Djokovic, Novak

Subterms

    More stories

    • 138 Shares179 Views

      in Tennis

      A Big Tennis Tournament Is About to Happen in Miami. Really.

      by

      The Miami Open is the lone significant North American tennis event before late summer, and a glimpse of what the sport might look like for the foreseeable future.There is a significant tennis tournament beginning its main draw in Miami this week. It is one of the most important annual events in the sport, attracting hundreds of players from all over the world, including multiple Grand Slam winners, competing for one of the largest prize purses of the year.So why doesn’t it feel that way?Maybe it’s because several of the biggest names in the sport — including the grand troika of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the men’s game, plus Serena Williams — are skipping the event. Or because attendance will be limited to a maximum of 1,000 spectators a day, compared with nearly 400,000 over two weeks in 2019, despite state rules in Florida that would allow far more.Maybe it’s because the Miami Open is taking place without the opening act of the March winter hard court swing, the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., which officials in the state wanted no part of in the winter when infection rates were surging in Southern California.Or maybe it’s because the Miami Open is a microcosm of tennis in 2021 — an unpredictable puzzle of player scheduling, travel advisories and health precautions in a season that has forced players to set priorities in a way they never have before. Many, especially the biggest stars, now view tournaments not simply as a means to compete or a chance for a paycheck but for whether an event fits into their broader life.“It’s so many different reasons,” James Blake, the former player who is the tournament director in Miami, said when asked what has influenced players’ decisions to play or skip the event. “As a former tour player, I can tell you are programmed to want to compete against the best players in the world. That is always your main motivation.”Except when it isn’t. Williams withdrew Sunday, announcing she had not fully recovered from recent oral surgery. Djokovic, who is the top-ranked men’s player and recovering from a torn abdominal muscle, pulled out Friday afternoon. Djokovic’s management agency, the sports and entertainment conglomerate, W.M.E.-I.M.G., owns the Miami Open, but that was not enough for him to make the trip. He announced on Twitter that he had “decided to use this precious time at home to stay with my family. With all restrictions, I need to find balance in my time on tour and at home.”Daniil Medvedev, the world No. 2 and a 2021 Australian Open finalist, is playing, as are the rising stars Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev. But the women’s draw, which includes Naomi Osaka, Ashleigh Barty and Simona Halep, may provide much of the heat.Nadal announced earlier this month that he was skipping Miami to continue healing his sore back and to prepare for the spring clay-court season, during which he usually excels.Roger Federer, the defending champion in Miami who returned to professional tennis earlier this month after two knee surgeries and a 14-month hiatus, said his goal is to be 100 percent healthy for Wimbledon in late June. A two-week jaunt to the United States for a single hard court event didn’t make sense. He also has not committed to playing much on clay this season.Roger Federer won’t be at this year’s Miami Open to defend his 2019 title.Rhona Wise/EPA, via ShutterstockAustria’s Dominic Thiem, the 2020 United States Open champion, is slumping and taking a pass. Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland, a three-time Grand Slam winner, said he was too tired. Nick Kyrgios lives in Australia, which has strict quarantine rules for travelers, and has yet to figure out how much tennis he wants to play this year.It is the new normal of tennis. To play or not to play is a complicated question, and an unexpected result of that is Miami foreshadows what tennis will look like eventually. No Big Three. No Serena Williams.“It’s always nice to have two of the biggest names in sports on your air, but there is so much talent out there and that gives the chance for different stories to be told,” said Ken Solomon, chief executive of The Tennis Channel, which will air 125 hours of live coverage of the event in the United States. “We get 128 phenomenal athletes competing in this thing, you don’t start thinking about who is not there.”For months in the United States, many sports have more or less proceeded, even as most people faced significant limitations on travel and contact with those outside their households. The N.F.L. held a Super Bowl with 22,000 fans, the N.C.A.A. started two Division I basketball tournaments with 132 teams from across the country descending on the Indianapolis and San Antonio regions, and hockey players scrap cheek-to-jowl on the ice every night.However, with Florida essentially ridding itself of most pandemic-related restrictions, the roles of have flipped. Players arrived in Florida during the past few days along with spring break revelers who are filling Florida’s beaches, bars and nightclubs. The players, who are used to indulging in Miami’s culture, restaurants and nightlife when they are not playing tennis, are living under strict guidelines that the men’s and women’s tennis tours created to keep them as safe as possible.During the tournament, they must live in one of two hotels for players and officials. Had she played, Williams could not have commuted from her home, roughly 75 minutes away. The players’ movement is limited to the tournament and the hotel. No ventures to Joe’s Stone Crab, South Beach or Coconut Grove until they’ve lost.“It does make it harder when you are part of the bubble,” Lauren Davis, the veteran U.S. player, said. “The experience is more draining. There is no outlet for the stress.”Miami Open organizers did not construct the temporary 14,000-seat court inside the Miami Dolphins’ stadium this year. The most important matches will take place on three smaller courts.Prize money has been slashed to $6.7 million from $16.7 million in 2019, though it is among the largest prize purses outside of the Grand Slams and the tour finals. Nearly everyone at the tournament site will have to wear a mask at all times, except for players while they are on the court.Crowds enter and exit South Beach in Miami during the spring break season.Calla Kessler for The New York TimesTennis will likely look this way for some time. The All England Club, the host of Wimbledon, announced last week that players will have to stay in specified hotels for the tournament, set to begin in late June, despite Britain’s success with its vaccine program. Crowd sizes will be reduced and spectators will not be able to line up during the day to search for a ticket.Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, ranked No. 5 on the men’s tour, said during last week’s tournament in Acapulco, Mexico, that the tour sorely missed Indian Wells this year because it gathers so many top players in front of rabid and casual tennis fans in the United States during the first half of the year. The opportunity to play in front of a crowd of any size — Acapulco allowed roughly 3,000 spectators for each session — had vastly enhanced the experience.“I feel really connected,” he said of the experience of playing in front of fans. “I feel like I can enjoy the game.”But the challenges of the pandemic have forced Tsitsipas and other players to focus almost entirely on larger tournaments for the time being, and the biggest stars to focus almost exclusively on the Grand Slams. Events like Miami may offer plenty of money and rankings points, but everything is just a little different this year. More

    • 150 Shares109 Views

      in Tennis

      Medvedev’s Australian Open Loss Shows the Men’s Tennis Gulf Is Still Strong

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenOsaka Wins TitleMen’s Final PreviewDjokovic’s RideWilliams’s Future?AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyMedvedev’s Australian Open Loss Shows the Men’s Tennis Gulf Is Still StrongThe players at the top, starting with Novak Djokovic, have yet to be significantly challenged by the new generation.Daniil Medvedev, right, watches as Novak Djokovic accepts an 18th Grand Slam singles trophy, his ninth at the Australian Open.Credit…Cameron Spencer/Getty ImagesFeb. 21, 2021, 10:56 a.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — With a lone tear streaking his right cheek, Daniil Medvedev accepted the runner-up trophy after the Australian Open men’s final on Sunday night. He stepped to the microphone and told an engaging story about nervously hitting with Novak Djokovic for the first time as a young player, when Djokovic was the men’s world No. 1 and Medvedev was on his way to a year-ending ranking of No. 655.It wasn’t a stretch for the Rod Laver Arena audience of roughly 7,000 to visualize the picture that Medvedev, 25, was painting of an overmatched skinny player being schooled by the multiple major winner. What Medvedev was describing sounded strikingly similar to what the fans had just witnessed in Djokovic’s 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 victory against Medvedev in their first meeting in a Grand Slam final.Medvedev, who will ascend to a career-high No. 3 in the new rankings, looked less like a player riding a 20-matching winning streak — snapped by Djokovic — than an outclassed hitting partner. Djokovic returned serves that had gone for aces in Medvedev’s previous matches and he hurried and harried Medvedev into 30 unforced errors against 24 winners, only three of which came off his backhand, which Medvedev usually wields like a hammer to nail points.Djokovic’s elastic arms, which allowed him to stretch for serves that others would just watch fall for aces, increasingly unnerved Medvedev, who had averaged 3.7 aces a set in his first six matches. Against Djokovic, he produced six total. Medvedev’s opening service game set the tone for the match; he put all of his first serves in play and was broken.“It’s the kind of match I won throughout this tournament that he won today,” said Medvedev, who closed out his opponents in straight sets in five of the first six rounds. “Probably he made his game that good today that I couldn’t stay at my best level.”Medvedev had 30 unforced errors against Djokovic.Credit…Mackenzie Sweetnam/Getty ImagesMedvedev lost to Rafael Nadal, who is tied with Roger Federer for the career record of 20 Grand Slam singles titles, in five sets in the U.S. Open final in 2019. And now he has become Djokovic’s latest victim in his run of 18 Grand Slam singles titles — including nine at Melbourne Park.At Medvedev’s age, Djokovic had six Grand Slam singles titles and had lost in the finals of two others, to Nadal and Federer. He had reached No. 1.How deep can the sport be if the only player other than the Big Three in men’s tennis — made up of Djokovic, Federer and Nadal — to hold the No. 2 spot since the summer of 2005 is the 33-year-old Andy Murray?“Of course when you’re out there, you want to beat them,” Medvedev said. “You don’t care that it’s the Big Three or the Big 100. But that’s why they have so many Slams. They’re just really good.”He added: “I’m not shy to say this. It’s just the truth.”Djokovic, 33, described the next generation as “hungry.” It is led by Medvedev, Dominic Thiem, 27, and Stefanos Tsitsipas, 22, who defeated Nadal in the quarterfinals. But only Thiem, the reigning U.S. Open champion who has graced three other major finals, has broken through in the biggest events, and his U.S. Open title came in a tournament that Nadal and Federer did not enter and that Djokovic exited through a disqualification rather than a defeat. What is keeping this generation from feeding its appetite at the Grand Slam banquet?“They have definitely the quality to reach the heights of major tournament trophies,” Djokovic said.He added: “But Roger, Rafa, myself are still there for a reason. We don’t want to hand it to them, and we don’t want to allow them to win Slams. I think that’s something that is very clear. Whether you communicate that message or not, we are definitely sending that vibe out there.”Medvedev’s body language grew increasingly negative as the 1-hour, 53-minute final wore on. He muttered to himself. He looked imploringly at his coach. He smashed a racket. He hurried shots and points. By the third set, Djokovic was everywhere on the court and inside Medvedev’s head.“Next time if I play Novak here in the final, I for sure am going to do some things on the court, maybe off the court also, differently, because at least I would have this experience,” Medvedev said, adding, “So I’ll try to do something better. Doesn’t mean that I will succeed, but that’s the life of a tennis player.”The life in the sport that Medvedev has carved out for himself seemed more distant than a speck on the Mediterranean Sea horizon the day he was introduced to Djokovic in Monaco and began hitting with him.Djokovic arrived late for their first session. And that, Medvedev said, remains the worst thing he can say about him.“He was super nice to me,” Medvedev said. “I was really shy. I was just playing some balls, trying not to miss, for sure really stressed.”From then to now, tennis seems, much like the flat-footed Medvedev on Sunday, several steps behind the players on top.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 113 Shares189 Views

      in Tennis

      Novak Djokovic Wins Australian Open Final Over Daniil Medvedev

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenOsaka Wins TitleMen’s Final PreviewDjokovic’s RideWilliams’s Future?AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyNovak Djokovic Wins Third Straight Australian Open TitleThe victory for the top-ranked Djokovic, in three sets over the fourth-ranked Daniil Medvedev of Russia, gave him his 18th career Grand Slam title.Novak Djokovic of Serbia after his victory in the Australian Open men’s singles final against Daniil Medvedev of Russia.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesFeb. 21, 2021Updated 9:26 a.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — They come nearly every year now, this new crop of challengers in men’s tennis who so desperately want to begin their time in the sun, to win the championships that everyone in the game values most and beat the three players considered the best to ever play on the biggest stage.And each year, they fall short, making the task seem even more impossible.This is how it went Sunday night at Melbourne Park, where Novak Djokovic did what he always does. Djokovic, the veteran from Serbia ranked No. 1 in the world, both defeated and discouraged the fourth-ranked Daniil Medvedev of Russia, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2, in the Australian Open men’s singles final.The victory gave Djokovic his ninth Australian Open singles championship, a tournament record on the men’s side, and the 18th Grand Slam title of his career. Djokovic has made nine Australian Open finals and won each time, including in the last three years.With this Grand Slam championship, Djokovic is now just two behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the race to achieve the most major men’s singles titles in a career. Djokovic, 33, is a year younger than Nadal and six years younger than Federer, who will soon begin his comeback from two surgeries on his right knee, though it remains to be seen whether he will be a championship contender or embarking on a farewell tour.Grand Slam titles are the first measuring stick in any discussion of who is the greatest player of the modern and professional era of tennis, also known as the Open era, which began in 1968.The Big Three of men’s tennis, as they are known, have 58 now. Players under 30 years old have just one. The younger ones, like Medvedev, 25, who moments after the loss called Djokovic and his cohorts “cyborgs of tennis,” are all too familiar with the math.“When they are in the zone they are just better tennis players,” Medvedev said.Djokovic was in the zone Sunday night, playing what his coach, Goran Ivanisevic, called “a masterpiece.”It was a victory Djokovic needed badly, Ivanisevic said, after he was disqualified from the United States Open in September for swatting a ball that hit a line judge, and the drubbing Nadal gave him in the French Open final in October.“I have to agree with my coach,” Djokovic said of Ivanisevic’s assessment of the past few months. “I wanted to start this year in the best possible fashion.”His prospects did not look promising.Shortly after arriving in Australia, Djokovic became a public enemy when he requested special treatment for 72 players put on 14-day hard quarantines because 10 people on three chartered flights those players took to Australia tested positive for coronavirus upon arrival.Then came an injured abdominal muscle — doctors, he said, have told him it is torn — that nearly forced Djokovic out of the tournament. Yet he survived a five set test in the third round and a four-set challenge with two tiebreakers in the quarterfinals.He managed the abdominal injury better than he expected, then vanquished the hottest player in tennis. Medvedev had a 20-match winning streak heading into Sunday night.Attempting to place a little more pressure on his challenger, Djokovic called Medvedev “the man to beat” in the tournament. In reality though, few doubted Djokovic’s edge. He entered the match as the two-time reigning champion and with a well-earned aura of invincibility at Rod Laver Arena in the late rounds.Djokovic’s 18 Grand Slam singles titles place him two behind Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer’s career record in men’s tennis. Djokovic is the youngest of the three.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesRod Laver Arena sits a few hundred yards from the Yarra River, and just a few miles from Port Phillip Bay. When evening comes and the lights turn on, gulls flock to the rafters and squawk through the night. With Djokovic playing so many of his matches at night here, it becomes difficult not to imagine those birds as his personal vultures, bearing witness as he slays his latest victim.The reasons for Djokovic’s dominance here are both physical and psychological. The final always takes place at night. Those night matches that the birds come for, along with legions of Serbs who scream the “Olé, olé, olé, olé,” chant when their favorite son most needs it, are often played in cooler temperatures than those that take place during the warm, dry days of the Australian summer. Heat has always tended to melt Djokovic. A cool evening, like the one on which he met Medvedev, is his favorite playing partner.Also, players say the shift in the weather completely changes the conditions of the court. Balls stop popping off the ground, keeping so many of Djokovic’s hard, flat groundstrokes below his opponent’s knees and out of their strike zones. What looks like a simple backhand is anything but, especially when the player hitting the original shot has never lost the ultimate match here, and too often the opponent’s counter ends up wide, long or in the middle of the net.Medvedev made 67 errors, 30 of them unforced, though against Djokovic the difference between a forced error and an unforced one is negligible. Djokovic served just three aces, but he won 73 percent of the points on his first serve and 58 percent on his second serve, numbers that usually translate to a dominant night.Djokovic won seven of 11 break points and 16 of the 18 points when he came to the net. He outsmarted a player considered to be among the smartest and most creative in the game by keeping Medvedev guessing and setting the kinds of traps Medvedev has been known to lay for his opponents, hitting three shots to set up the winner on the fourth.Neither Djokovic, Federer nor Nadal have been beaten in a final to a player currently younger than 30.Dominic Thiem of Austria came close, outplaying Djokovic for long stretches in last year’s Australian Open final before Djokovic prevailed in five sets. That match appeared to hint at a shrinking gap between the veterans and the young players trying to nip at their heels.But as Djokovic lifted the trophy once more in Melbourne, he made it clear that he had no intention of giving up ownership of the crown he claims as his own and the court he calls his second backyard anytime soon.Djokovic said it was a matter of time before Medvedev and his peers started winning Grand Slams, but at the moment he is in a race against history and his two biggest rivals. It drives him, and there is no thought of slowing down.“I don’t feel like I am older or tired or anything like that,” he said.Daniil Medvedev broke his racket in frustration during the second set.Credit…Brandon Malone/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesNor does he look it.Before Sunday’s match, Lleyton Hewitt, a former world No. 1 and a two-time Grand Slam champion in the 2000s, said Medvedev was going to need to create a moment to make himself believe that he could beat Djokovic on this night, on this court, like when Hewitt won the first-set tiebreaker against Pete Sampras in his first triumph at a Grand Slam final.The first test came early for Medvedev, after Djokovic broke him in his first service game and cruised to a 3-0 lead. But a game later, Medvedev outclassed Djokovic on a 28-shot rally that had both players sliding from sideline to sideline to get his first chance to break Djokovic’s serve. Minutes later it was 3-3. Game on.Five games later the set appeared headed for a tiebreaker, but the moment of truth for Medvedev arrived sooner. Serving at 5-6 and down a point, he sent a forehand wide with Djokovic pushing to the net, and caught a bad break as what could have been the winning shot on the next point ticked the top of the net cord and gave Djokovic a sitter for an easy passing shot.Just like that, triple set point. Big serves saved the first two, but then Medvedev sent a forehand into the net. The big hill that no one in Medvedev’s generation has been able to summit suddenly seemed that much higher.After prevailing in that first set, Djokovic shifted from a steady run into a sprint. He broke Medvedev three times in the second set and had him breaking one racket, swatting the ground with its replacement and shrugging his shoulders at his coach, as if to say there was nothing he could do.“Even if I would have done better, it doesn’t mean that the score would be different,” he said.On match point, Djokovic rose for a lob, stretched and whipped one last winner past Medvedev. He collapsed in celebration on the court then rose quickly, pumping his arms at his box and the crowd. By March, he will have spent more weeks holding the No. 1 ranking than any other man. The reign goes on, for Djokovic and for the Big Three.“Roger and Rafa inspire me,” Djokovic said as he sat next to the winner’s trophy. “That is something I have said before. I will say it again. I think as long as they go, I’ll go.”And then he just might go some more.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in Tennis

      Australian Open 2021: Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev Meet for the Title

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenOsaka Wins TitleMen’s Final PreviewDjokovic’s RideWilliams’s Future?AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAustralian Open 2021: Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev Meet for the TitleDjokovic, aiming for his ninth title in the tournament, should face a strong challenge from Medvedev.Novak Djokovic in his semifinal victory over Aslan Karatsev.Credit…Dave Hunt/EPA, via ShutterstockFeb. 20, 2021, 7:08 a.m. ETHow to watch: The match is at 3:30 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+. There will be encore showings at 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. on ESPN2.The men’s singles final that will wrap up this year’s Australian Open is a battle between the standard-bearer Novak Djokovic and the worthiest challenger the field could have mustered, the surging Daniil Medvedev. Here’s what to watch for as the two face off:Medvedev is on a roll.Medvedev, 25, has put together a remarkable run in the past few months, reeling off a 20-match win streak that includes titles at the Paris Masters, the ATP Finals in London, and the ATP Cup in Melbourne. Twelve of those 20 wins came against top-10 opponents. He has beaten eight of the nine other players in the top 10; only Roger Federer, who has been out of competition for more than a year with knee problems, avoided a loss to Medvedev. Daniil Medvedev in his semifinal victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas.Credit…Patrick Hamilton/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“For the confidence, when you beat everybody it’s just great, because I think people start maybe to be a little bit scared about you,” Medvedev said Friday after thrashing Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinals in Melbourne. “At the same time, sometimes there are going to be some that are going to want to beat you even more. It’s a tricky situation, but I’m happy I managed to be on top in all those 20 matches.”Djokovic is in his happy place.Though his name is not quite synonymous with this tournament in the way that Rafael Nadal’s has become with the French Open, Djokovic, 33, is the player of the century (so far) at the Australian Open. It was where he won his first Grand Slam title, in 2008, when he was only 20.Like Nadal in Paris, Djokovic is undefeated in finals in Melbourne, with an 8-0 record. If he wins on Sunday, Djokovic would sit alone in second place, behind Nadal and his 13 French Open titles, on the list of men’s singles championships won at a particular Grand Slam event. Djokovic is currently tied with Federer, who has eight Wimbledon singles championships.Djokovic’s dominance in Melbourne is not just about the surface: He has won only three titles at the United States Open, which is played on fairly similar hardcourts. Serbian fans supporting Djokovic in the semifinals.Credit…Daniel Pockett/Getty ImagesIn Melbourne, though, Djokovic gets strong support from a substantial local contingent of Serbian expatriates, whereas the crowds at the U.S. Open in New York often root against him.Medvedev has shown he can handle Djokovic.These days, Medvedev isn’t likely to be intimidated by anyone in tennis, and he has particular reasons to feel comfortable against Djokovic.Medvedev has won three of his seven previous meetings against Djokovic, including a semifinal at the Cincinnati Masters in 2019 on a fast hardcourt that played similarly to the courts in Melbourne this year.In the fourth round of the 2019 Australian Open, he lost to Djokovic, who received extra treatment because of all the exertion and contortion required to beat Medvedev.“It was hard to go through him,” Djokovic said that night. “It was kind of a cat-and-mouse game for most of the match — that’s why it was so lengthy. We had rallies of 40, 45 exchanges. That’s why I think it was physically exhausting, because of the fact that we didn’t really allow each other to think that we can make a lot of unforced errors and give away points.”In the third round this year at the Open, Djokovic sustained an abdominal injury in his match against Taylor Fritz. Djokovic initially spoke pessimistically about his chances of continuing in the tournament, but he has seemed less affected by the injury in each subsequent match, even as his right side remains heavily taped under his shirt.The rankings could be shaken up.To find the last final in which a male player claimed his first Grand Slam title against an older finalist who had already won one, you need to go back all the way to the 2009 United States Open, where Juan Martín del Potro beat Roger Federer. When Dominic Thiem won his first Grand Slam title at last year’s U.S. Open, he did it almost literally by default, after Djokovic had been disqualified from the tournament in the round of 16 when he swatted a stray ball in frustration and hit a lineswoman in the throat.A Medvedev victory, however, could represent a genuine shift. If he defeats Djokovic, he will rise to the No. 2 spot in the world rankings. It would be the first time since Lleyton Hewitt reached No. 2 in July 2005 that anyone but Djokovic, Nadal, Federer or Andy Murray was ranked in the top two.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in Tennis

      For Djokovic in Australia, a Complicated Road Has a Familiar Destination

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenOsaka vs. BradyWomen’s Final PreviewDjokovic’s RideWilliams’s Future?AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFor Djokovic in Australia, a Complicated Road Has a Familiar DestinationThe reigning champion and world No. 1 will play in his ninth Australian Open final. He has yet to lose one.Novak Djokovic earned a spot in the Australian Open final by beating Aslan Karatsev, a qualifier, in a semifinal.Credit…Cameron Spencer/Getty ImagesFeb. 19, 2021Updated 6:04 a.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — Everything changed for Novak Djokovic in a split-second explosion during the third set of his Australian Open quarterfinal this week.With the match tied at a set apiece, Alexander Zverev of Germany, one of the top young players in the world, was serving with a 3-2 lead. Djokovic could not convert his chances to tie the set, failing on a key point to get one of Zverev’s signature 135-mile-an-hour serves back over the net.There was no shame in that. But Djokovic thought otherwise and took the frustration out on his racket. He slammed his Head Pro Stock to the ground with three violent whacks, smashing the frame and spraying shards across the back of the court. The sound of the destruction, like a bone snapping, echoed through the empty stadium.[embedded content]It was the sort of outburst that usually signals the beginning of the end for most players. For Djokovic though — this time, at least — there was a rebirth, as he seemed to release all the tension that had been building for weeks.First, quarantine restrictions wreaked havoc on preparations for the Open, the year’s first Grand Slam event. Then an injured abdominal muscle nearly forced Djokovic out of the tournament. And at that moment on Tuesday, one of the game’s most dangerous players had him in a high-octane fight.Yet Djokovic, the top-ranked player in the world, grabbed a replacement racket, won four straight games to take that third set, then pushed through a tooth-and-nail fourth to advance.“I wouldn’t recommend this kind of relief channeling,” Djokovic said a few hours after the match.He said he wasn’t proud of his behavior. But tennis forces a journey through many different emotions, and Djokovic has demons to fight, he explained, the tension building with every lost point and game. Eventually the pressure has to find a release.“I just kind of let it go,” he said. “Poor racket.”Every tennis player who assumes the top ranking in tennis endures special pressures. The ones who survive over the long term generally work hard to minimize their stress by avoiding anything that might distract them from the pursuit of continued success.Perhaps more than any of his predecessors, though, Djokovic, 33, goes toward the heat. He knows the hazards that may bring. But he is willing to manage the consequences of his behavior, which could involve trying to stage a tennis event in the first months of the pandemic; on-court outbursts, including one that led to his disqualification at the U.S. Open; or pressuring the Australian Open tournament organizers on behalf of 72 players who ended up confined to their hotel rooms for 14 days after arrival in Melbourne because on their flights they had been exposed to people with the coronavirus. His recommendation for an early end to their lockdown and access to tennis courts at private homes, among other impossible-to-meet demands, garnered widespread ridicule.“I think Novak feels an obligation as the top-ranked player in the world to be a voice for the players,” said Craig Tiley, who is the chief executive of Tennis Australia, which runs the Open, and who fielded those demands, rejected nearly all of them, then did his best to carry out Djokovic damage control.In spite of it all, this tournament has given Djokovic what he so often finds when he plays in Melbourne — the chance to right his ship and jump start his tennis year.In the final on Sunday, he will play Daniil Medvedev of Russia, who has not lost a singles match since October. “He’s the man to beat,” Djokovic said of Medvedev. A victory then would give Djokovic a third consecutive Australian Open singles championship and a record ninth over all. He has never lost in a final here.The script this year has hardly followed its traditional form.Djokovic angered local residents with his pretournament demands, and the rowdy support he often receives from fans here nearly disappeared, except from pockets of native Serbians who faithfully show up each year to watch their compatriot. He injured an abdominal muscle during his third-round match and appeared on the edge of elimination before he prevailed in five sets.Djokovic has used the injury and those of other players to ignite another controversy, citing them in his criticism of the people who run professional tennis and insisting that special arrangements are going to have to be made for the tours to continue amid all the travel restrictions and fears related to the spread of the virus. He raised the possibility of a series of bubbles, like the one the N.B.A. created last year in Florida, arguing that travel-related quarantines would compromise players’ safety because they would have to compete after getting limited training time.“There’s too many injuries,” Djokovic said. “A majority of the players just don’t want to go ahead with the season if we are going to have to quarantine before most of the tournaments.”That may or may not be true, and plenty of players cannot afford to forgo a season. Djokovic, who has collected nearly $150 million in prize money plus many lucrative endorsements, has no such worries.Rafael Nadal, Djokovic’s (usually) friendly rival, has taken a different tack, arguing that the first priority is for everyday people to be safe and that there are bigger problems in the world right now than where and how he can compete.“We need to be grateful to life that we can keep doing what we are doing,” Nadal said after his heartbreaking, five-set loss in the quarterfinals to Tsitsipas.Djokovic has never lost an Australian Open final.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesAmid it all, on the court Djokovic is rounding into form at the perfect time, pressuring his opponents on their serve as no one else can.“It’s one of the most difficult things in our sport, holding your serve against Novak,” Zverev said.In the semifinals, Djokovic mostly had his way with little-known Aslan Karatsev of Russia. No surprise there: Karatsev, who had to go through qualifying rounds, is the world’s 114th-ranked player. But he pushed Djokovic to within a point of coughing up a 5-2 lead in the second set and had the crowd pulling for him throughout.On his magical run to the final four, Karatsev knocked off the eighth-seeded Diego Schwartzman; Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, a rising star and the No. 20 seed; and Grigor Dimitrov, the No. 18 seed, who had back spasms after winning the first set. Djokovic, Karatsev said, was on another level entirely.“A huge difference,” Karatsev said. “He does not give you any points, even on my serve, long rallies.”Whatever frustration Djokovic felt during the match, and it appeared he had little, he expressed it during his usual one-way discussion in Serbian with his support team.When it was over, he pointed to the sky and to all four sides of the arena, performing his ritual gesture of giving his heart to everyone in the crowd.Another win would give him an 18th Grand Slam singles title, pulling him within two of Roger Federer and Nadal, who share the men’s record. It would also be sweet vindication after this long, turbulent journey.“It took a lot out of me,” Djokovic said of this Australian Open. “I was exhausted, especially after Zverev’s match, but I was thrilled to overcome those huge challenges. I knew that once I triumphed over Zverev that things will be better, will get better for me. I just had that kind of inner feeling and proved to be right.”In Australia, he often is.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Tennis

      2021 Australian Open: Medvedev and Tsitsipas Chase a Grand Slam Final

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenOsaka Ousts WilliamsNadal Is UpsetMedvedev-Tsitsipas PreviewWilliams’s CatsuitAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story2021 Australian Open: Medvedev and Tsitsipas Chase a Grand Slam FinalMedvedev has been on a hot streak and has a 5-1 record against Tsitsipas, but he dealt with cramping at the end of his previous match.Daniil Medvedev has a 5-1 record against Stefanos Tsitsipas.Credit…David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 18, 2021Updated 9:56 a.m. ETHow to watch: The match is at 3:30 a.m. Eastern time on Friday on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+.The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam event that splits its semifinals from the same singles draw, putting its second men’s singles semifinal alone on the Friday night session each year. It is the only time that a match other than a final gets such a showcase in the Grand Slam calendar, and this time the spotlight will be on two young stars: the fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev, a 25-year-old Russian, and the fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas, a 22-year-old Greek.Here’s what to look for in the highest-stakes match yet between two men of their generation as each vies for a spot in his first Australian Open final against Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1 ranking who has won the last two titles in Melbourne. Djokovic moved into the final on Thursday night by defeating Aslan Karatsev in their semifinal, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.Medvedev is on a hot streak.There is no men’s player in better form than Daniil Medvedev. He won titles at the Paris Indoors Masters and ATP finals last November and the ATP Cup earlier this month in Melbourne. He has won 19 consecutive matches on that run, 11 of which were against top-10 opponents.Medvedev looked especially formidable against Andrey Rublev of Russia in the quarterfinals. Rublev, 23, the seventh seed, is an unrelentingly aggressive player who won a tour-leading five titles last year, but he struggled to find any openings in Medvedev’s resolute defenses, and wilted in the heat in a straight-sets loss.Medvedev’s 19-match winning streak includes 11 victories against top-10 opponents.Credit…James Ross/EPA, via ShutterstockMedvedev also will be comfortable in the matchup against Tsitsipas, having won five of their six matches. He lost their most recent meeting, however, with Tsitsipas prevailing in the round-robin stages of the 2019 ATP finals en route to his most prestigious title to date.“He just plays extremely smart and outplays you,” Tsitsipas said of Medvedev on Thursday. “He’s somebody I really need to be careful with and just take my chances and press.”The end of their first match ‘felt like an M.M.A. fight.’The rivalry between Medvedev and Tsitsipas started before either had even cracked the top 40 of the ATP rankings. Their first match against each other, in the first round of the 2018 Miami Open, ended with Medvedev antagonizing Tsitsipas and challenging him to a fight after winning in three sets.In an interview last month, Tsitsipas discussed the altercation.“That felt very wrong, the overall ambience,” Tsitsipas said. “It didn’t belong to tennis, for sure, I tell you that. It felt like an M.M.A. fight. We’re out there playing tennis; we’re not there to fight each other. He was provoking me back then — that’s how I felt, maybe I’m wrong — but I didn’t want to continue from there. He was trying to approach me; I was not into it. I wasn’t there to fight, I was there to play tennis. That’s the last thing that I want when I enter the court.”Tsitsipas said that he had not discussed the incident with Medvedev, but that the tension between the two had recently thawed.“I saw him waving at me the other day, which was nice,” Tsitsipas said with a small laugh. “It kind of breaks the ice.”Tsitsipas’s walkover doesn’t necessarily mean he is well rested.Tsitsipas has played two five-set matches in the tournament. He has been on the court for an hour and 32 minutes longer than Medvedev.Credit…David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDespite advancing via a walkover in the fourth round, Tsitsipas has been on the court an hour and 32 minutes longer than Medvedev has en route to the semifinals after playing five-set matches in the second round against Thanasi Kokkinakis and in the quarterfinals against Rafael Nadal.“I got the opportunity to play longer, feel the court, understand the environment that I’m in, so that could probably be seen as something positive,” Tsitsipas said after his win over Nadal. “On the other hand, yeah, OK, I might have spent a bit more time on the court, put my body in more stress and difficult tasks to complete.”Tsitsipas added that over all he felt he was in pretty good condition.“I think with experience I have realized how to preserve my energy and when I really have to put in the hard work in the match,” he said.Medvedev has been more efficient, but was cramping at the end of his straight-sets win over Rublev on Wednesday. He asked for the trainer to come massage his quadriceps after match point.How would either match up against Djokovic in the final?While both players would be underdogs against Djokovic, who is 8-0 in Australian Open finals, Medvedev and Tsitsipas have reason to believe they could be competitive.Medvedev, who pushed Nadal to five sets in his lone Grand Slam final appearance at the 2019 United States Open, has won three of his last four matches against Djokovic, including their most recent meeting at the ATP finals in November.Tsitsipas, who would be playing in his first Grand Slam final, is 2-4 against Djokovic but nearly leveled his record against him at last October’s French Open: Tsitsipas came from two sets down to force a fifth set in their semifinal before ultimately losing that set 6-1 after suffering a leg injury.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Tennis

      Serena vs. Naomi Osaka: Time, Channel, Streaming and More

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenWhat to Watch TonightWilliams-Osaka ShowdownThe Fast CourtsFans in Virus LockdownAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story2021 Australian Open: What to Watch For in Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka’s SemifinalWilliams and Osaka will play for the second time at a Grand Slam. Plus, Novak Djokovic faces an unlikely semifinal opponent: a 27-year-old in his first Grand Slam main draw.Serena Williams last faced Naomi Osaka in 2019 at a tournament in Toronto. Their lone Grand Slam meeting was the 2018 United States Open final.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesFeb. 17, 2021, 1:34 a.m. ETThe Australian Open semifinals begin on Wednesday night, headlined by the match between the 10th-seeded Serena Williams of the United States and the third-seeded Naomi Osaka of Japan. It will be their first Grand Slam meeting since the 2018 United States Open final, an Osaka victory in which Williams received three penalties from the chair umpire.The victor will face the winner of the other semifinal match: between No. 25 Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic and No. 22 Jennifer Brady of the United States.Here’s what to look for in the match, which will start around 10 p.m. Eastern in Rod Laver Arena.Can Williams close?Williams, 39, started her career as one of the greatest closers at the end of Grand Slam events. In her first 28 trips to a Grand Slam semifinal, she won the title 21 times. But dating to her shocking loss to Roberta Vinci in the 2015 U.S. Open semifinals, Williams has struggled to wrap up Slam victories, winning the title only twice in 11 trips to a semifinal.Since her victory in the 2017 Australian Open, Williams has remained stuck at 23 Grand Slam titles, one of the loftiest plateaus in sports history. Though she already holds the career record for Grand Slam titles in the Open era, which began in 1968, Williams has long had her eye on Margaret Court’s record of 24 major titles.Can Osaka lose?Naomi Osaka is on a career-long winning streak.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesOsaka, 23, who grew up idolizing Williams, has been flawless at closing out Grand Slam victories early in her career. Osaka has made three previous Grand Slam quarterfinal runs; each time, she won the tournament. By reaching the semifinals this week, Osaka improved her record in the past three rounds of Grand Slam events to 10-0.Osaka enters the semifinal against Williams, whom she has beaten in two of three meetings, having won 19 consecutive matches, the longest streak of her career. Her last loss came more than a year ago, in a Fed Cup match last February.Williams gets defensive.All three previous Osaka matches against Williams came after Williams’s return from maternity leave in 2018. Osaka will have never seen Williams moving as well as she has this week.Williams joked after her quarterfinal win over the second-seeded Simona Halep that she was motivated to get in shape by the form-fitting catsuit that she knew she would have to wear on the court in Melbourne. Her improved conditioning has been reflected in her foot speed, allowing her to play breathtaking defense and extend rallies in ways she could not attempt in recent years.Osaka, who can match Williams for power, won’t be able to rely on an advantage in foot speed as she had in their previous meetings.Osaka and Williams have moved past the 2018 U.S. Open final.The 2018 U.S. Open final descended into chaos as Williams incurred escalating penalties from the chair umpire Carlos Ramos for repeated code violations, whipping the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium into anger. Osaka was in tears after the match, and some criticized Williams for ruining her moment.But despite opportunities to do so if she had wished, Osaka has never publicly blamed Williams for any aspect of that day’s mayhem. Williams and young up-and-comers have not always had warm relationships (see: Sloane Stephens), but she has always shown appreciation for Osaka.The two have remained on good terms since the 2018 U.S. Open, and played an exhibition match in Adelaide last month.“I think she’s a great competitor and she’s a cool cat,” Williams said of Osaka on Tuesday.All coverage will air from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. on ESPN2 in the United States; streaming is available on the ESPN+ and ESPN3 apps. Here are the other semifinal matchups.Novak Djokovic vs. Aslan KaratsevAslan Karatsev, 27, is in his first Grand Slam main draw. He has never played Novak Djokovic.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesThe top-seeded Novak Djokovic had a health scare in his third-round win over the 27th-seeded Taylor Fritz, injuring his abdomen as he slipped on the court midway through the third set. Visibly struggling, Djokovic needed five sets to prevail over Fritz.Despite lingering concerns, and Djokovic saying that the injury would have forced him to pull out from the tournament were it not an all-important Grand Slam event, Djokovic has played well in his subsequent two matches, beating No. 14 Milos Raonic and No. 6 Alexander Zverev both in four sets.His next opponent is a considerably less familiar one: Aslan Karatsev, a Russian who is playing in his first Grand Slam main draw at age 27, and has turned into the Cinderella story of the event.Karatsev, who qualified for the Australian Open by winning three matches at a qualifying event in Qatar last month, has used clean, powerful groundstrokes off both wings to dismantle other players, including No. 8 Diego Schwartzman and No. 20 Felix Auger-Aliassime. Karatsev advanced to the semifinals after his quarterfinal opponent, No. 18 Grigor Dimitrov, was limited by back spasms.Djokovic should be expected to advance comfortably if he’s healthy, but if he’s not, no player has proved quite as opportunistic as Karatsev.Karolina Muchova vs. Jennifer BradyThough decidedly an undercard to the preceding Osaka-Williams clash, the semifinal between Karolina Muchova and Jennifer Brady could also prove compelling.Muchova, an all-court player, has been able to outlast many opponents playing near their top form, including the top-seeded Ashleigh Barty in the quarterfinals. After struggling with the heat and taking a medical timeout midway through the match, Muchova dominated the later stages, staying steady and purposeful on her powerful forehand as Barty’s game went wayward.For Brady, whose game is more built around power from the baseline, the run in Australia is a consolidation of her strong effort last summer, when she won a WTA tournament in Lexington, Ky., and reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open, where she lost to Osaka. Brady spent 14 days in hard quarantine before the tournament began, and she was the only player in those circumstances to reach the fourth round of the women’s singles draw.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in Tennis

      Trust Me, Sports Without Fans Is Not Sports

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenWhat to Watch TodayHow to WatchThe Players to KnowFans in Virus LockdownFifth seed Stefanos Tsipsipas celebrated facing a cheering crowd after winning his second round match.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesTrust Me, Sports Without Fans Is Not SportsFor five days the Australian Open had cozy stadiums half-filled with fervent fans, and sports once again felt normal. Then a snap lockdown quieted the stands.Fifth seed Stefanos Tsipsipas celebrated facing a cheering crowd after winning his second round match.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesSupported byContinue reading the main storyFeb. 14, 2021Updated 6:05 a.m. ETRemember what sports was like with crowds? Listen.Recorded as Nick Kyrgios took on Dominic Thiem in Melbourne on Friday night.MELBOURNE, Australia — For roughly the past two decades, the analytics crowd has peddled the idea that sports is essentially math, that what unfolds on the field of play is predictable and intelligible if viewed through a proper algorithm. Occasionally that crowd has even been right. And in many ways the pandemic sports environment was an analytics aficionado’s dream, a chance for games to unfold in a laboratory, free of the noise, both literal and figurative, that can turn an expected outcome into a beautiful mess.Now, nearly a year into the coronavirus pandemic, we really do know the roar of the crowd is as vital to sports as a ball or a net. The artificial crowd noise that Major League Baseball, the N.F.L., the N.B.A. and the N.H.L. have piped in, both for those in the stadiums and arenas and for people watching at home, is a terrible facsimile that makes the spectator-free games feel nothing like sports at all. What stage actors refer to as the “fourth wall” — the metaphorical barrier between performers and spectators — doesn’t exist in sports. A crowd’s passion can seemingly help power comebacks. Its scorn can smother one, too. For five glorious days at the 2021 Australian Open, I got to experience that noise again, because government officials allowed up to 30,000 fans, about 50 percent capacity, to attend the tournament each day. It was both a joy and a revelation to rediscover the power of what quantum physicists call the “observer effect” — the fact that any observation, however passive, alters an outcome — even in a half-capacity crowd of tennis fans. Sports felt like Sports once more.Nick Kyrgios and Dominic Thiem in one of the last matches with a crowd before the tournament closed to the public.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesFans left the Australian Open on Friday after it was announced that the tournament would proceed without spectators for the next five days.Credit…Jaimi Joy/ReutersThen on Friday, the coronavirus did what it has done so relentlessly for the past 11 months: It shut down the party. A recent outbreak was what much of the world would consider a nuisance. But in Australia, which has managed the pandemic more effectively than any other major economy, it qualified as a critical mass.The cluster of coronavirus cases grew to more than a dozen, and the state government of Victoria, where Melbourne is, declared a “snap lockdown” of five days, beginning at midnight Friday.Everyone, except those deemed essential workers, must stay home, though two hours of outdoor exercise and one hour to go to the grocery store or pharmacy are permitted. Players and people considered essential in running the Australian Open will be allowed at Melbourne Park. Spectators, sadly, must stay away until perhaps the singles semifinals, scheduled to start Thursday.“The players will compete in a bubble not dissimilar to what they have done throughout the year,” said Craig Tiley, the chief executive of Tennis Australia, which organizes the tournament.No one is happy about it.Fans watched Serena Williams during a practice session at Melbourne Park ahead of her second-round win.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York Times“It’s been really fun to have the crowd back, especially here,” Serena Williams said after she beat Anastasia Potapova in straight sets in the third round Friday. “But, you know what, at the end of the day we have to do what’s best. Hopefully it will be all right.”I am here to tell you it won’t be. After what I witnessed during the first five days, it’s going to be terrible, without the essential dynamics that make sports the ultimate in improvisational theater.Nick Kyrgios, the tennis antihero everywhere except Australia, where he is beloved, rode the fans to a miracle Wednesday night. He saved two match points in the fourth set against Ugo Humbert, the rising 22-year-old Frenchman. Then he edged Humbert in the fifth set in front of an explosive crowd that never gave up on its hometown hero.Kyrgios is the rare tennis player who brings in rugby fans. They screamed their heads off to keep Kyrgios alive and Humbert, the No. 29 seed, on edge until the very last point.“Half-packed and it felt like it was a full stadium,” Kyrgios said. “I got goose bumps toward the end.”Humbert lost those two match points, even though he was serving. He heard the fireworks from the seats a few feet away. As he watched Kyrgios both encourage it and soak it all in, his eyes appeared to fill with fear. There was another set to play, but the crowd was not going to let Humbert get out alive.Fans cheer on Nick Kyrgios of Australia.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesKyrgios has attracted a raucous fan group at the Australian Open.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesIt is not a stretch to say that Humbert wins that match easily on a quiet court.Kyrgios and his crew were back at it Friday night, when he took on Dominic Thiem of Austria, the reigning United States Open champion. The roars started as Kyrgios broke Thiem in the first game. As the crowd bellowed, Kyrgios waved his arms and cupped his ear, signaling to his fans that if he had any chance against the machine-like No. 3 seed, they were it.And so began three-plus hours of interactive drama, with all the seat-banging, taunting and fist-pumping needed for someone who has barely played in a year to stay competitive with one of the best players on the planet. As the match stretched into the fifth set and past 10:30 p.m., a strange clock watching began, because fans were supposed to be home and observing lockdown by midnight.In the end it wasn’t enough, as Thiem prevailed in five sets, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, but it’s hard to believe it would have been close without it. “It’s not the same sport without the crowd,” Kyrgios said.So, here is one big reveal of the past week: All those star athletes who have always insisted they are so locked in that they do not hear the crowd? Well, it seems pretty clear they have been lying.Spectators watched the evening matches outdoors on the big screen at Melbourne Park on the fifth day of the Australian Open.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesHere was Novak Djokovic, who has won this championship eight times. He has described Rod Laver Arena as his backyard. He was getting ready to play a game the other day, when a clump of women with a Serbian flag stood up and serenaded him with the “Ole-Ole” tune, culminating with, “Novak Djokovic is hot, hot, hot!”Djokovic gave up on trying to play cool. He stepped back from the court, started giggling, then shook his head to regain his focus.Here was Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia, trying to serve out the third set for what would have likely been the biggest win of her career, an upset of Simona Halep, the No. 2 seed. She was in front of a hometown crowd that carried her all night but couldn’t will her to victory.“I felt that rush of people just cheering for you,” Tomljanovich said, her voice breaking following the loss. “I’m afraid to say it, but it could be the highlight of the year with the atmosphere and the crowd.”She is not the only one. I do not know what I am dreading more about the end of this assignment — the last freezing month of a winter in the Northeast, or the largely empty version of sports that the pandemic has wrought.It’s something, yes, but it is not sports.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More