Evelyn Reynolds

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    Stefanos Tsitsipas, So Near the Greats, but Not One of Them Yet

    He has an impressive game, with a dominating serve and a huge wingspan. Winning a major is next on his list.LONDON — Stefanos Tsitsipas stood behind the courtside sofa in the O2 Arena on Sept. 22 watching Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray practice their doubles game.Tsitsipas applauded when Federer hit a classic backhand down-the-line passing shot — a stroke Tsitsipas has modeled his own picturesque one-handed backhand after — well out of Murray’s reach. Tsitsipas looked saucer-eyed when Federer hit another winner, this time a backhand volley off a Djokovic midcourt half volley.Eventually, Tsitsipas, of Greece, couldn’t resist any longer, and he climbed into the umpire’s chair so he could get a better view of the four legends who would be among his teammates in the Laver Cup, starting the next day.“I’m stunned by their level of play,” Tsitsipas said later. “Just admiring [Federer’s] natural ability to kiss the ball with his racket. That’s a beautiful thing to see.”There are many tennis experts who say that Tsitsipas’s game is also a sight to behold. With an enormous wingspan on the forehand and backhand, he looks almost eaglelike as he strikes the ball. He glides rather than rumbles around the court and uses a hammer of a serve to set up points that can be won with topspin and brute force.Tsitsipas knows that his game is particularly effective indoors, especially given that he won the ATP Finals in 2019 played at the O2 Arena in London.“I’m a player that can serve big, and I have a big forehand,” he said. “I have good placement around the court, and it helps that I’m not a player that stays back. I have so many options out there that I can use to close off points.”Diego Schwartzman, who lost to Tsitsipas at the Laver Cup, said that Tsitsipas was more patient and felt the ball well.“He has that combination where he can be aggressive and be patient,” Schwartzman said. “He has many chances to win Grand Slams.”Tsitsipas reached the semifinals at the Australian Open in January.Darrian Traynor/Getty ImagesIt is the majors that have eluded Tsitsipas. At 24, he has already been ranked as high as No. 3 in the world and currently sits at No. 5. He enters the Rolex Paris Masters having won two titles this year, in Majorca and in Monte Carlo, Monaco. He was also runner-up in five other tournaments.While Tsitsipas reached the final at the 2021 French Open, losing to Djokovic, and has reached four major semifinals, including at this year’s Australian Open, he has often faltered when it mattered most. At the United States Open in August, he was upset in the first round by 94th-ranked Daniel Elahi Galan, a match in which he dropped the first two sets 6-0, 6-1.“I don’t think I have ever played so bad in my career,” Tsitsipas said. “And I know what happened.”The issue at the Open, Tsitsipas said, was his decision to experiment with new rackets, racket head weight, strings and string tension. The reason was an elbow injury late last year that forced him to retire in the first round of the Paris Masters, pull out midtournament at the ATP Finals and then have surgery after the season. Since then he has been trying to find the right equipment combination that will enhance his game but not hurt his arm.“The surgery was difficult to come back from, and there was a lot of doubting at the time,” Tsitsipas said. “There are certain decisions and moves that I need to take in order to prevent getting my elbow in that state again. But I should not have so much experimentation going on. It took away a lot of my confidence.”Tsitsipas is keenly aware that he is one of the best players never to have won a major.“I know where my tennis is capable of reaching and which zone I can be at,” he said. “I guess I’ll learn from all the mistakes. It was something that I don’t want to replicate again because it was psychological suffering. Those are opportunities that I need to grab.”Introspection is important to Tsitsipas’s personality. Asked about his favorite philosopher and his preferred quote, Tsitsipas didn’t hesitate.“I like the Socrates one,” he said. “‘I know only one thing: That I know nothing.’” More

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    So the Forehand Is Your Best Tennis Shot? You Sure?

    It is usually the most powerful, but that greater strength may also be its greatest weakness. It can break down under pressure.During the Rolex Paris Masters, you will consistently see players taking a circuitous route to a ball, running around what should be a backhand to take a whack from their forehand side. Most players hit forehands harder and with more spin, seeking a better chance to seize control of the point.And yet that greatest strength may also be the greatest weakness. Despite the peril, players attack the opposition’s forehand while serving and during a rally because the forehand is also less stable and more likely to result in an unforced error, especially on a faster indoor court like the one for this tournament, which begins Saturday and runs through Nov. 6.“Around 90 percent of the time a player’s forehand is stronger, so you fear it more, but it isn’t always the most consistent,” said Steve Johnson, adding, “I’m one of the players who’s going to let it fly and litter the stat sheet with winners and errors.”Backhands, especially two-handers, are more compact so less can go awry.“The forehand is a bigger swing and a more complex shot technically,” said Michael Russell, who coaches Taylor Fritz. “If you look at the top-10 players you’ll see many hit their forehands quite differently, but the backhands have more similarities. So the forehand is going to break down more under pressure.”Taylor Fritz hits a forehand during a match in Indian Wells, Calif.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesAttacking the forehand is more common than in the past because of changes in technology and playing style, said Wayne Ferreira, Frances Tiafoe’s coach. Modern rackets and strings enabled players to hit stronger backhands, while the desire to further amp up the forehand has led most players to more extreme Western grips, he said.(The Semi-Western and Western grips favored by many players, men and women, involve rotating the racket in the hand to the point that it looks almost unnatural to swing it, until you see a player whip through and rotate up on the ball creating tremendous topspin impossible with less nontraditional grips.)“The reason forehands are worse today is because of the grip — you can create more pace, but you’ll have a harder time controlling it,” Ferreira said, blaming training and development that locks in these grips when players are young. “Frances has a Western grip forehand, and I think it’s too far over, but sometimes it’s too hard to change it back.”Just because a player may be more prone to mistakes on their forehand does not mean you can just go after it all the time.Denis Shapovalov hits a forehand during a match in the Australian Open.Graham Denholm/Getty Images“You still try to stay away from that shot and then force the player to hit one when you have a good opportunity,” said Denis Shapovalov, who lost to Novak Djokovic in the Paris Masters finals in 2019. “It’s a gamble any time you go there. You might get beat or you might get a point out of it.”Russell said that each point had many variables, including both players’ confidence, but said the court surface was also a crucial factor.“On a faster indoor court [like at the Paris Masters] or a grass court you have less time to prepare and a lower bounce, so guys with big swinging forehands have a hard time getting set,” Ferreira said. “On clay the ball is slower and bounces higher, so it’s more in the pocket where players are comfortable on the forehand.”Sometimes players begin targeting the forehand with their serve. If a player has a big backswing, Brandon Nakashima tries exploiting that by tossing in more serves to the forehand. “They will be more prone to mis-hits or shorter returns,” he explained.Russell said the shorter backhand swing made it easier to absorb a first serve’s power and block it back. Ferreira noted that while “you have to mix it up a lot,” most players prepared to return serve by setting up for the backhand, so players must adjust to serves to the forehand. (One-handed backhands require a more notable grip shift in those moments.)During rallies, Johnson said, attacking the forehand is necessary to open up the backhand. “I try to catch guys by surprise and go to their forehand when they’re looking for the backhand,” he said.Frances Tiafoe hits a forehand during a match at the French Open.Ryan Pierse/Getty ImagesPlayers have to choose their spots, Ferreira cautioned. “Players do very well hitting inside out forehands from the backhand corner, but because of the grip they don’t do as well hitting forehands on the run as they used to,” he said. Ferreira said there were certain players (like Matteo Berrettini) with huge forehands where you need to be more careful and others (like Alexander Zverev and Jannik Sinner) where you’re more likely to gain a free point. “But even with Berrettini you can go to the forehand when he’s not expecting it.”Ferreira said players should also attack opponents’ forehands when they were hitting approach shots or at the net, because if they kept the ball down, with a slice or flat shot, it was more challenging for forehands to handle.Russell agreed that every player could be pushed on the forehand side, especially if they had to hit the ball while moving. “On the backhand they’ll use the slice as a defensive shot, but most players don’t practice the forehand slice, and you can make them late if they have to hit forehands on the run.”He said even Rafael Nadal, who with Roger Federer now retired is the forehand king, can be beaten on that wing. “If you can rush Rafa, he has a tendency to lift a little more,” Russell said, before adding, “but you have to execute it perfectly or you’re running on a yo-yo.Johnson said some players lacked confidence and pressuring the forehand early could pay off.“If they miss a couple early, they’ll stop going for as much on that shot,” he said. Not everyone falters, however. “Some guys can miss a hundred forehands in a row and won’t question going for the 101st one.”Nakashima and Shapovalov added a final caveat: A crucial moment, with the set or match on the line, may not be the best time to test your opponent’s forehand. “In a key point, you don’t want to get surprised by a big shot,” Nakashima said.Attacking the forehand at that juncture is like throwing a changeup instead of your best fastball with the bases loaded in the ninth inning, Shapovalov added. This tactic is a weapon to deploy, but wisely.“In the big moments,” he said, “you want to go where you’re confident and where the percentages are highest to win the point.” More

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    Which Men’s Tennis Player Will Be No. 1 at the End of the Year?

    Novak Djokovic has taken the top spot for the last two years, but, with his struggles, now it’s up for grabs.By the time Novak Djokovic took to the court for his match against Daniil Medvedev in the finals of the Rolex Paris Masters last year, he already knew he would end the season ranked No. 1 in the world for a record-breaking seventh time.With his win over Hubert Hurkacz in the semifinals of that event Djokovic ensured that he would surpass Pete Sampras, who finished as No. 1 for six consecutive years from 1993-98. Close behind are Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Jimmy Connors, each of whom ended the season ranked No. 1 five times.“It’s always one of the biggest goals, to try to be No. 1 and end the season as No. 1,” Djokovic said last year. “To do it for the record seventh time and surpass my childhood idol and role model, Pete, is incredible. Very grateful, very blessed to be in this position.”This year, Djokovic has no chance to end the year ranked No. 1. Because of his decision to remain unvaccinated, he was unable to play tournaments in Australia and the United States, including two of the four majors — the Australian and United States Opens. The one major that he did win, Wimbledon, did not award ranking points after Russian and Belarusian players were banned from competing after Russia invaded Ukraine.Heading into the Paris Masters, Djokovic had played just 10 events all season. He didn’t compete from mid-July to mid- SeptemberSince losing to Nadal in the quarterfinals of the French Open in June, Djokovic has won 17 of his last 18 matches, beating Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas in Astana, Kazakhstan, earlier this month. Still, he is ranked No. 7, his lowest ATP ranking since August 2018 when he was No. 10 following an extended break because of elbow surgery.Rafael Nadal is one of five players who could potentially end the year ranked No. 1.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesSo with the sport’s most dominant player faltering in the rankings, the year-end No. 1 ranking is up for grabs. Multiple players have more of the ATP points that determine the top spot than Djokovic, with Carlos Alcaraz, this year’s U.S. Open winner, sitting at No. 1, about 650 points ahead of second-ranked Nadal and about 3,800 ahead of Djokovic.“The rankings are really skewed this year,” said Pam Shriver, a former top-10 player and now an ESPN commentator. “A lot of people still look at Novak as No. 1. After all, he’s only lost one match since June. His ranking may say No. 7, but that’s all because of Wimbledon. He’s playing like the No. 1 player in the world. It’s not apples to apples like other years.”Under the normal points system, Djokovic might not even qualify for the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, this year. Heading into Paris, he was in 10th place in the points race. But under the ATP’s Grand Slam champion rule, any player who wins a major title and is ranked within the top 20 is guaranteed a spot in the year-end championship. (The WTA Tour has no such rule, which is why Djokovic’s fellow Wimbledon champion, Elena Rybakina, did not qualify for the WTA Finals in Fort Worth.)“Most of the upheaval this year is because of Djokovic,” Patrick McEnroe, a former United States Davis Cup captain and now an ESPN commentator said. “He missed two majors and didn’t get points for the one he won. It really affected the rest of the field. You could make the case that if Djokovic runs the table, wins Paris and the ATP Finals, that he deserves to be No. 1.”The player most likely to end 2022 at No. 1 is Alcaraz. So far he has won five tournaments this year, including ATP Masters 1000s in Miami and Madrid. In Madrid, he beat Nadal, Djokovic and Alexander Zverev in succession. At the U.S. Open, he knocked off Frances Tiafoe in the semifinals and then Casper Ruud for the championship. He then, at 19, became the youngest No. 1 in ATP rankings history.The issue for Alcaraz is his lack of indoor experience. Entering the Paris Masters, Alcaraz had played just two tournaments, in Astana and Basel, Switzerland, and two Davis Cup matches indoors this season. Last year he lost in the third round in Paris, but went on to win the Next Gen ATP Finals.“The way this game is supposed to work is that the new guys get better and start beating the old guys,” said Jimmy Arias, once ranked No. 5 and now the director of tennis at the IMG Academy in Florida. “Alcaraz has shown that he’s the guy to replace them because he’s beaten Nadal and Djokovic this year. I don’t want those older guys to just fade away. The new guys won’t get respect without beating them. It’s the natural order of things.”In the last few weeks of the season, there are five players who could potentially end the year No. 1 — Alcaraz, Nadal, Ruud, Medvedev and Tsitsipas. Ruud reached two major finals this year, finishing second to Nadal at the French Open and to Alcaraz at the U.S. Open. Ruud has also won three lower-level titles and was runner-up to Alcaraz at the Masters 1000 in Miami.Medvedev, who beat Djokovic in the final of the U.S. Open last year, was runner-up to Nadal at the Australian Open in January. Shortly after, Medvedev, ascended to world No. 1.But Medvedev was banned from playing Wimbledon and then lost to Nick Kyrgios in the round of 16 at the U.S. Open. He is now ranked No. 4.Tsitsipas is also within range of No. 1. He has won two ATP titles, in Monte Carlo, Monaco; and Mallorca, Spain, and reached the semifinals at the Australian Open. Though he faltered at the other three majors, Tsistipas has a 14-6 record on indoor hard courts this year and reached the finals in Astana and Stockholm this month.“This year has been so bizarre,” McEnroe said. “It’s almost hard to legitimize the game and its rankings. The wrinkle in all of this is Ruud, Tsitsipas and Medvedev could all end up mathematically No. 1, but that would be too bad. I don’t think they deserve it.”Some experts said that Nadal should be crowned year-end No. 1, especially given the way he started the year. He had a 21-match win streak, taking three tournaments, including the Australian Open. He was finally stopped by Taylor Fritz in the Indian Wells final.Nadal went on to win his 14th French Open, beating Djokovic in the quarterfinals and advancing to the final when Zverev had an ankle injury that would sideline him for the rest of the season. Nadal also reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, but withdrew because of a torn abdominal muscle.“To me, the person who wins the majors is actually No. 1,” Arias said. “I look at the guy who played less, but won more. And that’s Nadal.”Regardless of what the computer says in December, this men’s season will be controversial. Had Djokovic been vaccinated and allowed into Australia and the United States, he might well have equaled his 55-7 record of 2021.“I do have empathy for Djokovic,” McEnroe said. “I don’t agree with his decision, but he suffered the consequences. He paid a high price for sticking to his guns.”Arias said this would be a year for the record books.“With Novak not being able to play, and with Wimbledon banning players and then giving no ranking points, I almost feel like this year shouldn’t count,” he added. “But 25 years from now no one is going to remember any of this..” More

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    Simona Halep Suspended for a Positive Doping Test

    Halep, the ninth-ranked player in women’s tennis, tested positive for an anemia drug.Simona Halep, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion and one of the biggest stars in women’s tennis, received a provisional suspension on Friday after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug during the U.S. Open this summer.Halep, a 31-year-old Romanian, is currently ranked ninth in the world. A representative declined an interview request, but after Halep learned of the suspension on Friday, she wrote on Twitter that news of the drug violation was “the biggest shock of my life.”pic.twitter.com/bhS2B2ovzS— Simona Halep (@Simona_Halep) October 21, 2022
    In a statement, the International Tennis Integrity Agency, which oversees drug testing for the sport, said Halep had tested positive for roxadustat, a drug commonly used for people suffering from anemia, a condition resulting from a low level of red blood cells.The organization said that after the drug was found in her initial sample, Halep requested a test on a second sample, which confirmed the presence of the drug in her system.“While provisionally suspended, the player is ineligible to compete in or attend any sanctioned tennis events organized by the governing bodies of the sport,” the organization said.Roxadustat is on the list of banned substances because it artificially stimulates hemoglobin and red blood cell production, which is a technique for players to gain more endurance. The drug does this by getting the body to produce more of the hormone erythropoietin, commonly referred to as “EPO,” which plays an important role in red blood cell production.Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body. More red blood cells can result in increased endurance, which made EPO a particularly common performance-enhancing substance in professional cycling for years.Halep had never previously received a drug suspension. In her post on Twitter, she stated that “the idea of cheating never crossed my mind once” and that it went against her values. “I will fight to the end to prove that I never knowingly took a prohibited substance,” Halep wrote.Halep’s 2022 season was an up-and-down campaign. She was close to quitting in February, she said, because she had lost her belief that she could compete with the best players in the world. But as she began working with Patrick Mouratoglou, who previously trained Serena Williams, Halep regained her confidence.She entered the French Open in good form but lost her first-round match after suffering what she later described as a panic attack during a three-set battle with Zheng Qinwen of China. At Wimbledon, Halep made it to the semifinals before losing to the eventual champion, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, but at the U.S. Open the following month she lost in the first round once more, this time to Daria Snigur of Ukraine.In early September, Halep announced that she had nasal surgery to remove what had been a significant blockage in her nose. The condition had made it difficult to breathe for years, she said on social media, but she had never pursued the surgery because it required three months away from playing tennis.At that time, she announced that her 2022 season was over and that she was looking forward to rejoining tennis in 2023. Those plans will now await the outcome of any appeals she makes regarding the drug violation. As a first time-offender, Halep very likely faces a suspension of up to two years, which would begin roughly at the time of her most recent competition.Athletes in Halep’s position, as Maria Sharapova was when she was found to have taken an illegal heart medication, often claim that a physician prescribed the drug for a legitimate medical reason but the athlete did not realize that it was on the banned substances list. But antidoping regulations hold athletes responsible for anything that is found in their bodies. More

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    Are We Missing Out When Athletes Retire on Top?

    To witness the humbling of champions — and to see them endure it with dignity and grit — might be one of the great things sports has to teach us.A hero’s journey, ending in a wrenching farewell — sports historians will debate whether Roger Federer was the greatest men’s tennis player of all time, but few will deny that he was among its most dignified. Last month, the 41-year-old, 20-time major champion made official what had felt inevitable for some time: The ravages of age, culminating with a recent knee surgery, finally persuaded him to retire. A hastily arranged final appearance at the Laver Cup in London quickly morphed into a send-off for the Swiss superstar, a Festival of Fed. He teamed up with his friendly rival Rafael Nadal for a doubles match, a contest that felt mostly like an excuse to watch a legend take the court one last time. The raucous aftermath included an emotional on-court interview with a fellow great, Jim Courier. Federer’s current peers were there, all reverential, as was a teeming audience, eager to see him off. Was this the end, or merely the end of the beginning? Sportswriters are required to use phrases like “ravages of age” when discussing an athlete in decline, but truth be told, it’s a bit of a reach when describing Federer’s goodbye. Trim and suave in a royal blue zip-up and a signature Rolex (one of his longtime sponsors), he scarcely gave the appearance of a man facing down senescence — just a man acknowledging the fact he can’t go five sets deep with Novak Djokovic the way he used to. And while much of the celebration felt delightfully genuine and spontaneous, that’s not the same as saying it wasn’t calculated. To be an icon in the modern sports firmament is to give as much consideration to narrative as your average Shakespeare scholar, and scripting your career to a happy ending serves many purposes.A similar curtain call occurred a few weeks earlier, when the 23-time major champion Serena Williams finished her storied career with a spirited run into the third round of the U.S. Open, a tournament she first won in 1999. Williams and her older sister Venus have been fixtures of the American sports landscape for so long that it is at once impossible to imagine it without them and head-spinning to contemplate the length of their dominance. When Williams addressed the stadium after her last appearance, the assembled crowd responded with an operatic outpouring that exceeded even Federer’s rapturous farewell. (If your heart did not proceed directly to your throat when Serena wept and said she would be no one without her older sister, you either don’t love tennis or need to see a doctor.)For the aging athlete to continue grinding away is in some ways a noble act.Serena, like Federer, is 41 and considered by many to be the sport’s greatest of all time. Their playing days might be behind them, but each remains a global icon, and status as a global icon is a bit like a Supreme Court appointment: Once you have it, it’s your job for life. It’s also a lucrative one. The idea that a star athlete might be worth more money retired than active isn’t exactly new — Arnold Palmer’s career golf earnings were $2 million, while the bulk of his estimated $700 million estate was earned through endorsements long after his competitive days were over — but in a world crazed for both content and heroes, the stakes of making a narratively canny exit feel higher than ever. Legacy-building cannot be left to chance. Federer has already been the focus of multiple documentaries; Williams has been chronicled in a five-part HBO series and had her youth depicted, alongside her sister’s, in last year’s Oscar-winning dramatization “King Richard.” The incentive to make the leap from player to personality while still adjacent to the winner’s circle is immense.Roger Federer’s Farewell to Professional TennisThe Swiss tennis player leaves the game with one of the greatest competitive records in history.An Appraisal: “He has, figuratively and literally, re-embodied men’s tennis, and for the first time in years, the game’s future is unpredictable,” the author David Foster Wallace wrote of Roger Federer in 2006.A Poignant Send-Off: Wimbledon may have been more fitting. But the Laver Cup, which Federer helped create, offered a sensible final act for one of the greatest players of this era.Two Great Rivals: When players retire from individual sports like tennis, their rivalries go with them. Here is a look at some of the best matches that pitted Federer against Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.Tennis After Federer: The Swiss player, along with Nadal and Djokovic, helped define a remarkably durable period in men’s tennis history. Following behind is a new generation of hungry players, ready to muscle their way into the breach.This was not always the case — far from it. The edges of sports history are littered with specters like the aging Johnny Unitas, fecklessly playing out the string as a San Diego Charger, and Willie Mays, slumming as a past-his-prime New York Met. No complete biography of either man will ever be written without some significant reference to those sad and flailing years, in which they burned off parts of their legacy for a few final paychecks and a chance at adulation — the part where the great man, taking the field, commands his body to perform the old heroic acts and is betrayed, again and again, by those “ravages of age.” Personally, I am ambivalent about the much tidier exits of today’s greats. I sort of miss the tragic model. For the aging athlete to continue grinding away, even as their physical prowess begins to fail them, is in some ways a noble act of self-effacement, an abandonment of personal vanity, a repayment of the karmic debt of their natural abilities. We as a society currently stand at the intersection of modern medicine, baby-boomer vivacity and magical thinking, indulging in adult-adolescent fantasies of eternal youth, waving away the menacing creep of time. If sports is a metaphor for life — and it better be, for all the time it takes — I wonder if on some level we don’t do ourselves a disservice by watching our heroes bow out on a grace note. Parts of life’s ride are going to get ugly; injury, loss and defeat are coming for us all. To witness, in real time, the humbling of great athletes — and to see them endure it with dignity and grit, even as the outcomes carry them further and further from former glory — might be one of the great things sports has to teach us. Over these last few months, a miracle occurred that split the difference. Albert Pujols is 42 and in his 22nd season playing major-league baseball. For the first 10 years of that career, he was basically Babe Ruth — a hitter of such generational talent that it strained credulity. Over the second 10 years, he went from pretty good to mediocre to downright bad, and many a commentator remarked on how sad it was to see a once-perfect hitter break down. And yet Pujols persisted, catching on as a bench player with the Los Angeles Dodgers after being released by another team, and finally rejoining his original team, the St. Louis Cardinals, for one more year. It was, essentially, a sentimental gesture.But then something weird happened: He got really, really good again. His swing locked in. He started hitting home runs at his early career rate, passing 700 for his career, a huge benchmark in baseball. He led his team to a division title. It all came out of nowhere, the most romantic possible outcome for a player who had — in many people’s eyes — come to serve as a cautionary tale, an argument for getting out while the getting’s good.That’s one last thing about sports, and life: The difference between demonstrating resilience and toiling in self-delusion is not so easy to parse. Pujols recently revealed that as late as this June, he had become so dejected about his play that he nearly quit. It turned out, happily, that there was one last chapter to be written. It reminds me of a favorite lyric, from the band Drive-By Truckers: “There’s something to be said for hanging in there/Past the point of hanging around too long.”Source photographs: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images; Stacy Revere/Getty Images; Paul Crock/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images; Greg Wood/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images; Getty Images. More

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    Finally, Taylor Fritz Forces His Way Into the Top 10

    Fritz’s breakthrough in the ATP rankings is the latest sign of a resurgence for American men’s tennis, though these are not yet the good old days. Not even close.SAN DIEGO — With the American tennis star Taylor Fritz stuck in his hotel room in Seoul last month with Covid-19 and a high fever, his longtime goal of breaking into the ATP top 10 seemed just out of reach again.But that was before Fritz hopped on a stationary bike to stay in shape and then hopped on a flight from Seoul to Tokyo last Wednesday after a mandatory week in isolation, just in time for his next tournament. Four days later, he won the Japan Open, defeating his compatriot Frances Tiafoe in the final. Welcome to the top 10 at last, as the ATP rankings made clear on Monday with Fritz at No. 8.“It’s definitely one of those goals you have your whole life,” Fritz said after arriving back in Los Angeles. “It’s not the end goal by any means, and I don’t want to make people think that because I’m celebrating it, but it’s a huge milestone and no one is ever going to take that away from me.”It also makes him the second top-10 player in his tennis family. Fritz’s mother, Kathy May, joined that club in 1977 on the WTA Tour. Fritz’s father, Guy, peaked at No. 301 in the ATP singles rankings in 1979. “I do think it would be cool to be highest ranked in the family,” Fritz said.Fritz’s breakthrough is the latest sign of resurgence for American men’s tennis. These are not yet the good old days, not even close. Americans often dominated the tour in the late 20th century with serial champions such as John McEnroe, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Andy Roddick, who won the U.S. Open in 2003, remains the last American man to win a major singles title or reach No. 1.But it would be churlish not to acknowledge the progress in 2022 with Tiafoe making a stirring run to the semifinals of the U.S. Open last month and the big-serving Fritz winning three titles and putting together his finest season with the cameras often rolling behind the scenes. (He is one of the players being followed for a “Drive to Survive” style series on Netflix.) He is the first American man in the top 10 since John Isner in June 2019 and the first American man to make his top-10 debut since Jack Sock in November 2017.Fritz, left, and Tiafoe, both 24, are the two highest ranked Americans on the ATP Tour.Kimimasa Mayama/EPA, via ShutterstockBoth Fritz and the 17th-ranked Tiafoe are 24 years old, which given the increased staying power of men’s tennis players most likely means that their best years are ahead of them. The Fritz-Tiafoe duel in Tokyo, an ATP 500 event, was the fifth all-American men’s singles final on tour this season. Of the seven other American men ranked in the top 50, six are age 25 or younger: Tommy Paul, Maxime Cressy, Reilly Opelka, Jenson Brooksby, Brandon Nakashima and Sebastian Korda.“Everyone’s just been constantly improving over the last couple years, and now it’s finally at the point where some of the big guys are dropping out or are a little more beatable than they used to be,” Fritz said. “A lot of the people at the top right now and having lots of success are people we played growing up and we all know we can beat. I see no reason why there’s not going to be four or five Americans in the top 20 in two years.”The caveat is that Carlos Alcaraz, the beguiling new men’s No. 1, is even younger than the leaders of the new American wave. Alcaraz, a 19-year-old Spaniard, beat Tiafoe in five sets on his way to winning the U.S. Open. Jannik Sinner, a devastating ball striker from Italy who is widely and rightly considered the next best young talent in the world, is 21.The American renaissance will clearly continue to face plenty of resistance, including a still-formidable Novak Djokovic. But that is no reason for Fritz not to savor Monday’s math. “I think regardless of what happens the next 10 years of my career, this will always probably be one of my biggest career achievements,” he said.Fritz, known since his junior days as a tenacious competitor, has made a habit of rebounding quickly. In 2021, less than a month after right knee surgery, he won two rounds at Wimbledon. This year, he won the biggest title of his career at the BNP Paribas Open after injuring his ankle in the final stages of the semifinal and screaming in pain during the warm-up session before his final against Rafael Nadal, who was dealing with a cracked rib.This time, Fritz had to bounce back twice. He lost in the first round of the U.S. Open to the American qualifier Brandon Holt, who had never won a main-draw singles match on tour. Brandon Holt with his mother, the former tennis player Tracy Austin, after he beat Fritz.Matthew Stockman/Getty Images“New York was a good learning experience,” Michael Russell, one of Fritz’s coaches, said. “He put way too much pressure on himself to perform at his home Slam as well as being able to manage all of the off-court obligations with being the top-ranked American there.”Fritz said it was bittersweet to follow the progress of Tiafoe, whom he has known since they were 14.“Obviously, I was happy for my friend; I think Frances deserved it,” Fritz said. “Over the years, he’s lost so many tight matches with top players that it was finally time for him to start winning those and go on a run, but at the same time I’m watching it, and it killed me. I felt like I should be there, too. I felt like my draw was good. I just had a shocking day.”Fritz quickly returned for team competition in Europe last month: helping the U.S. qualify for the Davis Cup final phase and then helping Team World defeat Team Europe for the first time in the Laver Cup, the event cocreated by Roger Federer that also served as his emotional retirement vehicle. In Federer’s last official match, he and his doubles partner, Nadal, were beaten by Sock and Tiafoe. Fritz said he was angry that his teammates received so much criticism on social media for playing at full throttle.“I definitely cried a lot more than I thought I was going to,” he said of Federer’s farewell. “But I was pretty upset to see how much hate Frances and Jack got for winning the match and Frances got for hitting Roger or hitting the ball at Rafa at net. This is not an exhibition. We are playing for a lot and for a lot of money. It bothered me a lot because I know Roger would have absolutely hated it if they just gave it to him.”Team World celebrated late into the night in London, and Fritz then caught a 12-hour flight to Seoul, only to test positive for Covid-19 the day after arrival, which kept him out of the Seoul tournament and left him with a spiking fever and sore throat despite being double vaccinated and boosted.Fritz was eventually able to start working out in his hotel room in Seoul: pedaling on a stationary bike and even bench pressing his girlfriend, Morgan Riddle, who had also tested positive for Covid, as she stretched out on her side in a bathrobe to turn herself into the equivalent of a barbell.Fritz soon returned to more conventional training methods and the tennis court in Tokyo: winning in three sets in the first round over James Duckworth after going a week without hitting a ball. Fritz then guaranteed his top-10 spot by beating Denis Shapovalov in another three-setter in the semifinals before defeating Tiafoe, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2).Fritz guaranteed his top-10 spot with a win over Denis Shapovalov of Canada in their semifinal match in Tokyo.Kazuhiro Nogi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“Taylor was putting a lot of pressure on himself to get over that top 10 hurdle the last couple months,” Russell said. “Beating Shapo in the semis really freed up his mind for the final to play some of his best tennis.”Next goals: qualifying for the eight-man ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, next month and then cracking the top five and making “a big run” in a Grand Slam tournament in 2023. Whatever happens from here, he already has a good story to tell. “The fact I spent seven days in a hotel room and was able to fly the morning of the tournament and win a 500 is pretty crazy,” he said. More

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    The Billionaire Trying to Turn Kazakhstan Into a Tennis Nation

    Bulat Utemuratov decided in 2007 to create a tennis culture for the masses in a former Soviet Republic known for combat sports and weight lifting. Casual tennis fans likely got their first glimpse of perhaps the most surprising rising power player in the sport at Wimbledon in July, when a dark-haired, superfan in a Panama hat and blue blazer embraced Elena Rybakina, the native Russian turned Kazakh who won the women’s singles title.“Unbelievable support,” Rybakina said of the effusiveness of Bulat Utemuratov, the billionaire who invested in her game and changed her life, as she thanked him during the Wimbledon trophy presentation.Utemuratov’s sporting indulgences are back at the center of the sport this week. Because of him, the center of the tennis universe has shifted to a medium-sized city in Kazakhstan, a country that was only nominally on the tennis map a decade ago but now has the wherewithal to lure many of the biggest stars of the game.Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and a handful of other top players competed this week in Astana, the capital of a vast Central Asian republic, because Utemuratov, a Kazakh diplomat and industrialist decided 15 years ago to use his largess to turn his country into an emerging tennis force.“I liked it from the beginning,” Utemuratov, 64, said of tennis during a recent interview, though that beginning didn’t arrive until he was in his 30s.Rybakina’s run to the Wimbledon championship caused a major dust-up. Players from Russia and Belarus were barred from participating in this year’s tournament because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Rybakina, 23, was born and raised in Moscow, where her family still lives. She became a citizen of Kazakhstan five years ago in exchange for financial support from Utemuratov and the country’s tennis federation. It was just one part of Utemuratov’s strategy for turning the former Soviet republic into a legitimate tennis nation, as odd as that sounded when he launched it in the ‘aughts.His multipronged approach could serve as a blueprint for other nations that want to get better at tennis, or really any sport, as long as they have one key ingredient — a billionaire willing to spend whatever it takes. The sports world is filled with billionaires who buy teams and use them as fancy toys. Utemuratov chose to essentially buy an entire sport, for now, in his own country, though he is becoming increasingly influential internationally.Utemuratov boxed and played soccer and table tennis in his youth. He did not start playing tennis until Kazakhstan’s post-Soviet business community embraced it in the 1990s. During the Soviet era, tennis was frowned upon as a sport of the elite. There were only a handful of tennis courts in the entire country, and playing on them was extremely expensive.To Utemuratov, tennis was a revelation — a physical version of chess, requiring versatility, intellectual wherewithal, maximum concentration and constant athletic improvement.Utemuratov’s tennis prowess rose with his political and financial prominence. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he served as both an economic envoy for Kazakhstan to Europe and the United Nations, the leader of one of top financial institutions and a special aide to then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Nazarbayev ruled the country essentially as a dictator for three decades as it worked to modernize and take advantage of its vast oil reserves.An aerial view of Nur-Sultan (Astana) where the Astana Open is taking place.Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated PressIn a country where soccer and combat sports ruled and its most prominent athlete is Gennady Golovkin, the middleweight boxing champion known as Triple G, tennis barely registered. By 2007, the country’s tennis federation was nearly bankrupt. Utemuratov and other business leaders discussed what they could do to save the national federation. Utemuratov, who had become a big fan of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, offered his services.It was, he said, a special challenge, “like starting from scratch,” and doing so in a poor, sprawling country, with just 20 million people spread across a territory nearly 2,000 miles wide and 1,000 miles from top to bottom. Kazakhstan stretches from close to Mongolia to within a few hundred miles of Ukraine’s eastern border. It’s brutally cold for much of the year, too, and there were still barely any tennis courts.Using almost entirely Utemuratov’s money, the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation went on a building spree, investing roughly $200 million — nearly a tenth of his estimated fortune — to construct 38 tennis centers in all 17 regions of the country. It trained hundreds of coaches and instructors and imported some from Europe. It subsidized lessons for young children and adolescents who can train six days a week for $40-$120 per month. The best juniors receive as much as $50,000 to pay for training and travel.Utemuratov said making the sport affordable was essential to changing the perception of tennis to a game for all people from one of just the elite. There are now 33,000 registered players at all levels in Kazakhstan. In 2007, there were just 1,800. A staff of 32 at the federation’s headquarters is in constant contact with 70 other coaches and employees at the tennis centers tracking the progress of promising juniors.Dave Miley, an Irishman who led player development at the International Tennis Federation, arrived two years ago to serve as the executive director of the K.T.F. Miley said money alone will not produce high-level players.As interest and participation grew and the quality of play improved, the federation partnered with academies in Spain, Italy, and other established tennis countries to send its best junior players there to train. It held international tournaments from young juniors to the professional ranks.“You only produce players if you have a systematic approach,” he said.That is only partly true.Utemuratov knew that people in his country would truly embrace the sport only if Kazakhstan had top professionals. And he didn’t want to wait a generation to see if the country might produce one organically.So instead of waiting, he adopted a strategy that lots of other countries have used to pursue excellence in other sports — he began to look abroad, specifically to Russia, in search of players who had talent but were not successful enough to garner support from the tennis federation there. His offer was simple: Play for Kazakhstan, which shares a language and a history with Russia, and the country will fund your career.He found early takers in Yuri Schukin and Yaroslava Shvedova. Schukin never cracked the top 100 but Shvedova reached a career-high ranking of No. 25 in 2012. She made the quarterfinals in singles of three Grand Slam tournaments and won doubles titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Schukin is now one of the country’s leading coaches.More recently, Rybakina and Alexander Bublik another native Russian, signed on to represent Kazakhstan. Russia’s tennis federation had essentially discarded both players, leaving them and their families to find coaching and court access on their own.Bublik said he first met Utemuratov when he was a young teenager playing in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Utemuratov had reserved a court for several hours to play with his daughter. They finished early and Utemuratov told Bublik to use the rest of his court time.Robert Perry/Press Association, via Associated PressBublik, 25, decided to make Kazakhstan his second home in 2016 after he made the quarterfinals of a second-tier tournament, but with little help from Russia’s tennis federation. With Kazakhstan funding his travel and coaching, he cracked the top 100 a little more than a year later.A lot of players receive funding when they are young from an individual sponsor who is only in it to get paid back and take his share of the winnings when a player becomes successful, Bublik said last week from his third home, in Monte Carlo.“For him it’s his passion,” said Bublik, who is now ranked 43rd. “It’s a big love from his side.”Utemuratov, who is now a close friend, confidant and mentor of Bublik’s, speaks with Bublik often, though Bublik said the one topic he rarely follows Utemuratov’s advice on is tennis strategy.Despite Rybakina’s recent success, Utemuratov said Kazakhstan no longer actively looks for Russian prospects.Instead, it is more focused on the development of players like Zangar Nurlanuly, who has held the top ranking in his age group in Europe and this year led his teammates to the semifinals of the I.T.F. under-14 World Junior Tennis Finals, a kind of Davis Cup for small fries. Utemuratov joined the team’s courtside celebration after it got through the preliminary round.Utemuratov’s investment is paying off for him outside Kazakhstan’s tennis circles. He is now a vice president of the I.T.F., the sport’s world governing body.The next big step happens this week, as Kazakhstan hosts a Masters 500 tournament, just below the top-level tour events, for the first time, after years of hosting lower-tier competitions. In another first, Utemuratov said the tennis federation did not have to give away tickets to fill the stands. More

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    Federer on His Exit and Holding Nadal’s Hand: ‘It’s Maybe a Secret Thank You’

    In an interview, Roger Federer opens up about the emotions of his goodbye at the Laver Cup and about the future of men’s tennis. “Nobody needs to play like me, by the way,” he said.Roger Federer, newly retired, was back in Switzerland on Monday night after flying home from London, where he wrapped up a whirlwind farewell to his competitive career with one last match at the Laver Cup.He partnered with his friendly rival Rafael Nadal in doubles for Team Europe, losing a close match to Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock of Team World, which also went on to win the Laver Cup for the first time in five attempts.But the defeat was secondary to the occasion — an intense, emotional goodbye for Federer and those surrounding him, including his wife, Mirka, and their four children, plus his friendly rivals Nadal and Novak Djokovic.Federer, 41, established himself long ago as one of the greatest players in tennis history, but after breaking Pete Sampras’s men’s record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles in 2009, he chose to play on for 13 more years. He won five more majors and at age 36 became the oldest men’s No. 1 since the advent of the ATP rankings in 1973.His departure marks the beginning of the end of a golden age in the men’s game in which Nadal, Djokovic and Federer have developed rich and long-running rivalries, lifting each other and their sport. Federer, for all his longevity and tennis genius, now ranks third in the Grand Slam singles titles chase behind Nadal with 22 and Djokovic with 21. I first interviewed Federer in February 2001, in his home city of Basel, Switzerland, when he was still a teenager and had yet to win his first major. On Monday night, we spoke by telephone about the 21 years since and his goodbye to competition:This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.So, how do you feel now that it’s really over?I think I feel complete. I lost my last singles match. I lost my last doubles match. I lost my voice from screaming and supporting the team. I lost the last time as a team. I lost my job, but I’m very happy. I’m good. I’m really good. That’s the ironic part, is everybody thinks about happy fairy-tale endings, you know? And for me, actually it ended up being that but in a way that I never thought was going to happen.Federer partnered with his friendly rival Rafael Nadal in doubles for Team Europe at the Laver Cup.James Hill for The New York TimesRafa Nadal clearly made a big effort to be part of the event on Friday, given his wife’s pregnancy. What did it mean, knowing all that you knew, for him to be there for you for the doubles?I called him after the U.S. Open — I waited for him to finish that tournament — just to let him know about my retirement.Roger Federer’s Farewell to Professional TennisThe Swiss tennis player leaves the game with one of the greatest competitive records in history.An Appraisal: “He has, figuratively and literally, re-embodied men’s tennis, and for the first time in years, the game’s future is unpredictable,” the author David Foster Wallace wrote of Roger Federer in 2006.A Poignant Send-Off: Wimbledon may have been more fitting. But the Laver Cup, which Federer helped create, offered a sensible final act for one of the greatest players of this era.Two Great Rivals: When players retire from individual sports like tennis, their rivalries go with them. Here is a look at some of the best matches that pitted Federer against Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.Tennis After Federer: The Swiss player, along with Nadal and Djokovic, helped define a remarkably durable period in men’s tennis history. Following behind is a new generation of hungry players, ready to muscle their way into the breach.And I just wanted to let him know before he started making some plans without the Laver Cup at all. I told him on the phone that I was probably 50-50 or 60-40 on making the doubles. I told him, “Look, I’ll keep you posted. You let me know how things are at home. And we’ll reconnect.”But it very quickly got clear on the phone, and Rafa told me, “I will try everything I possibly can to be there with you.” And that felt obviously incredible for me. And it showed again how much we mean to one another and how much respect we have. And I just thought it would be just a beautiful, amazing story for us, for sports, for tennis, and maybe beyond that as well, where we can coexist in a tough rivalry and come out on top and show that, hey, again it’s just tennis. Yes, it’s hard, and it’s brutal sometimes, but it’s always fair. And you can come out on the other side and still have this great, friendly rivalry. I just thought it ended up even better than I ever thought it would. So, an incredible effort by Rafa, and I’ll obviously never forget what he did for me in London.Those raw emotions after the match were powerful for a lot of people around the world, particularly the scenes with you and Rafa. Do you think you maybe changed the way people view male athletes?I think I have always had a hard time keeping my emotions in check, winning and losing. In the beginning, it was more about being angry and sad and crying. And then, I was happy-crying about my wins. I think on Friday, this was another animal, to be honest, because I think all of the guys — Andy [Murray], Novak and also Rafa — saw their careers flashing in front of their eyes, knowing that we all in a way have been on borrowed time for long enough already. As you get older, you get into your 30s, you start knowing what you really appreciate in life but also from the sport.Have you seen the photo of you and Rafa sitting on the bench crying and holding hands?I have seen it.“I was sobbing so hard, and, I don’t know, everything was going through my mind about how happy I am to actually experience this moment right there with everybody,” Federer said.Ella Ling/Shutterstock What’s it like to look at that image?Well, I mean, it was a short moment. I think at one point, I was sobbing so hard, and I don’t know, everything was going through my mind about how happy I am to actually experience this moment right there with everybody. And I think that’s what was so beautiful about just sitting there, taking it all in while the music was playing, and the focus was maybe more on her [the singer Ellie Goulding]. So, you almost forgot that you’re still being taken pictures of. I guess at one point, just because obviously I couldn’t speak and the music was there, I guess I just touched him, and I guess it’s maybe a secret thank you. I don’t know what it was, but for me, that’s maybe what it was and how it felt and some pictures came out of it. Different ones. Not just that one but other ones, too, that were just completely crazy, you know, so with different angles, and I hope to get those because they mean a lot to me.That moment when you’re talking to your kids and telling them, I’m not crying because I’m sad. I’m crying because I’m happy. I think any parent could relate to that.I didn’t know that people could hear that. They looked so sad to me, and when I told them I was retiring, also three of them were crying, because they think that I’m sad about it, but I’m truly not. And, of course, a moment like this is so powerful in the arena. It was hard not to cry at some point, and not just hard for them.You dehydrated the world.We’ve got to recharge on those tears.“I ultimately said, look, it’s OK, I accept it. Because I left it all out there. Nothing more to prove,” Federer said.James Hill for The New York TimesYou’ve said, “It’s time to stop. I can feel it.” Is that mostly based on feeling you just can’t move the way you need to move on tour anymore to compete?That’s part of it. It’s also the age, let’s be honest. And going to the very end of it, I don’t see the point. I tried so long the last few years that it’s fine. You know, it’s all good. And you get to a point where, you know, when I did the surgery last year I knew it was going be a long road back. And it was going to take me probably a year.So, of course, in my dream, I saw myself playing again, but I was very realistic about the comeback. Number one, I did it for my personal life. I knew it was the right thing to do: Let’s get this leg fixed and all that. For that, I had to do a proper rehab. If I just retire, I know I will not do my rehab correctly. So, if I stay active and I’m still a professional tennis player, I know I will do it 100 percent right. And I keep the options open to hopefully maybe return to exhibition tennis at least, 250s hopefully, 500s and 1000s if things really go super well. And Grand Slams if, you know, magic happens.As time went by, I could feel less and less chance as the knee was creating problems for me as I was struggling to power through. And that’s when I ultimately said, look, it’s OK, I accept it. Because I left it all out there. Nothing more to prove.You rarely showed it, but what percentage of your matches did you play over the years in some kind of pain?I think we all play sick and hurt. I was always of the impression that I can play through some pain, a lot of pain, like we all have to. But I think I always felt my body very well. I knew when I could power through and when I had to be careful. And I was always of the opinion that I’d rather take the rest at some point: give myself the extra week, the extra day, the extra hour, the extra month, whatever it is, and take it easy, go back to training and then come back strong again. That’s why I tried to avoid any sorts of injections and operations for the longest time until I had to have surgery in 2016.Team World, in red, won the Laver Cup for the first time in five attempts.James Hill for The New York TimesI know you were joking with your teammates in London about your lack of mobility, but are you confident now after playing the doubles that your body will allow you to play exhibition tennis?I have to go back to the drawing board now and just see after this incredible weekend, what I should do next.I think it would be beautiful to somehow have a goodbye exhibition game, you know, and thank the fans, because obviously Laver Cup was already sold out before I knew about retirement. A lot of people would have loved to get more tickets and couldn’t, so I just feel maybe it would be nice to have one more or several goodbye exhibitions, but I’m not sure if I could or I should do that now. But obviously I would love to play exhibitions down the road, take tennis to new places or take it back to fun places where I had a blast.As you step away, do you see anybody out there who plays the game like you do?Not right now. Obviously, it would have to be a guy with a one-handed backhand. Nobody needs to play like me, by the way. People also thought I was going to play like Pete Sampras, and I didn’t. I think everybody needs to be their own version of themselves. And not a copycat, even though copying is the biggest sign of flattery. But I wish all of them to find their own selves, and tennis will be great. I’m sure I’ll always be the No. 1 fan of the game. And I’ll follow, sometimes in the stands, sometimes on TV, but of course, I hope for enough one-handers, enough attacking tennis, enough flair. But I’m going to sit back and relax and watch the game from a different angle.Meanwhile, your rivals play on. You said it was important to retire first as you are the oldest. Were you worried Rafa would beat you to it this spring when he was considering retirement because of his foot problems?I got a scare with Murray, too. I remember vividly when I saw him in the locker room in Australia in 2019 after his Bautista match [referring to Roberto Bautista Agut]. I remember he said, “I might be done.” We were asked to do farewell videos; I had a chance to go. I went up to him and asked him, “Are you like seriously done?” And I remember him telling me, “Well, with this hip, I can’t play anymore.” So, he knew he was at a huge crossroads in his life. But yeah, I’m happy I could go first, because I also am supposed to go first. So, that’s why it’s felt good. And I hope they can all play as long as possible and squeeze that lemon out. I really wish the best for them. More