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      Alexander Zverev Under ATP Investigation Into Domestic Abuse Allegations

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      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?

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      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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      The Special Role of Laver Cup Captains

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      John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg have filled the job since the tournament began, and it’s more than ceremonial.In the first three Laver Cups, the biggest names were the most famous players in tennis: Roger Federer (who helped create the tournament) played each year, Rafael Nadal played twice and Novak Djokovic played once.All are absent this year at the event in Boston, so while six Top 10 players are on board, the biggest names will be the most famous players in tennis circa 1980: the Team World captain, John McEnroe, and the Team Europe captain, Bjorn Borg, both returning for their fourth time.The Laver Cup brings a team sport format to tennis, and the captains have a role unlike almost any other in tennis.Captains recruit and select a team, build team spirit during practices, pick lineups according to the event’s quirky rules and provide in-match coaching.“There’s a lot to consider and a lot of tactics when making out the lineups, so in that sense the captain’s role is pretty important,” said Thomas Enqvist, vice captain of Team Europe.McEnroe takes his job seriously, but he downplays its importance. “It’s not the toughest job in the world,” he said with a laugh. “I show up at some cocktail parties and pick up balls at practiceThere is more to the job than that. Captains must persuade the top-ranked players, who are invited to the tournament based on their rankings, to participate. They also choose three lower-ranked players, called captain’s picks.“Before the first year, I had to call the players and explain the tournament,” Borg said, although having Federer’s backing made his job easier. For the captain’s picks, he added, “I’m watching so much tennis all year to see who fits the team, who may be in the best shape.”Federer, left, of Team Europe, with Borg, the team captain, at the 2018 Laver Cup.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesTeam Europe has had a huge edge in singles with its top players, so in past years McEnroe has built his roster around winning the doubles matches, relying heavily on Jack Sock, who is 7-2 in Laver Cup doubles.But without the big three playing for Team Europe, Patrick McEnroe, a vice captain and brother of John McEnroe, said, “we’re not as big an underdog in the singles as we were.”For instance, Denis Shapovalov has a career record of 10-8 against the six Team Europe players. So John McEnroe is aiming for more singles wins, choosing players like Reilly Opelka, who is approaching the Top 20, over Sock, who is an alternate for 2021.Opelka fits the model of McEnroe’s other captain’s picks, John Isner and Nick Kyrgios. “I’m bringing guys in to try and take the racket out of their opponent’s hands,” McEnroe said, referring to players with powerful serves.The week of practice leading up to the tournament serves several purposes for the teams’ leaders. “You need to figure out the doubles partners,” Enqvist said, “so you talk to the guys and try a couple of combinations. It’s important to have good chemistry.”When asked if he could have played doubles alongside Jimmy Connors had the Laver Cup existed in 1980, John McEnroe shrugged. “That would have been iffy,” he said. “I would like to think so, but one year we played Davis Cup together and didn’t talk the whole time.”Patrick McEnroe was amused by the notion. “It would definitely have been worth the price of admission,” he said, “but you’d have to be one strong captain to pull that off.”Reilly Opelka, an American player, in action at the United States Open this month. He will play for Team World at the Laver Cup.Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThat chemistry goes beyond just doubles partners, Borg said.“We have at least two dinners together to build team spirit,” he said. As for potential conflicts arising from Alexander Zverev’s chastising of Stefanos Tsitsipas for bathroom breaks that he said were too long, Borg said he would be hands off and leave it to his players to work through it.Practical coaching is minimal, John McEnroe said: “The players’ coaches get very protective and call me all the time asking what I am going to do.”Still, he does try, because helping a player make even a slight improvement can make a difference. “I like to help players maximize their potential, and this is one way where they can get feedback from me,” he said. “And it’s not costing them anything.”Both captains submit lineup cards blindly (not knowing who the opponent will be) for the first day, then each gets a turn seeing the other’s lineup first for the next two days. Captains must also weigh the scoring rules: Matches are worth one point the first day, two on the next day and three on the final day.“You want to start strong on Friday, but you might want to save stronger players for Saturday because those are two-point matches,” Enqvist said.Unlike ATP Tour matches, the captains (and the team) are right there on the sideline. “I’m providing a combination of team building, tactics and psychological boosts,” John McEnroe said, though tactics take a back seat. “It’s hard to figure out something that drastic. It’s often basic reminders, but it’s not like I have to tell John Isner, ‘Serve big.’”Mostly it is an enhanced cheerleader’s role. “I give positive vibes,” Borg said.“These players are the best in the world and have played the other guys, so they know what to do and what not to do,” he said. “But if they’re not playing well, I can push them in a positive way.”With the big three replaced by newcomers like Caspar Ruud and Matteo Berrettini, Borg said, “I may be more hands-on and say a few more things this year.”McEnroe said his and Borg’s statures and personas did have an impact.“Even for Roger or Rafa, looking over and seeing Bjorn, they’ll say, ‘I want to make sure I do my thing,’ because Bjorn has an aura around him,” McEnroe said. “I hopefully bring an energy to our side.”Team Europe may be the favorite, but McEnroe has a solution: “I was suggesting that when I grew up, Russia wasn’t considered part of Europe, so we should get [Daniil] Medvedev and [Andrey] Rublev and that would level the playing field.” Medvedev won the United States Open on Sept. 12.In reality, Russia is in Europe and Asia, but the players hail from the European part.“John,” Borg said with a chuckle, “would want all the players.” More

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      Young Italian Men Are Taking Over the French Open. They Have No Idea Why.

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      Italy has 10 players in the top 100, the most ever, and two 19-year-olds who look like major stars in the making. Just don’t ask them what’s going on.PARIS — The Grand Slam event currently underway may be called the French Open. The overwhelming favorite in men’s singles is from Spain. But this tournament, and perhaps even the future of men’s tennis, suddenly feels very Italian.That may sound strange, especially to the Italians, who have never produced a world No. 1. But on Thursday, a pair of 19-year-olds, Jannik Sinner, the surprise quarterfinalist at Roland Garros last year, and Lorenzo Musetti, who is playing in his first Grand Slam tournament, stormed into the final 32. So did Matteo Berrettini, 25, who is seeded ninth. They joined the 34-year-old veteran Fabio Fognini, the No. 27 seed, who has crushed his first two opponents and serves as the spiritual leader for the younger set driving this unprecedented Italian charge.“It’s something we are not used to,” Berrettini said after pummeling Federico Coria of Argentina, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2, Thursday. “Nobody is used to it.”Tennis may be the ultimate individual sport, but countries sometimes produce waves of top players. Germans (Boris Becker, Steffi Graf) had their day in the late 1980s. Americans (Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Michael Chang) were mainstays of the top 10 in the 1990s. A decade ago, Spain was tennis royalty, winning the Davis Cup, the sport’s leading national competition, four times in eight years, with Rafael Nadal leading the way.If a country produces a generational star, it stands to reason more will follow. But as many times as not, countries produce a champion, and then the tennis cupboard is largely empty. There are no hot young Swiss players in the top 100 ready to fill Roger Federer’s shoes. Spain’s youngest player in the top 40, Pablo Carreño Busta, is 29.“You think the more good players you have from a nation they can groom the next generation, but then the chain breaks,” said Andrea Gaudenzi of Italy, a top 20 player in the 1990s who now leads the ATP Tour.Jannik Sinner made the quarterfinals of last year’s French Open and beat a fellow Italian, Gianluca Mager, to advance to the third round this year.Christophe Archambault/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSo what has made Italy so good at this moment in men’s tennis history? Asking that is a bit like asking for directions in Rome — plenty of possible answers, none seemingly any better than the rest.Even the smartest tennis minds do not really know how to develop a phenomenal tennis player, much less several of them simultaneously. At its highest level, the game requires the mettle of boxing, the athleticism of basketball and the touch of billiards. Try manufacturing that.Italy began holding significantly more lower-level tournaments during the past decade. That allowed Sinner and Musetti easier access to pro tournaments to cut their teeth. And yet, there are other countries that have plentiful schedules of low-level pro tournaments but do not have a group similar to Italy’s. For instance, the United States, which is more than five times as large as Italy and has lots of low level tournaments, does not have a man in the top 30.Andreas Seppi, the 37-year-old Italian journeyman who notched a first-round upset at Roland Garros, credited the proliferation of top players to Italian coaches, who are more seasoned than they were when he was early in his career. Seppi said his coach, Massimo Sartori, essentially learned the trade with him.“I was my coach’s first player,” Seppi said. “Now all these coaches know what they have to do and how the tour works.”The 37-year-old veteran Andrea Seppi said Italian coaches were more seasoned now than they were as he rose up the ranks..Martin Bureau/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIndeed, Sinner’s coach, Riccardo Piatti, previously worked with a young Novak Djokovic, and top pros like Richard Gasquet of France and Milos Raonic of Canada.Then again, Musetti’s coach, Simone Tartarini, who has been working with him since he was 7 years old, has coached largely national junior players in the past. The two sometimes share hotel rooms on the road.Sinner and Musetti’s disparate upbringings also offer no clues to success.Sinner, the son of a chef and a restaurant hostess, was a junior skiing champion and did not specialize in tennis until he began training at an academy in his early teens. At first, he struggled emotionally and physically with the daily grind of so many hours on the court, he said earlier this year.Musetti began playing tennis at the age of 4. Other than kicking a soccer ball occasionally with his friends, he never pursued another sport. By age 12, he was among Italy’s standout juniors.So if this golden generation of Italian players proves anything about tennis, it might be the random nature of development and how many different ways there are to play the game.“Some people might say we complain a lot inside the court,” Musetti joked the other day. “I used to, but now I have grown up a little bit.”Blame Fognini for that rap. Fognini, who played doubles with Musetti this spring, regularly offers tips about opponents and tactical advice to his young countrymen. He won’t hesitate to question a line call or hold an umpire, or even an opponent, accountable for the management of a match.He was easily handling Marton Fucsovics of Hungary on Wednesday when a fan in the rowdy crowd screamed after one of his serves, interrupting play. He made sure the chair umpire knew he was not pleased. Up two sets and two breaks, he was still taking long stares at ball marks. However in the third round on Friday, Fognini ran out of steam, losing 6-4, 6-1, 6-3, to Federico Delbonis of Argentina.On the other hand, Musetti, Sinner, Berrettini, and the 26-year-old Lorenzo Sonego — who was seeded 26th here but lost in straight sets in the first round — are mostly all-business on the court.They do not play much like Fognini either. Fognini is a classic counterpuncher. He saunters around the court, taking his time before serving, or returning. He will slice, bash and flick his forehand all during the same point, wait for the slightest opening and then pounce.On Thursday, Sinner played as he always does. All afternoon he attacked another Italian, the 87th-ranked Gianluca Mager, from the back half of the court with darts to the sidelines.Berrettini, who is 6-foot-5, leads with his booming serve, which has been clocked at 146 miles per hour. He powers his way into the court and finishes plenty of points at the net. He also has a highly effective backhand drop shot.Musetti is strong nearly everywhere on the court, with a museum quality one-hand backhand, a beautiful, low-to-high stroke that sends the ball flying off his racket. Opponents have seemingly won a point after pinning him deep on his backhand side, then end up watching a laser dive into the corner.“He’s got a lot of shots,” Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, the world’s fifth-ranked player, said of Musetti after beating him in Mexico in March. “He just has to work a bit on his serve.”Musetti said he spent much of the spring doing that, trying to make it less predictable.The work appears to be paying off. Musetti has yet to lose a set here. By the third set Thursday, his opponent, Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, older by six years, was kicking his racket across the clay and tossing his cap.“I’m not trying to explain this,” Musetti said after the win. He faces, who else, another Italian, the 83rd-ranked Marco Cecchinato, in the third round.Musetti now has a 20-11 record on the ATP Tour, as good a start as any current player who has finished a season ranked in the top 10, according to Greg Sharko, the tour’s statistics whiz.The teenager from Tuscany is trying to treat these Grand Slam matches like any other, even though he knows that is impossible.“You think ‘racket, ball, opponent,’” Musetti said the other day. “But every tournament is different, especially in the Grand Slam.” More

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      This Andrey Rublev Is a Master With a Racket

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      Andrei Rublev was a renowned 15th-century icon painter, but the tennis player is an artist in his own way.Andrey Rublev of Russia is familiar with his eponym, the 15th-century artist responsible for the Trinity icon. The two Rublevs have something in common — they have created masterpieces.Though just 23, Rublev has risen from outside the world’s Top 20 last January to a career-high No. 7 heading into the French Open, which starts Sunday with the main draw and runs through June 13. Despite the curtailed season in 2020, he won an ATP Tour-leading five titles. Since the beginning of last year he has won 70 singles matches, more than anyone else on tour.Rublev won a tournament in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in March, where he beat the former No. 1 Andy Murray and the Australian Open semifinalist Stefanos Tsitsipas; reached three semifinals, including at the Miami Open; and upset Rafael Nadal en route to the final in Monte Carlo. He also reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, and he and Daniil Medvedev led Russia to the World Team Cup in February.Armed with a monstrous forehand that he can place anywhere on the court and a work ethic that makes many other players look lazy, Rublev has also beaten Roger Federer and Dominic Thiem, last year’s United States Open champion. He won the Roland Garros junior championship in 2014, and last year reached the quarterfinals of the main draw before losing to Tsitsipas.The following conversation has been edited and condensed.What do you know about the artist Andrei Rublev?I know that he was one of the greatest painters in churches. I have the most famous icon in my home. They call it the greatest trio. We keep it in a religious corner. Sometimes you put a little light to make it special.You won the Junior Championship at the French Open when you were just 16, but it took another six years for you to win a main draw match there. What happened?My level was not good enough in general. I needed to raise my game to compete against great players. And then when I became Top 30 in the world I was injured and not able to play Roland Garros for two years. Only last year was I able to play.Andrey Rublev defeated Rafael Nadal in their quarterfinal match in Monte Carlo in April.Sebastien Nogier/EPA, via ShutterstockA lot of players have said that you work harder than anybody else on tour and that you’ve been doing that ever since you were a child. Is that true?I don’t know, to be honest. Everything is personal. Maybe for another player the things that I’m doing is not going to fit. Maybe he will start to feel much worse or say, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” In my case it’s just the way I was in the beginning, and it makes me comfortable. I don’t know any other way.As a child, you threw a lot of temper tantrums on court. Did you really eat red clay from the court?I never ate it full, but, yes, I put it in my mouth. I just spat it away or took water to clean my mouth. I did some stupid things, for sure.You also slept with your racket as a child?Yes, a couple of times.Tennis can be a lonely sport, especially during the pandemic when you are allowed to go only from the hotel to the courts and back.Yes, but it depends on which side you see it. I’ve been lonely, but I’m also a bit lucky because I have so many people around me for support, and we’re looking at things the same way. They give me a lot of energy. When I’m playing, I feel that they’re with me, and it helps a lot.You have had unusually solid results against top-10 players. You don’t fear them the way others do?I am afraid. And I’m OK to say it. When I go on the court, of course I’m afraid, especially against some Top-10 players. But I accept this. I’m not going to say I don’t feel tension. I’m very open. I’m human, and I feel tight sometimes. But, in the end, I want to win, and I’m going to do my best to do that. More

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      The French Open Gets Closer to Normal

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      The tournament returns to its spring roots after the pandemic forced the event to be held last fall.It has been less than eight months since Rafael Nadal beat Novak Djokovic in straight sets to claim his 13th French Open singles title. The pandemic had pushed the tournament from the spring to the fall, and trees had begun to turn shades of ruby.The event now returns to its spring roots, but while the weather may be warmer and the red clay courts a little firmer and faster, there is little to suggest that professional tennis has returned to the way it was — even for Nadal.“The conditions last year of Roland Garros probably have been the tougher conditions ever for me, for my style of game,” he said, as he warmed up for this year’s tournament by beating Djokovic at the Italian Open in Rome almost two weeks ago. “I played a very good tournament. I didn’t lose a set. But if you ask me what I prefer, I prefer to play under normal circumstances than last year without a doubt.”This year’s French Open, with the main draw beginning Sunday, will look a little more normal with 1,000 fans per day allowed on each of the three show courts and 35 percent of capacity permitted on the smaller courts. Beginning with the quarterfinals on June 9, a maximum of 5,000 spectators, or no more than 65 percent capacity, will be able to watch on Court Philippe Chatrier, one of which will be the tournament’s first-ever night session.Ever since the ATP and WTA Tours returned to official competition last summer, they have struggled to maintain equilibrium. Tournaments are routinely canceled or rescheduled, and draw sizes have been altered and prize money allocations thrown into disarray because of modified spectator allowances at venues around the world. In almost every city, the athletes are forced to enter into a bubble, limited in their movements to between the hotel and tournament site, unable to even eat meals in public restaurants.Karolina Pliskova during her semifinal match against Petra Martic at the Italian Open.Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFor the former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova, who has performed spottily since the resumption of play late last year, the rules and regulations have taken a toll.“It starts to be tough, believe me, like after a couple months to always be in the same circuit, breakfast, lunch, dinner, always the same people,” she said. “It starts to be like a bit mentally tough.” Pliskova reached the final in Rome before losing 6-0, 6-0 to Iga Swiatek, last year’s French Open winner.Tennis players are creatures of habit who often plan their entire seasons months, if not a full year, in advance. Since tournaments are played nearly year-round, indoors and out, on vastly different surfaces, sudden changes can throw off an athlete’s sense of order, not to mention his or her ranking.Already this season, the Australian Open was postponed by nearly a month, the BNP Paribas Open was moved from March to October, and men’s tournaments in New York; Houston; Marrakesh, Morocco; and Budapest have been shelved. Instead, venues like Melbourne, Australia; Charleston, S.C.; and Belgrade, Serbia, are hosting multiple events back-to-back to reduce travel. The WTA played two tournaments in Charleston in April.Even the tournaments that have gone on as planned are struggling. In 2019, the Miami Open moved from Key Biscayne to the Hard Rock Stadium and offered more than $9 million in total prize money. This year, with just 20 percent of fan capacity allowed, the total prize money was reduced to about $4.3 million. The winners each received $300,110, less than a quarter of what they got two years ago.“ATP is a broken system,” John Isner said on Twitter after the Miami cuts were announced. “Players and tournaments as ‘partners’ need to work together, but 60% cut and 80% champions cut in one of our biggest events that has TV, Data, sponsorship, and newly approved gambling revenue intact, isn’t a partnership at all.”John Isner complained on Twitter about the reduced prize money for players at this year’s Miami Open.Mark Brown/Getty ImagesThe winners of the Miami Open in March each received $300,110, less than a quarter of what they got in 2019.Mark Brown/Getty ImagesBut while the money at the top was severely affected, early-round losers — the lower-ranked players — had less drastic cuts.“We have adjusted the prize money distribution models, with input from the players, so that prize money levels in qualifying and early rounds remain consistent to where they have been,” Amy Binder, a WTA spokeswoman, said.While both tours have altered their ranking regulations to reflect players who have been unable, or unwilling, to travel, some players have reacted better than others to the time off and the resumption of play.Isner opted to skip the Australian Open and has played only four tournaments this year. By May his ranking had dropped to No. 34.Sofia Kenin, who won the Australian Open last year and then reached the final of the French Open, has won just two of her last six matches headed into Roland Garros, which prompted her to dismiss her father, Alex, as her coach.Alexander Zverev is well prepared on clay, having beaten Nadal, Dominic Thiem and Matteo Berrettini en route to the title at the Masters 1000 in Madrid. Thiem, who won his first major at last year’s United States Open, was so burned out that he took a nearly two-month break from the tour from mid-March to early May.For some players, adapting their footwork and their power games to slow red clay courts makes the thought of returning to Roland Garros so soon even less enchanting.Naomi Osaka has said she gets frustrated playing on clay. “Mentally, clay is a bit more taxing for me because you have to structure the points differently.”Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesThat is especially true for Naomi Osaka, who has barely competed other than at the two majors she won since the resumption of play — last year’s U.S. Open and this year’s Australian Open. Osaka has played just three matches on clay since the 2019 French Open, and one of them was a loss to Jessica Pegula in Rome three weeks ago.“Mentally, clay is a bit more taxing for me because you have to structure the points differently,” Osaka said. “I also think there are bad bounces and stuff. I get quite frustrated.”On Wednesday, Osaka announced on social media that she would not attend news conferences during the French Open, saying they can be damaging to the mental health of players.And then there is the world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev. He has won just one of his last nine matches on clay. During a loss to Aslan Karatsev in Rome, he implored the tour supervisor to default him for a verbal obscenity, shouting: “How can I not swear? If you like to be in the mud like a dog, good for you.”For Medvedev, his issues with clay are mental and physical.“About clay, it’s everything,” said Medvedev, who has failed to win a match in four attempts at Roland Garros. “I don’t know how to adjust my shots that work on hard courts to make them work for clay. I’m never going to be like some Spanish players that from since they are young, they know, OK, I turn around on the forehand, I spin the ball, I play high over the net, I make the ball bounce close to the line.”Djokovic said there was an art to mastering clay.“We all know the clay is a slower surface in the sport,” he said. “It requires more physical energy from a player, but more mental and emotional energy as well. I think you have to train on clay more than any other surface to really get yourself comfortable playing on it.”The one player who seems totally unfazed on every surface is the world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty. She reached the semifinals at the Australian Open last year and then skipped the rest of the season, returning this year to win three tournaments — the Yarra Valley Classic in Melbourne and the Miami Open on hard courts and the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, on clay — and reached the final in Madrid on clay. Grass, she maintains, is still her favorite surface. The perennially positive Barty has a theory.“Everyone has a different approach as to how they form their career,” she said. “Not playing last year, I’m as motivated, as driven, as hungry as I have ever been to challenge myself against the best in the world. Any time I do that puts a smile on my face.” More

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      Ashleigh Barty Seeded First in Australian Open Draw

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAshleigh Barty, Back on the Court, Is Top Seeded at HomeBut Naomi Osaka could face a tough path in the women’s draw at the Australian Open.Ashleigh Barty in a doubles match at the Yarra Valley Classic on Friday.Credit…Jonathan Dimaggio/Getty ImagesFeb. 5, 2021Updated 1:02 p.m. ETTop-ranked Ashleigh Barty once more sits atop the Australian Open women’s singles draw that was made Friday afternoon in Melbourne, and gives her country its best chance to win its home Grand Slam.Barty has held the No. 1 ranking without interruption since September 2019. But that streak, made possible by the WTA Tour keeping 2019 ranking points intact during a season of upheaval, does not quite reveal the reality of her last 12 months.Before this week, Barty had not played a tour match in nearly a year. At last year’s Australian Open, she was seeded No. 1 and lost in a semifinal to the eventual champion, Sofia Kenin. Then, when the coronavirus pandemic disrupted sports, she stayed home in Queensland and remained there even as some tournaments were held in other parts of the world.Barty has looked strong in a warm-up tournament this week at Melbourne Park, reaching the final of the Yarra Valley Classic after a withdrawal from Serena Williams. Still, it is yet to be seen how she will perform during the Grand Slam tournament, which is scheduled to begin Monday, given her limited match preparation.Barty’s path in the women’s singles draw is largely favorable. She opens against 77th-ranked Danka Kovinic. Should Barty reach the semifinals, she could get a rematch against Kenin, who is seeded fourth this year. Kenin, who also reached the finals of the French Open in October, has said she is uneasy about defending a Grand Slam title for the first time.“Obviously very nervous, but I’m going to do my best and we’re going to see how it goes,” Kenin said this week.Kenin received a seemingly comfortable opening match against the 130th-ranked wild-card Maddison Inglis, but could face trouble in the second round, where she would have to face frequent giant-killer Kaia Kanepi or the 2018 U.S. Open semifinalist Anastasija Sevastova.The 2019 Australian Open champion, Naomi Osaka, sits in the bottom half of the draw seeded third, where she landed one of the most brutal opening challenges: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a talented Russian veteran who has reached the quarterfinals each of the last two years in Melbourne.Osaka, who ended last season on an 11-match winning streak after winning the U.S. Open, faces a potentially loaded path to the semifinals after Pavlyuchenkova, including 27th-seeded Ons Jabeur; last year’s runner-up, Garbiñe Muguruza; 2016 champion Angelique Kerber; the 2019 runner-up, Petra Kvitova; the seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, and eighth-seeded Bianca Andreescu, who is playing in her first Grand Slam event since winning the 2019 U.S. Open.Tenth-seeded Serena Williams, who is seeking her 24th Grand Slam title, could await whoever advances from Osaka’s quarter of the draw. Williams opens against the combative Laura Siegemund, but her toughest test might come from the enigmatic player who looms in the fourth round: seventh-seeded Aryna Sabalenka. Despite the pandemic-decimated schedule, Sabalenka has won four WTA titles in the last 12 months, including the final two tournaments of last season and the first of this year. But Sabalenka has not played well at Grand Slam events, only once advancing to even the fourth round in 12 main draw appearances.Whoever advances from Williams’s and Sabalenka’s section very likely has a tough battle on her hands in the quarterfinals as well, with both second-seeded Simona Halep and 15th-seeded Iga Swiatek looming. Swiatek won the French Open in October.On the men’s side of the tournament, the already dim hopes among American players got even dimmer after the draw.With the highest-ranked American man, John Isner, choosing to stay home, 27th-seeded Taylor Fritz is the lone seed from the United States in men’s singles. He could face the next-highest ranked American man, his friend Reilly Opelka, in the second round. But whoever comes out of that part of the draw would most likely run into the buzz saw of Novak Djokovic in the third round.The top-seeded Djokovic, who has won eight Australian Open titles including the last two, opens his tournament against the Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, and could face another young American, 2019 quarterfinalist Frances Tiafoe, in the second round.One of Djokovic’s toughest potential tests looms in the fourth round, where he could face the 17th-seeded Stan Wawrinka. Wawrinka is one of only three players to have beaten Djokovic in Melbourne in the last 10 years. He did so in the 2014 quarterfinals en route to winning his first Grand Slam title.Djokovic could face third-seeded Dominic Thiem in the semifinals in what would be a rematch of last year’s final. Second-seeded Rafael Nadal, in his first try at breaking the Grand Slam men’s singles titles record after tying the absent Roger Federer at last year’s French Open, opens his tournament against the 56th-ranked Serbian player, Laslo Djere.Two of Nadal’s most intriguing possible early opponents play each other in the first round: 21st-seeded Alex de Minaur, who is the highest-ranked Australian man, and Tennys Sandgren, the Tennessean who had seven match points against Federer in last year’s quarterfinals but could not convert any of them.Nadal could face the fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev, who is on a 12-match win streak after winning the ATP Finals and Paris Indoors Masters last fall, in the semifinals.The draws on Friday were delayed one day because of problems with the coronavirus. A quarantine worker at one of the hotels where players were staying tested positive, prompting tournament officials to halt activities on Thursday. Instead of a splashy, prime-time ceremony to reveal the first-round pairings, the draws were done in a back room and streamed online.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      As the Tennis Party in Australia Begins, an Uncertain Year Awaits

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesSee Your Local RiskVaccine InformationWuhan, One Year LaterAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAs the Tennis Party in Australia Begins, an Uncertain Year AwaitsOfficials in Australia moved mountains to make the country’s annual professional tennis swing happen. That will be far more difficult after the tour leaves this isolated, island nation.Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece was in action on Wednesday during his ground stage match against Alex de Minaur of Australia in the ATP Cup in Melbourne, Australia.Credit…Loren Elliott/ReutersFeb. 3, 2021Updated 3:17 p.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — By sheer force of will, professional tennis inched toward normalcy this week, with a flurry of events in a country that has managed to nearly smother the coronavirus.The three tournaments and a men’s team competition called the ATP Cup, in which players compete for their countries, have turned Melbourne Park into a sea of matches with the gates open to spectators. Hundreds of matches were scheduled this week at the tennis complex, which is on the banks of the Yarra River, just a few hundred yards down a hill from this city’s downtown. The smaller events lead into the Australian Open, the centerpiece of the summer tennis season here, which is scheduled to begin on Monday.A stern reminder of the challenge to public health represented by the events came Wednesday when Australian Open organizers said a hotel quarantine worker had tested positive for the virus. That prompted a suspension of play on Thursday and orders for all of those associated with the tennis events at the hotel to isolate in their rooms until they return a negative test.The positive test ended a 28-day run of zero community transmission in the state of Victoria, The Age, a newspaper in Melbourne, reported. The Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, was not immediately affected, but the positive test made clear that the event — with all its planning and precaution — could be upended if more people are infected.Before the latest setback, the word “lucky” kept flying out of the mouths of the players — lucky that their sport happens to begin its year in an isolated, island nation that decided months ago that it would do nearly anything it could to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The federal and state governments specially allowed more than a thousand people to travel from overseas for the tournament, requiring them to serve 14 days in varying degrees of lockdown to reduce the risk of bringing Covid-19 back into the community. For the players, that was the ante to compete for more than $80 million in prize money for all the events.And yet the massive effort of holding these competitions has illuminated an unpleasant truth for a sport that normally hopscotches the globe for 11 months each year. No one knows exactly what will happen to professional tennis for the rest of 2021 when the competitions in Australia conclude at the end of the month.The problem is that two of the main ingredients for tennis to be successful are open international borders and large crowds in big cities, neither of which are in abundance at the moment.There are tournaments on the calendar everywhere from the Middle East to South America and Florida, but it’s anyone’s guess how they might take place, what officials in those countries will require of anyone who wants to enter their borders, or whether players will be able to travel freely in and out of their own countries.“Everything is continuously ever-evolving,” Johanna Konta of Britain, a member of the WTA player council, said when asked recently what the rest of the year looked like both for her and her sport. “I don’t know how it will be. I don’t know how the quarantines will be. I don’t know how things will shape up.”With this week’s tuneup events shoehorned into the schedule and moved to Melbourne from their usual locations elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand, attendance has been sparse, but a trickle of spirited fans does stream through the gates each day — especially the native Serbs screaming for Novak Djokovic. A player hits a terrific shot, and a roar echoes through the courts, just as it is supposed to. Players are going through their usual routines of practice sessions, matches and massages, plus meals and coffee dates among locals in the city’s downtown restaurants.Getting to this point took months of negotiations with government officials, tens of millions of dollars, 17 chartered jets to fly the players and other essential tennis workers to the country and the hiring of hundreds of people to manage the two-week quarantine. The payoff comes next week when the tournament will allow up to 30,000 fans a day who will be sectioned off into three zones to limit each person’s exposure to someone who might potentially test positive.Healthcare workers stood at a personal protective equipment station inside one hotel where players were staying.Credit…James Ross/EPA, via Shutterstock“In Europe, it’s going to be I think far more challenging to experience something that we are experiencing here,” said Djokovic, the world No. 1 and the leader of a nascent players’ association. “We might as well enjoy it as much as we can.”As Andrea Gaudenzi, chairman of the Association of Tennis Professionals, put it Tuesday night, “We live in the now.”The Coronavirus Outbreak More