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    U.S. Open Stars Fall at Indian Wells, Which Struggles to Draw a Crowd

    The tournament, the first major sporting event canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, was moved to October for its return, but attendance is down by half and atmosphere is lacking.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — With no teenagers and no Daniil Medvedev left in the draw, this tournament will definitely not be a repeat of the U.S. Open.Medvedev, so cool and pressure-proof on his way to his first Grand Slam title last month in New York, looked ready to keep rolling on Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Open.He led Grigor Dimitrov by a set and two breaks of serve in the round of 16. But tennis remains an unpredictable game, and the top-seeded Medvedev proceeded to lose his way in the desert sunshine as Dimitrov, playing patiently and boldly at just the right times, reeled off wins in eight straight games and then held firm to finish off the upset, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.“Impossible until possible, I guess,” Dimitrov said in a television interview.But if this is not the U.S. Open, it is not truly the Indian Wells tournament, either. That event, usually held annually in March, has grown in size and stature under its free-spending owner, Larry Ellison, becoming the most popular and prestigious tour stop after the four Grand Slam tournaments and the year-end tour finals.In 2019, 475,000 spectators came to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden during the event’s nearly two-week run, filling up the stadium courts and the upscale restaurants that overlook them. In recent years, the tournament generated an estimated annual economic impact of over $400 million in the greater Palm Springs region.But in March 2020, it became the first major international sports event to be canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The decision, which was ultimately Ellison’s call, turned out to be the correct one. Though there were skeptics when the move was announced just ahead of the qualifying tournament, other leagues and events soon followed as the scope and threat of the pandemic became clearer.“We thought they were nuts at first for calling it off,” Krystal Meier, a longtime fan and tournament attendee from Long Beach, said in an interview last week. “How could anybody have known what was coming?”This year, the BNP Paribas Open was moved from March to October, and though the prize money is roughly the same as in 2019, the star power and atmosphere are not.The tournament was moved from March to October, and attendance is down from 2019, the last year it was played.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesAccording to tournament officials, attendance is on track to be about half of what it was in 2019. The change in date is certainly a factor. Many seasonal residents have yet to arrive in the area, and regulars who made March attendance a tradition were clearly not ready to embrace October.The decision to require vaccination of all spectators may have limited the overall numbers while reassuring some fans. “When we saw everybody was going to be vaccinated, we definitely felt better about coming,” Meier said.But there is still underlying concern about attending mass events and traveling too far from home. More than 87 percent of the spectators in 2019 were from outside the Palm Springs area.Another reason for the smaller crowds is surely the changing of the guard in tennis. The tournament is missing the two biggest stars in the women’s game (Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka) and the three biggest stars in the men’s game (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic).Federer, 40, and Nadal, 35, are recovering from injuries, and they announced the end of their 2020 seasons in August. Djokovic, 34, is resting and recovering after losing to Medvedev in straight sets in last month’s U.S. Open final, a defeat that stopped him just short of becoming the first man to complete a Grand Slam in singles since Rod Laver in 1969.Dominic Thiem, who won the men’s title here in 2019, is also out with an injury. He, like the other high-profile absentees, still has a presence in Indian Wells. In a nod to the obvious, tournament organizers have put life-size images of all of them on a wall behind Stadium 2 featuring the words “We miss you.” It has become a magnet during the event, with fans posing for photographs next to the photographs.Posing next to flesh-and-blood players has been much trickier because of the pandemic restrictions, which have meant a ban on official autograph sessions. (Informal signings have still taken place.)None of the women’s singles quarterfinalists in New York reached the quarterfinals here, with the surprise Open champion Emma Raducanu losing in her opening match to the 100th-ranked Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Emma Raducanu, the U.S. Open champion, lost in her opening-round match at Indian Wells.Ray Acevedo/EPA, via ShutterstockThe far more experienced Medvedev fared better with his bedeviling blend of offense and defense, and he fared very well against Dimitrov until he took a 4-1 lead in the second set.But Dimitrov, the Bulgarian who is seeded No. 23, was opportunistic enough to change the momentum. At 30, he has yet to reach the heights that have seemed his destiny, given his stylish, all-court game. But he remains a dangerous opponent, and after showing flashes of fine form at the San Diego Open the week before Indian Wells, he lifted his game on Wednesday as Medvedev’s dropped.“He definitely flipped the switch,” Medvedev said. “It’s not that I started missing everything and like really playing bad. I still maintained some level, if we can call it like this. In so many matches, it would be enough to finish the match.”Once in the rallies, Dimitrov almost exclusively sliced his single-handed backhand down the stretch and waited — and waited — to take big risks with his forehand. Most of them paid off in the final set, and he took a 5-1 lead as Medvedev expressed displeasure in rare fashion by breaking a racket between his first and second serves (he double faulted) and going on to lose his serve for the sixth time.“That shows how slow this court is, and the conditions are more like clay, I would say, which I don’t like,” Medvedev said.Dimitrov soon lost his serve, too, as he tried to finish off the upset at 5-1, but he did not falter at 5-3, holding at love and thrusting both arms into the air.Though the sky above him was typical Indian Wells — clear and azure — what was happening back on earth remained anything but business as usual. More

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    At Indian Wells Leylah Fernandez Wins and Emma Raducanu Loses

    The teenagers who stunned and delighted fans on their way to the U.S. Open final in September returned to compete at the BNP Paribas Open as headliners.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Nearly a month after Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez faced off in perhaps the most unexpected Grand Slam singles final, they returned to action as headliners.Neither teenager had played in the Indian Wells Tennis Garden until this year, but they were front and center on Friday, anchoring the night-session schedule in their singles debuts at the BNP Paribas Open.Raducanu, the big-surprise U.S. Open champion, was assigned to Stadium 1, the biggest showplace of the tournament. Fernandez, the Open runner-up, was assigned to Stadium 2, the second biggest showplace of the tournament.Both faced older and more experienced opponents. Both had the crowd behind them from the start, even if there were empty seats galore in both stadiums.Canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic and postponed again this year from its customary dates in March, the event is expected to have fewer spectators than usual this October.The scene still looked and sounded familiar on Friday night. The restaurants on site remain largely the same, including the Nobu outlet inside Stadium 2. The rock band that is led by American doubles stars Mike and Bob Bryan performed, as usual, on the main stage.But the Bryans are now retirees after jointly ending their playing career last year, and other major stars are missing from Indian Wells altogether.Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem are out of the men’s tournament. Serena and Venus Williams, and the No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and the No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka are out of the women’s event.But some of the buzz remained as fans showed their proof of vaccination at the entry gates and walked on site to get a look at Raducanu and Fernandez. Only Fernandez, a left-handed Canadian, made the most of the occasion: mixing full-cut groundstrokes with deft backhand drop shots and well-timed excursions to the net to defeat Alizé Cornet 6-2, 6-3.It was a performance brimming with the sort of big-point resolve and all-court sparkle that Fernandez displayed on her way to the final in New York.Sunset over the Stadium 1 court during Raducanu’s match against Sasnovich.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesRaducanu could not make the same smooth transition. Though she won the first six points of her match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich, that was no hint of things to come. The sorts of shots that Raducanu routinely hit for winners during the Open — sharply angled quick-strike returns and swing volleys — often struck the tape or landed just long.Though it initially seemed a pity that her much-anticipated return to competition was taking place in the middle of the night in London, perhaps it was for the best.She did not hide her disappointment during her 6-2, 6-4 defeat, gesticulating and twisting away as the unforced errors piled up. Raducanu offered only a brief and subdued wave to the public as she exited the court after playing for one hour and 25 minutes.“Everyone can beat everyone,” the 100th-ranked Sasnovich concluded.It is hard to argue at this stage in women’s tennis. Raducanu did her part to prove it in New York, becoming the first qualifier in tennis history to win a Grand Slam singles title and doing so without losing a set in only her second major tournament appearance.But she dropped two sets rather quickly to Sasnovich, a 27-year-old Belarusian from Minsk who bolstered her thesis about women’s tennis parity by pointing out that she had lost in the first round of this year’s U.S. Open.“So, a little bit different you see,” she said, comparing her result to Raducanu’s.Their last few weeks have been different as well, with Raducanu making two red-carpet appearances and returning to London as a superstar in need of a police escort from the airport to her home. That came only two months after she finished her high school exams and became a full-time tennis professional.In an interview this week, Raducanu said that the last few weeks had been an “out-of-body experience,” as if she were “watching it happen” to herself.She has made some tough calls, choosing last month not to continue working with the coach Andrew Richardson, a surprising move considering her breakthrough in New York. Raducanu has explained that she wants a coach with more experience at the top of the game. One logical candidate is Carlos Rodriguez, who coached the former No. 1s Justine Henin of Belgium and Li Na of China. Li’s longtime agent is Max Eisenbud, who also represents Raducanu.“I think it’s going to take me time to adjust really to what’s going on,” Raducanu said after Friday’s defeat. “I mean, I’m still so new to everything. Like the experiences that I’m going through right now, even though I might not feel 100 percent amazing right now, I know they’re for the greater good.”Raducanu added: “That’s the lesson I think, that you can easily get sucked into being so focused on the result and getting disappointed. I mean, I’m 18 years old. I need to cut myself some slack.”Though disappointed, Raducanu said she would “cut herself some slack.”Ray Acevedo/EPA, via ShutterstockThat seems wise. Friday’s letdown was not a huge surprise. Sasnovich, like many WTA players, is more dangerous than her ranking suggests. Raducanu is just getting started on tour. The playing conditions in Indian Wells are also far different than in New York where the ball bounces lower and winners are generally easier to produce.But Fernandez managed to thrive in both settings. Her heavy spin, particularly on the forehand side, gives her a greater margin of error. She also may have benefited from playing and winning a doubles match with the American teenager Coco Gauff on Thursday that helped Fernandez adjust to the court speed.Unlike Raducanu, Fernandez has not changed her support team since the Open. Her fitness trainer, Duglas Cordero, sat next to her mother in the stands and frequently jumped to his feet when Fernandez won a point, just as he did in New York. Fernandez even kept her outfit the same, while Raducanu arrived on court in a new, predominately white ensemble.Her rituals have not changed either: practice strokes and jogging in place between points; right fist clenched after success.She had plenty on Friday. She was opportunistic and on target against Cornet, a Frenchwoman who has the baseline skills to extend rallies and matches.“It does give me a lot of confidence, because Alizé, she’s a very tough opponent,” Fernandez said. “She fights for every point. I’ve practiced with her, too. We’ve had some tough practice matches. I knew that today was going to be hard.”The third round should be tougher. Fernandez’s next opponent, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, was in fine form on Friday as she dominated the powerful American Madison Keys.But at least Fernandez has more tennis to play in Indian Wells — perhaps much more tennis. Raducanu, after her first visit to the California desert, must now make the long journey back to Europe to play indoor events and continue the adaptation process.Fernandez and Raducanu will long be linked for their all-teenager, out-of-the-blue final in New York. For now, their paths will diverge. More

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    Budge Patty, Elegant Tennis Champion of the 1950s, Dies at 97

    Known for his style as much as his forehand volley, he was one of only three Americans to win the French and Wimbledon men’s singles in the same year.Budge Patty, one of only three Americans to win the French and Wimbledon men’s singles tennis championships in the same year and a glamorous figure on the international tennis scene of the 1950s, died on Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was 97.The International Tennis Hall of Fame announced his death, in a hospital, on Friday. He had lived in Europe for more than 70 years and at his death resided in Lausanne.Patty honed his skills as a teenager at the Los Angeles Tennis Club and won the United States junior championship in 1941 and ’42. But he settled in Paris after World War II and played mostly on the Continent and in Britain.He was ranked No. 1 in the world in 1950, when he defeated Jaroslav Drobny, the Czech defector, in five sets to win the French championships, then needed only four sets to defeat Frank Sedgman of Australia in the Wimbledon final. Don Budge, in 1938, and Tony Trabert, in 1955, are the only other American men to have won the singles titles at both of those Grand Slam tournaments in one year. (Trabert died in February at 90.)Known for an outstanding all-around game but especially for a strong forehand volley, Patty was usually in the top 10 in the world rankings between 1947 and 1957 and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., in 1977.But he played sporadically in the United States Nationals at Forest Hills, Queens, never advancing beyond the quarterfinals in singles, and he did not compete in the Australian championships.Patty with Frank Sedgman of Australia after defeating him in the men’s finals at Wimbledon in 1950. His “perfect manners and exquisite tennis style made him a Wimbledon idol for 15 years,” one author wrote. Associated PressPatty was almost invariably described as handsome, elegant and a fashionable dresser. In late July 1950, anticipating Patty’s appearance at Forest Hills in a quest for a third major triumph that year, Allison Danzig, the longtime tennis writer of The New York Times, noted how Gussie Moran had created a sensation wearing a short skirt and lace-trimmed underwear at Wimbledon. “Now men’s tennis has its glamour boy,” he wrote.“Budge Patty has had them swooning on the French Riviera these past few years,” Danzig continued, adding, “It wasn’t fair, that anyone so tall and handsome, with that je ne sais quoi which defies translation but compels capitulation, should spend all of his time on the Continent when he had a good home in California.”But any fans at Forest Hills inclined to swoon over Patty were disappointed. He hurt his ankle playing doubles at Newport in mid-August and was unable to compete in the United States Nationals later that summer.John Edward Patty was born on Feb. 11, 1924, in Fort Smith, Ark. His family moved to the Los Angeles area when he was young.According to the Hall of Fame, he got his nickname when a brother, considering him lazy, called him Budge to make the point that he often failed to do just that.After winning two junior championships, Patty entered the Army Air Forces during World War II. He captured the singles championship at a tournament held for Allied servicemen on the French Riviera in September 1945. Three years later, he made Paris his home.He had a French-born grandmother and an Austrian grandfather, and once remarked how “even as a child I knew I’d like Europe.”Budge attended the 2016 French Open in Paris with his wife, Maria, whom he married in 1961.Henri Szwarc/Sipa, via Associated PressPatty teamed with Pauline Betz to win the 1946 mixed doubles in the French championships and then lost to Frank Parker in the 1949 French singles final before capturing it the following year.He played in every French and Wimbledon tournament from 1946 to 1960. “Budge Patty’s perfect manners and exquisite tennis style made him a Wimbledon idol for 15 years,” E. Digby Baltzell wrote in his book “Sporting Gentlemen” (1995).His most memorable match was a marathon duel with Drobny in the third round of the 1953 Wimbledon championships.Lasting nearly four and a half hours over five sets and 93 games, it ended past 9 p.m. in the fading light when Patty succumbed after squandering six match points.“I could hardly see a thing, and I was so tired I barely knew where I was,” he told the British newspaper The Telegraph in 2000, recalling the final moments.At age 33, Patty teamed with 43-year-old Gardnar Mulloy to win the 1957 Wimbledon men’s doubles championship, stunning the Australians Lew Hoad and Neale Fraser, who were in their early 20s.Remaining an amateur for his entire career, Patty won 46 singles championships.He married Maria Marcina Sfezzo, the daughter of a Brazilian engineering magnate, in 1961. She survives him along with two daughters, Christine and Elaine Patty.In an interview with The Times in 1958, Patty, at the time playing four or five months a year while working for a Paris travel agency and enjoying life in Europe, said he did not expect to compete into his 40s.World-class players who did so had never “smoked, drank or gone to bed later than 10 o’clock,” he said. “Me, I’ve preferred to enjoy life.”But 50 years after his double triumph in Grand Slam tournaments, Patty bristled at how he had been depicted in the sports pages.“Tennis players then are like tennis players now,” he told The Telegraph in 2000. “If they see someone wearing a tie, they think he’s strange. It was like, ‘Wow, Budge is wearing a tailored jacket — he must be a secret agent.’ It was ridiculous. I never took any notice.”Alex Traub contributed reporting. More

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    Emma Raducanu, After U.S. Open Win, Keeps Her Feet on the Ground

    The 18-year-old returns to the court at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., as a headliner, richer and more famous. She still needed a wild card.It is a truth that should be universally acknowledged: Your life will not be the same after you win the U.S. Open as a little-known qualifier at age 18.Emma Raducanu has noticed the changes: a hitting session with the Duchess of Cambridge and red-carpet appearances at the Met Gala and at the premiere of the new James Bond film “No Time to Die” at Royal Albert Hall in London.There are more funds in her bank account (and plenty more on the way). There are wide-eyed looks from people she meets day to day.But not everything has been transformed.“My parents didn’t make a big deal out of it at all,” Raducanu said when we spoke this week. “When I’ve been at home, everything has felt really normal. The Bond premiere, playing tennis with the Duchess and the Gala, I love those experiences, but at the same time I mean when I got back onto the training court, it was like this is where I really wanted to be.”Raducanu will be back on a stadium court on Friday night as she makes her return to competition in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., against a tough opponent in Aliaksandra Sasnovich, an unseeded 27-year-old Belarusian once ranked in the top 30. It will be Raducanu’s debut at Indian Wells and her first match since her fact-beats-fiction run in New York, where on Sept. 12 she became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam singles title.More remarkable still, she did not lose a set in 10 matches, proving impervious to the pressure as she limited her social-media use off court and stuck with her aggressive game plan on court by attacking returns and groundstrokes and hitting serves on the lines.Raducanu plays quietly with no grunts, few shouts and smooth footwork. But her shots are explosive, and she now has much of the world’s attention after playing in just two Grand Slam tournaments. She is also without a coach after splitting with Andrew Richardson, who was on a short-term contract when she won the Open.“I feel the good thing is I’ve still got so much room to improve, and I won a Grand Slam,” she said. “It hasn’t really sunk in. I don’t know if it ever will, but I feel like now instead of feeling I’ve got a lot of pressure I feel like free, like loose. Because you play tennis to win a Grand Slam, and I won a Grand Slam so now it’s just a bonus.”Raducanu has a point. Talented players, like the third-ranked Karolina Pliskova, 29, who became an elite professional player in her teens, are still chasing a first major title. That quest brings its own pressures, but quick and unexpected success comes with its own set of challenges.Max Eisenbud, Raducanu’s agent, was also Maria Sharapova’s agent when she became a global star in 2004 by winning Wimbledon at age 17.“The difference between Maria winning Wimbledon and Emma winning the U.S. Open really comes down to social media,” Eisenbud said. “There was no social media in ’04. The social media just made things move so fast this time. It’s just in warp speed.”The response to Raducanu’s victory, be it from the Queen of England or Chinese officials, was global, immediate and quantifiable. Raducanu had about 10,000 Instagram followers in June. She had more than two million after winning the U.S. Open.“Yeah, I know, it’s crazy,” Raducanu said, sounding sheepish. “It doesn’t feel real numbers, but I’m happy and really grateful that anyone wants to actually, like, follow me. I don’t think I’m that interesting, but it’s pretty cool.”Sponsors certainly find her intriguing. Shortly after her victory in New York, she became a global ambassador for Tiffany & Company, the luxury jewelry brand, but Eisenbud said the deal was agreed to before the Open, after her surprise run to the fourth round of Wimbledon in July.Her stock has now soared rather higher. “The iron’s hot,” Eisenbud said. “We’re striking.”Raducanu celebrates with the trophy after winning the U.S. Open in September.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesRaducanu is hardly the first young player to win a Grand Slam tournament in this egalitarian era in women’s tennis. Jelena Ostapenko and Naomi Osaka were 20 when they won their first majors. Bianca Andreescu was 19 when she won the 2019 U.S. Open, and she won it, like Raducanu, in her main-draw debut in New York.Andreescu, a Canadian, has played little since that victory because of injuries and is now ranked 21st as she returns to Indian Wells to defend the title she won in 2019.Andreescu was asked this week what advice she would give to teenagers like Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez, the Canadian 19-year-old whom Raducanu beat in that highly unlikely Open final.“The advice I would give is always to remain grateful even if you are having the hugest success, because it can all be taken away from you in a split second,” Andreescu said. “I feel I didn’t savor it as much.” She added, “Just stay humble, remain grateful and continue to work hard because everyone says at least in my experience it’s easy to get to the top but staying at the top is what is the hardest part.”There is no shortage of candidates for the top in women’s tennis, where 14 different players have won major singles titles in the last five seasons. But as a Canadian-born Briton with a mother from China and a father from Romania, Raducanu seems well equipped for global stardom.Eisenbud, who also represents the retired Chinese tennis star Li Na, understands the commercial opportunities for an athlete able to communicate with the Chinese public. Raducanu recorded a video message in Mandarin after winning in New York and recorded another message in Romanian ahead of her scheduled appearance at the Transylvanian Open later this month.Raducanu, who does not consider herself fully fluent in either language, said she often speaks Mandarin with her mother. “I’d say it’s like 50-50,” she said. “Just because sometimes it’s like secret language, and it’s actually very helpful.”She said she does not speak Romanian with her father. “But I have to speak Romanian with my grandma, because she doesn’t speak any English,” Raducanu said.Raducanu will headline a night session this week in Indian Wells, Calif.Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today Sports, via ReutersUnlike many tennis stars, who are often home-schooled from an early age, Raducanu attended high school in Britain, completing her final exams this summer before embarking on a full-time professional career.“I hope that part of the story can get out there,” Eisenbud said. “Because there are so many families out there who are taking their kids out of normal school and being home-schooled that have no chance to play pro tennis, and I think it’s pretty sad. It’s everywhere you turn, and I think kids being home-schooled, you lose a lot of the social aspects and all these other things.”Raducanu certainly has an opportunity to influence her peers. While Coco Gauff, the 17-year-old American player, and Osaka have used their platforms to speak out on social justice, Raducanu told me she is more interested at this stage in promoting an active lifestyle than in political activism.“I’m really passionate about helping younger kids get into sport, especially young girls, because I think sport taught me so much and gave me amazing opportunities,” she said. “The confidence I have now, I don’t think I would have if I didn’t play sport.”She recognizes that she and her family are an immigrant success story at a time when immigration is being curtailed in Britain and other developed nations. But she does not want to be a spokesperson on such an issue at this stage.“I think that’s for a later time,” she said. “I feel I’m still quite young. I just want to focus on the things I really feel a strong connection with as of now, but maybe when I grow older, then I’ll develop more different insights.”As of now, her development as a tennis player is simply astounding. She needed a wild card to get into the Indian Wells tournament because the date of entry came before the U.S. Open. Her ranking was too low at that stage, but so much has changed so quickly. She is seeded 17th and will make her debut on the main stadium court as a night session headliner.“That’s crazy, because I was just scraping the qualifying acceptance list,” she said with a laugh. “And to be seeded I just can’t believe it. I never thought my ranking would be this high so soon. It’s just an amazing thing to see, and I’m really proud of myself.”Raducanu has become a celebrity in the aftermath of her U.S. Open win.Clive Brunskill/Getty Images More

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    Alexander Zverev Under ATP Investigation Into Domestic Abuse Allegations

    The German tennis star has denied he abused Olya Sharypova during a series of physical altercations she says took place in 2019.After months of delay and complaints from players and tennis officials, the men’s professional tennis tour announced Monday that it would investigate Alexander Zverev after accusations of domestic abuse made by a former girlfriend.Zverev, 24, a rising star from Germany ranked fourth in the world in men’s singles, has strongly denied accusations that he was violent with Olya Sharypova during a series of physical altercations, and did so again in a statement on Monday. Sharypova, a Russian national, has not filed any criminal charges over the incidents, which, she said, took place in 2019. The two began dating when they were teenagers, but the relationship ended more than a year ago.Ahead of the U.S. Open, Zverev sought an injunction in court in Germany to prevent further reporting on the allegations by Slate, which had published a lengthy article on them by Ben Rothenberg, a freelance tennis writer who sometimes writes for The New York Times. The court granted the injunction, and Zverev pointed to it as a confirmation of his innocence.While the court stopped short of that, it agreed with his argument that the evidence presented in the article was not sufficient under German law to justify the impact on him. The decision stated that such an article needed to have enough balance so that it did not leave the impression that Zverev was guilty of the acts Sharypova accused him of committing. Slate has continued to stand by the reporting in the story and has not removed it from its site.Multiple players have said the ATP needs to address the Zverev situation directly and change its policies about domestic violence allegations.In his statement on Monday, Zverev said: “I have always been in full support of the creation of an ATP domestic violence policy. Moreover, I welcome the ATP investigation in the matter and have been asking the ATP to initiate an independent investigation for months.”Andy Murray, a former world No. 1, has complained several times this year about how he felt the ATP was dragging its feet on the issue, long after several North American sports leagues changed their policies to allow players who are the subject of domestic violence allegations to be suspended.“Obviously it was something that needed to change in terms of how some of the situations have been handled, I think, this year,” Murray said after the ATP said it would consider changing its policy. “I just didn’t really feel like the sport had much of a sort of stance on it, really.”On Monday, the ATP said it fully condemned any form of violence or abuse and would investigate such allegations related to conduct at an ATP member tournament.Massimo Calvelli, chief executive of the ATP, called the allegations against Zverev “serious.”“We have a responsibility to address them,” Calvelli said in a statement. “We hope our investigation will allow us to establish the facts and determine appropriate follow-up action.”The ATP announced in August that an independent panel would review and make recommendations for changes to its policies regarding player conduct, including those players who are the subject of abuse allegations.Zverev has suggested he will cooperate with an investigation, but it is not clear what form that cooperation will take. The ATP has until now not had any clear rules for investigating and taking action against players who are the subject of domestic abuse allegations before the matters are adjudicated in a court of law.Sharypova has said she has no intentions of filing charges or a suit against Zverev for the altercations, which allegedly took place in the United States, China and Switzerland while Zverev was competing.Zverev is scheduled to play at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., this week and is planning to play at the ATP Tour Finals in Italy next month.Since the allegations, Zverev has parted ways with his agents at Team8, the agency founded by Roger Federer and his agent Tony Godsick, though he did participate last month in Federer’s tournament, the Laver Cup. Zverev’s main sponsors include Adidas and Rolex, which so far have stuck by him despite the allegations. More

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    Pro Tennis Finds New Cities to Play In, but Will It Return?

    The pandemic caused many tennis events to be canceled or rescheduled. It also created opportunities for U.S. cities to throw one together.SAN DIEGO — The small tennis stadium was packed and in full roar as Daniel Vallverdú watched Casper Ruud and Grigor Dimitrov trade blows and breaks of serve on Saturday.“Five weeks, we did it all in five weeks,” said Vallverdú, the managing director of the inaugural, and perhaps final, San Diego Open.Despite the planes that droned overhead, the new tournament did not have much runway: about a month to secure temporary stands and sponsors and then stage an ATP 250 event. These remain extraordinary times for sports and those who attempt to organize them.The coronavirus pandemic has created upheaval on the tennis tour, canceling tournaments like Wimbledon in 2020 and forcing many events to be rescheduled. But the situation has also generated unexpected opportunity for American cities that would normally have been unable to find a slot on a packed international calendar.Chicago, once a regular stop on the women’s tour, has staged two new WTA events since August. San Diego, a city with a rich tennis culture, made its debut on the ATP Tour.“It was one of those things where we were in the right place at the right time,” said Bill Kellogg, one of the San Diego Open’s organizers. “We happened to be in a spot where we could say yes when they asked if we could do it with the China circuit caving in. I know guys that had been trying to get ATP tournaments for years and years and had no luck whatsoever.”When 2021 tournaments in Asia were canceled because of the pandemic, the men’s tour had vacant space to fill ahead of the BNP Paribas Open tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., a prestigious 12-day event that had been moved from March to October because of the pandemic.Vallverdú, a former player who has coached top players like Andy Murray and Dimitrov, knew there might be an opportunity in nearby San Diego with its nearly perfect weather and no tour-level event.Most ATP tournaments hold “sanctions” that guarantee their spot on the tour and that can be sold, just as N.F.L. franchises can be sold. But the ATP Tour has been offering one-year licenses during the pandemic to make up for lost playing opportunities. Thirteen tournaments have operated on these one-year licenses in 2020 and 2021.Vallverdú contacted his friend Ryan Redondo, the new executive director at the Barnes Tennis Center, a public facility with 25 outdoor courts that is a hub for the junior game.Redondo, once an all-American tennis player at San Diego State, knew the power of big events firsthand. At age 5, when he attended a 1989 Davis Cup match between France and the United States in San Diego, the playful French star Henri Leconte brought Redondo onto the court for a hit when John McEnroe took a bathroom break.“Part of my strategic plan and vision was we should have every level of tournament possible here at the Barnes Center, from red ball events for 3-year-olds to ATP and WTA events,” Redondo said. “We need all of that to inspire the kids.”He spoke with two potential benefactors, Kellogg and Jack McGrory, who thought Redondo had to be talking about 2022, not 2021. But they quickly agreed to become the still-notional tournament’s co-sponsors.“We said yes in 24 hours, and we had no idea what we were getting into,” McGrory said. “It was much more complicated than we expected.”McGrory said they got the initial funding for the tournament with a $100,000 grant and $200,000 loan from the Southern California Tennis Association Foundation, of which Kellogg is president. McGrory said they were able to raise $850,000 in sponsorships and contributions and another $800,000 from tickets and concessions. The ATP contributed the prize money of more than $600,000.“We’re going to be able to pay off the loan and put some money back into the Barnes Center,” McGrory said.The tournament, with its modest stadium court expanded to 2,000 seats, was sold out for its last four days. Above all, there was a fine field with Murray, a former No. 1, and eight top-20 players: a lineup worthy of a higher-level event than an ATP 250. The proximity to Indian Wells was a big factor in the elite players’ participation, and the winner turned out to be the 10th-ranked Ruud, a Norwegian who has won five titles in his breakout season.But it remains uncertain, even unlikely, that Ruud will be able to defend his title in San Diego. A one-year license provides no guarantee that the tournament will return to the city. What it does provide is a chance to showcase a new venue.“I have a lot of titles to defend next year, and I know four of them will be played next year and for this one we will have to see,” Ruud said on Sunday as he cooled down on an exercise bike after his 6-0, 6-2 demolition of Cameron Norrie in the final. “It’s obviously tough. The ATP is hosting over 60 events a year and all over the planet, so it’s not easy to find a week to fit in. This year, San Diego was able to do this in five weeks, so I see no reason why they couldn’t do it again, and I hope they will do it again not just because I won but it was a great city and great weather. These are perfect conditions for us to play in. It’s not too hot, not too humid and great atmosphere.”San Diego has produced some fine tennis players. Maureen Connolly, who was known as Little Mo, dominated the women’s game in the early 1950s, achieving a Grand Slam by winning all four major singles titles in 1953. Karen Susman won the Wimbledon women’s singles title in 1962. Kelly Jones was ranked No. 1 in the world in men’s doubles in 1992. Recently, CoCo Vandeweghe broke into the women’s top 10 in 2018 and Taylor Fritz reached No. 24 in the ATP singles rankings last year, becoming the top-ranked American man. Brandon Nakashima, ranked 79th at age 20, is one of the most promising American men’s prospects.But there has never been a main ATP Tour event in San Diego until now, and there has been no tour-level event in San Diego County since the women’s tournament in Carlsbad moved to China in 2014.The United States, once the mainstay of the men’s and women’s tours, has steadily lost tournaments to Asia and Europe. In recent years, the Indian Wells event has been the only ATP event in California, and none of the biggest West Coast cities have had a regular men’s tour event.The decline of American tennis has played a role, particularly the decline of American men’s tennis, but the shift also reflects the more global nature of the sport and the new economic strength of Asia.The pandemic, however, has canceled most Asian events for the last two years, a particularly big blow to the women’s tour, which had moved its year-end championships and much of its late-season lineup to China. The Shanghai Open, one of the top events on the men’s tour, also was canceled in 2020 and 2021.It remains unclear what approach China will take going forward, just as it remains unclear whether the San Diego Open was a one-off or the first chapter of a long-running tennis story.But the tournament certainly got the ATP’s attention. Ross Hutchins, the ATP’s chief tour officer, was initially intending to travel straight to Indian Wells from Europe. Instead, after hearing about the buzz at the Barnes Center, he moved up his travel plans and came to San Diego to observe and meet with the tournament’s team.“It’s a huge credit to them and the tournament how they not only embraced the concept but how they delivered,” Hutchins said Sunday. “And to do it in five weeks and to have the outcome they delivered is phenomenal.”Potential options for San Diego include buying another tournament’s sanction, persuading the ATP to break longstanding policy and create a new sanction, or negotiating another one-year license.Nothing is guaranteed, but McGrory sounded confident at Sunday’s awards ceremony as he turned to the finalists.“This is not going to be their last time here,” he said. More

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    Laver Cup: Team Europe Wins Fourth Straight Title

    After Europe’s fourth straight win, an organizer promised Team World would win “at some point.” He didn’t say when.BOSTON — After three down-to-the-wire editions, the Laver Cup finally came up short of drama.It happens, and considering European players’ long-running dominance of men’s tennis, it is frankly more surprising that the first three Laver Cups were suspense magnets than that this year’s edition was a disappointing blowout.Even without the stars who make up the Big Three in men’s tennis — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — Team Europe had nothing but top 10 players in its six-man squad in Boston. Its opponent, Team World, did not have any, and it showed in the final score, 14-1, which was by far the most lopsided in the event’s brief history.Despite all the careful planning and big investment in this team competition, the bottom line is that Team Europe and Bjorn Borg, its captain, have won every Laver Cup. They have an excellent chance of remaining undefeated in London next year and beyond considering the youth and talent of rising stars like the 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev, his Russian countryman Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece and Alexander Zverev of Germany.That competitive imbalance is potentially a big problem for the Laver Cup, the international team event created by Federer and his management company Team8 in 2017.“I think a Team World win would be good for everyone,” said John McEnroe, Team World’s captain. “I think the event needs it. I was wondering why Russia was part of Europe. I don’t think it is, but that’s just me.”One cannot blame McEnroe for thinking creatively, even desperately, at this stage. Unfortunately for McEnroe, much of Russia is indeed in continental Europe, and the country traditionally takes part in European sporting competitions. Even if eastern Russia is in Asia, Medvedev and the Russians will remain part of Team Europe, according to Tony Godsick, the Laver Cup’s chief executive.“We won’t make the change,” Godsick said Sunday night. “We’re not going to adjust this thing. It will be cyclical. I promise you, the world team will win at some point.”The Laver Cup, with its three-day format and blue and red color scheme for team uniforms, was modeled after golf’s venerable and successful Ryder Cup, and certainly took the modeling too far this time by being played in the same country on the same weekend.That was not to the upstart tennis competition’s benefit, even though the crowds and the atmosphere were terrific in Boston. A search of “Cup” on Google news on Sunday night produced a top-10 that was all Ryder Cup results from Whistling Straits.Godsick said the scheduling overlap was not intentional. Both events were postponed in 2020, and he said that the Laver Cup has a designated week on the tennis schedule that could not be changed.The Ryder Cup, which was first contested in 1927 in Worcester, Mass., had to evolve to become a major event and commercial juggernaut. Originally a competition between the United States and Britain, it only became a runaway success after players from other European nations joined the British team in 1979.But if the Russians are remaining part of Team Europe in the Laver Cup, not much other tinkering can be done in the geography department. Team World already is open to every non-European nation and had players this year from Argentina (Diego Schwartzman), Australia (Nick Kyrgios), Canada (Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime) and the United States (Reilly Opelka and John Isner).For now, McEnroe is 0-4 as its captain, and his Laver Cup rivalry with his old friend Borg has not been nearly as balanced as their rivalry when they were playing classic Grand Slam finals in the 1980s.“I normally do like you,” the gray-haired McEnroe said to the gray-haired Borg on Sunday at the awards ceremony in the TD Garden. “I hate your guts right now.”McEnroe was only half kidding. Arms folded in his courtside chair, he looked like a man experiencing indigestion for much of this long weekend.Technically, the Laver Cup is an exhibition. It offers no ranking points even though it is a sanctioned ATP Tour event.But the captains and the players have never treated it as an exhibition, and Team World’s failure to compete in Boston was certainly not linked to a failure to care. Their expressions were often anguished and their body language often tense as they lost critical point after critical point, usually in the match tiebreakers that substitute for third sets.“It’s not an exhibition,” Opelka said. “If this was an exhibition, it would not have been 14-1. I can guarantee you that.”Opelka, a towering and bearded player at 6-foot-11 who lost both his matches in his Laver Cup debut, confessed that he had been skeptical until he experienced the event himself this year.“It looked too good to be true,” he said of the close finishes in 2017, 2018 and 2019. “And then I got here, and the way Johnny Mac started speaking about it changed everything. He’s a true legend. That was priceless being able to spend time with him.”The Laver Cup’s capacity to bring together tennis’s past and present stars for meaningful exchanges is one of its strengths. So is its format, in which victories are worth one point on the first day, two points on the second and three points on the third. That was intended to prevent a meaningless final day. But while four matches were scheduled on Sunday, Europe clinched victory after only one, with Zverev and Rublev defeating Opelka and Shapovalov, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 10-3. It was yet another close match that went Europe’s way. It was also a potentially edgy one.After Zverev lost in doubles on Friday night with Matteo Berrettini, McEnroe said that Zverev told him that would be the last match Team World was going to win. McEnroe later acknowledged that Zverev was teasing, but McEnroe said he was eager for “bulletin-board material.”After McEnroe informed his team of the comment on Friday, the response was predictably bellicose and Opelka responded with: “He also said he’s innocent.” That was an apparent reference to published allegations of domestic violence from Zverev’s former girlfriend, Olya Sharypova.Alexander Zverev was on court for the decisive point in the Laver Cup for the third straight iteration of the competition. Adam Glanzman/Getty Images For Laver CupSharypova has not filed criminal charges against Zverev over the incidents, which she told the publication Slate occurred in 2019. Zverev has repeatedly denied abusing Sharypova and has continued to play on the ATP Tour, winning the Olympic gold medal in singles in Tokyo and reaching the semifinals of the U.S. Open earlier this month before competing in the Laver Cup.On Sunday night, Laver Cup organizers announced before Team World’s final news conference that the team would field only “tennis-related questions.” In a separate interview, Opelka later declined to speak about Zverev.The ATP Tour announced earlier this year that it would review its approach to handling players who are accused of domestic abuse or sexual misconduct. It currently has no formal policy.Zverev turned out to be correct, though, that the Friday’s doubles win would be Team World’s last victory in Boston. His victory on Sunday with the hard-hitting Rublev marked the third straight time that Zverev has won the decisive point in the Laver Cup.He looked very much like Team Europe’s new leader in Boston on the court and in the post-match interviews. Though Federer made the trip to Boston, he did so only as a spectator and cheerleader, navigating the TD Garden on crutches after knee surgery in August.At age 40, it is unclear when or if he will return to the tour, but what is clear is that this European team was still unstoppable without him or the other members of the Big Three: Nadal and Djokovic.Carrying the Laver Cup forward without that superstar power will be a much bigger challenge.“I’m definitely not worried about the event’s future,” Godsick said. “Tennis always produces new superstars. It always has, and it always will. There are new people holding up Grand Slam trophies. You see it coming now. If anything, I think we were lucky to be able to launch it in the era of such incredible tennis players.” More

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    Roger Federer’s Deep Passion for the Laver Cup

    He helped create it in 2017 and plans to stay involved after he retires.Roger Federer has always been a student of tennis. While still a teenager more than 20 years ago, Federer was interested in who the sport’s great historical figures were, what they won and how they styled their strokes.Federer latched on to Rod Laver of Australia, who is the only tennis player to win the Grand Slam — Wimbledon and the Australian, French and United States championships — twice, in 1962 and 1969. Federer’s own play is reminiscent of Laver’s with graceful groundstrokes followed by explosive but perfectly timed forays to the net.It was with a nod to Laver that in 2017 Federer helped create the Laver Cup, an exhibition team competition featuring six top male players from Europe facing off against six from the rest of the world. The event has been held in Prague, Chicago and Geneva. After a year’s hiatus because of the pandemic, it will be held Friday to Sunday at TD Garden in Boston.“In our sport, we don’t have enough of a platform for former great players, legends of the game,” said Federer by telephone from his home in Switzerland, where is rehabilitating from surgery on his right knee that forced him to miss the U.S. Open. “If you look at golf, they have a wonderful way of going about it. Former players are always around, always welcome and always advising the younger ones. Having an event like the Laver Cup is a way to shine a light on the legends like Rod Laver and many, many others who paved the way for us.”Federer, together with his longtime agent Tony Godsick, has done his part to link some of the best in the game, past and present, through the Laver Cup. His two captains are Bjorn Borg, winner of five straight Wimbledons and six French Open titles, and John McEnroe, who won the U.S. Open four times, and three Wimbledon championships. The vice captains are McEnroe’s younger brother Patrick, an Australian Open semifinalist in 1991, and Borg’s Swedish compatriot and former world No. 4 Thomas Enqvist.Borg’s European team has six players ranked in the top 10. They are No. 2 Daniil Medvedev, who won the U.S. Open this month, defeating Novak Djokovic; No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas; No. 4 Alexander Zverev; No. 5 Andrey Rublev; No. 7 Matteo Berrettini; and No. 10 Casper Ruud.McEnroe’s Team World has No. 11 Felix Auger-Aliassime, No. 12 Denis Shapovalov, No. 15 Diego Schwartzman, No. 19 Reilly Opelka, No. 22 John Isner and No. 95 Nick Kyrgios. All of them take turns competing in 12 singles and doubles matches in day and evening sessions throughout the weekend.Opelka is playing the Laver Cup for the first time. He has wanted to play for a long time.“The Laver Cup is the Laver Cup,” said Opelka, who reached the round of 16 at the U.S. Open. “They’ve capitalized on everything. They’ve built the dream event. Who wouldn’t want to be there? Anything that Rod Laver has his name on, Federer has his name on, it’s a huge honor.”Federer with Rod Laver at the 2018 Laver Cup.Stacy Revere/Getty Images While it appears on paper that Team Europe, with the more highly ranked competitors, has an advantage, the format of the event is a great equalizer. There are singles and doubles matches, and point totals are cumulative with one point awarded for each win on the first day, two points on the second and three points on the third. Players on the winning team, the first to 13 points, each receive $250,000 in addition to appearance fees that are based on a player’s ranking.In 2017, Federer beat Kyrgios 11-9 in a match tiebreaker to seal the win for Team Europe. Then two years ago, the European team won for the third straight year when the world team led going into the last two matches, but then Federer beat Isner 6-4, 7-6 (3) and Zverev knocked off Milos Raonic in the final match 6-4, 3-6, 10-4. At Laver Cup, a super tiebreaker is played in lieu of a third set.This year, Federer is unable to play. Also absent are Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem, both of whom are injured. Djokovic, who represented Europe in 2018, declined to participate.“Obviously we’re missing the top three guys, but our team is one of the strongest I think we’ve ever had,” said Zverev, who, along with Isner and Kyrgios, are four-time Laver Cup competitors. “We have all the young gun generation guys, which is great to see. Everybody is very motivated. It’s going to be a fun, entertaining week for all of us.”In a business sense, it is hard to argue with having so many top players facing off in multiple matches over three days.“We knew from the beginning that this event would be a success,” Godsick said. “The secret sauce is the format. It just works because so many matches come down to the wire, or what we call the Laver Breaker. It makes it more interesting for the players. There’s more peer pressure when you’re playing against your biggest rivals while your other rivals are cheering you on.”Federer, left, and Nadal playing doubles against Sock and Sam Querrey at the 2017 Laver Cup.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesFederer has been intrinsically involved with Laver Cup from its inception. He fretted in Prague the first year when he was not sure that fans would show up for the first match at 11 a.m. (the arena ended up being packed). He worried when Nadal hurt himself and pulled out on the last day in Geneva in 2019 and then had to deal with an irate John McEnroe, who wanted to make his own last-minute player substitutions. But mostly he had fun when he got to play doubles with Nadal for the only time in their careers.“Of course, the doubles with Rafa was truly special because there was so much hype that came before it,” Federer said of the match in Prague in 2017. They beat the Americans Jack Sock and Sam Querrey 6-4, 1-6, 10-5.For Federer, the real allure of the Laver Cup is the camaraderie among players, who usually stare at each other across the net rather than sit side by side on comfortable benches. Even as his playing days wind down, Federer is sure he will continue to support the event.“I definitely see myself being involved,” he said. “I’d love to be the captain one day. I think it’s a beautiful way of getting the rivals to coexist for a week together. It really is truly fun and cool to share the locker room with these guys who you usually share it with, but don’t talk tactics and see how everybody prepares and actually support one another. Normally you don’t cheer against each other, but you don’t really mind if they win or lose. This time it’s very different.”And as for having the game’s past champions, including the 83-year-old Laver, attend each year, that is what Federer wants.“This event is a get-together,” Federer said. “That’s what I wanted it to be. It’s the wisdom, the stories, having legends tell stories to the younger generation. I’m happy being on those teams, listening to Bjorn, seeing John, seeing Rocket [Laver] and watching the youngsters learn from the elders. It’s passing down the wisdom.” More