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      Diana Shnaider Is Mixing College Tennis With the Pro Tour, for Now

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      A freshman at North Carolina State, Shnaider, a Russian, is the first woman ranked in the top 100 of the pro game to play college tennis since 1993.Last August, Diana Shnaider, a teenage tennis player from Russia, was traveling solo in Europe with a world-class forehand but no working bank card because of financial sanctions against her country. She had to pay for hotels, flights and food with cash.Last week, she led the North Carolina State women’s tennis team, which is ranked ninth in Division I, to a victory over second-ranked Ohio State.“Things were bad, but they’re better now,” Shnaider said on Wednesday on a video call from Columbus, Ohio.Shnaider, a left-hander with a flashy and powerful style of play, has found stability in the game, even though many observers never believed she would choose college tennis over playing on the professional tour full time. The skeptics included her college coach, Simon Earnshaw.“I didn’t think she was going to come,” Earnshaw said in a telephone interview. “But she’s kind of unique. As an 18-year-old, she’s still a kid, but she’s very clear on how she sees the game and what’s important to her and what’s not important to her. And, really, the only thing that’s important to her is, ‘How do I get better?’”When she arrived in Raleigh, N.C., last summer, she ranked 249th on the WTA Tour in singles. She is up to 90th after a surge in Australia, where she qualified for her first Grand Slam singles tournament, the Australian Open, and lost in the second round to sixth-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.Shnaider has big weapons in her slashing forehand and serve. She has quick feet and an attacking mentality that has been there since she learned the game in Tolyatti, across the Volga River from Zhigulevsk, her hometown. She moved to Moscow at age 9 with her family to find better training opportunities.“I never wanted to be a pusher,” she said. “I was always like: ‘OK, here’s the shot. I’m killing it.’”At the Australian Open, her fist pumps and celebratory shouts rattled Sakkari, who thought they were directed at her. Shnaider said that was a misunderstanding and that she was shouting toward her team in the player’s box on Sakkari’s side of the court.Shnaider said her run in Australia — and the more than $140,000 in prize money that came with it — did not make her rethink her decision to play in college, even if it has been tough for her to read harsh criticism of it on social media.“I understand with my mind that I’m doing everything right, but of course when people say mean things it goes to my heart and soul,” she said. “But I’m trying to just go my own way.”Shnaider, shown at the Australian Open in January, is undefeated in women’s singles at North Carolina State.Joel Carrett/EPA, via ShutterstockShnaider is the first woman ranked in the top 100 in singles to play college tennis since 1993, when the American Lisa Raymond played at Florida. Shnaider has gone undefeated in singles matches this season for N.C. State, which is not a traditional college tennis power. But the Wolfpack are 7-1 and undefeated with Shnaider in the lineup.“She’s the best player to play college tennis in a while, for sure,” said Geoff Macdonald, the former women’s coach at Vanderbilt.The American college game has resumed being a pathway to professional success in recent years with college standouts like Cameron Norrie, Jennifer Brady and Danielle Collins making successful transitions. But what separates Shnaider from them is that she made inroads in the pro game before college. (N.C.A.A. rules allow players to use prize money to cover their documented tennis expenses at any time during that same calendar year, but they must donate any excess to remain eligible.)Shnaider’s decision was partly because of geopolitics: It allowed her to establish a base in the United States while her country is viewed as a pariah in much of the West.“I think 100 percent her being Russian made the difference,” David Secker, an N.C. State assistant coach, said.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 brought sanctions against Russians. For tennis players, the sanctions complicated travel and training, and raised the possibility of Russian players being excluded from tournaments (to date, Wimbledon has been the only major individual event to do so).Shnaider, who split with her coach in June, wanted to ensure she could keep playing competitively and improve on hardcourts. Her best results had come on clay.“I was really afraid and thinking what will I do sitting in Russia without coach and without matches?” she said.Before committing to N.C. State, she had to overcome her doubts. “I thought it would mean like I’m quitting the tennis, the professional career,” she said.Her father, Maksim, who helped shape her game, was against it. But her mother, Julia, a trained pianist more focused on education, pushed for it and helped make the initial contact with Secker last April through a Russian family in the United States.Secker, like Earnshaw, was skeptical that Shnaider was serious about attending college, but he organized a video call and then met with Shnaider and her mother at the French Open in June. The family remained divided on the issue, however, and Shnaider, when she was back on the road, kept having emotional phone calls with her parents.“I was in the middle of nowhere, and I was like, this is not helping me,” Shnaider said. “And my dad was like, this is your decision, so make your first whole decision by yourself.”It would be N.C. State. Bureaucratic issues made her wait five days in Warsaw for her student visa, and she sprinted down a hall at the U.S. Embassy to collect it before closing time on a Friday. But she made it to the United States a few days before the U.S. Open junior tournament and reached the semifinals of the girls’ event in singles and won in doubles with Lucie Havlickova.But Shnaider remained athletically ineligible. She had signed a contract with Wesport, a management agency in Sweden, and, Earnshaw said, the N.C.A.A. needed to examine the agreement to ensure that any payments she had received were in exchange for the use of her name, image and likeness, which is now permitted by the N.C.A.A.The process took nearly five months to resolve. “It was extremely protracted frustration,” Earnshaw said.Shnaider got clearance on Feb. 3, the day before a home match with Oklahoma. Though she has gone undefeated in singles with the team, she has been pleasantly surprised by the level of play. For example, she had to save a match point before defeating Sydni Ratliff of Ohio State.“I was worried I was going to lose time and lose my motivation,” Shnaider said of playing college tennis. But she noted that has not happened. “I’m getting out of my apartment at 8 a.m., coming back at 8 p.m., and I’m passed out.”She is about to start juggling college tennis and tour tennis, competing at the WTA event in Monterrey, Mexico, where the main draw starts Monday. Then comes the qualifying event at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. Going deep at either tournament will mean she is likely to miss some college matches.“I would say logistics is the biggest challenge for Diana,” Secker said. “And I also think doubt is a huge part because I think there’s always this doubt that if I’m playing a college match, am I missing out on an opportunity in the pro game? If I’m playing pro, am I letting down my team in some way?”For at least a few more months, Shnaider will try to do justice to both worlds, but the challenge pales in comparison to taking on the satellite circuit last year with no chaperone or modern means of payment. When she won a title in Istanbul, the organizers had to give her the nearly $9,000 in prize money in cash.“I was like, what am I supposed to do with that?” she said holding her right thumb and index finger far apart to show the size of the stack of bank notes. “I was so careful.”At other times, she said, she barely had enough cash to pay for a night’s hotel.“My parents were feeling really insecure for me,” she said. “My mom was like, ‘Don’t carry your passport, don’t go outside, don’t speak Russian, just stay in the hotel.’ Because she just didn’t know what people can do.” More

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      Novak Djokovic Captures His 10th Australian Open Men’s Singles Title

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      After missing last year’s tournament when he was deported for being unvaccinated for Covid-19, the Serb beat Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in straight sets to win his 22nd Grand Slam title.MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic came to Australia with a mission, or, really, a series of them.To win the championship he had won nine times once more. To win a 22nd Grand Slam men’s singles title and draw even with his rival Rafael Nadal at the top of that list. To remove any doubt anyone might have about whether he remains the world’s dominant player, the most commanding player of the last decade and now this one, too. To show the world that the only way to keep him from winning nearly any tennis tournament is to not let him play.Check. Check. Check. And check.A year after Australia deported him over his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19, Djokovic reclaimed the Grand Slam title he has won more than any other, capturing a record 10th championship at the Australian Open by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), on Sunday.After one last forehand off Tsitsipas’s racket floated long to end a match that felt lopsided despite the two tiebreakers, Djokovic turned and stared at his family and coaches sitting in his box. He pointed to his head, his heart and then just below his waistband, letting the world in on his team’s code language and telling it that winning on Sunday took everything he had.“It takes a big heart, mental strength and the other thing as well,” he said with a laugh once the night had turned into early morning.He wore a jacket emblazoned with a bright No. 22 just under the right side of his collarbone and called this triumph “the biggest victory of my life.”The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam event ran from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Coaching That Feels Like ‘Cheating’: In-match coaching has always happened on the sly, but this year is the first time the Australian Open has allowed players to be coached from the stands.Rod Laver Likes What He Sees: At 84 years old, the man with his name on the stadium sits courtside at the Australian Open.India’s Superstar: Sania Mirza, who leaves tennis as a sleeping giant, has been a trailblazer nonetheless. “I would like to have a quieter life,” she said.Behind the Scenes: A coterie of billionaires, deep-pocketed companies and star players has engaged for months in a high-stakes battle to lead what they view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to disrupt the sport.In addition to gaining pole position to surge past the injured star Nadal on the career Grand Slam list — and in the GOAT debate — Djokovic also reclaimed the top spot in the world rankings, making him, at 35, the second-oldest player to reach that rarefied realm, behind only Roger Federer, who was nearly 37 during his last stint on top of the tennis world. Djokovic turns 36 on May 22. It’s probably a bad idea to bet against his taking that record from Federer, as he has so many others.The feat is even more noteworthy given how much tennis Djokovic has had to miss in the last year. He cannot play in the United States because of his refusal to get a Covid-19 shot. Unless there is a change in that policy, he will again miss a major tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., in March and the hardcourts swing this summer, which includes the U.S. Open.He is either stubborn or a man of principle — and more likely both.Djokovic’s score sheets in this tournament might suggest that these last two weeks were little more than a vacation with some tennis thrown in. He dropped only a single set in seven matches. His fourth-round, quarterfinal and semifinal tests were nearly complete wipeouts of opponents.Djokovic called the triumph “the biggest victory of my life.”Loren Elliott/ReutersWhen Djokovic is on, as he was in the second week of this tournament, his game is all about firsts. Line-scraping first serves that give him the first point of his service games. First breaks of his opponents’ serves that become an initial dagger, and first-set wins for a player who rarely lets anyone creep back into a match.He does not let opponents catch their breath, smacking returns at their shins, forcing them to hit yet another shot, and then another one, after they think they have won a point. It’s tennis as a form of suffocation. Tommy Paul, the American who lost to Djokovic in the semifinals, said when it was over that much of the first set had been a blur. Paul has played tennis his whole life, but this time the seconds between points, between the moment he hit a ball and the moment he was on the run chasing the next one, had never passed so quickly.Andrey Rublev, a Russian with a fearsome forehand and serve, paced in the hallway in the minutes before being called onto the court to play him in the quarterfinals. In the fourth round, Alex de Minaur, playing in front of a hometown crowd ready to cheer him into battle, won just five games. After demolishing de Minaur, Djokovic said to the Serbian press that playing against an Australian in Australia had motivated him because of what the country’s government had done to him last year, detaining and deporting him because of his notoriety and his stance against mandated vaccinations.But Djokovic’s reclamation mission in Australia was filled with hazards. Ahead of the tournament, he aggravated his hamstring. It forced him to take the court wearing a thick strapping around the injured area until the final. He hobbled through the first week, playing without the magical movement that is the foundation of his game.Goran Ivanisevic, Djokovic’s coach, said 97 percent of players would have pulled out of the tournament.“He is from outer space,” Ivanisevic said of Djokovic, who became even more aggressive because of his injury, smacking his forehand whenever he saw a chance to end a point quickly. “His brain is working different.”And then, as with so many of his previous injuries, a combination of rest, massages and painkillers made the pain and discomfort go away when it mattered most. He heard the noise on social media questioning whether the leg had ever been hurt at all, and shot back that no one ever questioned the validity of other players’ injuries — an unsubtle reference to the always banged-up Nadal.Then, just as he was hitting top speed, his father, Srdjan, was caught on video taking a picture with fans outside Rod Laver Arena, some of whom were holding Russian flags, after Djokovic’s win in the quarterfinals. Serbia and Russia have close political and cultural ties. Tennis crowds outside Serbia almost always arrive with some hostility for Djokovic, and they pull hard for his opponents, who are usually underdogs.Djokovic dealt with Paul and then dealt with the public, assuring everyone that his father had never meant to show support for the war in Ukraine, that as someone who grew up in the war-torn Balkans he knew the horrors of violent conflict and would never support it.After that, only Tsitsipas, for years seen as tennis’s heir apparent, stood in his way. Tsitsipas was completely overwhelmed by Djokovic in the final.James Ross/EPA, via ShutterstockMaybe Sunday night in Australia, where the large, spirited Greek population has turned Tsitsipas into an adopted son, would be the night, especially with the No. 1 ranking on the line.Then again, maybe not. Tsitsipas came out without the ease and fluidity that he had played with for nearly two weeks, and he fell behind early. Djokovic barely seemed to break a sweat as he took the first set.In the second set, though, Tsitsipas’s arm seemed to loosen, the forehands started to bang and the windmill one-hand backhands started to whip.This will undoubtedly be the hour that keeps Tsitsipas up at night in the coming weeks. The netted volley that would have given him a chance to break Djokovic’s serve at 4-3. The tentative return of Djokovic’s meatball of a second serve when Tsitsipas had set point. The long forehand and the loose backhand — the stroke Djokovic picked on all night that gave him the edge he would not give up in the tiebreaker.“He’s the greatest that has ever held a tennis racket,” Tsitsipas said of Djokovic as he held his runner-up plate once more.Djokovic is the game’s best front-runner, winning roughly 95 percent of the matches in which he wins the first set. He has lost a two-set lead only once, 13 years ago.They traded service breaks in the first two games of the third set, and then traded service games until yet another tiebreaker. Like the match itself, this one was not nearly as close as the final numbers. Tsitsipas sprayed his shots long and into the net, allowing Djokovic to grab a 5-0 lead.And while Tsitsipas made it close, winning five of the next six points, as Djokovic tightened his game and Tsitsipas swung his racket with nothing to lose, there was little question how this would end — only when. More

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      Novak Djokovic Comes Full Circle at the Australian Open

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      Deported a year ago and unable to play in 2022’s first Grand Slam tournament, Djokovic deeply felt this major title, his 22nd, calling it “a huge relief.”MELBOURNE, Australia — It felt like a full-circle occasion as Novak Djokovic celebrated on Sunday in the same city where he had been deported on a Sunday little more than a year ago.It felt like a cycle was ending. With the Australian Open title and the No. 1 ranking back in his possession, he cried in a way that he had never cried before at Melbourne Park or perhaps at any tournament: with big, loud, body-wrenching sobs as he lay on his back in the players’ box after embracing his family and team and then dropping to the ground, overcome by it all.When he finally returned to his feet and then to his courtside seat, he buried his face in a white towel and sobbed some more.“I just felt this huge burden off my back with everything we’ve been through,” he said. “It was a huge relief, and a huge release as well.”Djokovic has experienced no shortage of powerful sensations in Rod Laver Arena: the coming-of-age giddiness of winning his first Grand Slam singles title in 2008; the sweet misery of winning the longest major singles final in history in 2012 over Rafael Nadal, a 5-hour-53-minute test that left both combatants too weary to stand for the awards ceremony.But Sunday will surely occupy a category apart. Not for the final itself — a relatively straightforward 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas — but for all that led to it and how Djokovic reacted.“He’s keeping everything inside,” Goran Ivanisevic, his coach, said. “Sometimes you have to explode.”Djokovic’s decision not to be vaccinated for the coronavirus has had big consequences, and returning to Australia after his forced exit on the eve of last year’s Australian Open would have been plenty to process on its own. But then came the left hamstring injury that caused Djokovic to hobble at times during the early rounds.Ivanisevic said “97 percent” of players would have withdrawn from the tournament if they had received magnetic resonance imaging test results that looked like Djokovic’s.“But not him; he is from outer space,” said Ivanisevic, pointing a finger to his temple. “His brain is working different.”The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam event runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Coaching That Feels Like ‘Cheating’: In-match coaching has always happened on the sly, but this year is the first time the Australian Open has allowed players to be coached from the stands.Rod Laver Likes What He Sees: At 84 years old, the man with his name on the stadium sits courtside at the Australian Open.India’s Superstar: Sania Mirza, who leaves tennis as a sleeping giant, has been a trailblazer nonetheless. “I would like to have a quieter life,” she said.Behind the Scenes: A coterie of billionaires, deep-pocketed companies and star players has engaged for months in a high-stakes battle to lead what they view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to disrupt the sport.Djokovic, who said he would have withdrawn if this were not a Grand Slam tournament, said he did not practice on any of the off days. He followed the same template in 2021 when he won the title after tearing an abdominal muscle. This time, he also required extensive therapy.“Look, a lot of people doubted and still doubt that I was injured,” he said, explaining that he would provide evidence at some stage. “But again, I don’t feel I need to prove anything to anyone. But it did affect me, especially in the first week. From the fourth round onwards, I felt like it was behind me.”Then came the latest controversy sparked by his father, Srdjan, who posed for photos with flag-carrying Russian supporters inside Melbourne Park after Djokovic’s quarterfinal defeat of the Russian Andrey Rublev on Wednesday.Djokovic explained that his father had intended to celebrate with Serbian fans as he had been doing throughout the tournament. But it was Djokovic who was left to address the incident with tournament officials and to explain it directly to the news media.“It required an enormous mental energy really to stay present, to stay focused, to take things day by day and really see how far I can go,” Djokovic said.Stefanos Tsitsipas, left, and Djokovic, during the trophy ceremony.Loren Elliott/ReutersBut it hardly affected the bottom line. He did not lose a set in the semifinal against Tommy Paul, an unseeded American, or in the final against Tsitsipas, the shaggy-haired, 24-year-old Greek star who beat Djokovic in two of their first three matches but has now lost to him 10 times in a row.On Sunday, Tsitsipas’s best shot, the forehand, too often cracked under Djokovic’s pressure, and sometimes it seemed as if it cracked simply at the prospect of Djokovic’s pressure. But Tsitsipas, who would have become No. 1 for the first time with a first major title, did not look quite as crestfallen as he did after losing a two-set lead to Djokovic in the 2021 French Open final.“Paris was heartbreaking,” he said.Instead, whether he realized it or not, he tried to take a page on Sunday night from Djokovic’s early-career playbook: when the Serb was getting beaten repeatedly by more established champions like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Despite the frustration and dejection, Djokovic came to see playing his accomplished rivals as an opportunity to get the most out of himself.“Novak is a player that pushes you to your limits,” Tsitsipas said. “I don’t see this as a curse. I don’t see this as something, like, annoying. This is very good for the sport, to have competitors like him, to have champions like him. He’s very important for us that want to get to his point one day.”This seems the smart approach rather than stewing in negativity. But the reality for Tsitsipas is that Djokovic won that first Grand Slam title in 2008 in Melbourne at age 20 and won four more majors before he turned 25. And however full circle it all felt in Melbourne on Sunday night, Djokovic is hardly done searching for more titles, more ways to win.He and Nadal, who won the Australian Open in Djokovic’s absence last year, are back in a tie with 22 Grand Slam singles titles apiece. Djokovic wants the lead and as many majors as he can get before time and younger men inevitably deprive him of the opportunity.Like Federer, whose wife Mirka’s support on the home front and on the road with their young children allowed him to compete successfully on tour into his late 30s, Djokovic’s wife, Jelena, is giving him the same flexibility with their young son and daughter. Unvaccinated for the coronavirus, he is still unable to enter the United States at this stage but said he hoped a change in policy would allow him to enter in time to play at Indian Wells, Calif., in March.“I still have lots of motivation; let’s see how far it takes me,” he said. “I don’t know how many more years I’m going to play or how many more Slams I’m going to play. It depends on various things. It doesn’t depend only on my body.“I think it’s extremely important for me to first have the support and love from the close ones and the ability to go and play and keep the balance with the private life. But at the same time have the mental clarity or — how should I say — aspirations to really strive to chase these trophies. Physically I can keep myself fit. Of course, 35 is not 25, even though I want to believe it is. But I still feel there is time ahead of me.”Djokovic’s let out a scream, and also sobbed, after winning the men’s singles final on Sunday.Lintao Zhang/Getty ImagesFederer, 41, retired last September, and Nadal, 36, no doubt remains a threat when healthy but is out of action again for at least several weeks, this time with the hip injury that contributed to his losing in the second round to Mackenzie McDonald.Ivanisevic expects Nadal back in force in the spring for the clay-court season that culminates with the French Open, which Nadal has won a mind-bending 14 times, more than any player has won any Grand Slam tournament.“What I feel Nadal and I do, what we still fight for and what still motivates us the most is winning the biggest titles in our sport and keeping up with the young guns,” Djokovic said. “I think tennis is in good hands with great characters, great personalities and great players, but we’re still not going anywhere.”Djokovic has now joined Nadal in the double-digit club at a major tournament with his 10th Australian Open title.It has been and remains quite a duel, elevating and at times exhausting both men. Chasing excellence is hard enough; chasing it through adversity, whatever its provenance, is harder still.Though Djokovic, with his supreme timing and elastic movement, can make a difficult game look easy, his emotions in the aftermath on Sunday made it clear how challenging this tournament and this cycle have been. A little more than a year ago, he and Ivanisevic were at Melbourne Airport, being escorted to their plane out of the country.Now, Djokovic is back on top Down Under.“I would say this is probably the biggest victory of my life, considering the circumstances,” he said, the Australian Open trophy back in very familiar hands. More

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      Why Coaching From the Stands in Tennis Can Feel Like ‘Cheating’

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      In-match coaching has always happened on the sly, but this year is the first time the Australian Open has allowed players to be coached from the stands.MELBOURNE, Australia — It has been an Australian Open full of progress and positive energy for Dean Goldfine, the traveling coach of the fast-rising American Ben Shelton, a surprise quarterfinalist in his first trip abroad.But Goldfine has also felt pangs of guilt. This is the first Australian Open, and only the second Grand Slam tournament, in which coaches have been allowed to communicate with players during matches from the stands, and that has made him uncomfortable.“Sometimes when I’m out there, when it’s happening, when I’m saying stuff, it’s like I want to look around and over my shoulder, because I feel like I’m cheating,” he said last week.Goldfine, 57, has been coaching on tour for more than 30 years. But in-match coaching had until recently been banned at all men’s tournaments, and at all four major tournaments for both women and men.The game is now in the midst of a quiet revolution. The women’s tour, outside of the Grand Slams, has allowed various forms of in-match coaching since 2008, and the men’s tour began allowing it last July from the stands for a trial period that included the 2022 U.S. Open, which was the first Grand Slam tournament to permit the practice.The Australian Open has followed that lead, and the other two major tournaments — the French Open and Wimbledon — are set to take part in the trial this year.Wimbledon’s leadership has long been the most vehement opponent of in-match coaching. Richard Lewis, the former chief executive of the All England Club, which runs the event, argued for the virtues of a “gladiatorial” contest in which players were required to problem-solve under pressure on their own.That remains an appealing concept to many players, spectators and even some coaches.“I’m against the coaching,” Goldfine said. “Just because for me that’s one of the unique things about our sport. It just takes away a big part of our game, which is the player out there, dealing with what’s going on and understanding it and being able to make adjustments and being able to deal with their emotions also.”Goldfine brought up Goran Ivanisevic, the mercurial Croatian star with the huge serve who did finally win Wimbledon in 2001 but had long struggled to bear down, block out distractions and play his best in big moments.“Imagine if Goran would have had someone that really could get him to calm down during matches,” Goldfine said.The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam event runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Rod Laver Likes What He Sees: At 84 years old, the man with his name on the stadium sits courtside at the Australian Open.India’s Superstar: Sania Mirza, who leaves tennis as a sleeping giant, has been a trailblazer nonetheless. “I would like to have a quieter life,” she said after the mixed doubles final.Behind the Scenes: A coterie of billionaires, deep-pocketed companies and star players has engaged for months in a high-stakes battle to lead what they view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to disrupt the sport.Endless Games: As matches stretch into the early-morning hours, players have grown concerned for their health and performance.The rule has been a point of difference for tennis, which has been the rare major sport to forbid coaching during play (consider all those soccer and basketball coaches hollering instructions and all those caddies chattering in golfers’ ears).But the tide appears to have turned in earnest. Roger Federer, the Swiss superstar long opposed to the concept, has retired. Wimbledon has new leadership and has joined the experiment, which is feeling less and less like a trial and more and more like policy.Stefano Vukov, Elena Rybakina’s coach, shouted from the player’s box during her women’s singles semifinal match against Victoria Azarenka.Martin Keep/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe main arguments in favor are that the interaction between coaches and players provides entertainment value, improves the quality of play and reflects the pro game’s shift to more of a team concept. Singles stars are relying on larger staffs, including physiotherapists, trainers, performance psychologists and, in the case of Rafael Nadal, sometimes as many as three coaches.Perhaps the most crucial argument is that allowing in-match coaching eliminates hypocrisy, because many coaches were already breaking the no-coaching rule on the sly.“I was at different times doing it, and I’m sure everyone’s done it at some stage,” said Nicole Pratt, a retired Australian player who is now a leading coach. “I guess probably being English-speaking and because most of the umpires understood English, I felt like that was somewhat a disadvantage sometimes. So now it’s an even, level playing field, and to be honest, I love it. Because I do think it can be influential on a match, the information a player is given, although not always.”In the past, in-match coaching has often been delivered illegally through code words or hand signals, like the one used by Serena Williams’s coach Patrick Mouratoglou during the uproarious 2018 U.S. Open final against Naomi Osaka that led to Williams being penalized by the chair umpire. Williams argued that she was not being coached during play and did not “cheat to win.”The language barrier has not always been protective. Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Greek star who will face Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final on Sunday, has long supported in-match coaching and has received numerous code violations for being coached by his father, Apostolos. Tournament officials have sometimes deployed Greek-speaking personnel to sit close to his father in the player’s box.Tsitsipas is delighted to see an end to the fines, at least for now. But above all, he is content to see the player-coach dialogue officially integrated into matches.“In my case, it has always been part of how I do things when I’m on the court,” Tsitsipas said on Friday. “I’m glad it’s not penalized now. That’s how it should be. I see no reason to have a coach with you if they can’t share some of their view and knowledge with you when you’re competing. I feel like it’s something very natural in our sport.”But in-match coaching is not necessarily a leveler. Top players can, in general, afford top coaches. Those lower down in the food chain usually cannot.“I worry about richer players getting richer,” said Jim Courier, the former No. 1 player who won the Australian Open twice. “I think about players who come down and play qualifying and cannot even travel with a coach and get in and go up against someone with four coaches.”Perhaps a data analyst would be a good hire at this stage. Many players now make use of analytics for scouting, paying for private services or using those provided by a national federation, like the United States Tennis Association. But for the coaching trial, the Australian Open is providing access to detailed in-match data, which is available on tablets in the player’s boxes at Rod Laver Arena and elsewhere on coaches’ smartphones or other devices.The data is compiled from information provided by Hawk-Eye Live, the electronic line-calling system, and tracks seemingly everything: players’ serve locations on routine points and pressure points; their ball-contact locations on the stroke following the serve; the percentage of balls they are hitting on the rise.“We knew we were going to have in-match coaching, which is great, but the question was how can we provide some support in an intuitive way,” said Machar Reid, the head of innovation at Tennis Australia.Stefanos Tsitsipas’s coaches — Mark Philippoussis, center, and his father, Apostolos Tsitsipas, right — watching his second-round match.Hannah Mckay/ReutersIt is quite a package and, for now, provides data only from matches in progress, not from an opponent’s prior matches. “This is all about in-match, and not so it can be used from a scouting point of view,” Reid said.Goldfine said the Tennis Australia package was “a lot to process” in real time, but he did pick out some data points to share with Shelton, a left-hander, during his quarterfinal defeat to Tommy Paul, a fellow American.“I did watch some of Tommy’s matches on Tennis TV, and in a couple of the lefty matches I watched, he served a fair amount of second serves to the forehand,” Goldfine said. “But against Ben, I noticed it was pretty much all backhand on the second serve. So that was one thing I did look at on the screen was serve locations, because for me, that’s big. So, I told Ben about halfway through the second set to sit on the backhand.”Goldfine offered much more advice to Shelton based on his own observations and instincts. The rules for the coaching trial allow for “a few words and/or short phrases,” but “no conversations are permitted.”How exactly do you define a conversation?“It’s a little ridiculous, just from that standpoint,” Goldfine said. “Just a big gray area.”What was clear to Goldfine and Shelton was that the coaching helped, perhaps all the more because Shelton, 20, is an inexperienced professional fresh out of college tennis, where in-match coaching is always permitted.“It’s been huge for Ben,” Goldfine said.It also provided entertainment when Paul, befuddled by Shelton’s big serve, turned to his coach, Brad Stine, to ask him which way Shelton might serve on the next point. Stine made a T with his fingers to indicate down the middle. Shelton, who had noticed their interaction, served wide instead, and everyone ended up grinning.The surprise is that the coaching trial has not changed the flow of the game much for spectators. It has provided some unsettling viewing — such as Elena Rybakina’s emotive coach Stefano Vukov admonishing her during matches — but it has generally gone unnoticed.The question remains whether in-match coaching provides enough payoff to justify changing a fundamental aspect of an individual sport. For now, tennis is leaning heavily toward the affirmative.“What I’m afraid of is that these young players will become dependent on their coaches,” Goldfine said. “And coaching for me is teaching, but having Ben experience it so he learns for himself, so he’s able to do these things on his own and figure things out. The last thing I want is my player to be dependent on me.” More

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      Big Risks and Big Rewards for Aryna Sabalenka at the Australian Open

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      The Belarusian, who beat Elena Rybakina to win her first Grand Slam title on Saturday, held the trophy in triumph while the war in Ukraine remained a brutal reality.MELBOURNE, Australia — It was the sort of outcome that Wimbledon had been intent on avoiding at the All England Club: a Belarusian champion holding up the silverware in triumph with the war in Ukraine still a brutal reality.But Wimbledon, where Belarusian and Russian players were banned in 2022 and may be again this year, has remained an outlier in professional tennis and increasingly in international sports.Aryna Sabalenka, born and raised to pound tennis balls into submission in Minsk, Belarus, was free to play and win the Australian Open women’s singles title as a neutral competitor, even if there was scant chance her victory would be greeted neutrally at home or by her country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, whom she knows personally.“I think everyone still knows I’m a Belarusian player, and that’s it,” Sabalenka said on Saturday night at a news conference, a glass of champagne in hand and the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup glittering beside her.She put her name on the trophy and secured her first Grand Slam women’s singles title with a brilliant and bold performance. Anything less would not have sufficed against Elena Rybakina in their gripping, corner-to-corner final that might have been better suited to a ring as the two six-footers exchanged big blows for two hours and 28 minutes.Mash tennis. Crush tennis. Rip tennis. Smack tennis. Take your pick, but something onomatopoeic seemed appropriate with all that power on display, and what separated this match from many a tennis slugfest was the consistent depth and quality of the punching.High risk was rewarded repeatedly on Saturday as both finalists took big swings, aiming close to the lines and often hitting them.The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam event runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Coaching That Feels Like ‘Cheating’: In-match coaching has always happened on the sly, but this year is the first time the Australian Open has allowed players to be coached from the stands.Rod Laver Likes What He Sees: At 84 years old, the man with his name on the stadium sits courtside at the Australian Open.India’s Superstar: Sania Mirza, who leaves tennis as a sleeping giant, has been a trailblazer nonetheless. “I would like to have a quieter life,” she said.Behind the Scenes: A coterie of billionaires, deep-pocketed companies and star players has engaged for months in a high-stakes battle to lead what they view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to disrupt the sport.Rybakina finished with 31 winners to 25 unforced errors. Sabalenka, in what looked like the finest performance of her career, finished with 51 winners to 28 unforced errors: She cranked up the quality after an erratic opening set and won the lion’s share of the rallies, or maybe the tiger’s share, considering she had the animal tattooed on her left forearm at age 18 to remind her to fight for every point.“My parents didn’t know about this tattoo,” she told the Tennis Channel. “When they saw it the first time, my dad was laughing, I don’t know why, but my mom didn’t talk to me for one week.”Five years later, the tattoo remains but much has changed: Her father, Sergey, died in 2019 at age 43, leaving Sabalenka committed to achieving the dream he had for her to become No. 1.She has already fulfilled his wish in doubles, reaching the top spot in 2021. When the new singles rankings are released on Monday, she will be back at No. 2, behind Iga Swiatek, who still has a large lead based on her terrific 2022 season but who has lost to Sabalenka and Rybakina in the last two significant tournaments.Sabalenka, with the tattoo of a tiger on her left forearm that she got at 18 to remind her to fight for every point.Fazry Ismail/EPA, via ShutterstockSabalenka defeated her in November in the semifinals of the WTA Finals, the season-ending tour championships in Fort Worth. Rybakina overpowered Swiatek in the fourth round in Melbourne on her way to the final.Swiatek, the Polish star who looked set to become a dominant No. 1, is instead struggling to adjust to her new status and facing increased competition at the top, although she remains, until proven otherwise, the best women’s clay-court player.But on other surfaces, Sabalenka and Rybakina, last year’s surprise Wimbledon champion, clearly pose a formidable threat with their aggressive returns, relatively flat groundstrokes and penetrating serves.There were rare variations on Saturday: a drop-shot winner from Rybakina, a few defensive lobs and the occasional off-speed backhand. But for the most part, it was strength versus strength; straight-line power against straight-line power. The spectacle was frequently breathtaking, but you did not have to hold your breath for more than a few seconds: The longest rally was 13 strokes, and the average rally length was just 3.28 strokes.It was tennis reminiscent of the big-serving, high-velocity duels between Serena and Venus Williams. It was also a significant departure from last year’s Australian Open, where Ashleigh Barty ended a 44-year singles drought for the host country by winning the title, putting her court craft and crisply sliced one-handed backhand to work before shocking the tennis world (and Australia) by retiring in March at age 25.But Barty, now married to Garry Kissick and expecting their first child, has hardly avoided the Australian Open, making numerous public appearances this year and walking onto Rod Laver Arena before Saturday’s final with the Akhurst Memorial Cup in hand.“I can honestly look myself in the mirror and say I gave everything to tennis, but it gave me back so much more in return,” she said in a recent interview. “And all that really starts from the people I was surrounded with. So much of my success is our success. It genuinely is.”Sabalenka could relate to that on Saturday as she shared a post-victory moment with her team and then watched from afar as her normally stoic coach, Anton Dubrov, put a white towel to his face and sobbed in the player box.Sabalenka said she had never seen Dubrov cry and explained that last season, in February, as she struggled with the yips on her second serve and her confidence and reached a point where she could not even openly discuss the problem, Dubrov offered his resignation.“There were moments last year when he said, ‘I think I’m done, and I think I cannot give you something else, and you have to find someone else,’” Sabalenka said in an interview with Nine Network. “And I said: ‘No, you’re not right. It’s not about you. We just have to work through these tough moments, and we’ll come back stronger.’”Her performance on Saturday was incontrovertible proof that they had succeeded, with the help of a biomechanical expert but also Sabalenka’s own resilience. She is 11-0 this year and though she double-faulted seven times in the final, including on her first match point, she also repeatedly shrugged off any jitters (and the palpable concern of the big crowd) and came up with aces or service winners on subsequent serves.In the end, she hit 17 aces to Rybakina’s 9.“For sure, it’s not easy mentally,” Rybakina said of Sabalenka. “She didn’t have a great serve last year, but now she was super strong and she served well. For sure, I respect that. I know how much work it takes.”Rybakina has paid her dues, too. Born and raised in Russia, she switched allegiance to Kazakhstan in exchange for financial support in 2018. And though she was allowed to play at Wimbledon last year, her victory, with her strong Russian connections, was not the outcome the tournament was seeking either when it imposed its ban under pressure from the British government.Some Ukrainian players continue to oppose Russians and Belarusians being allowed to compete at all on tour, even as neutrals. The debate is about to intensify as the International Olympic Committee begins to push for Russians and Belarusians to be allowed to compete as independent athletes at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris — a move the Ukrainian government strongly opposes and could respond to by withdrawing its own athletes.But Sabalenka, after sitting out Wimbledon, where she reached the semifinals in 2021, is now a Grand Slam singles champion in Australia and was feted with no apparent ambivalence by the Australian Open tournament director, Craig Tiley, and was awarded her trophy in Rod Laver Arena by Billie Jean King.Sabalenka’s news conference was full of questions intended not to confront her directly but rather to probe the issue. However you present her on the scoreboard, it was a Belarus victory.“Missing the Wimbledon was really tough for me,” she said. “It was a tough moment for me. But I played the U.S. Open after. It’s not about Wimbledon right now. It’s just about the hard work I’ve done.” More

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      Aryna Sabalenka Wins the Australian Open Women’s Singles Title

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      The 24-year-old Belarusian player pushed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan to three sets to capture her first Grand Slam singles title.Aryna Sabalenka is no longer afraid of big stages.Overcoming a history of buckling under the pressure of late-round Grand Slam tennis, Sabalenka, the powerful 24-year-old from Belarus, came from behind to beat Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the women’s singles final of the Australian Open on Saturday.In a matchup of two of the biggest hitters in the sport, Sabalenka was a little more fearless and a few clicks more clinical than Rybakina in the crucial moments to cap off a dominant summer of tennis in Australia. It was Sabalenka’s first Grand Slam title in a rocky career that has included the kind of error-ridden, big-moment meltdowns from which some players almost never recover.Instead, the match proved a microcosm of Sabalenka’s career — a shaky start, filled with ill-timed double faults followed by a steadying midmatch recovery before a final-set display of raw power and precision that her opponent could not answer.And it all went down after Sabalenka decided last year to make a contrarian move in an era when athletes train their minds as hard as they train their bodies. Sabalenka fired her sports psychologist, deciding that if she was going to exorcise the demons of all those losses, she was going to have to do it on her own.On the final, anxious point, Rybakina sent a forehand long. In an instant, Sabalenka was on her back on the blue court, crying tears of joy — and relief.“It’s just the best day of my life right now,” she would say later.Holding the championship trophy on a stage a few minutes later, Sabalenka turned to her coaches and thanked them for sticking with her on an emotional ride to this first Grand Slam title.The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam event ran from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Coaching That Feels Like ‘Cheating’: In-match coaching has always happened on the sly, but this year is the first time the Australian Open has allowed players to be coached from the stands.Rod Laver Likes What He Sees: At 84 years old, the man with his name on the stadium sits courtside at the Australian Open.India’s Superstar: Sania Mirza, who leaves tennis as a sleeping giant, has been a trailblazer nonetheless. “I would like to have a quieter life,” she said.Behind the Scenes: A coterie of billionaires, deep-pocketed companies and star players has engaged for months in a high-stakes battle to lead what they view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to disrupt the sport.“We’ve been through a lot of downs,” she said. “It’s more about you than it is about me.”Hardly, of course, especially on a night when she had to overcome an opponent who had proven herself on a stage like this before.Rybakina, a native Russian who became a citizen of Kazakhstan five years ago in exchange for financial support, was aiming to back up her championship run at Wimbledon and announce herself as the major threat in women’s tennis.“I should have been more aggressive,” Rybakina said when it was over. “She was stronger mentally, physically.”Instead it was Sabalenka who showed the mettle needed to survive the kind of high-risk, high-reward tennis battle that had seemed inevitable from the first days of a tournament in which the conditions were ideal for the biggest, flattest hitters.When players first began arriving in Melbourne more than two weeks ago, they said the combination of heat, humidity and court preparation had made the balls difficult to spin, giving the edge to players who hammer their first serves and rips at nearly every rally ball as though they get extra credit for velocity.That suited Rybakina and Sabalenka just fine, as they played with the silver champion’s trophy sparkling on a pedestal in the corner of the court, in case either of them tried to pretend this was just another match.Entering the finals, Rybakina led the field with in aces with 45. Sabalenka was third with 29. They were first and second in hitting winners off their opponents’ serve, and at the top of the charts in peak serve speed, with both cracking 120 miles per hour.Subtle, deft, tennis this was not, and for Rybakina it was so different from her championship match at Wimbledon in July, when she played Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, one of the most creative players in the game.It was also different psychologically, too, and not only because she was doing something in Australia that she had already done before and that her opponent had not.Sabalenka, left, hugs Elena Rybakina after winning her first Grand Slam women’s singles title.William West/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesRybakina, a Russian through her childhood who became a citizen of Kazakhstan when the country promised to pay for her tennis training, spent the better part of two weeks during Wimbledon talking about whether she was actually Kazakh or Russian. She was also asked to answer for her native country’s invasion of Ukraine as she stampeded to the title. Her family still lives in Russia, and Wimbledon had prohibited players from Russia and Belarus from participating.That sidelined Sabalenka, one of the few players who can match, and often top, Rybakina thump for thump.Sabalenka’s power is different than Rybakina’s, though. Both players are six feet tall, but Sabalenka swings a tennis racket like a lumberjack wields an ax, screaming with exertion on every stroke, every bit of struggle and emotion visible in her eyes, while Rybakina’s long arms make her seem like a human trebuchet, slinging shots in silence and giving no hint of the turmoil stirring inside.As Sabalenka settled in and knotted the score, the match became a test of which brand of high-octane tennis could sustain the pressure of a final set for one of the biggest championships in the sport. As the reigning Wimbledon champion playing against a first-time Grand Slam finalist, Rybakina held a priceless edge in experience, but Sabalenka had all of the momentum, and the balls were jumping off her strings with a pop and a zip that Rybakina couldn’t match.The scoreboard showed them trading service games through the first six games, but Sabalenka was on cruise control and Rybakina had to keep finding big serves or tiny escape hatches to stay even.Sabalenka hugged the trophy after coming back from down a set to beat Rybakina.Martin Keep/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesServing in the seventh game Rybakina could no longer do it. On her third chance to get the crucial break of serve, Sabalenka sent her opponent scrambling after shots, then put away the game with an overhead shot from the middle of the court. Two games from the championship and in the driver’s seat, Sabalenka pumped her fist, took a few deep breaths and mouthfuls of water on the changeover, then strutted back onto the court to hammer her way to the title.An ace into the corner of the service box put her one game from cradling the trophy, which would be hers if she could just avoid wobbling.That Sabalenka was able to do so was the result of shifting how she thought about herself as a tennis player. “I started respecting myself more,” she said. “I started to understand that I am here because I worked so hard and I am a good player. I’m good enough to handle everything.”On Thursday, after finally making her first Grand Slam final on her fourth try, Sabalenka talked about having fired her sports psychologist. She decided that she was the only one who could find a way to overcome the mental struggles that doomed her in the past.“Every time hoping that someone will fix my problem, it’s not fixing my problem,” she said. “I just have to take this responsibility, and I just have to deal with that. I’m not working with a psychologist any more. I’m my psychologist.”For one moment the old Sabalenka reappeared as she tried to serve out the match at 5-4. She aced Rybakina to get to her first match point, then double-faulted to let Rybakina back in.Then, on Sabalenka’s fourth match point, Rybakina buckled, sending that forehand long, and an overwhelmed Sabalenka flat onto her back.Match over. Demons exorcised. And a new member of the sport’s most revered club. More

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      Rod Laver ‘Might Have Hurt Somebody’ With a Modern Racket

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      At 84 years old, the man with his name on the stadium sits courtside at the Australian Open. He likes what he sees.MELBOURNE, Australia — In the middle of the 1960s, before tennis entered the modern era, Rod Laver and the other top tennis players in the world had to barnstorm the globe hunting for paychecks, playing tennis matches everywhere from La Paz to Nairobi, like jazz musicians bouncing from gig to gig.Envious of the riches that the golf stars Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer were accumulating, Laver wrote to their agent, Mark McCormack, the founder of the sports and entertainment conglomerate IMG, and asked for help.“He didn’t think that tennis was big enough back in those years. He said he couldn’t do anything for me,” Laver said Friday afternoon. “I wrote back again two or three years later. He finally said ‘yes.’”By then, tennis was beginning its evolution from a largely amateur pursuit in which professionals could not play the biggest tournaments into the posh international spectacle it is today, with its biggest stars making tens of millions of dollars a year.A half-century ago, there was no bigger star than Laver, who won 11 Grand Slam singles titles and who remains the last man to win the four biggest tournaments in the sport in a single calendar year.The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam event ran from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Coaching That Feels Like ‘Cheating’: In-match coaching has always happened on the sly, but this year is the first time the Australian Open has allowed players to be coached from the stands.Rod Laver Likes What He Sees: At 84 years old, the man with his name on the stadium sits courtside at the Australian Open.India’s Superstar: Sania Mirza, who leaves tennis as a sleeping giant, has been a trailblazer nonetheless. “I would like to have a quieter life,” she said.Behind the Scenes: A coterie of billionaires, deep-pocketed companies and star players has engaged for months in a high-stakes battle to lead what they view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to disrupt the sport.Now 84 and living in California, Laver remains a king of the sport, a slight, diminutive redhead-gone-gray with a magical left arm.He spoke with The New York Times on Friday afternoon at a restaurant in the arena that bears his name in Melbourne Park.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.You played in a lot of places that bear little resemblance to an immaculate facility like Rod Laver Arena. Do you think about that, playing in La Paz, Bolivia, at 12,000 feet in a glorified gymnasium, as you watch the players compete in this grand stadium named for you?Well, in La Paz, you’re so high and we were using regular balls. I was playing with Fred Stolle and Butch Buchholz and Roy Emerson, and we decided we had to puncture the balls because they were flying all over the place. We put a little hole in them so we were playing flat-ball tennis. At least the people who came then didn’t think we were animals.I was in Nairobi once, and it was raining a lot, and someone got the idea to pour gas on the court and light it on fire to dry it out. There was black smoke everywhere. We probably were not very popular.Laver after winning the Australian Open in 1969.News Ltd/NewspixHow do you compare the highest level of the sport when you were playing to the highest level today?It’s a totally different world. I think our tennis was very good. But we were playing with small wooden rackets. Today’s players have a bigger-headed racket. They’re taller guys. They’re great athletes.Would you have liked to have competed with the modern technology?It would be nice. I did enjoy playing with the Dunlop racket. I think I played some damn good tennis with that racket.If you had the modern racket, can you imagine how you might have played Novak Djokovic?I think I might have hurt somebody. My left arm is like twice the size. I may not be able to get the ball in the court, but I can get a lot of speed up. I’d have to spin the ball to bring it down.Do you see any part of yourself in Djokovic in the way he approaches and dominates the sport?No. Two different games. I used what I learned from my coach back when I was 14. He said, “You lefties have the worst chip backhands; you’ll never win Wimbledon. You’ve got to learn to hit a topspin backhand.” I was hitting into the cheap seats for quite some time. Finally, I got a little more control, and bit by bit I found that that was my best shot.Laver during a match at Wimbledon in 1969, when he won the calendar-year Grand Slam.Tim Graham/Hulton Archive, via Getty ImagesSo do you think you could compete with today’s best?I think I could be competitive, but today’s players, they’re different. Everything is different. Emerson and I would be playing doubles on clay together, and we would come into the dressing room and kick our shoes off and just walk into the shower. There was red dirt all over you, and that was how we would wash out clothes. We would then hang them up, and they would be dry for us to play in the next day. When you were flying in those days, sometimes you could only have 20 kilos of clothes on the plane with you, and I’m on the road all year.You ended up playing until you were fairly old for a tennis player back then.My last match I was 38. In one tournament when I was getting on I had gotten to the last eight, and I had to play Bjorn Borg. I remember telling him, because we were good friends, I said, “You’re going to beat me, but you’re going to know that you played me.”What was the key to being able to play at such a high level until you were nearly 40?It’s your attitude and also the way you play. Did you wear out your body? I didn’t ever have problems. You always have some sort of trouble with your shoulders, your ankles. But if you look after yourself, you can. We also didn’t have as many great, great players. We had a few. If we got to the semis or a final, you would play them.The way the game is now, there are so many of them. All the Europeans who are competing, we didn’t have nearly as many when we played. More

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      Djokovic Is Back in the Australian Open Final

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      Djokovic will play for his 22nd Grand Slam title on Sunday against Stefanos Tsitsipas. Will his father, Srdjan, be in his usual seat in the stands to cheer him on?MELBOURNE, Australia — For Novak Djokovic, everything was going according to plan. Even better than that, by many measures.He had charmed a country that had kicked him out a year ago over his refusal to be vaccinated. The soreness in his hamstring at the beginning of the tournament had all but disappeared, allowing him to look nearly invincible in the crucial second week of the tournament. He appeared on a glide pattern to yet another Australian Open men’s singles title and the 22nd Grand Slam title of his career.And then his father, Srdjan Djokovic troubled the waters.Djokovic, Serbia’s favorite son and most famous citizen, will play for his 10th Australian Open championship on Sunday against Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, but the glide pattern is officially over. He defeated Tommy Paul in straight sets Friday, 7-5, 6-1, 6-2, in front of a hostile crowd that notably did not include his father, who has been at all his other matches during this tournament.Srdjan Djokovic on Thursday appeared in a video with fans outside Rod Laver Arena, some of whom were holding Russian flags, and next to a man wearing a shirt with the “Z” symbol that is viewed as support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite the tournament’s ban on Russian and Belarusian flags.Serbia has close political and cultural ties to Russia, and support for the Russian invasion is significant there, unlike in most of the rest of Europe. The incident made headlines worldwide, sparking the ire of Ukraine’s government and sending both the tournament and Djokovic’s team scrambling to control the damage.Early Friday, Srdjan Djokovic released a statement saying he had been celebrating with his son’s fans on Wednesday night and did not mean to cause an international incident. “My family has lived through the horror of war, and we wish only for peace,” the statement said. “So there is no disruption to tonight’s semifinal for my son or for the other player, I have chosen to watch from home.”The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam event runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.Coaching That Feels Like ‘Cheating’: In-match coaching has always happened on the sly, but this year is the first time the Australian Open has allowed players to be coached from the stands.Rod Laver Likes What He Sees: At 84 years old, the man with his name on the stadium sits courtside at the Australian Open.India’s Superstar: Sania Mirza, who leaves tennis as a sleeping giant, has been a trailblazer nonetheless. “I would like to have a quieter life,” she said.Behind the Scenes: A coterie of billionaires, deep-pocketed companies and star players has engaged for months in a high-stakes battle to lead what they view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to disrupt the sport.Hours later, Tennis Australia, which had been criticized for not acting more swiftly to snuff out demonstrations that might incite violence, released its own statement, saying that it had worked with police to remove the demonstrators and spoken with players and their teams about the importance of not engaging in any activity that causes distress or disruption. The organization noted Srdjan Djokovic’s decision not to attend the match.“Tennis Australia stands with the call for peace and an end to war and violent conflict in Ukraine,” the statement said.After the match, Djokovic said his father’s actions had been misinterpreted, that he had no intention of offering support to Russia and the war.“We are against the war, we never will support any violence or any war,” he said. “We know how devastating that is for the family, for people in any country that is going through the war.”He said he and his father decided together that it would be best for him not to attend the semifinal but he hoped he would be there watching him in the final on Sunday.“It wasn’t pleasant not to have him in the box,” he said.Only Djokovic knows how the incident affected his play, but he was erratic early against Paul, the first-time Grand Slam semifinalist from the United States. Djokovic jumped out to an early 5-1 lead, but after he complained to the chair umpire about a fan who was harassing him he fell into a temporary funk. He dropped the next four games as the crowd rallied behind the American underdog and taunted the defending champion. Boos echoed through the stadium after Djokovic steadied himself to win the first set, 7-5.Djokovic responded by putting his hand to his ear and waving his hands as if to say, “bring it on,” which spurred the clumps of Serbian fans who attend Djokovic’s matches no matter where in the world he is playing to drown out the howls.Tsitsipas lost to Djokovic in the 2021 French Open finals after surrendering a two-set lead.Fazry Ismail/EPA, via ShutterstockThe atmosphere is likely to be even more spirited on Sunday against Tsitsipas, who is a local favorite because of Australia’s significant Greek population, among the largest in the world outside of Greece and the United States. It will be a rematch of the French Open final in 2021. There, Djokovic came back from two sets down to win his second French Open singles title.Tsitsipas has struggled to recover from that loss but has been playing arguably his best tennis since then at this tournament. Whoever wins will be the world’s top-ranked player.On Friday, he beat Karen Khachanov of Russia in four sets, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3. At 4-4 in the second set, Tsitsipas turned a tight match, scrambling for a series of overheads and winning the 22-shot rally with a rolling forehand winner to break Khachanov’s serve, then clinched the set in the next game. Despite wobbling in the third set with the finish line in sight, Tsitsipas came out strong in the fourth set and cruised into his second Grand Slam final, a test he said he has never been more ready for, especially with the Greek-Australian Mark Philippoussis helping his father coach.“I just see no downside or negativity in what I’m trying to do out there,” he said after beating Khachanov. “Even if it doesn’t work, I’m very optimistic and positive about any outcome, any opponent that I have to face. This is something that has been sort of lacking in my game.”Djokovic has not struggled with internal negativity in years, with good reason. He has won four of the last six Grand Slams he has played and is often most dangerous when facing adversity. The negativity he has had to deal with is external, whether it’s criticism for his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19, or his requests that fans who try to disrupt him be removed from his matches, which has happened several times during this tournament.“It’s not pleasant for me to go through this with all the things that I had to deal with last year and this year in Australia,” he said. “It’s not something that I want or need.”There may be plenty of criticism at Sunday’s final. Chances are, Djokovic will be ready for it. More