap for Maria Sharapova on Wednesday at the Western & Southern Open.

It began with her slice backhand, a shot that she hits as smoothly and effectively as anyone in tennis. But against the 6’2” Sharapova, it was even more effective than usual. When a rally began today, Barty would send a low, biting underspin backhand across the net. It didn’t have to have much pace or be especially well placed. The point was to force Sharapova to (a) bend down and hit up on the ball to get it over the net; and (b) make a no-win decision about where to put her next shot. If Sharapova went back to Barty’s backhand, she would get another low slice in return; if she went to Barty’s forehand, she risked having the Australian pop her powerful topspin forehand into the corner for a winner.

It was Barty's second straight win against Sharapova. (Getty Images)

Sharapova didn’t play badly for much of this match, but she couldn’t escape that trap. With Barty changing speeds and spins on each shot, Sharapova could never find a rhythm for long; it took her a set and a half to hit a clean, penetrating backhand off a Barty slice. For the match, Sharapova hit 16 winners and made 31 errors, and whenever a big point arrived, she was the one to misfire. Her last stand came with Barty serving at 2-0 in the second set. Four times Sharapova reached break point; on three of them, she missed makable forehands. She finished the match one of seven on break points. Despite some flashes of her old self this week, Sharapova hasn’t put together two wins at an event since the Australian Open, and today she couldn’t find the shots she needed when she needed them most.

While Sharapova spun her wheels, Barty picked up speed and looked more comfortable with each game. Her full range was display today. She bailed herself out with aces. She was precise with her putaway forehand. She won five of six points at net. And she closed with a little bit of old-school flair: With Sharapova serving at 1-4 in the second set and hanging on by a thread, Barty broke her again with a perfectly measured drop shot-topspin lob combination.

The top seed made it look easy, but after early losses at Wimbledon and in Toronto, it was a win she needed.

Cincinnati ATP Preview: The return of Djokovic, Federer and Murray

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 13:01:00 +0000

After flying the Big 3 flag alone, and successfully, this past week in Montreal, Rafael Nadal makes way for his two fellow Hall-of-Famers this week. Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer—both, hopefully, have recovered from their Wimbledon final—will return to the tour, and the run-up to the US Open will get a little more serious on the men’s side. These days, instead of being more vulnerable to upsets, the ATP’s legendary trio is harder to pick against than ever.

FIRST QUARTER

Last year Djokovic won Cincinnati for the first time, which made him the first man to win all four majors and all nine Masters 1000 events—an amazing and so far underrated achievement. Whatever pressure he may have felt about completing that sweep will be gone now. We’ll find out whether that helps Djokovic relax and play well, or whether it makes him slightly less motivated, the way he seemed to be at the other U.S. Masters tournaments this year, in Indian Wells and Miami.

Djokovic will start against either Sam Querrey or Pierre-Hugues Herbert, and could face John Isner, a former Cincy finalist, after that. Looking a little farther down the road, Nick Kyrgios and Karen Khachanov are potential quarterfinal opponents.

First-round match to watch: Fabio Fognini vs. Denis Shapovalov

Potential second-round match to watch: Kyrgios vs. Khachanov. Kyrgios was a finalist here two years ago.

Semifinalist: Djokovic

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SECOND QUARTER

Unlike Djokovic, Federer is an old hand at winning in Cincy. He first did it back in 2005, and has won it six more times since. Will he suffer any hangover effect from his Wimbledon loss? Judging by the way he reacted that day, it seems unlikely. Cincy has served as a rejuvenating week for him in the past, and it could be again.

Federer will start against either Matteo Berrettini or Juan Ignacio Londero; Berrettini should be eager to improve on his disastrously lopsided loss to Federer at Wimbledon. Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev are on the other side of this section, and could meet in the third round.

First-round match to watch, again: Stan Wawrinka vs. Grigor Dimitrov. Wawrinka won their opening-round meeting in Montreal last week.

Potential third-round matches to watch: Federer vs. Wawrinka; Tsitsipas vs. Medvedev

Semifinalist: Federer

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THIRD QUARTER

Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev, the top two seeds in this section, both made the quarters in Montreal, and both were quickly dismissed in that round. Can either of them go a step farther and make their first semi in Cincy? Zverev is probably just hoping to win a match: He’s 0-4 at this event.

If the German and the Austrian don’t live up to their seedings, there are other players and matches of interest in this quarter. Andy Murray, a two-time champion here, will play his first singles match since losing in the first round at the Australian Open. Felix Auger-Aliassime, newly 19, will look to build momentum before the Open. If he wins his opener, he’ll face Zverev, in a battle of Next Gen vs. Next Next Gen.

First-round match to watch: Gael Monfils vs. Frances Tiafoe. Monfils had to withdraw from the semis in Montreal, so this one might not happen. If it does, it could be the fastest—as in combined foot speed—match in tennis history.

Also here: Roberto Baustista Agut, Marin Cilic, Andy Murray

Semifinalist: Bautista Agut

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FOURTH QUARTER

I thought, when Nadal got a glimpse of his draw here, that he might make the trip to Cincy after all. This looked like a good chance for him to pick up at least semifinal points at a tournament he skipped in 2018. Instead, it will be Mikhail Kukushkin who gets that draw, and who gets to be a very lucky loser for the week. He not only makes it into the tournament, he takes Rafa’s first-round bye as well.

Nadal’s departure means opportunity for everyone else in this quarter. Kei Nishikori, David Goffin, and Borna Coric are the three seeds left. Of the non-seeds, Guido Pella seems like a player to watch right now.

First-round matches to watch: Goffin vs. Taylor Fritz; Borna Coric vs. Reilly Opelka

Semifinalist: Nishikori

Semifinals: Federer d. Djokovic; Bautista Agut d. Nishikori

Final: Federer d. Bautista Agut

Cincinnati WTA Preview: Pliskova, Kvitova seek US Open momentum

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 12:44:00 +0000

Who’s left standing after Toronto? The winner, Bianca Andreescu, has withdrawn from Cincinnati. Simona Halep and Serena Williams had to retire from their Rogers Cup matches. And one of that tournament’s other top performers, Sofia Kenin, left with a heavily strapped leg.

But even with that trail of walking wounded, Cincy will feature a who’s who of Top 30 players taking some of their last swings before the US Open. Here’s a look ahead at what we can expect to see from them.

FIRST QUARTER

Not long ago, Ashleigh Barty looked unstoppable. She won Miami, the French Open and Birmingham, and she rose, meteorically, to No. 1. But after early losses at Wimbledon and in Toronto, she’s no longer the talk of the tour—and no longer No. 1. Can she regain some of that momentum this week?

She’ll probably have to do it the hard way. Barty will start against either Maria Sharapova or the woman who beat her at Wimbledon, Alison Riske. She could play Angelique Kerber after that, and Petra Kvitova after that.

First-round matches to watch: Riske vs. Sharapova; Kerber vs. Anett Kontaveit; Aryna Sabalenka vs. Petra Martic; Maria Sakkari vs. Camila Giorgi

Semifinalist: Kvitova

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SECOND QUARTER

Karolina Pliskova has been the queen of the tune-ups this season. She won Brisbane before the Australian Open, Rome before the French Open, and Eastbourne before Wimbledon. Can she complete a calendar-year Warm-up Slam in Cincinnati? It wouldn’t be a surprise, considering that she has won the title here before, in 2016. This time she’ll start against either Monica Puig or Lesia Tsurenko; the first seed she could face would be Johanna Konta; and her prospective quarterfinal opponent is Sloane Stephens.

First-round match to watch: Dayana Yastremska vs. an unseeded Caroline Wozniacki

Semifinalist: Pliskova

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THIRD QUARTER

Last year’s finalists, Halep and Kiki Bertens, are the top two seeds in this section. Halep was forced to retire in Toronto with an Achilles’ injury, while Bertens endured a frustrating three-set loss to Andreescu. But they both obviously like this event. Bertens could face Venus Williams in her opener, and Halep is scheduled to play either Carla Suarez Navarro or Ekaterina Alexandrova.

First-round matches to watch: Belinda Bencic vs. Victoria Azarenka; Madison Keys vs. Garbine Muguruza; Amanda Anisimova vs. Daria Kasatkina

Semifinalist: Bertens

(Getty Images)

FOURTH QUARTER

Should Serena play Cincy, where she doesn’t have a bye, and presumably will have to be on court by Tuesday? She says she’ll try, and hopefully her back pain will fade. If she stays in the draw, she’ll play either Julia Goerges or Kenin, who beat her earlier in the year at Roland Garros.

Serena or no Serena, the top seed in this section is Naomi Osaka. She says she’s aiming to peak for her title defense in New York, but she might want to start climbing the mountain this week, while she still has a chance. Osaka hasn’t made it past the quarterfinals at any event since Stuttgart in April.

Also here: Elina Svitolina

Wild card to watch: American teen Catherine McNally, who will start against Elise Mertens

Semifinalist: Svitolina

Semifinals: Pliskova d. Kvitova; Svitolina d. Bertens

Final: Pliskova d. Svitolina

Diving deep into Andreescu and Serena's weeks in Toronto

Sun, 11 Aug 2019 21:44:00 +0000

When Bianca Andreescu learned that her opponent in Sunday’s Rogers Cup final, Serena Williams, had retired with back spasms, the Canadian teen didn’t waste any time. She walked straight over to Serena, gave her a hug, told her she understood what it’s like to be injured, and even made the American smile through her tears. The 19-year-old seemed to disarm the 37-year-old, and broke right through her defenses to cheer her up.

Leave it to Andreescu to jump in where others wouldn’t dare to tread. She’s a rookie who acts like a veteran, an up-and-comer who acts carries herself like an established player, a relative unknown who’s always the center of attention—and one who is quickly becoming known by her first name alone; ”Bian-ca!” the crowd in her Toronto hometown chanted this week. If believing is the first step to achieving, Andreescu is already well on her way to the top of the sport.

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“This is just the beginning,” Andreescu said during the trophy ceremony, with the matter-of-fact confidence of someone who is beginning to think that anything is possible for her. Then she climbed up to the top of the umpire’s chair to show off her trophy.

"I'm definitely surprising myself,” Andreescu said after her win over Sofia Kenin in the semifinals. “I don’t realize the things I can do on the court. My coach is always telling me that I’m a champion within. But I guess—I don’t know. Maybe I’m starting to realize that slowly.”

Asked before her match with Serena what it would be like to face a 23-time major champion, Andreescu zeroed in on the thing that’s most important, and most impressive, about her game. Her total lack of fear.

“It would be an honor to share the court with her,” Andreescu said. “But when I go out there, like I said, I’m fearless. So hopefully that will be the case when I play her.”

(Getty Images)

We’ll never know exactly how Andreescu would have played on Sunday if Serena had been healthy. It’s worth noting that in the early going she was deliberately mixing in backhand slices when she had the opportunity to hit something harder, so it seems she had a plan, and her usual thoughtful, varied, unpredictable approach to constructing points was intact.

But the takeaway from Andreescu’s week came in her five matches. She won four of them in three sets, and one of them in two tight sets. She struggled with her consistency, she let leads slip, she berated herself and seemed to be on the verge of defeat more than once. But she won anyway. She won because she was able, at the end of each match, to put whatever mistakes she had made behind her and win anyway. You can’t fake that kind of self-belief.

If Andreescu is finding out what she can do on a tennis court, and how good she can be, Serena has spent this season finding out that things don’t come as easily as they once did, and that every day seems to offer a new challenge.

(Getty Images)

“It’s been a tough year,” she said during the trophy ceremony, as tears welled up again.

Serena’s Toronto experience was a familiar one. Again, she reached peak form for one match—this time it came in her convincing and cathartic win over Naomi Osaka in the quarterfinals. Again, she came out the next day and struggled to put a ball in the court. And again, her body betrayed her—earlier in the year, it was her knee, this time it was her back. Serena said she wanted to test herself in a final before the US Open, but she never had a chance to take that test today.

Still, she’ll be among the favorites at the Open. Yes, she’s obviously susceptible to injury, especially over the course of seven matches—but in New York, unlike in Toronto, she won’t be playing every day. She’s also susceptible to a bad day—yet at three of the six majors she has played in her comeback, she was consistent enough to reach the final.

“If I can do it, anyone can do it,” Andreescu told the crowd in her victory speech today. If she can bounce back from an injury to win a big title, surely Serena can, too, right?

Toronto final preview: Serena gets test she craves in Bianca Andreescu

Sat, 10 Aug 2019 22:38:00 +0000

Serena Williams said she wanted to test herself in finals; Bianca Andreescu, and the Toronto crowd, should give her that test. On what should be a fascinating Sunday showdown.

Serena and Bianca: They’re both first-name-only type personalities, aren’t they? There’s no one in the sport quite like either of them. But they also have a few things in common: Emotion, expressiveness, will, intensity, a sense of theater, and a command of the stage—they bring it all to their matches. Is there room on one 78 x 27-foot rectangle for both of them? We’ll find out on Sunday when the American and the Canadian meet for the first time in the Rogers Cup final in Andreescu’s hometown of Toronto.

While Williams, 37, and Andreescu, 19, share a common will to win, they obviously don’t share the same history, or credentials. By the time Andreescu was born, Serena had already won a Grand Slam title. She has won 22 more since, while Andreescu’s main claim to fame so far is her unlikely run to the Indian Wells title in March.

Their roads to the final this week have also been slightly different. Serena, as she has all season, has been up and down. On Friday, she played one of her cleanest and best matches of the year in beating Naomi Osaka; 24 hours later, she could barely keep a ball in the court for the first seven games against Marie Bouzkova. Andreescu, for her part, has been uncannily consistent. She has won three matches 6-4 in the third set, another 7-5 in the third set, and another 7-5 in a second-set tiebreaker. Andreescu hasn’t played perfectly by any stretch, but that has only served to illustrate one of her strengths: Her ability to put a mistake, or a lot of mistakes, behind her and win anyway. Having the Toronto crowd behind her hasn’t hurt, either.

Serena and Andreescu have taken far different paths to Sunday's Toronto final. (Getty Images)

What does all of that mean for the final? The first question that needs to be answered is: Which Serena will we see? And if we see the one who was so unsettled against Bouzkova, will she be able to settle down in time against a better opponent like Andreescu? As Serena herself said after Wimbledon, she has struggled with the particular pressure that comes with playing finals. Andreescu, and the crowd, are unlikely to make life easy for her in this one. The teenager is already adept at disruption, at mixing spins and speeds and trajectories—i.e., not giving Serena the steady pace that she loves. Serena said she wanted to play more non-Slams finals, so she could test herself before getting to a Slam final. This should be a test.

As for Andreescu, how will her own game match up against Serena’s? How will she handle her serve and power, and will she have time to utilize all of her variety? The Canadian is a strong athlete in her own right, but she has played a lot of tennis in her first week back after a two-month layoff. Just as important, how will she react to facing Serena for the first time? Andreescu, who is 6-0 against Top 10 players, is usually the bigger personality on court, but that won’t be the case against Serena. The teenager has gotten under the skin of some of her opponents, most famously Angelique Kerber, who called her “the biggest drama queen ever.” Will Andreescu tone down that drama against Serena, and if she doesn’t, will it make Serena even more determined to beat her?

The fact that there are so many questions to ask about this matchup is a sign of how intriguing it is. Finding out the answers could make for one of the most fascinating afternoons of the year.

Winner: S. Williams

Sensing Osaka's uncertainty, Serena swings with authority in Toronto

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 22:42:00 +0000

“You gotta take a chance to dictate, or she’s gonna dictate.”

This was the advice that Naomi Osaka’s coach, Jermaine Jenkins, gave to her before the final game of her 6-3, 6-4 loss to Serena Williams in Toronto on Friday. It was hard to argue with him.

Up to that point, Osaka had played it safe and not taken chances. With the wind swirling around her, she had swung tentatively and placed the ball conservatively, right down the middle of the court. As Jenkins said, it had been Serena who had taken advantage of Osaka’s uncertainty, and taken command of the rallies.

Serena hadn’t necessarily been at her best to start; her forehand, in particular, was sailing on her. But she had moved well, covered the corners, and hit with the right mix of force (to blast the ball through the wind) and margin (to keep it from dancing too close to the lines). She had served well, and returned with purpose, sending Osaka scrambling toward the corners as soon as she could. “I can feel it in my bones,” Osaka said with a laugh near the end of the match, referring to “all the lunging” she was being forced to do.

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As chaotic as their last match, in the 2018 US Open final, had been, that’s how commanding Serena’s performance was today. She said she had been looking forward to facing Osaka again, after losing to her twice last year, and she played this match with the fierce calm of a woman on a mission. Serena hit 31 winners to Osaka’s five, 12 aces to Osaka’s zero, and didn’t face a break point. She didn’t make Osaka vanish, exactly, but she didn’t let her get a foot in the door, either.

“It was a better match for me,” Serena said afterward, with considerable understatement.

Osaka said she was hoping to get some reps in Toronto, and then peak for the US Open. If that’s still the plan, she has some work to do. In place of the calmly decisive player we saw at Flushing Meadows last year, this version of Osaka struggled for the better part of two sets to put a clean swing on the ball. When she finally fired a vintage forehand past Serena from the baseline, she followed it up by trying a drop shot and popping it high into the air. Like those shots hit straight down the middle, that was never going to get it done against Serena.

Did Osaka listen to Jenkins in the final game and "take a chance?" She, and we, never found out, because Serena never let her. She fired two aces to go up 40-0, and then, after squandering three match points, fired one more to end it. Osaka’s “tennis mom” had given her a valuable lesson: anything less than your best against Serena isn’t going to be good enough.

The match that never ended: a 2018 US Open women's final oral history

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 10:20:00 +0000

Serena Williams has never believed in the value of keeping expectations low. But if there was ever a time when she was going to accept something less than her best, it might have been in 2018 and 2019. In 2017, just before turning 36, she gave birth to her first child. Major-winning mothers have been few and far between. And 36-year-old mothers on tour? Serena was entering new territory.

Naturally, she entered it undaunted. After playing just seven matches over the first six months of 2018, she reached the Wimbledon final. Then, after playing three matches over the summer, she reached the US Open final. When 2019 began, Serena seemed ready to take her place on the sport’s mountaintop again.

“I always expect to reach the sky, and anything below it is not good enough for me,” Serena said at the Australian Open. “I just think now that I’m going in the right direction.”

A week later, when Serena beat world No. 1 Simona Halep in the fourth round, she sounded as hungry for success as a tour rookie: “Each day, each match, each tournament I’m learning something,” Williams said. “I think today I’m just learning that I can—I have to fight for titles. I have to fight for matches. Actually, I don’t have any titles yet, but I’m just fighting for matches.

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At that moment, it would have been hard for Serena, or anyone else, to believe that six months later she would still be without a title in her comeback. Rather than a return to glory, Serena’s 2019 has been a mix of promising performances and unfortunate setbacks, nagging injuries and ill-timed illnesses.

At the Australian Open, she led Karolina Pliskova 5–1 in third set of their quarterfinal before rolling her ankle. At Indian Wells, she beat Victoria Azarenka before retiring with a viral illness in her next match. In Miami and Rome, she withdrew with injuries. At the French Open, she lost to unproven Sofia Kenin.
At Wimbledon, she made it to the final before falling to Halep in just 56 minutes.

“Grueling,” was how Serena described her ups and downs. Was age finally taking its toll? As the US Open approached, Williams tried to find inspiration in her results from 2018.

“I feel like I’ve had some great runs last year, and I’m hoping to still build on that this year,” she said.

Would anyone be surprised if Serena had her final hurrah, after all? It’s hard to imagine her settling for anything less.

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Which brings us to Serena’s return to Flushing Meadows, in just over two weeks. Last year’s US Open final, which Williams lost to Naomi Osaka, was one of the sport’s all-time anti-classics. By its end, it had devolved into a chaotic contretemps between Serena and chair umpire Carlos Ramos, one that would become a proxy for wider questions about gender and race.

A year later, we look back on that wild, unhappy night through the eyes of a former US Open champion, a journalist, a photographer, a former chair umpire and a tennis-loving author. As you’ll see, Osaka vs. Serena hasn’t faded in people’s memories, and the question of who was at fault, and what it all meant, is still in the eyes of the beholder.

> Lindsay Davenport: 1998 US Open champion and Tennis Channel commentator

I was calling the match with Mary [Carillo] that night, and I was looking forward to seeing Serena try to tie the major title record. I’d also been helping out Madison Keys during the tournament, and I’d watched Osaka, who beat Madison in the semifinals, up close.

I remember thinking, ‘Wow, she’s improved so much.’ Over the course of the two weeks in Flushing Meadows, Naomi was so much more disciplined than before; she was setting up for her shots and going for them at the right time. It was obvious she had put in a lot of work.

I said to Madison’s agent, Max [Eisenbud], ‘She’s going to start winning Slams.’ He said, ‘You mean, now?’ I said, ‘I think she’s going to do it.’

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> Rowan Ricardo Phillips: Author of The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey

I was confident in where Serena’s game was, because of how she had handled [Anastasija] Sevastova in the semis. I thought that match was going to be Roberta Vinci all over again. [Vinci upset Williams in the 2015 Open semifinals.] Sevastova has the same slice and finesse. But Serena was in control of the situation. I also thought it would help her to have played Osaka before [Osaka beat Serena in Miami earlier that year, 6–3, 6–2], so she would know what to expect. Naomi’s game would play into Serena’s groove.

> Anita Aguilar: Photographer for TENNIS.com

There was a lot of stress and anticipation among the photographers that day. There’s always stress before a final, because you’ve waited two weeks to capture the tournament-winning moment. But there was even more energy this time, because Serena was in her comeback year, and she could tie the Slam record.

When I got courtside, my attention shifted from Serena to Osaka. Her hair is normally so photogenic; every tennis photographer probably has a portfolio of shots of her hair. But this time she had it tied back—I felt like she meant business. And I had noticed throughout the tournament that she was less expressive than she had been in the past. I wondered how she would handle her first Slam final, but it was really striking how composed she was. I was impressed that she could be so calm in between points and so aggressive during them.

> Lindsay Gibbs: Sports reporter for Think Progress

I was incredibly excited for the match, because either outcome was going to be a great moment for tennis. Either Serena was going to complete her miraculous comeback, or Naomi was going to win her first major at 20. This felt like a special night, and there aren’t many bigger stages in women’s sports than the US Open final, on Saturday night, in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

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> Miguel Seabra: Former chair umpire and Portugal-based commentator for Eurosport

I’d been paying attention to Osaka ever since she’d been coached by my countryman and friend Antonio Van Grichen. I was aware of her potential. I had also known Carlos Ramos—another countryman—quite well since the late 1980s. We worked together on a daily basis for a few years, when I was a professional umpire. We were officiating four matches a day on Satellite circuits with no linesmen, so I knew he had the right mindset to be an elite umpire. He had a fair thought process and good vision, and he was discreet. He’s still one of the best people I know.

Then came his “coaching” warning. [In the second game of the second set, Ramos spotted Williams’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, making a signal to her, telling her to move up in the court. Ramos issued Williams a warning for coaching.] I remember putting my hands on my head and saying, “No, no, no!” I sensed big trouble was coming.

> Rowan Ricardo Phillips: The match was weird. Serena had been so good in the semis, but now she was really uncomfortable. It was Naomi who was showing a champion’s mentality; she was throwing Serena’s serve right back at her. Serena is usually so good at changing the pressure on the other side of the net, but Naomi was so unflappable that she was giving Serena nothing to work with.

I was on the edge of my seat; Serena’s frustration was almost too much to watch. But I also thought this was a match tennis fans had been thirsty for. It had been a long time since we’d seen a changing of the guard, and it was playing out that way.

And then Ramos called Serena for coaching. I said, “WHAT? I’ve never seen Serena take a coaching timeout.” Then when I saw the replay, it was like, “Oh, yeah, that’s coaching.” I remember thinking, “What is Patrick doing?”

> Lindsay Davenport: When we heard the coaching call, Mary and I turned and looked at each other; we were stunned. Serena doesn’t get coached, and she isn’t even someone who usually listens to what her box is saying. But it was her reaction that was more surprising. She took it personally. She’s been in this situation so many times, I thought she would have shrugged it off.

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> Lindsay Gibbs: It was clear Patrick was coaching, but I didn’t think it was a call that had to be made; Serena was angry and confused, because it wasn’t as if she had asked to be coached. It was such a small gesture [from Mouratoglou], you wonder if she even saw it.

[Later in the second set, Williams slammed her racquet to the court; having already given her a warning for coaching, Ramos now issued her a point penalty.]

I had this sinking feeling when Serena and Ramos started arguing about the point penalty. For her, it was the ultimate frustration, because he had started it by accusing her of doing something she would never do, and now he was punishing her again.

> Anita Aguilar: When I saw that Osaka was close to winning, I went to the photographer’s dugout at one end of the court. There was no play happening, but there was a buzz in the stands. I was on the opposite side of the court from Serena, and I could see her gesticulating toward Carlos. None of us could hear anything, but word got around that she had lost a point.

[When Williams continued to argue with Ramos, he issued a third violation, this one a game penalty that put Osaka up 5–3 in the second set, four points from the title.]

Then we could hear jeering, and things became a blur. I had a good view of Osaka, who was turned away from the net, making eye contact with her player box. She exhaled a few times, and she put two fingers on her neck to check her pulse. It seemed like the more chaotic the match was, the calmer she became.

Then the players switched sides, and Serena walked toward us. She was the complete opposite of Osaka: distressed, on the verge of tears. She was wearing that wonderful tutu skirt, and she kept smoothing it out, which seemed to be her way of trying to calm herself down.

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> Miguel Seabra: People keep saying Carlos is a stickler, using that expression in a negative way. Knowing him personally, I have confidence in his fairness and understanding of any situation. We also shouldn’t forget that he must have umpired Serena countless times since 1999 without any issues.

My main question was the coaching violation. I thought: Is it necessary? Because Serena gave him no other chance on the point penalty and the game penalty. He had to issue those. If he didn’t, players would never respect him, and he would have been publicly roasted. As it was, Carlos behaved like an umpire should, and acted consistently with his way of umpiring. And he was crucified for it.

Seeing the situation exploding on court and on social media, I tweeted my opinion on the subject and on Carlos. I wrote that Serena had brought things that were uncalled for, and that Carlos was one of the best people I know. I got a lot of abuse for those tweets, and even got a few messages from Patrick Mouratoglou. But things would get worse later.

> Lindsay Davenport: l was probably umpired by Ramos at some point during my career, but I can’t remember it, so there must not have been a problem. I was completely down the middle about what happened between Serena and Ramos—I thought she could have done less, and he could have done more. He owed it to her to let her know what was going to happen if she kept arguing; if he had said, ‘Serena, one more word and you’re going to get a game penalty, period,’ then it would have been OK. Is that in the rule book? No. Does it happen during matches? Yes.

[Osaka held serve to clinch a 6–2, 6–4 victory, but the trophy ceremony was marred by a torrent of boos from an audience that felt Williams had been robbed of a chance to stage a comeback.]

> Ricardo Rowan Phillips: The boos were the sound of a crowd that’s just been jilted out of an emotional and financial investment. I felt like we had something taken from us that night—a great match, a potential comeback, an introduction to a new star in Osaka like we’ve never seen before. Ramos had numerous opportunities to exercise a more humane judgment. You go back to the clips of what [Roger] Federer said in the 2009 US Open final; that was an amazing reproach of a chair umpire. He wasn’t penalized the way Serena was.

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> Anita Aguilar: The trophy ceremony was difficult to photograph. I felt sad that Naomi’s moment of elation was taken away. You could see how complicated it was for her. She was playing her idol; her coach [Sascha Bajin] was Serena’s longtime hitting partner; and then there was the way it ended, and the crowd reaction.

Another photographer ran up to me and said, “That was the most exciting match I’ve seen in years!” These are the moments photographers live for. The Serena-Ramos exchange was history; you saw those photos everywhere for weeks. I could understand that, but to me the images of Naomi—of her checking her pulse, and looking like she didn’t know how to react during the trophy ceremony—were the most interesting about the night.

> Miguel Seabra: After the tournament, I spent 30 minutes on the phone with Carlos, and we talked about a lot of things regarding the incident. I was aware he couldn’t talk to media without permission, so I didn’t tell anyone.

The next day, I was invited by a Portuguese newspaper to write a personal column on the subject, and I wrote a long article where I quoted a sentence of Carlos’ from our conversation—‘There’s no such thing as umpiring a la carte,’ he said. ‘I’m doing quite OK, don’t worry about me’—just to show I was actually more worried than him.

The article went viral, and that quote was shown everywhere, especially in the United States. I started getting calls all day and night. I got interview requests from Good Morning America, and everyone wanted Carlos’ contact information. Reporters from NBC and the New York Times came to Lisbon to interview me, and they even went to Cacém, the suburb where Carlos grew up. A British tabloid went through my Facebook profile and created a big article, distorting a lot and creating controversy where there wasn’t any. It was so intense that I had to disconnect my phone. After a week, I was emotionally spent.

But my view on the match never changed. Many used the incident opportunistically to serve their own political and social agendas. Many accusations made about Carlos were obnoxious. It wasn’t about racism, sexism or misogyny; it was about rules.

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> Lindsay Gibbs: I knew the match would make some people angry. Everything with Serena is bigger than tennis, and she took it there when she talked about herself as a woman and a mother during her argument. It’s possible to see this as just a tennis story, but I don’t think you can ignore the fact that as a black woman in a mostly white sport, Serena’s emotions are scrutinized differently, and that she feels a different kind of pressure.

But I don’t think I realized how much of a touchstone it would become, and how much Serena’s experience resonated with female athletes. I was interviewing [Notre Dame women’s basketball coach] Muffet McGraw, and she talked about how women aren’t allowed to be angry or aggressive, and aren’t allowed to argue with referees, and she used Serena as her example. It made me realize that these women feel like they’re being policed differently than men.

I’m still devastated by what happened, but the match did become an entry point to talk about a double standard. And I was also happy to see that Osaka continued to be great, and that she got her own moment when she won the Australian Open a few months later.

> Lindsay Davenport: We sat in the booth for half an hour afterward, in shock. So many things were happening at once. We saw Serena’s agent, Jill Smoller, walk around the stadium to say something to the US Open staff. Then Patrick was doing an interview on ESPN about the coaching call. It felt like we were in a sinking ship, and no one was coming to the rescue.

I ended up feeling sad for Osaka and Serena. We expected something amazing that day, and no one really went away happy.

Rogers Cup presents perfect split-screen of Canada's teenage phenoms

Thu, 08 Aug 2019 20:40:00 +0000

“They all took their own pathways,” Tennis Canada CEO Michael Downey said earlier this year when I asked him about the diverse crop of up-and-coming players that his country has produced in recent years.

“I think it’s a reflection of the mosaic nature of Canada,” Downey said. “Immigrants hold onto their traditions, and we celebrate them. Tennis is a popular sport in a lot of the countries these kids came from, and they kept up that tradition here.”

On Thursday afternoon, the Rogers Cup offered a perfect split-screen image of that mosaic nature, as two of Canada’s two most promising teenagers—and children of immigrants—faced off against Top 10 opponents. At the men’s tournament in Montreal, Felix Auger-Aliassime took on Karen Khachanov; at the women’s event in Toronto, Bianca Andreescu played Kiki Bertens.

Auger-Aliassime lost a tough third-round battle to Karen Khachanov on his 19th birthday in Montreal. (Getty Images)

Auger-Aliassime, whose father is from Togo, and Andreescu, whose parents are Romanian, are both 19, and they were both playing in their hometowns today. But from their playing styles, to the atmosphere that surrounded them, and ultimately to their results, their days couldn’t have looked or sounded or felt more different. The raucous, Roland Garros-like capacity crowd in Montreal did everything it could to will Auger-Aliassime, who was playing on his birthday, to victory—Khachanov’s winning points were met with literal silence. By comparison, the audience at Andreescu’s match in Toronto was mellowly supportive. In the end, though, it was Andreescu who survived in three sets, and Auger-Aliassime who was gradually worn down by his older opponent.

Andreescu and Auger-Aliassime both train at Tennis Canada facilities, but their games come from wildly divergent stylistic and tactical universes.

Andreescu is a born disruptor capable of winning a point a dozen different ways. Against Bertens, she won them with her sliding slice serve out wide in the ad court; with her forehand drop shot, which she disguises well and hits with plenty of safety; with sudden, brazen forays to net; with full-blooded ground strokes; with moonballs that pushed Bertens back and elicited a short reply. Just don’t tell Andreescu it’s a moonball.

“I don’t necessarily call it a moonball,” she said with a laugh earlier this week. “I would say more of a deep, effective high ball. Sounds better.”

Andreescu has prevailed in a trio of three-set matches in Toronto. (Getty Images)

Fair enough. What matters is that Andreescu isn’t bound by any limits or conventions in what she’ll try to do to win a point. She has been sidelined for most of the summer with injuries, but this week she has picked up where she left off in March, when she stunned the sport with her title run at Indian Wells. As she did there, Andreescu has shown a knack for winning close matches in Toronto.

So far she has beaten Genie Bouchard 6-4 in the third, Daria Kasatkina 7-5 in the third, and Bertens 6-4 in the third. Andreescu hasn’t been perfect, but that’s OK, because one of her strengths is that she’s not a perfectionist—at least not compared to most other tennis players. She might commit five straight errors, or blow a commanding lead, but she puts her mistakes behind her and moves on. After seven weeks off the tour, Andreescu is still good at winning.

While Andreescu has been away, Auger-Aliassime has been playing—and playing, and playing, and playing. This is his 11th tournament since he had his own breakout win over Stefanos Tsitsipas at Indian Wells. All of those matches have raised his ranking to No. 21, but today they may have left him a little gassed. For the better part of two hours and two sets, Auger-Aliassime slugged with Khachanov from the baseline, until he finally blinked while serving at 5-6 in the second set. From that point on, Auger-Aliassime began to retreat, and Khachanov to move forward in the court, and the Russian won 6-3 in the third set.

With Andreescu, you don’t know what’s coming next; with Auger-Aliassime, you have a good idea. Where her game is multifarious, his is relentless and single-minded. FAA hits hard, deep topspin from both sides and to both corners, and rarely feels the need to mix in anything else. His racquet speed allows him to take full rips at the ball, yet also get the spin and net clearance needed to do it safely. He plays the modern power-baseline game without any bells or whistles, and he already does it well enough to nearly beat the No. 8 player in the world.

The feisty, expressive Andreescu and the cool, controlled Auger-Aliassime have been welcomed in different ways by their peers. Angelique Kerber called Andreescu “the biggest drama queen ever” after losing to her in Miami, while Rafael Nadal has said of Auger-Aliassime, “I like his character...He’s one of the players that I would love to see at the top position and winning trophies.”

It takes all kinds to make a mosaic nation, and the same goes for the increasingly globalized tennis tours. Auger-Aliassime and Andreescu are both welcome additions to the game—it’s a pleasure to watch him strike the ball so cleanly, and it’s a pleasure to watch her think her way through a point. It won’t be a surprise if their very different pathways take both of these teens to the top of the sport someday.

Halep survives first match since Wimbledon win, and an inspired Brady

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 20:20:00 +0000

After her turbulent, exciting, who-knows-what’s-coming-next, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5) win over Jennifer Brady in Toronto on Wednesday, Simona Halep was asked how it felt to get back on court after not playing for two weeks.

“It felt,” Halep answered with a deadpan smile, “like I didn’t play for two weeks.”

Halep had a good reason to take a rest, of course. She was celebrating the performance of her life, a 56-minute win over Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final. Following that up nearly a month later, on a different continent and a different surface, was never going to be easy. The fact that Halep had to do it against Brady, a big-hitting American who had already won two qualifying matches on these courts, and blown out Kiki Mladenovic in the first round, made her transition back to the tour that much more difficult. Getting through this match required Halep to make two last-second escapes, one at the end of the second set, and another at the end of the third.

In that sense, Halep should be happy just to have survived Brady’s onslaught. The 24-year-old Pennsylvania native and former UCLA standout is ranked just 76th, but she’s part of a burgeoning American women’s contingent that seems to be pushing each other upward at the moment. She’s also exactly the kind of player that a roadrunner like Halep would dread playing early in a tournament, before she has found her rhythm. Brady is tall, rangy, and athletic; she can bail herself out with her serve; and she tears into her forehand with as much pace and spin as anyone on tour.

For stretches of this match, Brady didn’t let Halep play. She won the first set convincingly, and made two valiant comebacks: one from 3-5 down in the second set, and another from 0-4 down in the third. But both times, just when she was on the verge of blasting right past Halep, Brady blinked.

After reeling off five straight games to take a 5-4 lead in the third, Brady went up 15-30 on Halep’s serve—it looked like the Romanian was ready to throw in the towel and try her luck next week in Cincinnati. But Brady, who has never beaten a Top 10 player, couldn’t beat this one, either. She made three straight forehand errors to squander her golden opportunity.

Still, with her game, this won’t be Brady's last chance. In the middle of the third set, when things looked bleak, her coach, Stephen Huss, said he wanted one thing from her: “Just compete your a-- off,” he said. She did.

As for Halep, I was curious whether she could stay as quietly, calmly intense as she had at Wimbledon, even when things weren’t going well. For the most part, she succeeded; there were no blow-ups today. But by the third set, I wondered if letting off a little steam might have helped. At times, Halep’s calm bordered on lethargy today.

But she’s moving on. When you’re coming off a Wimbledon win and two weeks off, you’ll take a win any way you can get it.

Hitting without fear, Kenin puts Barty on her back foot in Toronto win

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 19:32:00 +0000

When Sofia Kenin was asked what the key was to her 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 win over top seed Ashleigh Barty in Toronto on Tuesday, the American answered in her usual no-nonsense way: “With her, you gotta fight for every point.”

For most of Barty opponents this year, that has been a losing battle. Before today, the Australian had lost just six times in 2019 in her meteoric rise to No. 1. Barty wins because she can do more things with a tennis ball than virtually anyone else around. Flat serves, kick serve, drive backhands, slice backhands, swing volleys and old-fashioned punch volleys: She can hit them all equally well.

But as Kenin showed today, it’s also possible to keep Barty from using the wide variety of shots at her command. Just as her fellow hard-hitting American Alison Riske did at Wimbledon, Kenin beat Barty with pace and accuracy in rally after rally. Her game wasn’t as stylish or effortless or varied, but she stepped forward and hit without fear. Kenin was on and off all day—she led in the first set, only to lose it in a tiebreaker; she led 4-0 in the second set, only to lose three straight games; and she led 4-1 in the third before letting Barty get back to 3-4 again.

Kenin secured her first victory over a world No. 1 on Tuesday in Toronto. (Getty Images)

The key for Kenin was that she never stopped trusting her shots, and she never stopped using her serve to stop Barty’s momentum. While each woman hit a similar number of winners and errors, the decisive stat was Kenin’s 74-percent first serves in. She didn’t hit a lot of aces, but she moved the ball around in the box and forced Barty to start the points on her back foot.

And that’s where the Aussie stayed. Unlike Kenin, Barty never relaxed on her own ground strokes, never felt free enough to uncork her topspin forehand or throw in her biting backhand slice, or even to get to the net, where she’s much more comfortable than Kenin. While Barty has all the shots, and she has used them well this year, it’s also possible to handcuff her and contain her.

In this match, and in her loss to Alison Riske at Wimbledon, too many points were decided on her opponent’s racquet. She is now at risk of losing her No. 1 ranking, as Naomi Osaka only needs to win her opener Wednesday to guarantee a change at the top. Karolina Pliskova is also in the running, needing at least a semifinal showing to have a shot.

Barty will likely start trusting her shots again by the U.S. Open. But it’s Kenin who moves on in Toronto, and who takes over the top seed’s draw. This was Kenin’s fourth win over a Top 10 opponent—she beat Serena Williams at the French Open—and her first over over someone in the Top 5. You gotta fight for every point on the ever-deeper WTA Tour these days, and that’s one thing Kenin has no problem doing.

Rogers Cup Preview: Toronto star power in Serena, Barty, Osaka, Halep

Mon, 05 Aug 2019 16:08:00 +0000

With Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer absent in Montreal, the balance of star power at the Rogers Cup shifts to Toronto. There a full quotient of top WTA players have gathered: Serena, Barty, Osaka, Halep, Pliskova, Stephens and Sharapova, among others. We’ve seen a lot of different winners on the women’s side this year. Will we get another this week? And could the result give us an idea of who might be the next major winner, a few weeks from now in New York? Here’s a look at the draw.

Complete Toronto Draw

*****

First Quarter

Ash Barty likes grass, and she won Roland Garros, but her game would seem to be best suited to hard courts. Before Paris, her previous biggest win came in Miami, this spring. But this is a draw that’s pretty well stacked from top to bottom, and there’s a potential upset waiting around every corner. Elina Svitolina, Victoria Azarenka, Belinda Bencic and Citi Open finalist Camila Giorgi: They’re all in Barty’s quarter.

First-round matches to watch: Sofia Kenin vs. Su-Wei Hsieh; Bencic vs. Anastasia Potapova; Azarenka vs. Giorgi

First-round result: Dayana Yastremska d. Johanna Konta, 6-3, 6-2

Semifinalist: Barty

Ashleigh Barty is an all-surface threat, but hard courts might be her very best surface. (Getty Images)

*****

Second Quarter

From Brisbane to Rome to Eastbourne, Karolina Pliskova has been at her best in the pre-Slam warm-up events this year. The shorter the tournament, perhaps, the more likely this high-risk player can avoid an off day. Pliskova has had success during the summer hard-court swing in the past, and she should be a favorite to win another tune-up this week. She’ll start against either Maria Sakkari or Alison Riske, and could face No. 5 seed Kiki Bertens in the quarters.

First-round matches to watch: Sakkari vs. Riske; Sharapova vs. Anett Kontaveit; Bianca Andreescu vs. Genie Bouchard; Venus Williams vs. Carla Suarez Navarro

Semifinalist: Pliskova

*****

Third Quarter

The last time we saw Simona Halep, at Wimbledon, she had seemingly launched herself into a new and better career at age 27. Can she sustain her new level of intensity, and channel it as effectively? That will be the million-dollar question this week in Toronto, and at the US Open. Halep sounded eager to get started at Wimbledon, and she has fared well during this hard-court stretch in the past. We’ll see how much momentum has carried over when she faces either Jen Brady or Kiki Mladenovic in her opener.

Also here: Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Aryna Sabalenka—three players who have seemed to be on the verge at different times this year, but have yet to cash in on a big win.

First-round matches to watch: Keys vs. Donna Vekic; Caroline Garcia vs. Jelena Ostapenko

Canadian wild card to watch: Leylah Fernandez. The 16-year-old won the French Open girls’ title this year.

Semifinalist: Halep

Serena and Simona met in the Wimbledon final, and are part of a loaded half of the Toronto draw. (Getty Images)

*****

Fourth Quarter

For anyone who has been looking forward to a rematch of last year’s US Open women’s final between Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams, you may get your wish this week: Osaka and Serena are scheduled to meet in the quarters. Of course, they have to get there first, which is far from guaranteed—Osaka hasn’t made it that far since Rome, while Serena, aside from her trip to the Wimbledon final, hasn’t reached a quarter since the Australian Open. Serena, who said she wants to make some non-Slam finals, will start against either Elise Mertens or Aliaksandra Sasnovich; Osaka will play either Saisai Zheng or Tatjana Maria.

Semifinalist: S. Williams

*****

Semifinals: Pliskova d. Barty; Halep d. S. Williams

Final: Pliskova d. Halep

Montreal Preview: Rafael Nadal returns to friendly hard-court confines

Mon, 05 Aug 2019 14:07:00 +0000

Did you think the Wimbledon men’s final was too long? I actually know someone who did. If, like him, you’ve also had your fill of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer for the moment, the Rogers Cup is the tournament for you. Neither the Serb or the Swiss will be in Montreal this week. But defending champion Rafael Nadal will, along with a slew of younger pursuers. Here’s a look ahead at the first ATP Masters 1000 event of the North American summer swing.

Complete Montreal Draw

*****

First Quarter

Nadal has had success at this event going back to his earliest days on tour, when he beat Andre Agassi in the Montreal final in 2005. On paper, with Djokovic and Federer not in the field, Rafa is a solid favorite to win it for a fifth time. He could start with a fun match, against either Alex De Minaur or Dan Evans in the second round, and if he wins that, he could get a tougher one: a quarterfinal against his semi-nemesis Fabio Fognini, who won their last meeting, in Monte Carlo this spring, in straight sets.

Also here: David Goffin, Borna Coric

First-round border war to watch: U.S. qualifier Tommy Paul vs. Canadian wild card Brayden Schnur

Semifinalist: Nadal

*****

Second Quarter

Some may wonder when Stefanos Tsitsipas is going to win a Slam, but the next logical step would be for him to win his first Masters event. And the logical place for him to do that could be Canada; last summer he had his breakout event in Toronto, where he beat Djokovic on his way to the final. This year Tsitsipas returns as a Top 10 player, but also with a few more miles on his wheels—he’s played a lot this year. And while he’s the top seed in this section, there could be significant challenges from either Hubert Hurkacz or Taylor Fritz in the second round, and either Robert Bautista Agut, Kei Nishikori or Diego Schwartzman in the quarters.

Player of interest: Bautista Agut. He’s coming off a trip to the Wimbledon semifinals. He’s also coming off a bachelor week and a honeymoon.

New names: Soonwoo Kwon, Ilya Ivashka. The Korean and Bulgarian qualifiers play each in the first round.

Semifinalist: Tsitsipas

Stefanos Tsitsipas reached the final of last year's Rogers Cup, where he lost to Rafael Nadal, and is coming off of a semifinal showing last week in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)

*****

Third Quarter

Karen Khachanov and Alexander Zverev headline this section, and both could use a big week. While the Russian and the German-Russian have hung around the Top 10 for most of 2019, they’ve done it on the strength of their 2018 seasons. Zverev admitted this weekend that his year has been “horrible,” and he recently split with the coach who was supposed to take him to the next level, Ivan Lendl. But every week is a new one, and this is a chance for these two hard-hitters to get back on hard courts.

Zverev will start against either Cam Norrie or Martin Fucsovics. Khachanov, a semifinalist in Toronto last year, will open against either Stan Wawrinka or Grigor Dimitrov.

First-round matches to watch: Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Vasek Pospisil; Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. Jan-Lennard Struff; Wawrinka vs. Dimitrov

Semifinalist: Khachanov

*****

Fourth Quarter

Remember when Dominic Thiem beat Federer in the Indian Wells final? It seems so long ago, but it’s worth recalling as he heads into the US Open swing. We know Thiem is a threat on clay; did winning Indian Wells prove he’s also one on hard courts, too? The more relevant question for the moment may be this: Will Thiem’s title run this past week on clay in Austria give him momentum for Montreal, or leave him tired? He’ll play either Denis Shapovalov or Pierre-Hugues Herbert in his opener.

Also here: John Isner, Marin Cilic and Citi Open finalist Daniil Medvedev

First-round match to watch: Citi Open champ Nick Kyrgios vs. Kyle Edmund. How will Nick react to success?

Semifinalist: Thiem

*****

Semifinals: Nadal d. Tsitsipas; Thiem d. Khachanov

Final: Nadal d. Thiem

Known for trick shots, Nick Kyrgios hit the right shots to win D.C.

Sun, 04 Aug 2019 22:43:00 +0000

“This week has been awesome,” Nick Kyrgios said on Saturday at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. “It’s probably one of the best tournament weeks of my life.”

What made it so special for the man who’s middle name might as well be “mercurial”? He had never won, or even finished, a match in D.C. before this year. Was it making the final? Was it beating the top seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas, in the semis in a third-set tiebreaker? Was it choosing someone in the crowd to be his personal coach each night?

The first thing that came to Kyrgios’s mind was something simpler. He was happy that he had stuck it out.

“Five days in a row competing,” he said. “I’m pretty happy with myself.”

Make that six. On Sunday, Kyrgios may have put in his most impressive performance of the week, from the standpoint of gritting out a close win, in beating Daniil Medvedev, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4). Kyrgios was troubled by back tightness in the first set. He failed to get to deuce—let alone earn a break point—on Medvedev’s serve. He was down 2-5 and 5-6 in the first-set tiebreaker and appeared to be ready to throw in the towel. But he didn’t.

Instead, he dug in, played within himself, toned down the showmanship, and showed enough patience and confidence in his conventional game to win a couple of crucial long rallies at the end of the tiebreaker. He hit an ace when he needed it, a drop-shot winner when he needed it, and a forehand pass when he needed it. In the second set, Kyrgios came to the net early and often, and his ability to finish points there proved to be a difference-maker against Medvedev, who struggles at net. Kyrgios is known for his trick shots, but he won this match, and this tournament, by hitting the right shots.

“I’m just doing the right things,” Kyrgios said. “I’m having the same routine every day. “I’m trying to improve on a lot of little habits, and it’s paying off.”

Of course, Kyrgios also hit a lot of trick shots—his week in D.C. was, among other things, a primer on how to hit the front-facing tweener, the underhand serve, the drop shot while falling backward behind the baseline, the no-look crosscourt volley, and the 113-m.p.h. forehand—as well as 110 aces. From his opening-night doubles match with Tsitsipas through his final-round win over Medvedev, Kyrgios showed off a little bit of everything—the good, the bad, and the clutch.

The Nick Kyrgios show ran all week in the nation's capital. (Getty Images)

His semifinal match with Tsitsipas can serve as a microcosm of the roller-coaster he put the fans in D.C. on. Kyrgios began in entertainer mode, hitting Monfilsian leaping overheads and jumping drop shots, sprinting to the sideline after closing out games, fist-bumping with fans in the front row, hand-delivering Tsitsipas a new pair of shoes, and even throwing in some honest-to-god, earnest, I’m-just-out-here-to-win fist-pumps. He had the crowd eating out of his hand.

But Kyrgios will never be a pure, fun-loving, easygoing entertainer in the manner of his fellow Aussies of old; when the frustration mounts, the motivation can vanish in a hurry. In this case, it was a comment from a fan that threw him off as he was serving. Now, instead of playing to the crowd, he began to grumble at them. Instead of sprinting to the sideline, he smashed his racquet, then picked it up and smashed it again. Instead of fist-pumping, he told his player box that he was over this match.

“It was spiraling out of control at one point. I’ve been in that position a lot, and it’s gone even worse,” Kyrgios said. “So I’m pretty happy with myself the way I tried to drag it back from a dark place.”

Kyrgios won his second ATP 500 tournament of the season on Sunday. (Getty Images)

On another night, in front of another crowd, against another opponent, that downward spiral may have continued—and it may again on other nights in the future. But as Kyrgios said, this week he competed, and he ended up saving a match point against Tsitsipas in the third-set tiebreaker. We’ve always said that Kyrgios is a big-stage kind of guy, but this was his second win at a 500-level event this season (the first came in Acapulco). Maybe he’s more comfortable on a slightly smaller stage, one where he can be the master of ceremonies—one where he can, in his best and most memorable move of the week, get match-point advice from a member of the crowd, and then celebrate with them when the tip pays off.

Kyrgios has been hard on himself after defeats in the past. This week, though, he spoke with pride about what he has accomplished, despite being, as he said on Saturday, a “very overweight kid.”

“I’ve beaten every single one of the best tennis players in the world doing it my way,” Kyrgios said, “and I’m never going to stop doing that.”

Rather than worrying about how he hasn’t won a Slam or cracked the Top 10, maybe Kyrgios is smart to focus on how well he has played the Djokovics, Federers and Nadals of the world—few have been better at facing them down. If he can compete the way he did in D.C. over longer stretches in the future, the stages he wins on really will get bigger.

As women’s sports grow, tennis history will be more relevant than ever

Fri, 02 Aug 2019 13:00:00 +0000

This is the week when the pro-tennis circus makes its annual stop in the nation’s capital for the Citi Open, at the Rock Creek Park Tennis Center. But any fans who are visiting D.C. to watch today’s pros might want to take a detour from the courts, and from their usual tourist rounds, to see a few other American players whose images reside in the city year-round. It might be a reminder of how much this famously traditionalist sport meant to the progress of the United States in the last century, and how much it might mean in this one.

Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Arthur Ashe, Helen Wills, Bill Tilden: Their images, in the form of paintings, magazine covers and at least one sculpture, can be found at the National Portrait Gallery, a few blocks from the National Mall and a 20-minute drive from Rock Creek Park. In the way that they’re shown—or partially hidden—these works can seem like an afterthought. They’re tucked away along a mezzanine, up a flight of side stairs, as part of a long-term exhibit of portraits of U.S. sporting heroes. Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson and Johnny Unitas are among the many legends of American sports whose paintings and photographs line these walls.

Althea Gibson graced the Time cover to commemorate her Wimbledon win in 1957. (Anita Aguilar)

When I visited the Portrait Gallery this spring, though, I was struck by how many tennis players were included, and how well they held their own in terms of historical significance. We—or I, anyway—normally think of tennis as somewhat tangential to the national story, so it’s nice to see images of players who did make a difference to that story—Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King, Althea Gibson—featured prominently.

A bust of Wills is one of many tennis representations in the National Portrait Gallery. (Anita Aguilar)

But during this visit, the importance of tennis history seemed to me to go beyond these well-known pioneers. Seeing a photo of Evert from her mid-1970s heyday (below), a bust of Wills (above) from the 1930s, a Time cover of Althea Gibson commemorating her Wimbledon win in 1957 (at top), made it clear that, as women slowly, gradually, eventually, hopefully, play a greater role in other sports in the coming decades, tennis’ history will become more central and relevant to sports history as a whole. Tennis, of course, is one of the few major sports that has always had women’s events, played on the same courts as the men’s; has had a professional women’s tour for nearly 50 years; and will someday have Serena Williams in its Hall of Fame.

Chris Evert's popularity in the 1970s helped grow the sport. (Anita Aguilar)

It isn’t only the activists and barrier breakers who have made a difference, and who are worth learning about. Wills is a distant name for most today, but the Northern California native is considered the first U.S. female athlete, in any sport, to have become a household name worldwide. Which makes sense, since she was as dominant as Rafa on clay: Wills won 19 of the 24 major singles events she entered between 1922 and 1938. She also won her own Battle of the Sexes, over Phil Neer, a 32-year-old ranked No. 8 in the country, 6-3, 6-4.

Much the same can be said of Evert. While it was King who was the driving force behind the formation of the WTA, it was Evert’s popularity that brought so many new players to the courts during the 1970s, and legitimated the two-handed backhand, a shot that made the game easier to learn.

Billie Jean King remains an influential figure in tennis and women's rights. (Anita Aguilar)

When it comes to celebrating its own history, U.S. tennis has favored Ashe over Gibson, despite the fact that, as the first African-American to play at Forest Hills, she was the sport’s version of Jackie Robinson. While Ashe’s name graces a 23,000-seat arena at Flushing Meadows, Gibson’s has been largely absent from the grounds. That seems to be changing: The US Open will dedicate a new statue to Gibson this year, and the USTA has helped restore the tennis court in Wilmington, NC, where she honed her Grand Slam-winning game.

As you can begin to see in D.C., there’s a lot more women’s tennis history where that came from.

Week in Preview: San Jose, Los Cabos, Kitzbuhel & Washington, D.C.

Sun, 28 Jul 2019 17:29:00 +0000

Tennis players know all about heat. From Melbourne in January to New York in August, they spend their lives bouncing from one hot spot to the next. Let’s hope that means they’ll be ready to return to action at the end of a month that has produced a wave of record temperatures across Europe, and on the east coast of the United States. This week the pros will be in both places, as the tour makes its gradual transition from post-Wimbledon clay courts to pre-U.S. Open hard courts. While the game’s biggest names of the moment—Serena Williams, Simona Halep, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer—haven’t arrived yet, just about everyone else is ready to get the season’s second half under way. Here’s a look at how the draws have shaken out at this week’s six events.

Citi Open (ATP)

Washington, D.C.

$2,046,340; 500 level

Hard court

Draw is here

D.C. in August is among the hottest of those aforementioned tour hot spots; here’s hoping it’s not also among the wettest again. Last year’s edition of the Citi Open was decimated by rain, so much so that it’s most memorable moment was the sight of Andy Murray breaking down in tears after finishing a match at 3:00 A.M.

Will new ownership bring better luck? There are thunderstorms expected again this week, but at least Murray, after vowing not to return, will be playing doubles with his brother, Jamie. And while the singles draw is missing two of its traditional mainstays, Juan Martin del Potro and Alexander Zverev, it’s still a typically solid and fan-friendly field of 56. Stefanos Tsitsipas, John Isner, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Nick Kyrgios, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are among the headline acts. The winner in D.C. often goes on to have a very strong summer in the States.

Returning: Jack Sock, who will play just his second event since the Australian Open; he’ll start against Jordan Thompson.

All-American first-round match to watch: Reilly Opelka vs. Christopher Eubanks

Stefanos Tsitsipas is looking to bounce back from a surprise first-round exit at Wimbledon (Getty Images)

Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic (WTA)

San Jose, CA

Premier; $876,183

Hard court

Draw is here

The title sponsor may be from the UAE, but the women will begin their month-long run-up to the US Open with a Premier even in San Jose. That’s too a long time to be Stateside for many of the best European players, but not for Elina Svitolina. Two weeks after reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal, on Wimbledon grass, she’ll be on Northern California hard courts as the top seed here. She loves the surface, and she likely wants to make up for the time she lost to an injury earlier this year, but is this a recipe for peaking too early, the way she has before other majors in the past?

Also here: Aryna Sabalenka, Elise Mertens, Amanda Anisimova, Victoria Azarenka, Danielle Collins, Venus Williams

Returning: Coco Vandeweghe, who will make her 2019 debut against Marie Bouzkova after a long injury lay-off. The winner will play Sabalenka.

Citi Open (WTA)

Washington, D.C.

$250,000; International

Hard court

Draw is here

By most official measures, the women’s tournament at the Citi Open plays second fiddle to the men’s. The ATP event is a higher tier, has a bigger field, and offers nearly $2 million more in prize money. But this year the WTA draw has one very important asset: Coco Gauff. The 15-year-old Wimbledon sensation qualified for the main draw in D.C. on Sunday. There, she’ll join fellow Americans Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, and Sofia Kenin, who also happen to be the top three seeds.

Wild card to watch: Hailey Baptiste. The 17-year-old Washington native will play Keys in the first round.

After qualifying, Coco Gauff will take on Zarina Diyas in the first round of the Citi Open (Getty Images)

Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel (ATP)

Los Cabos, Mexico

$858,565; 250 level

Hard court

Draw is here

Talk about hot: The temperature isn’t expected to dip below 90 degrees all week in this Mexican resort city. Can Fabio Fognini, the No. 1 seed in this 28-man draw, keep his cool that long? The Italian heads up field that includes Guido Pella, Diego Schwartzman, Cristian Garin, Taylor Fritz, Ernests Gulbis, and an unseeded Grigor Dimitrov.

Returning: Thanasi Kokkinakis. The oft-injured Aussie will play his first ATP-level event since retiring in the first round at the Australian Open.

Generali Open (ATP)

Kitzbuhel, Austria

$750,000; 250 level

Red clay

Draw is here

Dominic Thiem is lingering in Europe for as long as he can. Which isn’t surprising, considering that Kitzbuhel is (a) in his home country, and (b) on his favorite surface, clay. Thiem, the top seed, leads a Eurocentric field that includes Dusan Lajovic, Fernando Verdasco, and Pablo Cuevas.

First-round war of the one-handed backhands to watch: Philipp Kohlschreiber vs. Richard Gasquet

Dominic Thiem hopes to enjoy a home-court advantage after bowing out in the Hamburg quarterfinals (Getty Images)

Liqui Moly Open Karlsruhe (WTA)

Karlsruhe, Germany

$125,000; 125K Series

Red clay

Draw is here

The week’s least-lucrative event may also be its most intriguingly named. What is Liqui Moly, you ask? The name of the company is more interesting than its primary product: motor oil. 56th-ranked Tamara Zidansk is the top seed, followed by Alison Van Uytvanck.

The day after: How Djokovic and Federer played the crucial points

Mon, 15 Jul 2019 20:24:00 +0000

“It could have easily gone his way,” Novak Djokovic said after beating Roger Federer by the most evanescent of margins at Wimbledon on Sunday. Those words could be used to describe a lot of tennis matches, of course; this is a sport where it’s rare for any player to win more than 60 percent of the points played, even in a lopsided result, and where it’s not uncommon for a player to lose a match despite having won most of the points. Just ask Federer, who won 218 points to Djokovic’s 204, but walked away with the runner-up plate.

It’s a game of inches, they say, and never has the cliché been more appropriate. Federer led 8-7, 40-15 in the fifth set, double championship point. A slightly stronger serve by the Swiss here, a slightly weaker return by the Serb there, and the day would have ended differently, and would be remembered differently—its entire meaning would have changed.

The margin between victory and defeat, glory and devastation, was so vanishingly thin in this match that any discussion of why one player won and why the other lost quickly began to sound absurd. It was a feeling, I thought, that was reflected in Djokovic’s non-celebration celebration, and in both players’ muted on-court interviews. More than anything else, after five hours of being locked in mortal, nerve-wracking combat, Djokovic and Federer looked shell-shocked. “What just happened?” seemed to be the question that hung over Centre Court.

So what did happen? As you’re watching a match, there’s no time to hit rewind and examine any single point or shot. The same goes for the players, who can’t afford to sulk, or even think. As Federer said, “You always try to push yourself to see things on the better side”—even when you’ve just watched two championship points at Wimbledon come and go.

But considering how important those two points were, they’re worth a second look. It’s possible they could end up determining who comes out on top in the men’s Grand Slam-title race currently being run by Federer, Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. A Federer victory would have put him three Slams ahead of the 33-year-old Nadal, and six ahead of the 32-year-old Djokovic, a formidable lead in either case.

Re-watching the 8-7 game, and the two games leading up to it, what’s striking is how much of a roll Federer was on right up to his first match point. He had broken a tight-as-a-drum Djokovic at 2-4 to get back into the fifth set, and the momentum from that break still seemed to be with him when he served at 6-7. If anything, Djokovic was the one who was struggling to rise to the occasion at that stage.

Federer opened the 6-7 game with two aces for 30-0, and held with a smoothly aggressive forehand winner. At 7-7, Djokovic went up 30-0 on his own serve, and then his forehand inexplicably broke down. He hit one long, another one wide, and at break point, he left a forehand approach sitting up in the middle of the court, begging to be ripped. Federer obliged, swinging a forehand pass crosscourt for the break. The crowd, including Federer’s player box, leapt to its feet as one. Federer himself showed no emotion at all, either after the point or during the changeover.

Serving at 8-7, Federer missed a forehand long on the first point, and made an ill-advised challenge—the ball was well out. But if that was a product of nerves, he quickly shrugged them off. Djokovic missed another forehand wide to make it 15-15, and then Federer did what he’d been doing all day, all tournament, all career: he hit two seemingly effortless aces down the T. The second one, at 30-15, had a little extra sidespin that took it just beyond Djokovic’s outstretched racquet. Surely now the championship had been won, and the Pimm’s could flow.

At 40-15, Federer tried another flat serve down the T; it hit the tape and popped up and back onto his side of the net. It was on his second serve that the first sign of tension showed. The ball landed well inside the sideline and sat up in Djokovic’s strike zone; it was not unlike the Federer serve that Djokovic rocketed for an all-or-nothing return winner when he was down match point at the 2011 US Open—probably the most famous shot of the decade.

This time, Djokovic played it safer, but the result was just as effective. He hit a solid forehand up the middle that rushed Federer. For much of the match, Federer had taken this return and redirected it into the open court with his forehand. This time he didn’t have time to get his feet completely set, and he ended up floating an inside-out forehand into the alley

At 40-30, Federer went up the T with his serve again, and again missed his target. Djokovic didn’t have to stretch far to block a forehand return into the middle of the court. Federer routinely punishes returns like this, especially if he has time to hit a forehand; this time all the sting went out of his racquet. His approach landed short, near the middle of the court, and gave Djokovic plenty of time to set up for a pass. Like Federer in the previous game, Djokovic hooked it back crosscourt for a winner.

Watching in real time, I had the impression that this had been the type of free-swinging shot that Djokovic will nonchalantly crack when he has nothing left to lose. On second viewing, I was amazed at how artful the shot was, how much shape he put on it, how high it arced before touching down. Usually it’s Federer we credit with hitting more elegant shots than are strictly necessary. This time it was Djokovic’s turn to make a major-title-saving pass even better than it needed to be.

*How* do you do this to save Championship point?#Wimbledon @Djokernole pic.twitter.com/cHPpqADVFG
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 14, 2019

Federer’s nerves had manifested themselves not in errors, but in shots that were played too safely, that hung in the air too long, and that gave Djokovic more time to react than he’d had all match. At deuce, Federer flipped a tame backhand into the middle of the court; Djokovic responded with a strong forehand. At break point, Federer put too much air under his forehand, which looped into the middle of the court; again, Djokovic struck aggressively, and forced a forehand error from Federer. The score was 8-8, and the air was out of the building.

To his credit, Federer regrouped.

“I mean, really, look, I was still happy to be at 8-all, 9-all,” he said. “I don’t remember what it was. You try to see the positives, you try to take it as a good thing, I guess, that you’re not down a break, or that the match isn’t over yet.”

Perhaps “happy” was an exaggeration, but Federer did a good job of not unraveling completely, pushing the match to a deciding tiebreaker, and bouncing back from a 1-4 deficit in the breaker to 3-4. It was on the next two points that the title was finally won. Serving at 4-3, Djokovic managed to do what Federer couldn’t at 8-7: He hit through the court. Djokovic had had his own bouts with nerves in this match; his level had plummeted in the second set, and he had visibly tightened up while serving at 4-2 in the fifth. But in the end, he hit a forehand winner for 5-3, and a down-the-line backhand winner, his bravest shot of the day, for 6-3.

“In the important moments,” Djokovic said, “all three tiebreaks I guess, if I can say so, I found my best game.”

In 2014, I was in Centre Court to see Djokovic defy Federer and the loudest crowd I’d ever heard at Wimbledon in five sets. in 2015, I was in Arthur Ashe Stadium to see Djokovic defy Federer and an even louder crowd in four tight sets. When those matches were over and Federer had come up a shot or two short, the sense of deflation in the arena was palpable. I wondered whether the fan support, and the cascades of noise descending on him, might be a burden at times for Federer. He’s not a rah-rah guy. He doesn’t flap his arms or throw his first in the air to rev up the audience, and he doesn’t demand more noise and energy from his player box. Federer is a tennis individualist of the old school, and that’s a lot of hope, and pressure, to put on one individual’s head.

Of course, Federer has won hundreds of matches with the crowd fully behind him. The biggest difference when he plays Djokovic is...Djokovic, and his uniquely resilient game. By now, Djokovic has learned to cope with the pro-Federer crowds, and to use them as fuel when he can—when they chant “Ro-ger!” he says he hears “No-vak!” Djokovic really does it go it alone in these matches, like few tennis players ever have. Someday, hopefully, he’ll get his due for being able to fend off not just his legendary opponents, but entire stadiums full of their fans.

This time, over the course of five hours, Djokovic and Federer were separated by a couple of feet—the difference between Federer’s short forehand approach on his second match point at 8-7, and the powerful backhand winner that Djokovic hit to reach his first match point in the fifth-set tiebreaker. It might, as Djokovic said, so easily have gone the other way. But then that’s life, and that’s tennis.

The War of 13-12—Djokovic's best v. Federer came when it mattered most

Sun, 14 Jul 2019 22:41:00 +0000

“As serious as a heart attack,” is how the phrase goes. Can a tennis match be as serious as 10 heart attacks? That’s probably how many your average Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer fan had during Djokovic’s five-hour, 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 13-12 (3) win over Federer in Sunday's Wimbledon final. If that 13-12 score looks like a typo, that’s because this was the first singles match in Wimbledon’s 142-year history to finish with a tiebreaker in the deciding set.

Which is fitting, because this match also brought the curtain down on a decade of outsized and historic achievements at the All England Club, one that began with John Isner’s 70-68 fifth-set win over Nicolas Mahut in the second round in 2010. Since that marathon, Centre Court has been the site of Andy Murray’s 2013 triumph, which ended a title drought of 77 years for British men; three of Serena Williams’ 23 major victories and two Federer’s 20; a clean sweep of 10 titles for the ATP’s Big Four; and three memorable finals between Djokovic and Federer. The best players of this era keep finding ways to top themselves, and take their rivalries to new heights.

This was the longest and most dramatic of the three Djokovic-Federer finals, but it ended in the same nerve-wracking fashion as the others, with Djokovic finding a way to hold off Federer’s grass court attack, and the 15,000 fans roaring him on, just long enough to squeak out a tense victory. The most important difference between this match and the other two was how the tiebreakers played out. In 2014 and 2015, Djokovic and Federer split four of them; on Sunday, Djokovic won all three.

Over the course of the day, Djokovic won 14 fewer points than Federer (218 to 204), hit 40 fewer winners (94 to 54) and 15 fewer aces (25 to 10), and created five fewer break-point chances (13 to eight). His form swung wildly, and he essentially threw away the second set. He couldn’t read Federer’s serve, and failed to break it for three hours. He tightened up at 4-2 in the fifth set and gave the lead back. He was a point away from defeat twice, and he was oddly subdued throughout.

But when it counted most, Djokovic was impenetrable.

“It was probably the most demanding, mentally most demanding, match I was ever part of,” Djokovic said. “I had the most demanding match against Nadal in the finals of Australia [in 2012] that went almost six hours. But mentally this was different level, because of everything.”

“Everything” is probably too much to cover in a single article on this sprawling epic, so I’ll focus on the moments that mattered most, the three tiebreakers and Federer’s two match points.

Djokovic and Federer began the match at a frighteningly high level; the first set was a desperate, 12-game sprint to the tiebreaker. But in a sign of things to come, after going up 5-3 in the breaker, Federer turned around and lost four straight points, three of them on unforced errors. At the same time that Federer was faltering, Djokovic came up with the most important shot of the set: At 5-5, he ran down a short Federer backhand in time to wrist his own backhand down the line. Federer, guessing crosscourt, was taken by surprise and couldn’t recover.

In the third set, Djokovic looked out of sorts, but he gathered himself in time to reach another tiebreaker. This time, it wasn’t his good play, but Federer’s poor play that made the difference. Federer, who came to net 65 times and won 51 points there, decided to stay at the baseline at this critical stage. It didn’t work. He missed five backhands in the tiebreaker, and Djokovic closed the third set the same way he closed the first, with a point-winning down the line backhand.

Despite the disappointment of those two tiebreakers, Federer continued to be the superior player for most of the fourth and fifth sets. He rallied from 2-4 down in the fifth, and kept pounding down aces without any sign of fatigue. When he broke Djokovic with a forehand pass at 7-7, and hit two more aces to reach double-championship point at 8-7, it looked like Federer was going to close out the decade in fairytale fashion, and put a glittering capstone on his career by beating his two main rivals, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic, back to back. The crowd was on its feet, the glasses of Pimm’s were raised in anticipation, chants of “Ro-ger!” filled the air...and then Federer missed a forehand, and Djokovic hooked a forehand pass for a winner—the same forehand pass that saved him in his semifinal against Nadal here last year—and Federer put another forehand into the net at break point. Somehow, the score was 8-8, and the fans were back in their seats.

“It was one shot away from losing the match,” Djokovic said. “It could have gone easily his way...In these kind of moments, I just try to never lose self-belief, just stay calm, just focus on trying to get the ball back, return, which wasn’t serving me very well today.”

If anything, the level of play only improved down the homestretch. Federer kept raining unreturnable serves and closing points with delicate volleys. Djokovic kept grinding out tough holds and counterpunching with heavy ground strokes. Then, in the climactic and historic tiebreaker, the same scenario played out: Djokovic became more solid, and Federer began to misfire.

Federer started the breaker with four errors and went down 4-1. Eight-time Wimbledon champion that he is, Federer got back to 4-3, and forced Djokovic to win it. Five-time champion that he is, Djokovic did: Hitting through his nerves, his opponent, and the crowd, he came up with two of the biggest winners of his career—first a forehand and then a sizzling down-the-line backhand—to reach championship point. When Federer’s next forehand shanked off his frame sailed far out of the court, Djokovic stayed subdued. Instead of falling to the court, he walked to the net with a crooked smile on his face, as if to say, “Look what I just pulled off.”

“It was a huge relief in the end, honestly,” Djokovic said, when asked about his non-celebration celebration. “I mean, that was one thing I promised myself coming on to the court today, that I need to stay calm and composed, because I knew the atmosphere will be as it was.”

Asked how he survived with the world seemingly against him, Djokovic smiled and said, “I like to transmutate it in a way. When the crowd is chanting ‘Roger,’ I hear ‘Novak.’ It sounds silly, but it is like that. I try to convince myself that it’s like that.”

If this match was a fitting way to end the decade at Wimbledon, so was the result. Djokovic showed why he was the best men’s player of the last 10 years—with his game, yes, but even more so with his resilience. The fact that he showed his nerves in this match only made his ability to hit through them more impressive.

As for Federer, he smiled during the post-match interview and, even at 37, showed no signs at all that he had just run 5,600 meters over five hours.

“I love Wimbledon,” he said as he looked around Centre Court, joking that he was happy that he could be an inspiration for 37-year-olds everywhere. He had been a point away from winning his 21st major title, which would have made him very hard to catch in the current three-man GOAT race that he’s running with Djokovic and Nadal. Hopefully this isn’t the last time these two GOATs face off with a major on the line. Hopefully, they’ll give us a few more heart attacks in the future.

For Federer, while losses like this sting, the moments on Centre Court are worth it.

“It’s about trying to win Wimbledon, trying to have good runs here, playing in front of such an amazing crowd in this Centre Court against players like Novak and so forth,” Federer said. “That’s what I play for.”

Djokovic ended the day, as he ended his four previous final-round wins here, by chewing on a chunk of that hallowed Centre Court turf. This piece of grass, hard-earned as it was, must have been the sweetest of all.