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      Iga Swiatek Falls at Wimbledon, Ending a Long Win Streak

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      Frustrated by low bounces on the grass courts that took away her most powerful weapons, the top-seeded women’s singles player lost in straight sets to Alizé Cornet of France.WIMBLEDON, England — Iga Swiatek, the world No. 1 and the top seed at Wimbledon, did something she had not done in more than four months Saturday. She lost a tennis match.Swiatek, the 21-year-old two-time Grand Slam champion from Poland, lost in the third round to Alizé Cornet, the veteran Frenchwoman, 6-4, 6-2, ending her winning streak at 37 matches, one of the longest in modern women’s tennis.Swiatek, though, did not lose the match so much as Cornet won it, emphatically even.Playing with strapping on her left thigh, Cornet came out swinging hard, matching Swiatek’s power and taking advantage of the Polish champion’s discomfort on grass.Alizé Cornet celebrated Saturday during her straight-set victory over Swiatek.Glyn Kirk/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAfter losing the first set, Swiatek seemed to right things quickly, and surged to a 2-0 lead. But Cornet reeled off six straight games with Swiatek losing the final point with a forehand into the middle of the net.Swiatek shook hands with her opponent, quickly stowed her rackets and headed for the exit of the No. 1 court, where she had been pushed to three sets by a relative unknown only two days earlier.She waved and gave a thumbs up to the crowd as she walked, then stopped to sign a series of autographs before leaving.The result had a familiar feel for Cornet. In 2014 she beat Serena Williams, then the world No. 1 and the top seed at the tournament, on the same No. 1 court.That was relatively early in her career, though. Eight years later, in just 93 minutes, she pulled off another monumental upset and made the second week of a Grand Slam for the second time this year. Then, fittingly, she compared herself to another French favorite.“Like good wine,” she told the crowd. “It ages well.”The afternoon was really about Swiatek, though.Anyone who has ever picked up a racket knows the most basic adage of the game — it is hard to win a tennis match but incredibly easy to lose one. A few errant shots, a bad quarter-hour of serving, the briefest lapses of concentration, and one set and then another slips away in what feels like minutes. Hopelessness sets in, and getting off the court as quickly as possible can feel like the best and only alternative, even though it isn’t.Hopelessness, however, was not what led to Swiatek’s demise Saturday. It was Cornet. A fearless opponent can be just as fatal.That is just part of what made Swiatek’s accomplishments during the first half of this year, in an era of women’s tennis when the competition is intense from the first round of nearly every tournament, so remarkable.Swiatek lost to Jelena Ostapenko, the free-swinging Latvian, on Feb. 16 in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships. Since then she has won six consecutive singles titles, including her second French Open. She won three tournaments at the Masters 1,000 level, just below the Grand Slams.In March and April she won the so-called Sunshine Double — the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif., and the Miami Open. Only three other women had done that before. At the French Open, she lost just one set. Other players talked about just trying to get past the one-hour mark on the court with her. Many failed.During her winning streak, Swiatek won the women’s singles title at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today Sports, via ReutersSwiatek, though, always figured the grass court season might spell the end of her streak. She is most comfortable taking balls on the rise and using her topspin and her power to put opponents on the back foot from the very first moments of the match.After she won the French Open in early June, she faced the choice of playing a warm-up tournament or two to get more comfortable on her least favorite surface or taking a break and arriving at Wimbledon feeling refreshed. She chose to rest and hoped that her cresting confidence would help her solve the puzzle of grass. It did not.In practice, her timing was off. In matches, balls skidded along the grass instead of bouncing into her strike zone, taking her most potent weapon, that topspin power, out of her quiver, forcing her to play more conservatively.On Saturday afternoon, she reverted to Plan A, trying to hit Cornet off the court. Unable to control the ball, she dropped the first three games against a player who truly believed she could do the thing that had not been done in a long while.Swiatek rallied her way onto the scoreboard, but Cornet never gave up the advantage and finished off the first set with an emphatic overhead. She then left the court before the start of the second set, leaving Swiatek to sit in her chair and ponder her fate.In the second set, Swiatek went back to Plan A and surged to a 2-0 lead, but before long she had fallen out of her groove once more. On break point in the fifth game, Cornet jumped on a second serve and laced a forehand down the line. Swiatek dropped her chin and walked to her chair for the changeover.From there, the only question was whether Cornet could stay solid enough to get across the finish line. The answer came quickly.Swiatek, bidding farewell to Wimbledon for this year, lost 12 of the last 14 points in the match. “I just didn’t know what to do,” she said.Glyn Kirk/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“Usually when I’m coming back, I have some kind of a plan, and I know what to change,” Swiatek said. “Here I didn’t know. I was confused. On grass courts everything happens so quickly.”Cornet won the next three games and 12 of the final 14 points.“I didn’t tank it, but I just didn’t know what to do,” Swiatek said.Swiatek will get a bit more rest now. Before long, though, she will journey to North America for the hard court season. Clay still reigns in her mind, but after she won the Miami Open in April, two weeks after winning Indian Wells, she said hard courts were a very very close second.Another streak could be in the offing. Few would be surprised. And if not, she will always have 37. More

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      The Future of Tennis, Carlos Alcaraz, Has Arrived

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      The 18-year-old Spaniard recently aced two significant American tournaments, reaching the semifinals at Indian Wells and winning the Miami Open.MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — In a decade or so, after Carlos Alcaraz has piled up the Grand Slam tournament trophies, a four-week stretch in early 2022 may stand out as the time he took over tennis.Over the last month, in tennis’ annual first-quarter pilgrimage to the United States, Alcaraz, 18, of Spain, ceased to be an up-and-comer.At the two most significant American tennis tournaments other than the U.S. Open, the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and the Miami Open, he made clear that he is not the future; he is the now. With each round this weekend in Florida, the gasps at his cracking forehands and the chants of “Vamonos” and “Let’s go, Carlos” echoed more loudly at a stadium displaying plenty of Spanish flags.On Sunday, Alcaraz overcame early jitters to beat Casper Ruud of Norway, 7-5, 6-4, and captured his first Masters 1000 tournament title — the level just below the Grand Slam events.Ruud, known until lately as a clay-court specialist, came out slugging, breaking Alcaraz’s serve in the first game of the match. But with each game, Alcaraz seemed more comfortable and applied more pressure, especially when Ruud was serving. Ultimately, Ruud, 23, fell to a player who was more athletic, more creative and more talented, and who is somehow able to grind with anyone, even as a teenager.“You’re such a good player already,” Ruud told his opponent when it was over.Alcaraz collapsed onto his back when a final slicing volley sealed the victory. He grabbed his head in disbelief, though he might have been the only doubter in the stadium. Soon, he was embracing his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and his father, also named Carlos.Ferrero, who calls himself Alcaraz’s “invisible whip,” was in tears. He arrived Saturday, after his father died. But he and Alcaraz’s father wanted to be here to witness the culmination of a staggering month. Their prodigy had tantalized tennis fans on the West Coast, where he tore apart seasoned veterans like Gaël Monfils of France and Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain. In the semifinals, he nearly toppled the player he is compared to most often, Rafael Nadal, the 21-time Grand Slam tournament champion who is also from Spain. He then ran the table in Florida.“I am not afraid to say I want to win a Grand Slam,” said Alcaraz, who said he received a congratulatory call from King Felipe VI of Spain after the win. “I know it is going to be really hard, but I am not afraid to say it.”Alcaraz signed autographs after beating Ruud.Wilfredo Lee/Associated PressNo one would dare predict that there are not many more trophies in Alcaraz’s future. In Indian Wells, Nadal could barely pay attention during a news conference as Alcaraz’s match played on a television behind him and he anticipated an approaching showdown. Someone pointed out that Alcaraz was down an early service break to the reigning champion, Cameron Norrie of Britain.Nadal smiled. “Many games remain,” he said. Alcaraz won in straight sets.Now, depending how he does at the clay-court tournaments in Europe ahead of the French Open, Alcaraz could arrive at Roland Garros as a favorite.The rise of Alcaraz has been on the horizon for years. There was buzz that another version of Nadal was evolving under the guidance of Ferrero, a former No. 1-ranked singles player, at his academy in Alicante, Spain. Alcaraz made his debut in a Grand Slam event at 17 at the 2021 Australian Open, where he won his first match. He had yet to crack the top 100 when he played here last year. By September, he was a U.S. Open quarterfinalist.But this era, however brief it was going to be, was supposed to belong to the so-called Next Gen threesome of Daniil Medvedev of Russia, Alexander Zverev of Germany and Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, all in their early or mid-20s and primed to claim the sport from the aging Big Three of Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.Other than Medvedev’s triumph at the 2021 U.S. Open, that group is still looking for the most important championships. With Djokovic prohibited from playing most tournaments after his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19, Medvedev captured the No. 1 ranking in late February, but lost it after an early loss at Indian Wells. Medvedev, Zverev and Tsitsipas have won zero titles through the first quarter of the year.As the tour moves to Europe’s red clay, Medvedev’s worst surface and possibly Alcaraz’s strongest, Medvedev is in danger of becoming an answer to a trivia question about players who held the top ranking for the briefest periods. Alcaraz’s skill and power may be too much to hold off for much longer.Oddly, as hard as Alcaraz hits the ball — so hard that Tsitsipas said last September that it took him a full set to get used to his pace — his most devastating play may be his drop shot. Just as Ruud — or Monfils, Bautista Agut or any opponent — was dug in and battling, there came yet another drop shot, falling like a feather.“It’s crazy how good he plays,” said the 6-foot-5 Hubert Hurkacz, a 25-year-old from Poland who was the reigning champion at the Miami Open.This was about an hour after Alcaraz had outdueled Hurkacz in two tiebreakers in their semifinal Friday night. “Incredible, how he plays, how he competes,” Hurkacz said.The win over Hurkacz came 24 hours after Alcaraz had outlasted Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia, despite losing the first set and being down by 5-3 in a tiebreaker, this one in the third set. Alcaraz stormed back and sealed the match by pushing one last winner down the line. Kecmanovic, a sweat-soaked mess after being run ragged for nearly two and half hours, gazed upward as though Alcaraz had just swindled him out of his per diem.Alcaraz is developing a reputation for wearing down opponents. Midway through the second set on Sunday, the ending seeming inevitable, a tiring and cramping Ruud had to call for a trainer, and spent several minutes being stretched out.Ferrero said the victory would help Alcaraz grow not just as a tennis player but also as a person.“I think it is going to happen many times,” said Ferrero, who added that Alcaraz was not even at the halfway point of his development. “He is growing up so fast.”Now, he said, comes a day or two of golf, of relaxation, and then more work. And then, more likely than not, more trophies. More

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      Taylor Fritz Defeats Nadal at Indian Wells, Fulfilling a Prediction

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      The tournament has been a launching pad for young players recently, including Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu, who went on to win the U.S. Open in the same year.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Back in the day, Taylor Fritz and his father Guy would drive north on the highway from San Diego, come over the Santa Rosa Mountains and navigate the switchback turns down to the Coachella Valley, where the world’s best tennis players gather every March in Indian Wells.Fritz, a talented junior, was just another boy patrolling the courts and hunting for fun and autographs, including Rafael Nadal’s, but Fritz’s father told him something extraordinary.“He told me that I was going to win this tournament one day,” Fritz said.On Sunday, Fritz, now 24, did just that: holding off a diminished but still dangerous Nadal, one of the greatest players in tennis’s long history.“This is seriously like a childhood dream come true,” said Fritz, fighting off tears after fighting off Nadal, 6-3, 7-6 (5). “Like a wild dream you never expect to actually happen.”Guy Fritz, who peaked at No. 301 in the ATP rankings in 1979, long believed in his son, who has reached No. 8 with this victory. But it has taken Taylor until now to develop the faith and the forehand to take out a champion like Nadal at such a tournament.It is a Masters 1000 event, a step below a Grand Slam tournament but the top-tier category on the regular tour, and Indian Wells has become a signature stop. It has vast grounds, excellent facilities and robust attendance even if this year’s total of 329,764 fans, with vaccination required for spectators, was no match for the prepandemic figure of 475,372 in 2019.The event also has strong backing from its billionaire owner Larry Ellison, who was sitting in the front row of his box on Sunday to watch Nadal, his friend and regular houseguest, try to remain unbeaten in 2022.Like Roger Federer, Nadal has endured and impressed long enough to transcend nationality. A Spaniard, Nadal has been on tour for nearly 20 years and won his record 21st Grand Slam singles title at this year’s Australian Open.Fritz, who grew up in nearby San Diego County in the elite enclave of Rancho Santa Fe, considers the BNP Paribas Open his “home tournament,” and though he did get considerable support, it sometimes felt like he was playing an away game against Nadal.But Fritz would not be denied as he finished off the victory on his second match point, ripping a forehand approach shot down the line that the lunging Nadal could not handle.“No way!” the wide-eyed Fritz shouted repeatedly.A title certainly had looked unlikely a few hours earlier when Fritz walked onto the same court and shouted in anguish as he attempted to push off on his right foot during a warm-up session that lasted only a few minutes. “Like, the worst pain imaginable,” he said. “I was really upset, basically almost crying, because I thought I was going to have to pull out.”After numbing the ankle with painkilling treatment, he went back out to hit on an outside court and felt better. But his coaches, Michael Russell and Paul Annacone, and fitness trainer, Wolfgang Oswald, all advised against him playing in the final, concerned Fritz might do longer-term damage to the ankle he had twisted in the semifinal on Saturday.Fritz ignored the advice. “I feel bad for those guys: I’m so stubborn,” he said. “I went out there, and I seriously played the match with zero pain.”Still, he has scheduled for Monday a magnetic resonance imaging scan on his ankle. It looks much more unlikely that he will play in this week’s Miami Open than it does for Iga Swiatek, who won the women’s singles title earlier on Sunday.Iga Swiatek celebrated after defeating Maria Sakkari to win the women’s singles title.Ray Acevedo/EPA, via ShutterstockSwiatek, the 20-year-old Polish star who is as thoughtful as she is powerful, defeated Maria Sakkari, 6-4, 6-1, in what was a match for the title but also for the No. 2 ranking.Swiatek, now ranked only behind Ashleigh Barty, was the more reliable force in the gusting wind with her heavy groundstrokes, particularly the forehand that she hits with extreme topspin, like her role model Nadal. Until this year, her biggest titles have come on clay: above all the 2020 French Open title that she won at age 19 without dropping a set.But Swiatek clearly has the skill and will to be No. 1 and an all-surface threat. After winning the WTA 1000 in Doha, Qatar on a hardcourt, she ran her winning streak to 11 matches by winning for the first time in Indian Wells.This tournament has been the site of big breakthroughs in recent years: Naomi Osaka won in 2018 and went on to claim her first major at that year’s U.S. Open; Bianca Andreescu did the same double in 2019.Fritz, who had never reached a Masters 1000 final until this tournament, required third-set tiebreakers to get past Jaume Munar and Alex de Minaur and three sets to defeat Miomir Kecmanovic before finding his form and range against Andrey Rublev on Saturday.“His victory of yesterday is much bigger than his victory of today, because he had a much tougher opponent,” Nadal said of the Rublev match.Nadal’s glum comment was a reference to the pain that he began feeling in his chest late in his windblown semifinal victory over Spanish compatriot Carlos Alcaraz on Saturday.Nadal had to stretch and strain to adjust his shots to those unpredictable conditions, and though he said he had not yet received a clear diagnosis, it was possible that, in contorting himself in the wind against Alcaraz, he had strained a pectoral muscle or intercostal muscle near his ribs.“When I try to breathe, it’s painful and very uncomfortable,” said Nadal, now 20-1 in 2022. “But that’s it no? It’s not the moment to talk about that, honestly. Even if it’s obvious that I was not able to do the normal things today. That’s it. It’s a final. I tried. I lost against a great player.”Fritz’s parents were touring professionals who helped to shape his game when he was young. His mother Kathy May was ranked as high as No. 10 in singles in 1977 on the WTA Tour and reached three Grand Slam singles quarterfinals during her career.After her son’s victory, May spoke courtside with Martina Navratilova, whom May once defeated on tour, and later posed for photographs on court with her son.Fritz was married at 18 and is the father of a 5-year-old son Jordan but is now divorced and traveling with his girlfriend Morgan Riddle.“She’s so committed to making sure I’m doing all the right things, like I’m going to bed on time,” he said in an interview. “It’s just someone who’s holding me accountable, who also wants the same things I want, and it’s amazing just to have someone who cares and who can help me do the right things.”What Fritz wanted this season was a place in the top 10, and now he has one. He was ranked No. 39 in early October but said he tweaked his forehand technique after watching footage of a junior match he played against Rublev. “We were just absolutely crushing the ball,” Fritz said. “I watched exactly how I was hitting my forehand and just tried to copy it as much as possible.”He reached the semifinals in Indian Wells last year when the tournament was delayed and played in October, and he has been defeating top 20 players with regularity since then. He is the first American to win the singles in Indian Wells since 2001 when Andre Agassi won the men’s title and Serena Williams won the women’s title.Fritz was 3 at the time. But Indian Wells soon became a regular part of his life and when he returned this year, he looked up at the big photograph of reigning men’s champion Cameron Norrie on the wall of the players’ lounge and imagined his own photo taking its place.“All week, I was like, it would be so cool for that to be my picture,” he said. Mission accomplished, and a long-ago prediction has also come true.“He was just really, really proud of me,” Fritz said of his father, tearing up as he smiled. “It’s really tough to get a compliment out of him.” More

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      At Indian Wells, Spain’s Nadal and Alcaraz Meet in Men’s Semifinal

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      One is a champion many times over who is enjoying a late-career revival. The other is a newcomer overflowing with potential who is quickly closing the gap.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Rafael Nadal, who had just defused Nick Kyrgios in three tense sets to reach the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open, was trying to focus on the questions.But Nadal kept getting distracted at the news conference on Thursday, looking at the television in the corner of the room that was showing the quarterfinal match between his 18-year-old Spanish compatriot Carlos Alcaraz and the defending champion, Cameron Norrie.“It was a break point,” Nadal explained as he shifted his gaze back to the reporters at hand. “Sorry, about that.”Despite his youth, Alcaraz, born in Murcia and coached by the former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, has long been considered a potentially great player by tennis cognoscenti inside and outside Spain.But potential and reality are converging quickly. After defeating Norrie, 6-4, 6-3, Alcaraz is into the semifinals for the first time at a Masters 1000 event. He will face Nadal, the ultimate Spanish tennis champion, who holds the men’s record with 21 Grand Slam singles titles and is unbeaten in 2022.Nadal, 35, is nearly twice Alcaraz’s age and defeated him, 6-1, 6-2, last year on clay on Alcaraz’s 18th birthday in the round of 32 at the Madrid Open. Alcaraz needed treatment for an abdominal injury early in that match, but he was also nervous and impatient as he faced one of his idols.But Alcaraz’s second match with Nadal, which will come on a gritty hardcourt on Saturday, could be considerably more compelling. Since their first meeting, Alcaraz has soared into the top 20, reaching the quarterfinals in his first U.S. Open last year, winning the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan and then recovering from Covid-19 to win 11 of his 12 singles matches so far in 2022.“Carlos is not even the future; he’s the present,” said Paula Badosa, the top-ranked Spanish woman and reigning singles champion in Indian Wells.Saturday should provide an excellent sense of how far Alcaraz has come. Hardcourts should not be his best surface. He grew up, like Nadal, playing primarily on clay in Spain. But he now practices regularly on hardcourts at the academy in Villena where he trains under Ferrero. And as Alcaraz’s deep run at the U.S. Open made clear, he knows how to move, slide and entertain on this surface, too.Win or lose on Saturday, Nadal believes Alcaraz is the real deal.“I think he’s unstoppable in terms of his career,” Nadal said. “He has all the ingredients. He has the passion. He’s humble enough to work hard. He’s a good guy.”That is unusually high praise from Nadal, normally wary of adding to the burden of expectations on emerging stars, but he went further, explaining that Alcaraz reminds him of himself at age 17 or 18.Nadal was a genuine teen prodigy who won the first of his 13 French Open singles titles at age 19 in 2005 and would most likely have won it earlier if injuries had not forced him to skip the tournament in 2003 and 2004.Alcaraz’s smile was as big as his forehand when informed of Nadal’s comments.“It means a lot to hear those kinds of things from Rafa about yourself,” he said in Spanish, which he speaks much more fluently than English. “Rafa’s been through all kinds of things and has been on the top for many years, and for him to make those kinds of comments is really inspiring.”He is the youngest men’s semifinalist at Indian Wells since the American Andre Agassi in 1988 and like Agassi, he is a natural crowd pleaser with a flashy game and quick-strike power. But unlike Agassi, he has blazing speed. On Thursday night, Alcaraz reached shots that would have been winners against most players, and earned a standing ovation from the crowd after one corner-to-corner-to-corner rally.“It’s very cool to see him that focused and engaged and maximizing what he’s got with all the talent that he’s got,” Norrie said. “He was too good today for me.”Carlos Alcaraz after match point against Cameron Norrie. Alcaraz is the youngest men’s semifinalist at Indian Wells since Andre Agassi in 1988.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesBut tennis is a brutally competitive and grueling game. Injuries can change even the most gifted players’ trajectories: See Juan Martin del Potro, the Argentine star with the thunderous forehand whose career appears to be over.But Alcaraz, for now, is an all-court marvel: predatory in the backcourt and forecourt; able to rip airborne groundstrokes or hit feathery forehand drop shots; able to play defense far behind the baseline or move forward to smack second-serve returns on the rise.“He walked all over me, and not because I was tired, but because of his physicality,” Gaël Monfils, the French star, said of his loss, 7-5, 6-1, to Alcaraz on Wednesday. “At some point, you just can’t hang in there anymore.”Nadal is in the midst of a revival: undefeated this season at 19-0 after winning three tournaments, including the Australian Open by rallying from a two-set deficit in the final against Daniil Medvedev.Nadal has worked his way through the draw here despite the chronic foot problem that ruined the end of last season for him and continues to cause him pain. He could have skipped this tournament to rest and prepare for his beloved clay, just as he is skipping next week’s Miami Open. But he enjoys Indian Wells, staying at the home of the tournament owner, Larry Ellison, and playing golf regularly.His tennis matches have been no vacation, however. He came within two points of defeat against the young American Sebastian Korda in his opening round before rallying from two breaks down in the third set. Kyrgios, one of the game’s biggest servers and flashiest shotmakers, pushed him to the wire.They remain quite the contrasts: Nadal the maximizer of potential; Kyrgios the flickering flame. Nadal is deliberate, sometimes ponderous, between serves and points. Kyrgios plays as if he has a plane to catch. Nadal has never thrown a racket in anger in his pro career; Kyrgios threw his twice on Thursday, the second time after losing the match, 7-6 (0), 5-7, 6-4. The racket rebounded off the court and flew toward the head of a ball boy standing near the back wall, who dodged it.Kyrgios, booed as he left the court on Thursday, has already been suspended by the men’s tour once in 2016 and put on probation a second time in 2019 for misbehavior. He risks another sanction after Thursday’s match, and the tour would be wise to crack down more convincingly on player tantrums. Last month, Alexander Zverev took four swings at an umpire’s chair, narrowly missing the umpire, in Acapulco, Mexico, and received no further suspension after being defaulted from the tournament.“When you allow the players to do stuff, then you don’t know when is the line, and it’s a tricky thing,” Nadal said.The Spaniard is now 6-3 against Kyrgios, who, for all his evident gifts, has yet to get past the quarterfinals in a Grand Slam singles tournament or win a Masters 1000 title.Nadal is one of the great champions in any sport and with victory secured and the news conference completed, he took a few more moments in front of the television to watch more of Alcaraz’s match and consider Saturday and beyond.“It’s great, honestly, to have such a star from my country,” Nadal said. “Because for the tennis lovers, we’re going to keep enjoying an amazing player fighting for the most important titles for the next I don’t know how many years. A lot of years.” More

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      At Indian Wells, a Shot of Optimism for American Men’s Tennis

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      Long without a major tournament champion, the United States has four players in the round of 16 at the BNP Paribas Open and seven in the top 50.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — False dawns in American men’s tennis? There have been quite a few in the last 20 years here in the California desert and in more well-watered parts of the pro circuit.So, it is unquestionably wise not to get carried away in a sport the Europeans still rule, as they have since a smooth-moving Swiss man named Roger Federer calmed his nerves and slipped into a higher gear in 2004 to leave Andy Roddick in his rearview mirror at the top of the rankings.Since then, tall and good-natured American men in the shadows, like John Isner and Sam Querrey, have had to field countless variations of one question: “What has happened to American men’s tennis?”But Isner, 36, long the top-ranked American man, had a look of quiet confidence on Tuesday night as he revisited that topic.“I think for the first time in a while you can actually say American tennis on the men’s side is very promising,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that.”How not to detect a cool breeze of optimism after watching Tommy Paul, 24, knock out the third-seeded Alexander Zverev in a third-set tiebreaker here at the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday night and then seeing the 21-year-old Californian Jenson Brooksby outhit and outwit the fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in another three-set upset the following night?Indian Wells, a second home to many an affluent elder, has been prime real estate for coming of age this year, and that does not even include the 21-year-old American Sebastian Korda’s missed opportunity against Rafael Nadal in the second round. Korda, the younger brother of the L.P.G.A. stars Nelly and Jessica, was up two service breaks and 5-2 in the final set before allowing Nadal, one of the game’s greats, to wriggle free.Patrick McEnroe, the ESPN analyst and retired player, said Sebastian Korda could be a top-five player.Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today Sports, via ReutersEven without Korda, four American men have reached the round of 16 here: Isner, Brooksby, Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka, the 6-foot-11 power server with a bushy beard and swing speed worthy of a lumberjack. That is the most since 2004, and it also reflects their rise in the ATP rankings. The seven American men in the top 50 is also the most since 2004, and six of those seven men — all but Isner — are under 25.It is no takeover: The top 10 remains nearly all European, with Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada as the lone interloper. But it is progress, and there appears to be considerable upside.“I think that’s true,” said Patrick McEnroe, an ESPN analyst, former pro player and U.S. Davis Cup captain. “I think particularly from Opelka, Brooksby, Korda and maybe throw Fritz in there, although I don’t know if he’s got the athleticism to get to the top-top.”McEnroe, like a lot of people in tennis, looks at the 18-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, with his blazing speed and all-action, all-court game, and clearly sees a future No. 1 player.“I wouldn’t say that about the Americans,” McEnroe said. “But I would say, to me, I could see Brooksby, Korda and Opelka definitely hitting the top five at some point and definitely getting to the final four or final of a major. That’s what it’s going to take to get the average fan a little bit more interested in it, no doubt. So, I’m very optimistic, and if you have one or two of those guys do that, I think the other guys will feel even more emboldened.”For now, the Americans have a daunting Wednesday ahead with Opelka facing Nadal, Brooksby facing the defending tournament champion Cameron Norrie, Fritz facing the No. 29 seed Alex de Minaur, and Isner facing the No. 33 seed Grigor Dimitrov.This has been a long time building, and McEnroe had a view near the ground floor as the head of the United States Tennis Association’s player development program. He was pushed out in late 2014 in part because of poor men’s tour results. When his tenure ended, Isner was the only American man ranked in the top 50, but while in his role, McEnroe heard and saw plenty of Opelka, Paul, Fritz and Frances Tiafoe, a charismatic African American player from the Washington, D.C., area.All four are projected to be ranked in the top 40 after this tournament, with Opelka currently the top-ranked American at No. 17.“It’s cool that we can all do this together,” said Fritz, who is ranked 20th, after his narrow third-round victory over the Spanish qualifier Jaume Munar on Tuesday.They are fast friends. Boyhood group photos abound, and Opelka and Paul were long housemates in Florida. Like many groups of talented players from the same country, they are feeding off each other and pushing each other.“It’s really not surprising,” Fritz said. “I’ve been around these guys my whole life. I know how good they are.”Fritz, Opelka and Paul were all Grand Slam tournament junior singles champions, which is not necessarily a harbinger of professional success, although it certainly was for Federer, who won the Wimbledon boys’ title in 1998.But the Americans have all made it on tour. Trailing them in age, but not potential, are Korda and Brooksby, both 21 years old but with very different games.Korda is the 6-foot-5 son of Peter Korda, the 1998 Australian Open winner, and the retired WTA player Regina Rajchrtova. He has a flowing, balanced game with easy power, and his emotions, by design, are difficult to read on his placid game face.Brooksby is a fiery 6-foot-4 scrapper from Sacramento with an underpowered serve who has not been on tennis experts’ radar nearly as long as Korda has. His style is confrontational, and his strokes are artisanal. But his contact points are consistently clean, and his two-handed backhand is a versatile marvel — and he can punch and counterpunch with conviction with his forehand, too.“He’s a little bit unconventional in his ball-striking, but the space between a foot or two behind the ball and a foot or two in front of the ball, he repeats that over and over again,” said Brad Stine, Paul’s coach. “Would I teach someone to hit a ball exactly the way he hits the ball? No. But it’s absolutely, 100 percent repeatable for him.”The 6-foot-11 Reilly Opelka has used a powerful serve to climb to No. 17 in the rankings.Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today Sports, via ReutersStine compares Brooksby to the former top-five player Brad Gilbert, an author of the book “Winning Ugly.” Brooksby has repeatedly left higher-ranked players mystified and disgruntled during his brief and successful professional career. Add Tsitsipas, the hirsute Greek with the polished game and elegant one-handed backhand, to that list, as he damned Brooksby with faint praise (in defeat).“He’s not a very explosive player, but he’s able to get balls back,” Tsitsipas sniffed. “He’s not the most athletic player, as well. He’s just able to read the game well, play with his pace, play with the opponents’ pace.”“There’s nothing that he has that kills, I would say,” Tsitsipas concluded.But Brooksby seemed far from miffed. “I think a lot of players and coaches maybe don’t see how I could be as good of a level as I am,” he said. “That’s what we shoot for in our games and strategy, not to be too easily figured out. That’s how the top players over history have been.”For now, Brooksby is ranked 43rd. The top spot, occupied by Daniil Medvedev of Russia and soon to be reoccupied by Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, is a long way off. It remains highly advisable to keep the Champagne in the fridge with young talents like Alcaraz and Italy’s Jannik Sinner already well-established threats, but the Americans and the collective mood are justifiably upbeat.Even Isner did not seem to mind answering yet another question about the future on Tuesday: What would it take for us to say American men’s tennis is really back? A Slam title?“No, because the bar has been set pretty low since 2003, probably,” Isner said. “I think getting two guys in the top 10 would be a good starting point. Then you go from there.”That, in Isner’s mind, “in the near future is very conceivable.” More

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      At Indian Wells, Daniil Medvedev Faces Backlash Over Ukraine Invasion

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      At Indian Wells, the Russian fell in the third round to Gael Monfils of France, as Medvedev faced criticism that Russian players should not be competing because of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Daniil Medvedev’s reign as the No. 1 men’s tennis player will not last long — at least, not this time.Medvedev, a 26-year-old Russian, took over the top spot for the first time in his career last week from Novak Djokovic, but his third-round loss to Gael Monfils on Monday will allow Djokovic to reclaim the No. 1 ranking next week. Djokovic will ascend even though he was unable to play in the BNP Paribas Open because of the vaccination requirement for non-American visitors to the United States.Medvedev, who is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, did make the journey to California, although some of his peers believe he also should not have been allowed to compete at Indian Wells because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Russian athletes have been banned from most international team competitions and some individual events, including World Cup competitions in biathlon and skiing and the recently concluded Beijing Winter Paralympics.Marta Kostyuk, a rising Ukrainian star, said at Indian Wells that she did not think Russian tennis players like Medvedev should be allowed to compete. But after lengthy debate, tennis’s governing bodies have decided to preserve players’ right to compete individually as neutrals while banning Russia and Belarus, its ally, from team events like the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup.Medvedev is grateful to keep his job, but all too aware that these are fluid, deeply sensitive circumstances. “First of all, it’s definitely not for me to decide,” he said. “I follow the rules. I cannot do anything else. Right now, the rule is that we can play under our neutral flag.”But the war certainly changes the optics of matches like Monday’s.Gael Monfils after winning his third-round match at Indian Wells.Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today Sports, via ReutersMonfils, a Frenchman, recently married Elina Svitolina, Ukraine’s biggest tennis star, who was watching from his player box on Monday as the Ukrainian flag flapped in the breeze in its new place of honor atop the main stadium at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The flag was installed there this year next to the American one in a show of support for Ukraine.Monfils, ranked No. 28 at age 35, said he did not view Monday’s match — or his surprising, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, victory — through a political lens, but a personal one.“I’m not very political in general,” he said in French. “I’m a support for my wife. A sad thing has come to her country. I try to do the maximum to support her in whatever she chooses to do, but today we were here for playing. I’m simply happy to have won my match.”Monfils said that it had been difficult to see the distress of his Ukrainian in-laws.“It’s not easy to see my wife a couple weeks ago crying every night,” he said in English. “Still quite a lot of family still there. It’s tough describe because I’m in it. And it’s just kind of crazy when you think about it, but we try to manage it the best way we can.”Kostyuk, beaten in the second round here, said she was upset that more Russian players had not approached her to apologize directly for the invasion, but many of the Russian and Belarusian stars, including Medvedev, have called for peace. Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, a former world No. 1, said she had sought out Ukrainian players since the war began last month.“Whatever I say I know can be twisted in many, many different ways,” she said. “But one thing that’s missing in this world is compassion toward each other and empathy. That’s something I feel I can offer to people.”Medvedev’s short stint at No. 1 has not been business as usual. Reaching the top spot in the rankings is one of tennis’s ultimate achievements, and Medvedev is the first man outside the Big Four of Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray to reign at No. 1 since early 2004.In normal times, that would have been cause for fanfare. But these are traumatic times, and though the ATP Tour did award Medvedev the crystal trophy it reserves for first-time No. 1 players and hold a photo shoot with his support team, there was no media tour; no series of promotional events and interviews.His management company, I.M.G., has said that no sponsors have dropped Medvedev since the war began, but this is not an appropriate climate for Medvedev to be searching for new international sponsors.A courtside sign at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.Ray Acevedo/EPA, via ShutterstockWith the war, it is prudent for Russian stars to maintain a low profile. Speaking out against the war or President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia could carry risks for them and their relatives who are still in Russia or Belarus.“I don’t think you should ask them to be more vocal about it, because they have family to consider, and now, you know, they can get 15 years in prison for talking about the war,” said Martina Navratilova, the former top-ranked player who defected in 1975 to the United States from Czechoslovakia when it was part of the Soviet bloc.Russia-Ukraine War: Key Things to KnowCard 1 of 4A show of E.U. support. More

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      Should Russian Athletes Be Barred From Competition?

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      Our columnist examines whether the soft power of sport should be wielded against Russia, penalizing athletes with little or no say in its actions.Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, the top-ranked male tennis player in the world, is the No. 1 seed at the big Indian Wells tournament set to finish this weekend.Should he still be playing while his country is invading Ukraine?Russia’s Alex Ovechkin is one of the most gifted hockey players the world has seen. And oh, by the way, he’s a longtime supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin. Should Ovechkin still be scoring goals for the N.H.L.’s Washington Capitals?Should any Russian nationals be allowed on the sports world stage right now?In an effort to condemn sports-loving Putin and further isolate his nation, the sports world reacted with remarkable swiftness as the war in Ukraine began. We’ve seen Russia barred from World Cup qualifiers in soccer and its basketball teams cut from international play. Tennis called off its Moscow tournament, and Formula 1 ended ties with the Russian Grand Prix.Even the normally tentative International Olympic Committee got in the mix by recommending athletes from Russia and Belarus, which has supported the invasion, be barred from sports events, and the Paralympics after some wavering did just that.But the bans are not complete.Many Russian athletes continue to prosper right in front of us. Individual soccer players can still participate in European soccer leagues. Ovechkin leads a robust Russian contingent in professional hockey, and the country’s tennis players continue to make good livings on the pro tours, though they cannot participate in tournaments with any national identification.Should these players’ days as competitors outside Russia be numbered — at least until the war ends and Ukraine sovereignty is restored?Bruce Kidd thinks so. Kidd represented Canada at the 1964 Summer Olympics as a distance runner, and has long been a human rights leader in sports.During the era of South African apartheid, he helped lead the charge for Canadian restrictions on South African athletes, which began taking effect in the 1970s.When I spoke to him last week, Kidd was adamant: Using hockey as an example that could spread globally, he believes Russian nationals in the N.H.L. should be barred once the current season ends in June, their immigration visas suspended with the door open for asylum.Such a move would not stop the war, of course. But similar to the effort he promoted during apartheid, ending Russian sports participation would buttress economic penalties, deprive Putin the chance to revel in the athletic exploits of Russian players and send a message of support to Ukraine.“The No. 1 argument is to say, ‘Mr. Putin, the sports community is so outraged by your repeated violations of human rights, your violation of the basic values of sports and fair play, that we are saying enough is enough,” said Kidd, whose idea has been echoed in similar form by the Ukrainian Embassy in Canada. “We are showing you and your population our abhorrence.”Bruce Kidd, a professor and longtime humanitarian in the Canadian sports world, at his home in Toronto.Cole Burston for The New York TimesKidd, now the ombudsperson at the University of Toronto, knows detractors will tell him that such a move runs contrary to the principles of a free society. In normal times, he would agree. Not now.All Russian athletes, he added, are highly visible representatives of the nation they come from, “whether they like it or not.”I tend to agree with Kidd. But I’m also wary. Barring individual athletes is likely to add to the unfounded feeling of grievance shared by Putin and many in Russia. It may also fuel dangerous xenophobia against everyday people of Russian descent.That eerie silence from most Russian athletes, the refusal to say anything critical after blood doping scandals and now the bombing and killing in Ukraine? No doubt some stay quiet because they support Putin and want to steer clear of controversy.Some also stay quiet out of well-placed fear for their safety and that of family in Russia.If we bar all sports stars from the aggressive nation in this war, what about those who have taken the risk of speaking against it?Russia-Ukraine War: Key Things to KnowCard 1 of 3Looking for a way out. More

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      Naomi Osaka Brought to Tears by Heckler at Indian Wells

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      “I don’t know why, but it went into my head,” said Osaka, who otherwise had ample support from the crowd in her loss to Veronika Kudermetova of Russia.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Crying on court after being heckled by a spectator, Naomi Osaka was knocked out of the BNP Paribas Open in the second round on Saturday.Osaka, the Japanese star who has struggled with her mental health and with ambivalence toward professional tennis, spoke to the crowd directly at her request after her 6-0, 6-4 defeat against the No. 21 seed, Veronika Kudermetova.Fighting for composure, Osaka explained that the heckler, who shouted, “Naomi, you suck!” after the opening game, had made her flash back to footage she had seen of Venus and Serena Williams being booed and jeered at Indian Wells during the tournament in 2001.“To be honest, I’ve gotten heckled before, and it didn’t really bother me,” Osaka said. “But, like, heckled here? I watched a video of Venus and Serena getting heckled here, and if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it.“And I don’t know why, but it went into my head, and it got replayed a lot,” she continued, apparently referring to Saturday’s match.Osaka then thanked the crowd, slung her bag over her shoulder and left the court.Osaka, a former No. 1 whose ranking has dropped to No. 78, was unseeded this year at Indian Wells, where she made a major breakthrough by winning her first WTA singles title in 2018 as an unseeded player. She has gone on to win four Grand Slam singles titles, most recently at the 2021 Australian Open. But since then, she has played infrequently and has not won another tour event, or even reached another final. Saturday’s defeat was her latest setback, and her latest vulnerable moment in the public eye.“I feel like I’ve cried enough on camera,” she said in teary post-match remarks to the crowd. She skipped her post-match news conference.Osaka fought back tears in her brief remarks to the crowd after her defeat.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesAfter the tension in 2001, the Williams sisters did not return to the tournament in Indian Wells for more than a decade, with Serena only coming back in 2015 and Venus in 2016. Serena, now 40, and Venus, now 41, are still active players but neither is participating in the event this year.During the Williams sisters’ early years as professionals, there was speculation on tour that their father and co-coach, Richard Williams, was prearranging the results of their matches against each other. At Indian Wells in 2001, the Russian player Elena Dementieva spoke about her suspicion publicly after losing to Venus Williams in the quarterfinals.When Venus withdrew from the semifinal against Serena only minutes before it was to begin, citing tendinitis in her right knee, the crowd responded by booing. Dementieva later insisted her comment had been joke, and the sisters and Richard Williams denied that any of their match results were prearranged.But two days later, Serena Williams was booed throughout the tournament final, and Richard Williams, who was watching from the stands with Venus, said he was subjected to racial slurs. Serena Williams won in three sets but has said that the experience was traumatic and “haunted” her and her family for years.The circumstances on Saturday seemed vastly different. Osaka, 24, had ample support from the overwhelming majority of the crowd. There were several thousand fans scattered throughout the stands in the 16,100-seat main stadium on a chilly evening, and after the heckler’s insult — clearly audible on the television broadcasts of the match — there were loud cheers for Osaka’s few winners in the opening set and even more support for her down the stretch as she raised her game.Osaka defeated the former U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens in three sets in the first round on Thursday. But she faced another tough test in Kudermetova, a powerful Russian on the rise whom she had never played in singles.“I want to play that match because I want to see what I can improve, what I need to improve,” Kudermetova said. But the match ended up illustrating more about Osaka’s vulnerabilities and tennis weaknesses than about Kudermetova’s strengths.Osaka took a three-month break from the game after losing to Leylah Fernandez in the third round of last year’s U.S. Open, explaining that she was no longer finding joy in competing. She returned to the tour in Australia in January with a more upbeat mind-set but was beaten in the third round of the Australian Open by the American Amanda Anisimova.Indian Wells was only Osaka’s third tournament in six months, and while she conceded that she needed more matches to get back “into the swing of things” she only got two more here.Kudermetova broke Osaka’s serve in the opening game, and the spectator’s shout came as Osaka prepared to return serve. She approached the chair umpire, Paula Vieira Souza, and appeared to ask about having the spectator ejected, but Souza politely demurred. Kudermetova held serve, and Osaka began to tear up as she prepared to serve the next game.“I didn’t hear what the lady say because I really so focus on my game, on my service game,” Kudermetova said of the heckler. “I didn’t understand what she said, but after that moment, I saw that Naomi, she start to cry.”After Osaka was broken again, she had another extended conversation with Souza, who reassured her that if the spectator heckled her again, the person would be identified and ejected. Osaka asked if she could use the referee’s microphone to address the crowd directly.Souza declined, and the WTA Tour supervisor Clare Wood was called to the court and discussed the matter with Osaka as the player sat on her chair.When play resumed, Osaka continued to struggle to find her range and lost the set at love. Wood spoke with Osaka again before the start of the second set, which was much more competitive. But Kudermetova broke Osaka’s serve in the seventh game and went on to close out her victory.Osaka shook hands with her opponent and then waited for Kudermetova to give the customary victor’s on-court interview before walking to the microphone herself. Though Osaka thanked the crowd in her brief remarks, Osaka’s decision to connect her treatment on Saturday to the Williams sisters’ experiences in 2001 was surely unwelcome linkage for tournament organizers.Andrew Krasny, the on-court interviewer at the BNP Paribas Open, tried to reassure Osaka as she finished her remarks and headed for the exit.“Out of about 10,000 people, one person’s voice can’t weigh out 9,999 others,” he said. “We love you here.” More