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      At Indian Wells, the Players Have a Playground of Their Own

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      To protect the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, the tournament’s founder took a “get off my lawn” approach so that tennis players could always count on getting on his lawn.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — More than $100 million has been spent building a tennis temple in the California desert with its two main stadiums, dozens of other courts, a gargantuan video wall, a courtyard full of restaurants and murals honoring past champions.But many players’ favorite spot at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden is the one place where the tournament built nothing at all.It is the player lawn: a big rectangle of natural grass just inside the west entrance that can serve as an outdoor gym, social nexus, soccer field, meditation center, makeshift television studio and children’s playground — sometimes all at the same time.“It’s funny, but I think when a lot of us are thinking about Indian Wells, it’s the lawn,” Marketa Vondrousova, a Czech star and a 2019 French Open finalist, said as she headed to the grass on Friday afternoon.The lawn, with its dramatic view of the Santa Rosa Mountains, is directly in the flow of traffic for the players: a transitional space between their restaurant and the practice courts.The player lawn is distinct because it allows fans to interact with the players, like Carlos Alcaraz, top, or Ben Shelton, above.“I love it,” said Holger Rune, the powerful Danish player already ranked in the top 10 at age 19. “I don’t know why more tournaments don’t do something like this.”It is not quite without parallel: the Miami Open, now held in cavernous Hard Rock Stadium, allows players the same sort of free rein on a stretch of the natural grass football field inside the main stadium that hosts the Dolphins.But the lawn at Indian Wells remains without peer, and what makes it so rare is that, unlike most player areas, it is in plain view of the public. Fans pile into the adjacent area known as “the corral” to chase autographs and photographs, or they fill up the bleachers and elevated walkway that form the border on two sides of the lawn.“It’s the zoo,” Marijn Bal, a leading agent and a vice president of IMG Tennis, said as he watched the fans observe player behavior and the players observe the fans.The concept was, in part, borrowed from golf, said Charlie Pasarell, a driving force behind the creation of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.Pasarell, 79, grew up in Puerto Rico and was a leading tennis player in the 1960s and 1970s, excelling at U.C.L.A. and on tour. But he made a bigger impact as a tournament director and entrepreneur, founding and elevating the Indian Wells event with his business partner, the retired South African tennis player Ray Moore. The Tennis Garden, built on barren land at an initial cost of $77 million, opened in 2000, giving the longstanding tournament a grander setting before it was sold in 2009 to the software billionaire Larry Ellison, guaranteeing that the event would remain in the United States.Maria Sakkari of Greece, left, and Iga Swiatek of Poland worked out on the lawn.Pasarell said the tournament was one of the first to make practice sessions a happening: constructing bleachers around the practice courts.“It reminded me of when you go to a golf tournament, and you go to the driving range where you have people watching the players hit balls and they put up stands and announce the players’ names,” Pasarell said. “I always wanted to do that here, and the players loved it, although there were a few like Martina Navratilova who wanted to keep their practices private.”The lawn was an extension of the open-access philosophy, even if Pasarell acknowledged that the space was created “a little bit by accident.”“We had this area, and all of the sudden, the players started using that as a place to do their roadwork and to stretch,” he said. “One day somebody got a soccer ball and started kicking it so we put up soccer nets.”A few years after the Tennis Garden opened, it was continuing to expand, and Pasarell said there was a serious proposal to build another show court on the lawn.“I said, ‘Do not touch that grass!’” Pasarell said. “They were saying we could build a real nice clubhouse court there, and I said, ‘This is really important.’ And I was able to convince them, and so far, so good. I mean the players love that area, and it just sort of evolved into a great thing for the tournament.”The lawn has been used for competition: above all pickup soccer. Rafael Nadal scored at the 2012 tournament in a game that also included Novak Djokovic.An elevated walkway forms a border on one side of the lawn.Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece played soccer on the lawn. Pickup games sometimes break out on the lawn.But above all, it is used for warming up for practices and matches, and to spend a few hours watching players and their increasingly large support teams come and go is to realize how the game has changed.The warm-ups are now dynamic: full of quick-fire footwork combined with hand-eye challenges. Bianca Andreescu, the Canadian who won the Indian Wells title in 2019, was balancing on one leg on Friday, leaning forward and catching a small soccer ball with one hand. Aryna Sabalenka, the imposing Belarusian who won this year’s Australian Open, was running side by side with her fitness trainer as they tossed a medicine ball to each other.Pierre Paganini, the cerebral longtime fitness coach for Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, popularized this approach, tailoring exercises to fit precisely with the complex demands of tennis. The emphasis was on repeating short bursts of speed and effort to mimic the rhythm of a match.During Andreescu’s warm-up, she quick-stepped through a sequence of cones that were of different colors, reacting to her coach Christophe Lambert’s call of “red” by quickly moving to the red cone.“It’s a lot more professional,” said Michael Russell, a former tour-level pro now coaching Taylor Fritz, the top-ranked American man at No. 5. “Everybody is doing dynamic warm-ups. Some might go 15 minutes. Some might go 30. But there’s a lot more preparation and bigger teams also.”Reflecting that, players often navigated the lawn in small packs, typically in groups of four.Jabeur, right, in a training session with a member of her team.“There’s the physio, the strength and conditioning coach and the coach,” Russell said. “So, you have teams of three or four people whereas before it was just the coach, and they would use the physios provided by the tournaments. But now with increased prize money, more players can have bigger teams of their own.”The added support has extended careers but also the workday. “It’s getting longer and longer,” said Thomas Johansson, the 2002 Australian Open champion who coaches Sorana Cirstea of Romania. “When I played here, if we started at 11 a.m., maybe we left the hotel at 10:20, got here at 10:35 and ran back and forth two or three times, swung my arms a little bit and then you were ready. Now, some who play at 11 are starting their warm-up at 9:30. It’s a different world now, and it’s positive because now you know how to eat, drink, train and recover, but you have to find the balance. You cannot live with your tennis 24/7 or you burn out.”But at least life on the lawn is not all about tennis. It’s a place where Ben Shelton, the rising American player and former youth quarterback, can throw a football 60 yards. A place where the Belarusian star Victoria Azarenka’s 6-year-old son Leo can run free with other players’ children or with players like his mother’s friend Ons Jabeur. A place where Vondrousova can juggle a soccer ball with her team, shrieking with mock horror when it finally strikes the ground.“Today’s record was 84,” she said on Friday, a day that she did not have a match but still chose to spend some quality time in pro tennis’s version of a public park.“Thank God we didn’t build on it,” Pasarell said.Leylah Fernandez of Canada played soccer during last year’s competition. More

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      At the Australian Open, American Men Advance en Masse

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      Sebastian Korda, Ben Shelton, J.J. Wolf and Tommy Paul all made the fourth round in singles. Not since 2004 have four men from the United States gone this far in Melbourne.MELBOURNE, Australia — There were 94,854 fans at the Australian Open on Saturday, setting a single-day attendance record.But perhaps even more surprising than the size of the audience was that four American men remained in contention for the men’s singles title: Sebastian Korda, Ben Shelton, J.J. Wolf and Tommy Paul.None of them have made it this far at the Open until now, and Shelton, the youngest at age 20, had never played in Australia or anywhere outside the United States until a few weeks ago.The two highest-ranked Americans and most likely candidates to go deeper in Melbourne are missing. Taylor Fritz, the No. 8 seed, and Frances Tiafoe, the No. 16 seed, have already been eliminated. Reilly Opelka, the imposing 7-foot-tall big server who broke into the top 20 last year, is recovering from hip surgery. Mackenzie McDonald, the former U.C.L.A. star who upset Rafael Nadal in the second round, was beaten in his next match.But Korda, Shelton, Wolf and Paul all advanced to the round of 16, a sign of the renewed strength and depth of American men’s tennis.“These young guys are coming up, pushing each other,” said Dean Goldfine, one of Shelton’s coaches. “I think that’s one of the things that’s contributing to our success right now as a country. We have these waves. It’s not just one guy here, one guy there. We’ve got a bunch of them, and I think there’s a friendly rivalry there.”The last time there were four American men in the fourth round of the Australian Open in singles was in 2004 with Andre Agassi, James Blake, Robby Ginepri and Andy Roddick. All were stars or established threats, though it was Ginepri’s deepest run at that stage in a major.Tommy Paul will face Roberto Bautista Agut, a Spanish veteran who is seeded 24th.William West/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMost of this year’s group is just getting started. Paul, 25, is the oldest: an acrobatic all-court player with excellent timing who can take the ball extremely early. He also reached the fourth round at Wimbledon last year and broke into the top 30 under the tutelage of veteran coach Brad Stine. He switched racket brands in the off-season — often a risky move — but has been sharp in Melbourne and dominated fellow American Jenson Brooksby on Saturday, winning in straight sets.Paul will face Roberto Bautista Agut, a Spanish veteran who is seeded 24th and is the only seeded player left in the bottom quarter of the draw.The 2023 Australian OpenThe year’s first Grand Slam event runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.A New Style Star: Frances Tiafoe may have lost his shot at winning the Australian Open, but his swirly “himbo” look won him fashion points.Caroline Garcia: The top-five player has spoken openly about her struggles with an eating disorder. She is at the Australian Open chasing her first Grand Slam singles title.Behind the Scenes: A coterie of billionaires, deep-pocketed companies and star players has engaged for months in a high-stakes battle to lead what they view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to disrupt the sport.Endless Games: As matches in professional tennis stretch into the early-morning hours, players have grown concerned for their health and performance.The other players in that section are Shelton and Wolf, former collegiate standouts who will face each other on Monday. Shelton won the N.C.A.A. singles title last year for the University of Florida, where he was coached by his father Bryan Shelton, a former ATP Tour player. Wolf, 24, played for three years at Ohio State, where he was an All-American and the Big Ten player of the year in 2019.Ben Shelton and Wolf have become friendly since Shelton turned pro last August. “I had seen him play in college tennis, but he was older than me, so we never competed against each other,” Shelton said of Wolf. “We’re good friends, like to joke around a lot, have a lot of locker room banter.”Both are solidly built and powerful. Wolf has one of the most penetrating forehands in the game. Shelton, a left-hander, has one of the most intimidating serves, frequently surpassing 124 miles per hour. He has won 83 percent of his first-serve points in Melbourne and 64 percent of his second-serve points. Shelton was not broken on Saturday as he prevailed over Alexei Popyrin, the Australian who upset Fritz in the second round and again had a big home crowd ready to support him in John Cain Arena.“They kind of set the tone when I walked out on the court, and I got booed,” said Shelton, laughing. “Similar to some away matches and college atmospheres that I have been at but definitely amplified today. The sound in there kind of just vibrates.”But Shelton’s dominant play in his victory, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-4, often meant that the arena was unusually quiet. His shouts of “Come on!” reverberated through the space.“Honestly, if this is the way he plays day in, day out, the guy is top 10 in six months,” Popyrin said.Consistency can be elusive at this level, particularly when you take the risks that Shelton does. But he continues to make a big impression as he embarks on his first full season on tour.“I definitely wouldn’t have thought that I would be here in this moment six months ago or four months ago,” said Shelton, who was ranked outside the top 500 in May.This is only his second Grand Slam tournament after losing in the first round of last year’s U.S. Open, but he already has guaranteed himself a spot in the top 70 and also equaled his father’s best performance in a Grand Slam event. Bryan Shelton reached the fourth round of Wimbledon as a qualifier in 1994.Ben Shelton celebrated after defeating Alexei Popyrin.James Ross/EPA, via ShutterstockBryan Shelton is not in Melbourne because he is in the middle of the collegiate tennis season. Florida had a match on Saturday, but he got up early to watch his son’s match in Australia because of the time difference.“I think I messed up his sleep schedule a little bit,” Ben Shelton said.Both Shelton and Wolf come from athletic families. Wolf’s sister Danielle also played tennis at Ohio State, and his mother, Brooke, played for Miami of Ohio. His grandfather Charles Wolf coached the Cincinnati Royals and the Detroit Pistons in the N.B.A.But the American in the fourth round with the most successful athletic family is the 22-year-old Korda. His parents were leading professional tennis players: his father, Petr, was No. 2 on the ATP Tour and won the Australian Open; his mother, Regina, was ranked in the top 30 on the WTA Tour. Korda’s two older sisters, Nelly and Jessica, are leading women’s professional golfers: Nelly has been ranked No. 1 in the world; Jessica is currently No. 18.“I’m definitely the worst athlete in the family so far,” Sebastian Korda said on Friday after defeating the former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in straight sets in the third round for the biggest victory of his career.But Korda, seeded 29th at the Australian Open, looks poised to move up in his family’s rankings. At 6-foot-5, he has a fluid, deceptively powerful game full of variety and though he has come close to major upsets against the game’s biggest stars, holding match points before losing to Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, he held firm against the 7th-seeded Medvedev in Rod Laver Arena to win, 7-6 (7), 6-3, 7-6 (4).Korda’s American peers were closely watching him as they prepared for their own challenges.“I was in my hotel room, stretching and taking care of myself, but I was glued to the TV,” Wolf said. “He was playing amazing.”J.J. Wolf in action during the first round of the Australian Open.Lukas Coch/EPA, via Shutterstock More

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      Finally, Taylor Fritz Forces His Way Into the Top 10

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      Fritz’s breakthrough in the ATP rankings is the latest sign of a resurgence for American men’s tennis, though these are not yet the good old days. Not even close.SAN DIEGO — With the American tennis star Taylor Fritz stuck in his hotel room in Seoul last month with Covid-19 and a high fever, his longtime goal of breaking into the ATP top 10 seemed just out of reach again.But that was before Fritz hopped on a stationary bike to stay in shape and then hopped on a flight from Seoul to Tokyo last Wednesday after a mandatory week in isolation, just in time for his next tournament. Four days later, he won the Japan Open, defeating his compatriot Frances Tiafoe in the final. Welcome to the top 10 at last, as the ATP rankings made clear on Monday with Fritz at No. 8.“It’s definitely one of those goals you have your whole life,” Fritz said after arriving back in Los Angeles. “It’s not the end goal by any means, and I don’t want to make people think that because I’m celebrating it, but it’s a huge milestone and no one is ever going to take that away from me.”It also makes him the second top-10 player in his tennis family. Fritz’s mother, Kathy May, joined that club in 1977 on the WTA Tour. Fritz’s father, Guy, peaked at No. 301 in the ATP singles rankings in 1979. “I do think it would be cool to be highest ranked in the family,” Fritz said.Fritz’s breakthrough is the latest sign of resurgence for American men’s tennis. These are not yet the good old days, not even close. Americans often dominated the tour in the late 20th century with serial champions such as John McEnroe, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Andy Roddick, who won the U.S. Open in 2003, remains the last American man to win a major singles title or reach No. 1.But it would be churlish not to acknowledge the progress in 2022 with Tiafoe making a stirring run to the semifinals of the U.S. Open last month and the big-serving Fritz winning three titles and putting together his finest season with the cameras often rolling behind the scenes. (He is one of the players being followed for a “Drive to Survive” style series on Netflix.) He is the first American man in the top 10 since John Isner in June 2019 and the first American man to make his top-10 debut since Jack Sock in November 2017.Fritz, left, and Tiafoe, both 24, are the two highest ranked Americans on the ATP Tour.Kimimasa Mayama/EPA, via ShutterstockBoth Fritz and the 17th-ranked Tiafoe are 24 years old, which given the increased staying power of men’s tennis players most likely means that their best years are ahead of them. The Fritz-Tiafoe duel in Tokyo, an ATP 500 event, was the fifth all-American men’s singles final on tour this season. Of the seven other American men ranked in the top 50, six are age 25 or younger: Tommy Paul, Maxime Cressy, Reilly Opelka, Jenson Brooksby, Brandon Nakashima and Sebastian Korda.“Everyone’s just been constantly improving over the last couple years, and now it’s finally at the point where some of the big guys are dropping out or are a little more beatable than they used to be,” Fritz said. “A lot of the people at the top right now and having lots of success are people we played growing up and we all know we can beat. I see no reason why there’s not going to be four or five Americans in the top 20 in two years.”The caveat is that Carlos Alcaraz, the beguiling new men’s No. 1, is even younger than the leaders of the new American wave. Alcaraz, a 19-year-old Spaniard, beat Tiafoe in five sets on his way to winning the U.S. Open. Jannik Sinner, a devastating ball striker from Italy who is widely and rightly considered the next best young talent in the world, is 21.The American renaissance will clearly continue to face plenty of resistance, including a still-formidable Novak Djokovic. But that is no reason for Fritz not to savor Monday’s math. “I think regardless of what happens the next 10 years of my career, this will always probably be one of my biggest career achievements,” he said.Fritz, known since his junior days as a tenacious competitor, has made a habit of rebounding quickly. In 2021, less than a month after right knee surgery, he won two rounds at Wimbledon. This year, he won the biggest title of his career at the BNP Paribas Open after injuring his ankle in the final stages of the semifinal and screaming in pain during the warm-up session before his final against Rafael Nadal, who was dealing with a cracked rib.This time, Fritz had to bounce back twice. He lost in the first round of the U.S. Open to the American qualifier Brandon Holt, who had never won a main-draw singles match on tour. Brandon Holt with his mother, the former tennis player Tracy Austin, after he beat Fritz.Matthew Stockman/Getty Images“New York was a good learning experience,” Michael Russell, one of Fritz’s coaches, said. “He put way too much pressure on himself to perform at his home Slam as well as being able to manage all of the off-court obligations with being the top-ranked American there.”Fritz said it was bittersweet to follow the progress of Tiafoe, whom he has known since they were 14.“Obviously, I was happy for my friend; I think Frances deserved it,” Fritz said. “Over the years, he’s lost so many tight matches with top players that it was finally time for him to start winning those and go on a run, but at the same time I’m watching it, and it killed me. I felt like I should be there, too. I felt like my draw was good. I just had a shocking day.”Fritz quickly returned for team competition in Europe last month: helping the U.S. qualify for the Davis Cup final phase and then helping Team World defeat Team Europe for the first time in the Laver Cup, the event cocreated by Roger Federer that also served as his emotional retirement vehicle. In Federer’s last official match, he and his doubles partner, Nadal, were beaten by Sock and Tiafoe. Fritz said he was angry that his teammates received so much criticism on social media for playing at full throttle.“I definitely cried a lot more than I thought I was going to,” he said of Federer’s farewell. “But I was pretty upset to see how much hate Frances and Jack got for winning the match and Frances got for hitting Roger or hitting the ball at Rafa at net. This is not an exhibition. We are playing for a lot and for a lot of money. It bothered me a lot because I know Roger would have absolutely hated it if they just gave it to him.”Team World celebrated late into the night in London, and Fritz then caught a 12-hour flight to Seoul, only to test positive for Covid-19 the day after arrival, which kept him out of the Seoul tournament and left him with a spiking fever and sore throat despite being double vaccinated and boosted.Fritz was eventually able to start working out in his hotel room in Seoul: pedaling on a stationary bike and even bench pressing his girlfriend, Morgan Riddle, who had also tested positive for Covid, as she stretched out on her side in a bathrobe to turn herself into the equivalent of a barbell.Fritz soon returned to more conventional training methods and the tennis court in Tokyo: winning in three sets in the first round over James Duckworth after going a week without hitting a ball. Fritz then guaranteed his top-10 spot by beating Denis Shapovalov in another three-setter in the semifinals before defeating Tiafoe, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2).Fritz guaranteed his top-10 spot with a win over Denis Shapovalov of Canada in their semifinal match in Tokyo.Kazuhiro Nogi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“Taylor was putting a lot of pressure on himself to get over that top 10 hurdle the last couple months,” Russell said. “Beating Shapo in the semis really freed up his mind for the final to play some of his best tennis.”Next goals: qualifying for the eight-man ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, next month and then cracking the top five and making “a big run” in a Grand Slam tournament in 2023. Whatever happens from here, he already has a good story to tell. “The fact I spent seven days in a hotel room and was able to fly the morning of the tournament and win a 500 is pretty crazy,” he said. More

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      Taylor Fritz Almost Beat Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon. The Loss Still Hurts.

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      He had beaten Nadal earlier this year to win his first ATP Masters 1000 and is now representing Team World for the first time since 2019.Taylor Fritz leaned across the long table, his cheeks cupped in his hands, his face flushed with exhaustion and emotion.It was not long after Fritz had lost a four-hour, 21-minute Wimbledon quarterfinal to Rafael Nadal in July — a match that featured a fifth-set super tiebreaker in addition to a medical timeout to tend to Nadal’s torn abdominal muscle — and the magnitude of Fritz’s heartbreak engulfed the room.“I really, really wanted this match,” Fritz said at the time. “I was sitting there and felt like crying. I’ve never felt like that after a loss.”Six weeks later, the loss still stung.“Those kinds of matches hurt the most to lose,” Fritz said by phone just before the start of the United States Open. “It was my first major quarterfinal, so I had to take a step back and look at the positives. I was so close, so maybe next time I’ll get it.”Taylor Fritz lost in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon to Rafael Nadal in July. The match went to a super tiebreaker in the final fifth set.Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated PressFritz has been highly thought of since he won the Junior U.S. Open in 2015. His mother, Kathy May, was ranked No. 10 in the world in 1977 and his father, Guy, is a coach.This year has been up and down for Fritz. The Californian, 24, is the top-ranked American male and No. 12 in the world. In March, he won his first ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells, beating Nadal in the final.But just when he thought he was on track to win a major, Fritz was upset in the first round of the U.S. Open by the qualifier Brandon Holt, ranked No. 303 at the time. Fritz has also been nursing an ankle injury but is confident it won’t be an issue when he plays for Team World at the Laver Cup, which begins on Friday in London.The following conversation has been edited and condensed.The last time you played Laver Cup, in 2019, you lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas and beat Dominic Thiem. What brought you back now?I would have played every single year if I was invited to be on the team. It’s an honor to represent Team World and it’s such a fun, amazing event. Just the energy, it’s tough to find at anything like the team competition.What will it be like playing against Team Europe? It’s a pretty stacked team, with Roger Federer, Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Casper Ruud and Tsitsipas.I look forward to it. I think that on any given day I can beat anybody, and that’s what the team is going to be asking of me, so I’m ready.You’ve talked a lot about innate confidence. Where does that come from?It’s just something I’ve always had. I’ve always felt that how can you ever succeed and be the best if you don’t believe that?Do you have a sports idol outside of tennis?Yeah, a big role model of mine is [the soccer star Cristiano] Ronaldo. His work ethic really made me a fan.Who would your ideal mixed doubles partner be?I suppose I’d have to say my mom.What’s the most important thing she taught you?Probably just to have fun with it and not take everything so seriously. My dad was much more into all the coaching and tennis stuff. My mom was more relaxed about it all.In terms of coaching, the smarter players are the ones who want to figure it out for themselves. Do you put yourself in that category?Absolutely, when it comes to being analytical and strategic on the court and figuring out what the opponent is doing, I feel like my tennis I.Q. is really high. I think it’s one of my best assets.You were 18 when you got married and had a son very young. Does Jordan understand who you are and what you do?Yeah, he’s 5 and he knows what I do. He’s pretty disappointed when I tell him that I’m actually not the best tennis player in the world. He kind of expects that, so it’s tough to impress him. More

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      With Upset Over Taylor Fritz, Brandon Holt Is Making a Name for Himself

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      Holt, a qualifier who inherited tennis skills from his mother, the U.S. Open winner Tracy Austin, and his other pastime — music — from his father, is putting together a tidy run at the tournament.As the son of a famous tennis champion, Brandon Holt is often asked what he has taken from his mother, Tracy Austin, who won the United States Open twice. Did he inherit his service return from her? Did she bequeath her court savvy to her son?Some of his tennis skill set does derive from his mother, and some of it is his own. But what did Holt get from his father, Scott Holt?“His musical taste,” Brandon Holt said, and for the rising tennis star, that is something very precious.Ever since Holt, 24, rolled his ankle in his sophomore year at the University of Southern California and was forced to spend significant time away from tennis, he has become an avid guitar player, borrowing from his dad’s record collection to strum along with the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, Oasis, Pink Floyd and more.The guitar was something he picked up to get away from the mind-numbing magnetism of social media during his rehabilitation. He bought a guitar and learned chords and songs from the internet.“Every time I felt the urge to go on Instagram or something, I would pick up the guitar,” he said. “And I fell in love with it. Now it goes wherever I go.”Holt was too exhausted after his record-breaking upset win over the No. 10 seed, Taylor Fritz, on Monday to play later that night. In his hotel room on Tuesday morning, he grabbed his instrument and started jamming, just like any other day on tour, as long as the doctors allow it.Several months ago, Holt was recovering from a hand injury that temporarily jeopardized his career. He found he could strum the guitar, but picking the strings hurt his hand. He asked his surgeon if he could still pick through the pain.“He said, ‘That depends,’” Holt recalled. “‘Do you want to be a professional tennis player or a professional musician?’”The answer to that question is affirmatively the former. Holt is having the tournament of his life, piling career-best win on top of career-best win to reach the second round of the U.S. Open. If he can beat Pedro Cachin of Argentina, who is ranked No. 66 in the world, on Wednesday, Holt would become the first man with a wild-card entry into the qualifying rounds of the U.S. Open to reach the third round of the main draw.In other words, the U.S. Open gifted him the opportunity to compete in the pretournament qualifying rounds, which meant that he would then have to win three matches just to get into the main draw. He did that for the first time in his young career and then stunned Fritz in four sets.Holt, left, beat his friend, the No. 10 seed, Taylor Fritz, to advance to the second round.Frank Franklin Ii/Associated PressHe is the first wild-card qualifier to beat a top-10 seed, men or women, and the second man to win a match in the main draw. He did it by beating Fritz, an old friend — they have played against one another in Southern California since before they were 10 — who had designs on winning the U.S. Open.Fritz is also 24, but he has been playing in major tournaments for seven years. Quicker to develop professionally, Fritz was always helpful to Holt as they played against one another in their youths and trained together over the years. Fritz acted almost as a mentor while Holt bided his time. When they were young, Fritz invariably won their matches, but there was nothing weird about the tables turning as they did on Monday.“No, that’s not the right word,” Holt said. “I felt really happy, maybe just, I don’t know, stress relief. Sometimes, you want something so bad, and you want it to end so that it comes true, and when it happens, it just feels so good.”Holt’s gradual development has allowed him to surface into the thick of the U.S. Open eight years older than his mother was when she first won the U.S. Open as a 16-year-old phenom, seeded third, in 1979. Holt, who came into the qualifying rounds ranked No. 303, went to regular schools, avoided the grind of international travel as a teenager and spent four years in college with strong (free) coaching, top nutrition and training facilities (also free).“He really liked being a normal kid,” said David Nainkin, the lead men’s national coach for United States Tennis Association player development. “He’s got a strong family background, and he’s just taken his time and gotten a little better and a little better over time.”Austin remains a part of her son’s coaching staff and occasionally makes critical suggestions, Nainkin said, like a recent footwork adjustment that added 10 miles per hour to his serve. Nainkin added that Holt, always a smart player, has also taken a quantum leap in self-analysis of his game during his time at the U.S. Open.“He’s improved in just the nine days that he has been here,” Nainkin said.Tracy Austin won the U.S. Open twice and is now watching her son Brandon try to do the same.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesAlso, he is devouring newfound information about his opponents, statistics he had never had access to before. The U.S. Open is the first tournament Holt has played in which in-depth technical data is available on all players — from groundstroke speed to first-serve tendencies.Nainkin also believes that Holt’s pathway to the professional ranks has been enhanced by his maturity and independence. Before he was granted the wild card into qualifying, Holt traveled the world by himself — no parent, no coach, no manager — playing in Tunisia, Mexico, Ecuador, Britain and the Dominican Republic and ranked as low as No. 924.His only traveling partner was his guitar, a 2.5-pound semi-acoustic that he plugs into his computer and listens through headphones. Holt packs the guitar into his luggage and sets it in the corner of his hotel room and plays it every day, sometimes for two hours at a time, before he catches himself, lest he develop hand cramps while playing barre chords.Although he was drawn to his father’s musical tastes, neither of his parents plays an instrument, he said. His grandmother on his father’s side is an accomplished pianist, and sometimes they play together. Holt’s favorite song to play is one that could apply to all his friends and family members who could not make the journey to New York to witness his breakout tournament.“‘Wish You Were Here’ by Pink Floyd,” he said. “If there is only one song I could play for the rest of my life, it would be that one.”Luckily, there are no such restrictions. Holt is showing he can play a lot more than just that. More

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      Rafael Nadal Prevails at Wimbledon In Grueling Win Over Taylor Fritz

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      Nadal struggled with an abdominal injury in his grueling quarterfinal victory over Taylor Fritz, a rising American star who pushed Nadal to five sets.WIMBLEDON, England — It was Wednesday evening on Centre Court, and Rafael Nadal was back in the semifinals of Wimbledon after proving once again that his threshold for pain and ability to improvise under duress are far beyond the norm.Taylor Fritz was in his courtside chair pondering what might have been and sensing that no defeat had ever hurt quite like this one because he felt like breaking into tears.“I’ve never felt like I could cry after a loss,” said Fritz, the 24-year-old rising American star who will rise no higher at the All England Club this year after Nadal’s victory, 3-6, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-4).A thriller of a quarterfinal, it lasted 4 hours 21 minutes and might have gone quite a bit longer if not for the new rule at Wimbledon this year that requires a first-to-10-point tiebreaker to be played at 6-6 in the fifth set. The English soccer stalwart David Beckham, watching rapt from the royal box, might have preferred penalty kicks.Fritz, a thunderous server who also can pound his groundstrokes, upset Nadal to win the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., in March in a match Fritz played with an injured ankle and Nadal played with a stress fracture in his rib cage.Fritz was on the verge of a more significant breakthrough on Wednesday and won, in the end, just as many points as Nadal did (168 apiece). But for all Fritz’s power and hustle, he could not win the points that mattered most; he could not capitalize on Nadal’s abdominal injury or on a two-set-to-one lead. He quickly lost command of the decisive tiebreaker, falling behind, 0-5, as Nadal summoned the shotmaking and guile that have made him a 22-time Grand Slam singles champion.“Rafa did what Rafa does: He figures stuff out,” said Paul Annacone, one of Fritz’s coaches. “He figures out what he’s got on the day, and he never makes it easy for the opponent. That’s why he’s thus far the most accomplished guy in the history of tennis.”Nadal, still chasing the Grand Slam at age 36, will face the Australian Nick Kyrgios, another big server with a much more volatile personality, on Friday for a place in the men’s singles final.In Friday’s other semifinal, the No. 1 seed, Novak Djokovic, the three-time defending Wimbledon champion, will face the No. 9 seed, Cameron Norrie, the last British player left in singles.The question is whether the second-seeded Nadal will be healthy enough to play. Nadal said he came close to retiring from the match after aggravating the lower abdominal injury midway through the opening set. But even without a full-strength serve and even with his father and sister urging him from the stands to retire, Nadal, as so often, found the solutions he needed to prevail even if he did not look a great deal more upbeat than Fritz when he arrived for a sotto voce news conference.Taylor Fritz threw everything he had at Nadal, but it wasn’t enough.Hannah Mckay/Reuters“It’s obvious that today is nothing new,” he said of the injury. “I had these feelings for a couple of days. Without a doubt, today was the worst day. There has been an important increase of pain and limitation. And that’s it. I managed to win that match. Let’s see what’s going on tomorrow.”He said he would undergo more tests on Thursday before deciding whether he would return to Centre Court to face Kyrgios, who upset him on that same patch of grass in their first meeting in 2014 in the round of 16. Nadal has won six of their eight other matches, including a testy second-round duel at Wimbledon in 2019 in which Kyrgios deliberately hit full-cut passing shots at Nadal’s body and felt no need to apologize.“Nick is a great player in all the surfaces but especially here on grass,” Nadal said. “He’s having a great grass-court season. It’s going to be a big challenge. I need to be at my 100 percent to keep having chances, and that’s what I’m going to try to do.”Nadal is clearly tired of talking about his body, weary of dealing with the injuries that have just kept coming during his intermittently sensational season.“If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” Nadal said.For the first time in his long career, Nadal won the first two Grand Slam tournaments of the season, the Australian and French Opens. No man has completed a Grand Slam, winning all four major tournaments in the same year, since Rod Laver in 1969, but Nadal kept his bid alive with Laver, 83, watching from the royal box.Nadal managed it by settling for a much slower serve that, according to Fritz, gave him more trouble than Nadal’s full-force delivery. Nadal walked gingerly off the court for a medical timeout with a 4-3 lead in the second set and said he received anti-inflammatory medication and treatment from a physiotherapist.“For all the first set and all the second and a big part of the third, the problem was not only the serve but that if I served I could feel the pain for the rest of the point and could not play it normally,” he explained. “It took a while to figure it out.” His average serve speeds on Wednesday were 107 miles per hour for first serves and 94 miles per hour for second serves compared with 115 and 100 in the previous round. But once he adjusted, he said he no longer had lingering discomfort during the exchanges and that he felt uninhibited on his groundstrokes.“For a lot of moments, I was thinking maybe I will not be able to finish the match,” he said, speaking to the Centre Court crowd. “But, I don’t know, the court, the energy, something else, so yes, thanks for that.”Nadal has not always been the crowd favorite at Wimbledon, where his longtime rival Roger Federer has long enjoyed that role. But Federer, 40, is not playing here this year, and Nadal, back for the first time since 2019, has been hearing plenty of positive feedback as he tries to win Wimbledon for the third time.He pushed on Wednesday, evened the match at two sets apiece and then went up a break in the fifth to take a 4-3 lead, only to lose his own serve in the next game. But as the match extended past four hours, he regained control and finished off the victory with a classic forehand winner from inside the baseline, complete with his bolo-whip finish behind his left ear.It has been a Wimbledon full of surprises. Before it began, the All England Club barred Russian and Belarusian players because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Three leading players — Matteo Berrettini, Marin Cilic and Roberto Bautista Agut — withdrew after contracting the coronavirus.But Nadal and Djokovic are still in contention heading down the stretch, and so is Simona Halep, a former No. 1 who won Wimbledon in 2019 and is in resurgent form with the help of her new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou. Halep, a Romanian, will face Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the semifinals on Thursday. Ons Jabeur, the No. 3 seed from Tunisia, will play Tatjana Maria, a German ranked No. 103 who has been the biggest surprise of the women’s tournament.Last year, Fritz came close to surprising Djokovic before losing in five sets in the third round of the Australian Open in a match in which, strange but true, Djokovic suffered an abdominal injury. The scenario against Nadal must have felt agonizingly familiar, and he said his biggest regret was not pushing Nadal harder the three times Nadal served to stay in the match.“In the end, he was just really, really, really good,” Fritz said. “Certain parts of the match I felt like maybe I kind of just needed to come up with more, do more. I left a lot kind of up to him, and he delivered.” More