Tennis

Andy Murray has made an art form out of playing on the edge and counterpunching his way out of danger. That talent was on full display Tuesday at the United States Open, as Murray flirted with elimination all afternoon and somehow pulled out a win following a nearly five-hour match with Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-4.“I’m tired,” Murray said during his on-court interview when the four hour, 39-minute match was over. “My toes are the worst.”Getting into a marathon slugfest with Nishioka was a terrible idea for Murray, who is still early in his singles comeback from hip replacement surgery. He had little choice though.Nishioka, 24, is a steady baseliner who, though just 5-foot-7 can puzzle opponents with both his relentlessness and ability to mix-up his shots. In other words, a smaller and, so far, less effective version of Murray, but with two healthy hips.Coming back from a career-threatening injury as Murray is trying to do is always a fraught and risky endeavor. That is especially the case right now, with the coronavirus pandemic disrupting tennis and so many sports.Normally, Murray would play a series of smaller tournaments to sharpen his game against lesser competition, gain rankings points and then hopefully a seed at a major tournament. Being seeded would protect him from top opponents for a round or two.But with the tennis world on hiatus from March until August, there was little opportunity for Murray to play himself into Grand Slam form. The challenge of long, withering matches was going to come quickly. Was he still fast enough to cover the court? Could he last five sets after so much time away from Grand Slam tennis?The early answers — yes, and yes, at least against the No. 49 player in the world. This was Murray being so Murray, carrying on that high-volume dialogue with himself throughout, spraying flat back hands and topspin lobs and the soft drop shots that once carried him to the world No. 1 ranking.Murray played from behind nearly all afternoon, dropping the first two sets and then going down a break early in the third as he struggled to find his rhythm and beat so many forehands into the middle of the net.He said he started out too tentative, then overcompensated by taking too many chances. He popped a string during one crucial point and couldn’t figure out how to break Nishioka’s relatively soft serve, which averages less than 100 miles per hour. But then he somehow worked his way into a third-set tiebreaker, chasing down drop shots and even bending a forehand around the side of the net.He survived the first tiebreaker just barely, and when he did he let out a primal scream, trying to will a higher level of play out of his 6-foot-3-inch frame.Crowds are hard to come by at the U.S. Open this year, but Murray managed to attract one. As the fourth set moved into the later stages and especially in the tiebreaker, players began appearing in the seats of Arthur Ashe Stadium. Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1, popped out of his luxury suite, one which he and all seeded players here each were assigned to take in any action during their downtime. Amanda Anisimova, the 19-year-old American who won her first-round match earlier Tuesday, took a seat in the lower bowl.Murray beat back a match point for Nishioka in the fourth set, and when he prevailed in the fourth-set tiebreaker, his fellow players filled the 22,000-seat stadium with applause, or at least tried their best.“It’s rare you have lots of players watching your match,” he said. “In some ways that can be a little distracting.”Murray’s father-in-law was also watching, as was his brother, Jamie, and he noticed some of the other British players had come out. “Although the atmosphere was very flat, at the end as I was starting to turn it around and I could see some faces in different points of the court to see some encouragement. That definitely helps.”The fifth set brought Murray to the brink again. Nishioka broke Murray to go up 3-2, only to have Murray, who had noticed that Nishioka could sometimes struggle to make a service break stick, break back to tie the set. Somehow, he saved his best tennis for the final games, landing 79 percent of his first serves in the final set, nailing 16 of his 64 winners.Up 5-4 and desperate for a break to end the match, Murray crushed a cross-court backhand to get to match point, then finished off the comeback with a topspin lob that Nishioka could not put on the court. It was the 179th point Murray won Tuesday afternoon. Nishioka won 176.The win had Murray, a devotee of ice baths for recovery, desperate to find freezing water. There is an ice bath in the men’s locker room, but it is only supposed to be used in cases of emergency during this pandemic-era tournament, as officials try to limit how much time players spend together in indoor spaces.“For me this is an emergency,” Murray said after his longest match since the 2019 Australian Open, who did ultimately get permission to soak. “My body hurts.” More

With no roar from the fans, all that was left on Monday for Coco Gauff was the roar of the planes as they passed over the all-but-empty Louis Armstrong Stadium.Down below was a strange scene: Gauff and Anastasija Sevastova, an opponent nearly twice her age, locked in an edgy and erratic duel surrounded by stands covered in big blue tarps.A year ago, Gauff, an American teenager who has embraced the big occasion in her short career, rode a wave of support in Armstrong Stadium to reach the third round of the United States Open. But against Sevastova, she failed to recapture the same form and was defeated in the first round, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, amid the silence.“I just got on tour a little over a year ago, so I still have a lot to learn and a long ways to go,” said Gauff.That was abundantly clear on Monday. Gauff double faulted 13 times and had her serve broken seven times against Sevastova, the No. 31 seed from Latvia. Though Gauff avoided double faults in the final game of the match, she was unable to avoid a series of errors off her less reliable forehand wing.“I hope everybody gives Coco plenty of time,” said Tracy Austin, one of tennis’s most remarkable wunderkinds, who reached No. 1 and won two U.S. Opens in her teens. “I think it would be kind, and it would be the right thing to do. Take it from someone who has been through it and who all of the sudden was thrust into I don’t want to call it chaos but an intense spotlight.”Sevastova can be a challenge for a player of any age.She is a crafty 30-year-old veteran who is adept at mixing spins and tactics and has an often-devastating backhand drop shot. Though she has struggled in 2020, both before and after the extended tour hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic, she has had her best results at the U.S. Open, reaching the quarterfinals in 2016 and 2017 and the semifinals in 2018.She battled herself mentally on Monday, surrendering a winning position with a 4-2 lead in the second set with a series of errors as she frequently cast withering glances at Ronald Schmidt, her coach and boyfriend.Gauff had internal tussles of her own, putting a hand to her forehead repeatedly after double faults and looking imploringly toward her father Corey and mother Candi, who were sitting courtside with masks covering most of their faces. But both players stabilized in the final set with the final game providing the only break of serve.“I wish I would play like this when I was 16 years old,” Sevastova said admiringly of Gauff. “Great player. Nothing more to say. I think she maybe started a bit slower than me, but she was getting better as the match went on. That’s so important I think in tennis.”Gauff, who reached the fourth round of Wimbledon in her first Grand Slam tournament in 2019, started this season auspiciously, upsetting Osaka in the fourth round of the Australian Open in January before losing in the quarterfinals in three sets to American compatriot Sofia Kenin, the eventual champion.She spent the forced break at home in Delray Beach, Fla., practicing with her father Corey and her co-coach Jean-Christophe Faurel. She then played a strong comeback tournament at the Top Seed Open in Lexington, Ky., defeating two seeded players — Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur — in taut three-set tussles before losing in the semifinals to Jennifer Brady, another eventual champion.But Gauff was unable to produce consistent tennis in the two-tournament bubble in New York, losing 6-1, 6-3 in the first round of the Western & Southern Open to Maria Sakkari, the No. 13 seed, and then losing to Sevastova in their first meeting. Though it is tempting to attribute Monday’s defeat to Sevastova’s unusual style, Gauff did manage to prevail in Lexington against Jabeur, a player with a similarly varied game and flair for the exotic shot.It seems premature to speculate about a sophomore slump for Gauff. But Gauff’s serve and forehand have been less than dependable in recent weeks with double faults and errors piling up. Gauff has struggled to find consistency with her service toss and repeatedly caught her toss on Monday, particularly in the first two sets.“It’s surprising that Coco’s serve was not retooled more during pause of play,” said Pam Shriver, a former U.S. Open singles finalist who is now an ESPN analyst, in a post on Twitter. “Toss too high. Toss too erratic. Pause on take-back too long. Not enough weight transfer.”Sevastova often played to Gauff’s forehand on important points and did so again during the final game, when Gauff made four unforced forehand errors, including the final stroke of the match, which landed in the net on Sevastova’s fourth match point.Until Monday, Sevastova had not won a singles match in a regular tour event this season, going 0-7. But her only other victory in 2020 was a big one: coming against Serena Williams in Latvia’s 3-2 defeat to the United States in a Fed Cup qualifying round match. That was Williams’s first singles loss in Fed Cup, which, it should be pointed out, she has played sparingly through the decades.But when in form, Sevastova’s unusual game can bewitch the opposition, and she deployed her arsenal of pace changes and drop shots effectively against Gauff, one of the fastest players on tour even at her young age.“She’s moving so well, it’s tough to finish the point,” Sevastova said. “She hits amazing backhand. Forehand for sure could be better. Still, it’s uncomfortable to play her.”But surely much more comfortable without a packed stadium creating a ruckus after every Gauff winner. The atmosphere was transcendent in Armstrong Stadium in 2019. It was Zen-garden quiet on Monday except for those planes. It was all a stark opening-day reminder of how different this U.S. Open is from its predecessors. Though she is only 16, it is hard to imagine Gauff playing in a weirder atmosphere. And the reassuring news as she returns to the practice court to prepare for her first French Open is that she should have many U.S. Opens still to come with the crowds in her corner. More

As she sat in a small interview room in Melbourne this January, Robin Montgomery could see that her dreams were more within reach than ever before. Nearby on the grounds of the Australian Open, another 15-year-old, Coco Gauff, was playing in the fourth round against the eventual champion Sofia Kenin, having beaten Naomi Osaka, the defending champion, a round earlier.“Hopefully I’ll be able to be in her shoes soon,” Montgomery, who was competing in the junior tournament there, said in January. “I definitely think it’s more possible now, seeing her doing it. It gives me more motivation to do it, and more belief in myself to be able to accomplish that.”A month earlier, Montgomery had won the prestigious Orange Bowl title in the 18-and-under division.“My next goal is to break through the pros, play some 25Ks and hopefully get some wild cards into the bigger tournaments,” Montgomery said. “Then, hopefully, I have an outbreak.”With a wide, sheepish smile, Montgomery then corrected herself to “breakout.”Just over a month after leaving Australia, Montgomery would claim her first professional title, winning a $25,000 tournament in Nevada. But before the wild cards to big events could come, there was, in fact, an outbreak, with the coronavirus pandemic shutting down professional sports. While Gauff had been able to play Wimbledon as a 15-year-old — capturing the world’s imagination a year earlier — Montgomery was sidelined.On Monday the wait ended, as Montgomery made her Grand Slam debut at the United States Open, where she was the youngest player in either singles draw.She battled admirably and showed her problem-solving abilities to turn a lopsided match into a competitive second set, which she led 3-1 before falling 6-1, 6-3 to 23rd-seeded Yulia Putintseva. Montgomery’s sweeping southpaw power was evident throughout the match, but the undersized Putintseva has made a career of neutralizing big hitters such as Montgomery. Putintseva took advantage of inconsistent serving by Montgomery to ultimately control the match.Though a part of her was restless during the sport’s hiatus, Montgomery said she found the time at home restorative.“I’ve been working on my fitness and things I can improve on the court,” she said. “I was changing minor things, because at the end of the day it’s the small details that are going to make you or break you.”Her longtime coach, Ali Agnamba, said that while the uncertainty was difficult for Montgomery, he was determined to have the time be productive.“One thing I made clear to her is that we can gain something out of this thing,” Agnamba said. “Physical training and fitness, we can maximize that, and that can be what we gain from the confinement. We tried to stay positive and think about what can happen when things open. Someone, somewhere, is going to be ready; somebody is not going to be ready. We wanted to be the ones ready when things opened up.”During the stoppage, Montgomery was able to train at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., near her hometown, Washington, D.C. Her mother, Gabrielle, had first brought her there at 5, eager to find an outlet for her daughter’s endless energy.“When Robin started walking and talking and had a lot of energy at 3, 4, I just put her in everything from swim lessons to dancing to French,” Gabrielle Montgomery said.Tennis proved enough of a physical and mental challenge to satisfy young Robin.“I always felt tired after practice,” Montgomery said. “Feeling tired, honestly, made me feel good about myself.”Coaches at the Junior Tennis Champions Center said Montgomery has never struggled to channel her energy productively.“Robin is one of our hardest working and most dedicated players,” said Vesa Ponkka, the senior director of tennis. “She’s always there first thing in the morning and does her runs, and nobody needs to supervise her. She’s very self-motivated.”Ponkka said he grasped Montgomery’s potential when watching her turn around a match against a seeded player at last year’s junior U.S. Open.“Robin had no business winning that match,” Ponkka said. “She lost the first set 6-1 and that girl was outplaying her. And then Robin adjusted, problem-solved, started serve-and-volleying, and turned it around. Everybody was there — agents, U.S.T.A. high performance — there were a lot of people watching. That showed me that she could do it under pressure.”Frances Tiafoe, who grew up playing at the same tennis center and also won the Orange Bowl at 15, called Montgomery his “little sister” and said he offers her advice whenever she asks.“I’ve really taken her under my wing,” Tiafoe said. “She works super hard. She’s super professional. Lefty who hits the ball huge — she’s special.”Tiafoe was in the fitness room when Montgomery was notified early this month that she had received a wild card into the U.S. Open main draw.“I look at Frances and I’m like ‘I’m going to see you at the Open,’” Montgomery recalled, beaming. “He sprinted out of the fitness room, kicked the door, and he’s screaming. We were all just really excited.”Another hurdle followed the good news, however: A player in Montgomery’s training group at the tennis center tested positive for the coronavirus, meaning Montgomery could not continue training at the center in the weeks before her Grand Slam debut. In the interim, a series of withdrawals by top women allowed the 593rd-ranked Montgomery to claim an unexpected spot in the qualifying draw of the Western & Southern Open, where she had her first match against a top-100 opponent, falling 6-1, 6-4 to Sorana Cirstea.Ponkka said he believed the tour stoppage would make Montgomery’s lack of big stage experience less of an issue than it would be otherwise.“Everybody’s in the same boat,” he said, adding: “She’s a very smart girl on and off the court, and I have confidence that she will be able to play well. How far that takes her, nobody knows, but she’s going to be playing some good tennis there.”The youngest player in the draw already has a vote of confidence from the eldest: Venus Williams, 40, came away impressed by Montgomery after the two hit together this summer while Williams was in Washington.“It feels like she’s got a bright future,” Williams said. “She looks like she’s got ease in the strokes and natural power coming along. All it takes is time and perseverance. There is no limit to what a person can achieve as long as they believe it. It’s all in the cards for her if she can make that happen.” More

Kim Clijsters is used to riding out storms.In 2009, Clijsters, the affable Belgian, calmly waited out a furious tirade by Serena Williams in the semifinals of the United States Open that ultimately cost Williams a penalty on match point and sent Clijsters into the final. The next day, she won the second of her three U.S. Open championships, less than a year after returning to the tour following the birth of her first child. She won the title again in 2010 before retiring in 2012.Now, the Hall of Famer and former world No. 1 is back for a third go-round. She rejoined the W.T.A. Tour in February, losing two close first-round matches, only to be stopped by the pandemic and then by a tropical storm at the Jersey Shore town where she, her husband, the basketball coach Brian Lynch, and their three children live part time. The following interview has been edited and condensed.First the pandemic, then the storm. Is your return cursed, or did you enjoy the time off?Because Brian’s always coaching or at games, this was the first time we were all together, like every minute of every day. The first few weeks I was super motivated. I cleaned my closets, went through all my kids’ clothes, organized everything, redid the pantry. Then I hit a wall, and it was like, “Why was I in my pajamas all day?” or “Hmm, I should probably shower.”It’s been 17 years since you first ascended to No. 1. That’s almost half a lifetime ago.It feels like a different life, to be honest. It was all very innocent. I loved what I was doing, I loved traveling the world, going to these new places, being on tour with women who I used to watch on TV. But I also think it was a good thing that I didn’t win my first final at the French Open in 2001. [She lost to Jennifer Capriati 1-6, 6-4, 12-10.] Thinking about it now, I wouldn’t have been ready for all that comes with a Grand Slam.After you won your first major at the 2005 United States Open, you said, “At the end of the day, when you go home the trophies are not talking to you, they’re not going to love you.” In the comeback do the trophies matter?When I was done, I realized that winning is the goal, but it is the road to it that is the best part about being a tennis player. It’s the challenges you set, the obstacles that you have to overcome to try to become better, to get fitter. Now, it’s balancing life, the kids, everything. It’s a challenge, but it’s great. From the moment I made the decision to try this, I haven’t looked back.What do you think the U.S. Open with no fans will be like for you given that you are so beloved in New York?It will be weird. So, it’s going to be important to find that inner motivation. Obviously, one of the favorite moments of my career is nighttime matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium and just feeling the vibe of the U.S. Open crowd. Hopefully next year.After nearly 20 years, you won’t be wearing your trademark Fila clothes at the Open. Instead, you’re not being paid to wear a new brand, Full Court, which was founded by a Black woman, Marguerite Wade.I actually found the company online. I was looking around for a small, independent brand that was a little more special. I’ve always wanted to create a platform for people who do great things in the world or help other people. When I saw this line, I literally Googled the owner and asked her if she would be interested.Are your famous slides and splits still intact?I haven’t felt the need to do it yet. I’m pretty sure if I get put in the position where that’s the only option, then I’ll do it.What message do you have for your fans? What do want them to know about this final comeback?I want them to know that I’ll miss them at the Open. And that I still have the same passion for tennis that I had 10 years ago when I was there. I’m sure they’ll see that when I’m out on court. More

Frustrated by what they view as a lack of leverage in the sport of men’s tennis, top-ranked Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil are forming a breakaway body to represent the interests of male players outside of the current structure of the Association of Tennis Professionals, and have resigned their leadership roles in the association’s player council.Pospisil, a Canadian ranked No. 92 in singles, announced his resignation on Twitter on Friday night, saying that within the current structure of the men’s tennis tour, “it is very difficult, if not impossible, to have any significant impact on any major decisions made by our tour.”Djokovic, the president of the player council, and John Isner, the highest-ranked American men’s player, also resigned their positions, according to three people familiar with their decisions. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the resignations had not been made public.Many details about the new group remain vague beyond its name, the Professional Tennis Players Association, and its intention to represent men’s singles players in the top 500 and doubles players in the top 200.It is not clear, for example, if its goal would be to bargain collectively like players’ unions in other professional sports. Unlike athletes in the N.F.L., Major League Baseball and the N.B.A., among other leagues, tennis players are independent contractors.But it is clear that the ATP sees the upstart effort as a threat, and its leaders have urged players not to support it.Djokovic and Pospisil detailed the plans in a document they distributed to other players, which was obtained by The New York Times. In it, they argue that an autonomous body for player interests is necessary. The ATP, founded 30 years ago, represents players and tournaments jointly, with both sides having seats on the governing board for decisions.“The goal of the PTPA is not to replace the ATP, but to provide players with a self-governance structure that is independent from the ATP and is directly responsive to player-members’ needs and concerns,” the players said in the document soliciting sign-ups from other top players on the tour.Neither Pospisil, Isner, nor a representative for Djokovic responded to requests for comment. Djokovic, who won a three-hour semifinal at the Western & Southern Open on Friday afternoon despite needing a medical timeout, skipped his post-match news conference. The tournament said its medical team “advised him not to do press today.”Andrea Gaudenzi, the ATP chairman, did not respond to a request for comment.One glaring absence from the plan is the inclusion of women’s players in the formation of the group.Pospisil had spoken eagerly last year about working together with female players. The idea appeared to gain steam as Pospisil led a large group, including Sloane Stephens and others, to urge the Grand Slam tournaments to commit more money to athletes. The tournaments did not engage.Yet as leaders of the men’s and women’s tours expressed in the spring that it might be mutually beneficial to merge the tours — especially in light of the financial troubles brought on by the coronavirus pandemic — many men’s players reacted negatively to that prospect and some said that women’s players did not deserve to make as much money as the men.Two of the sports biggest stars, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, have expressed support for merging the tours and have not previously supported the calls a new players association.In their document, Djokovic and Pospisil envision the group as “representing the interests” of its members in areas such as revenue sharing, disciplinary actions, player pensions, travel, insurance and amenities at tournaments.Djokovic and Pospisil have appointed themselves “initial co-presidents” of the association, serving a term of two years. The organization plans to be governed by an elected board of up to nine people.In a message to players this week, Pospisil said players in the new association would meet Saturday night and “take a group photo to document the historic moment.” He said the group would have “essentially the same function as a union” but with more legal flexibility.“There will be a lot of work building and perfecting the operations of this association, but this is the first and most pivotal step that we must take,” Pospisil, who has been consulting with the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, wrote in his message to players. He added, “Our voices will finally be heard and we will soon have an impact on decisions that affect our lives and livelihoods.”Gaudenzi, in a letter to players that was obtained by The Times, urged the athletes “not to take lightly” the ramifications of starting a new association while acknowledging that “no organizational structure is perfect.”Gaudenzi framed the formation of a competing player organization as an existential threat to the ATP, and said the group should not expect to be recognized by the tournaments. He argued that the action could threaten the power players already have within the sport.“You have what other athletes in other sports would strive for — a seat at the boardroom table. That is what players fought for in the creation of the ATP Tour,” Gaudenzi said. “It makes no sense why you would be better served by shifting your role from the inside to the outside of the governance structure.”Milos Raonic, who won on Friday to reach the final of the Western & Southern Open, which is being held in Queens at the same site as the United States Open next week, said he planned to sign up for the association, and expected a majority of players to join him. Raonic said that players were unhappy with the communication and leadership of Gaudenzi and other executives during the tour’s pandemic hiatus.“Players have had plenty of time to think and reflect and take a look at certain parts which they may not be happy with and discuss,” Raonic said. He added: “I voiced my opinion on many things, such as other sports, executives in other sports taking pay cuts to support us. As tennis players, we weren’t making a dime for months and months.”Gaudenzi closed his plea to players by asking for unity.“We should not forget that, as an entertainment product, our competition for audiences and long-term growth is with other sports and forms of entertainment,” he wrote. “Our battle is not with each other. Now, more than ever, is the time for unity and collaboration.”Christopher Clarey contributed reporting. More

He’s monitoring his health closely in the run up to the United States Open. He’s not against all vaccines but wouldn’t want to be forced to take one to play. And he says he had good intentions with his tour that became a coronavirus cluster. More

Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Sofia Kenin remain, giving the New York event plenty of star power and interesting story lines. More

It looked more like a practice match in atmosphere, but Serena topped Venus in a tight match at the Top Seed Open. More