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    Seen from Close-up: How the U.S. Open Dials in its Court Speed

    From the seats in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the tennis court below appears smooth and uniform. Even the players who sprint and slide across the blue hardcourt can barely see or sense a characteristic that significantly sets the tone for their matches. Now take a look at this high-resolution scan of the surface in Ashe, where […] More

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    After Indian Wells and Miami, Intrigue Awaits at the Top of Tennis

    Daniil Medvedev, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Elena Rybakina had a rousing month in the United States. With Europe, red clay and the return of the biggest stars on the horizon, this could get very interesting.MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — It doesn’t take an expert in code cracking to figure out the pattern that has emerged in professional tennis in the past month as the tours descended on the United States for the winter-spring swing in California and Florida.Over four weeks, and two of the most important tournaments other than the Grand Slam events, a small group at the top of the sport became a little more crowded, especially with some members injured (Iga Swiatek, Rafael Nadal) or sidelined because the United States still prohibits foreigners not vaccinated against Covid-19 from entering (Novak Djokovic).Carlos Alcaraz, the 19-year-old Spanish marvel fast becoming the biggest draw in the sport, was already in the group. But make room once more for Daniil Medvedev. A magically idiosyncratic Russian who dropped out of the top tier last year, Medvedev won the Miami Open for the first time on Sunday, beating Jannik Sinner, 7-5, 6-3, after making the final at Indian Wells two weeks ago.Elena Rybakina is now officially there, too. A fluid and powerful Kazakh, she nearly pulled off the so-called Sunshine Double, losing to the Czech veteran Petra Kvitova in the Miami final on Saturday after winning at Indian Wells.Then there is Sinner, the smooth Italian who lost to Medvedev on Sunday and made the semis in Indian Wells and who solidified his position as the most reliable contemporary rival for an otherwise nearly unstoppable Alcaraz. Sinner matched Alcaraz bang for bang and beat him in their semifinal match Friday night to knot their head-to-head record at 3-3. Rybakina, by the way, has managed the same trick with Swiatek, becoming her Kryptonite in a way no one else has lately.“Best start of the season I have ever had,” said Medvedev, who has won 24 of his last 25 matches and four of his last five tournaments since losing in the third round of the Australian Open in January.Every March and April at Indian Wells and Miami, trophies and big checks are handed out, but this time the top of the sport’s tectonic plates shifted just enough to create new intrigue as tennis moves to Europe for the clay-court season and then onto the grass.Nadal, the so-called King of Clay, the winner of 14 French Open titles, posted on Instagram a picture of himself stretching for a shot in practice last week, an unsubtle hint that he plans to be ready. The prognosis is good for Swiatek, who was undefeated on clay last spring. Djokovic has endured forced layoffs because he is unvaccinated before and has come back stronger. No one doubts he will not do the same this time.Carlos Alcaraz, who won the men’s singles title at Indian Wells last month, met his match against Jannick Sinner in the semifinal at the Miami Open.Al Bello/Getty ImagesThose three may be poised to strike, but they also know the ever-evolving challenges that await them. Even though he exited a round short of the final here in Florida, Alcaraz, with his jaw-dropping display of shotmaking, left behind another slew of victims, solidifying his stature as the most disruptively powerful force in the game.Taylor Fritz, the top American, relished the chance to face Alcaraz for the first time in the quarterfinals here on Thursday. He came away from the straight-sets beating wondering what had hit him. Fritz came out pounding 110-miles-per-hour second serves that the Spaniard turned into clean winners. Fritz crushed backhands across the court that Alcaraz banged back with impossible backhands down the line. He said Alcaraz inflicted a level of suffocation he had not experienced the first time he played Djokovic, Nadal or Roger Federer.“I definitely felt like I had more breathing room against those guys than in this match,” Fritz said.Medvedev, safe from Alcaraz on the other side of the draw, watched on television — Medvedev watches a lot of tennis on television when he remains alive in a tournament — and saw that Alcaraz was hitting forehands at blazing speed. He shook his head.“People are like, Why cannot other people play against Carlos?” Medvedev said. “Well, I cannot hit 110-miles forehand. Yeah, that’s an advantage.”But Medvedev, who lost to Alcaraz in the men’s singles final at Indian Wells and is almost as good a pundit as he is a player, offered some counterintuitive analysis. Conventional wisdom would suggest that trying to outhit Alcaraz would be a fool’s errand, since that is how Alcaraz prefers to play.Medvedev though, said that is most likely why Sinner has been more successful than anyone else against Alcaraz. Alcaraz is more consistent, and possesses crisp volleys, the most deceptive drop shots and relentless defense. But, Medvedev said: “Jannik can hit the ball very strong. I think that’s where they have this kind of Ping-Pong tennis. That’s where he can bring him trouble.”And then Sinner did, coming back from a set down against Alcaraz, running him into leg cramps in yet another of their highlight reel displays.“You have to go for shots where usually you don’t go for it” against Alcaraz, Sinner said.Medvedev, who has now won all of their matches, presented a different challenge for Sinner, who said he woke up feeling under the weather. Medvedev is a human backboard, whose flat power did not pop into Sinner’s strike zone the way Alcaraz’s powerful topspin did on this slick hardcourt that was a near-perfect fit for Medvedev’s game.Early on, Medvedev lulled Sinner into long rallies. Sinner shifted to a more aggressive tack, which helped. But feeling less than 100 percent and with a three-hour battle with Alcaraz still in his legs, he wilted in the 86-degree heat, unable to find the next gear he needed to win his first Masters 1000 title.“I’m getting closer and closer,” Sinner said of his lopsided record against Medvedev. “Every player has a player or two they are not comfortable with.”Another pattern worth noting: It has been said that an unkempt Medvedev is the best Medvedev. When he has showed up to play clean-shaven with his hair nearly groomed, as though he had just stepped out of a fashion shoot for Lacoste, his game has been flat. But when he takes the court with a scraggly beard, with his hair flying in four directions and his shirt a size or two too big, his inner artist and assassin seem to become fully realized.No surprise then, that Medvedev has been properly unkempt for the past month. He has been working with a new mental coach as well, though he won’t reveal the name, after a year without one that did not go well.“I always try to do my best, always try to work hard,” Medvedev said. “You never know when it is going to pay.”“Happy with the run and super proud of myself,” Elena Rybakina said after losing the women’s singles final at the Miami Open to Petra Kvitova.Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports via Reuters ConEven after losing in Saturday’s final to snap a 13-match winning streak, Rybakina will head into the clay-court season as a force who grows more fearsome every month. She won her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon last year, but her ranking remained artificially low because after Wimbledon prohibited Russians and Belarusians from competing, the tours withheld rankings points for the event. She spent all summer and fall trying to make up for that, but arrived in Australia rested. She cruised into the final, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka in three tight sets.She has barely let up since, using her powerful serve and rolling backhand to overwhelm her opponents. She finally ran out of gas on Saturday after a mesmerizing first-set tiebreaker. Kvitova, who won her ninth Masters 1000 title, saved six set points before winning, 7-6 (14), 6-2.“Happy with the run and super proud of myself,” Rybakina said when it was over.And what to make of Kvitova? She is 33 and a two-time Wimbledon champion who just won her first Masters 1000 title since 2018, to say nothing of the 2016 attack in her home that left her dominant left hand bloodied and with torn ligaments. Not even Kvitova could answer that as she sat next to the glass trophy early Saturday evening.“I have no idea what this will do,” she said. “The clay is waiting and then it’s grass. The tennis world is just very fast, and I can’t really stand there and be watching this trophy.”Neither can Medvedev nor any of the others who excelled in the last month. Novak and Rafa and Iga await. More

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    Carlos Alcaraz Takes World No. 1 Ranking Into The Miami Open

    Alcaraz, who won the men’s singles title at Indian Wells, reclaims the world No. 1 ranking from Novak Djokovic. But can he keep it?INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The sun was setting in the desert, and dark clouds were gathering, but Carlos Alcaraz was walking jauntily down a hallway in Stadium 1 at the BNP Paribas Open.He had finished ahead of the storm and everything else on his way to the trophy in Indian Wells, securing the title without losing a set, not even against Daniil Medvedev, the hottest hand in tennis, in an unexpectedly lopsided final on Sunday.His 6-3, 6-2 victory — full of exquisitely disguised drop shots, lunging volley winners and other dazzle — did not only stop Medvedev’s 19-match winning streak in a hurry. It also earned Alcaraz a return to the No. 1 singles ranking on Monday, displacing Novak Djokovic, the Serb who is not allowed to enter the United States because he remains unvaccinated for the coronavirus.Djokovic, a five-time singles champion in Indian Wells, is the most successful men’s hardcourt player in tour history. But his decision to forgo vaccination has caused him to miss a string of significant events, including last year’s U.S. Open, which Alcaraz, a Spaniard, won to ascend to the top spot in the rankings for the first time at age 19.“Look, the truth is I’m a player, but I’m also a fan of tennis,” Alcaraz said in an interview on Sunday. “And in the end, having the best players in each tournament and being able to compete with the best is always good. Nobody wants to see people missing tournaments, especially me. I wish Djokovic were in every event and I could play against him and share the locker room with him and learn from him up close.” It is the tennis duel that many would most like to see, and it did not happen in January at the Australian Open, which Djokovic won for the 10th time. Alcaraz missed it because of a leg injury incurred after lunging for a shot in practice shortly before he was scheduled to leave Spain for Australia. He had already missed the end of the 2022 season because of a torn stomach muscle.“That was rough: to miss Australia, a Grand Slam I really wanted to play and thought I would have my chances to win,” Alcaraz said. “But it made me learn from the things I wasn’t doing right. You can be on court for two or three hours a day, but it’s also about how you take care of yourself outside the court: to rest, eat well, take the right supplements.”While the leading men have yet to all gather in the same spot this season, the leading women reunited in the desert and produced a repeat of the high-velocity Australian Open final between the 6-foot power players Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan by way of Moscow.While Sabalenka won in a three-set classic in Melbourne, Rybakina prevailed on Sunday, 7-6 (11), 6-4, saving two set points in a nervy opening set that had even the self-contained Rybakina struggling to keep a poker face.Sabalenka’s stumbling block was a familiar one: double faults. They spoiled much of her early 2022 season, but she worked her way through the problem with help from a biomechanist and served well under duress in Australia. On Sunday, she regressed, making 10 double faults — all in the first set and three in the tiebreaker — and was clearly unsettled by it.“There will be some days when old habits will come back, and you just have to work through it,” she said of what she had learned from the defeat.Rybakina, the reigning Wimbledon champion who is now No. 7 in the rankings, has beaten the No. 1, Iga Swiatek, twice this year, including overwhelming her in the semifinals on Saturday.Alcaraz is only 19. Not even Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic was No. 1 as a teenager.Mark J. Terrill/Associated PressFor now, Alcaraz and Djokovic have played each other just once, with Alcaraz winning on clay in three tight sets on his way to the title in Madrid last May. It is hardly Alcaraz’s fault that they missed each other here in the desert even if it is, to some degree, his problem because he is back at No. 1 under unusual circumstances. Djokovic received no ranking points for winning Wimbledon last year after the tours stripped the venerable tournament of points because of its ban on Russian and Belarusian players, including Medvedev.But Medvedev, after being drubbed on Sunday, said that Alcaraz had earned the top spot and that there should be “no buts” even if the rankings might have been different had Djokovic been able to play a full schedule.“Carlos is deservedly world No. 1,” he said. “He won more points than everybody else in the last 52 weeks, and that’s how rankings work.”Monday also brought bad news for Spanish tennis with Rafael Nadal dropping out of the top 10 for the first time since April 25, 2005, ending a record streak of nearly 18 years. It is hard to imagine Alcaraz or anyone else matching that kind of consistency, but Alcaraz is clearly an incandescent talent: an acrobat in sneakers capable of dominating and mesmerizing.That is a rare combination reminiscent of Roger Federer, the 20-time Grand Slam champion and serial crowd pleaser whose photo was once in Alcaraz’s bedroom at his family’s home in Murcia, Spain. Like Federer, who retired last year at 41, Alcaraz is a fabulous and feline mover who likes variety and the element of surprise with his abrupt changes of pace and fast-twitch forays to the net.“I think he’s a lot more like Roger than Rafa,” said Paul Annacone, a Tennis Channel analyst who coached Federer. “Because Rafa couldn’t take the ball early like this when he was 19, and Rafa couldn’t come forward like this. Roger could always stay on the baseline and always look like he had time, and that’s how this kid looks.”Neither Federer nor Nadal (nor Djokovic) was No. 1 as a teenager. For Annacone, Alcaraz is “the most complete 19-year-old men’s player” in memory, with consistency and decision-making not typically seen in young players.“The interesting thing for me is watching someone who is this athletically talented with his running, jumping, explosiveness and flexibility, but also has the hand-eye coordination to be able to take the ball early on the rise, come forward and volley,” Annacone said. “He also can back up and change pace. He can do everything.”Medvedev certainly looked outmanned on this blustery Sunday: unusually erratic from the baseline and often late to react to Alcaraz’s tactical shifts and to his bold returns from inside the court.Alcaraz served and volleyed effectively but also beat Medvedev at his own game — baseline tennis — with his powerful groundstrokes and deft touch (he hit three straight forehand drop shot winners late in the match).Though doubts remain about his staying power, it has been a convincing comeback. Last month, Alcaraz won on clay in Buenos Aires, then reached the final in Rio de Janeiro, where he reinjured his leg in a loss to Cameron Norrie. But after a few days of rest and therapy, he looked as nimble as ever in Indian Wells.Next stop in this sunshine swing on American hardcourts: the Miami Open, which begins on Friday and where Alcaraz will need to successfully defend his title to keep Djokovic, still in absentia, from reclaiming the No. 1 spot.Their rematch will have to wait for the European clay-court season and hopefully no later than that. More

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    How Tennis and Djokovic Are Pushing Against the U.S. Covid Vaccine Rule

    Djokovic, the world No. 1, who is unvaccinated against Covid-19, has lobbied the Biden administration for an exemption so he can play at Indian Wells and the Miami Open. So far, he has come up short.Late last month, Novak Djokovic and the tight group of managers and coaches who help run the life of the world’s best male tennis player, realized they had a problem.Djokovic had recovered from the hamstring tear he suffered in January, just ahead of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam event of the year. He won the tournament, of course, but with his injury healed he was ready to return to the ATP Tour. The next two important tournaments were in the United States, which does not allow foreigners who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 into the country.The rule, which even some staunchly pro-vaccine experts say is obsolete, has been in effect since late 2021. It includes certain exemptions, but it wasn’t exactly clear how Djokovic, who is unvaccinated against Covid-19 and has long said that vaccination should be an individual’s choice, might qualify for a waiver. He desperately wanted to play, and so began a flurry of phone calls and lobbying of people Djokovic and his team knew who might have connections to the Biden administration, including Billie Jean King, one of the game’s greats.The process, for now, has proved unsuccessful, but it is likely to continue in the coming weeks as the tennis tour shifts from the BNP Paribas Open, which begins this week in Indian Wells, Calif., to the Miami Open, which starts later this month. If nothing changes, professional tennis, which is already missing the injured Rafael Nadal, figures to be without its biggest stars during its most significant swing through North America before the U.S. Open in late summer. That is a major blow for a sport battling to find its way following the retirements of Roger Federer and Serena Williams and as Nadal has struggled with injuries since the middle of last year.Andrea Gaudenzi, chairman of the ATP Tour, called the necessity of Djokovic’s withdrawal from the BNP Paribas Open a “big disappointment.”“The decision is unfortunate not only for him but for our tournaments and fans, especially given the easing of Covid-19 restrictions around the world and in the U.S.,” Gaudenzi said. “He is the No. 1 player in the world and everyone in tennis wishes for him to have a chance to compete at our biggest events.”One chance ended Sunday night when a spokesman for Indian Wells put out a two-sentence statement.“World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the 2023 BNP Paribas Open. With his withdrawal, Nikoloz Basilashvili moves into the field.”A spokesman for Djokovic did not return an email message, nor did his longtime manager, Edoardo Artaldi.It was the moment that Tommy Haas, a former world No. 2 who is the tournament director for Indian Wells, had been working to avoid for more than a week.“He could just be saying, ‘Listen, I’m just going to focus on the French Open and Wimbledon, trying to surpass Nadal,” Haas said last week of Djokovic, who is tied with Nadal with 22 Grand Slam singles titles. “But here he is playing in Dubai and finding a way to win and wanting to come to Indian Wells and Miami.”The efforts that went into trying to get Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star, into the country were described by four people who work in tennis, the U.S. government, and with Djokovic, several of whom requested anonymity so as not to jeopardize their relationships with the Biden administration.The only criteria Djokovic could have met to receive an exemption involved proving that his presence in the United States “would be in the national interest, as determined by the Secretary of State, Secretary of Transportation, or Secretary of Homeland Security (or their designees),” according to the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Djokovic and Artaldi both reached out directly to Ken Solomon, the chief executive of the Tennis Channel and a major fund-raiser for both President Biden and the former President Barack Obama. Solomon began calling top Biden administration officials to plead Djokovic’s case, arguing that barring him from the U.S. was unfair and that Djokovic’s presence would significantly bolster attendance at Indian Wells and the economies of the Coachella Valley and South Florida.“Nearly a million fans attend over their combined near four weeks in Southern California then Miami, and the economic impact means many millions in revenue for these local communities, which if successful in attracting fans will either prosper or otherwise cost people jobs,” Solomon said Monday.Djokovic lost in the fourth round at the Miami Open in 2019, the last time he played in the tournament.Rhona Wise/EPA, via ShutterstockHe said letting Djokovic into the U.S. had nothing to do with him being more important than others and that athletes have often received special considerations because of fans and “the larger history and greater good sports represent.”King, who worked with the Biden administration last year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark legislation that guarantees girls and women in America equal opportunity in sports, reached out to her contacts at the White House on his behalf. The Professional Tennis Players Association, the fledgling organization that Djokovic has spearheaded since 2020, worked its contacts, too.IMG, the sports and entertainment conglomerate that represents Djokovic, enlisted its government relations and immigration teams, which often work with the government on regulatory matters and to ensure entry for its foreign clients under routine circumstances.For IMG, the interest goes beyond its relationship with Djokovic. The company owns the Miami Open. IMG executives reached out to Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, who along with Senator Rick Scott, another Florida Republican, wrote a letter urging the Biden administration to end the vaccination requirement.One person who did not get involved is Ari Emanuel, the chief executive of Endeavor, which owns IMG. Emanuel’s brother, Rahm Emanuel, was chief of staff to Obama during his first term. His other brother, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, was a health policy adviser in the Obama White House. While Ari Emanuel may eventually get involved on Djokovic’s behalf, it’s not clear whether that would help. It could also backfire, causing the Biden administration to worry about the optics of doing a favor for someone with access to the highest levels of the government.For Haas and others who support Djokovic, and even some experts on infectious diseases, the continued ban on unvaccinated foreign travelers remains baffling. There is no requirement to receive boosters. So anyone who two years ago received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was only moderately effective and whose health benefits have likely long since lapsed, is able to enter the country, but unvaccinated individuals are not, even if they test negative before boarding a flight.Gigi Gronvall, an immunologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, is a huge proponent of the vaccine, for the health of those who are vaccinated and everyone around them, but she acknowledged a vaccination from two years ago would probably provide little protection today. Also, she said it’s unlikely that a rule like the one in place would compel more unvaccinated individuals to get vaccinated.“If they haven’t done it by now, I don’t know if it will provide any inducement,” she said.A spokesman for the C.D.C. said last month that the rule is the result of a presidential proclamation that is separate from the health emergency provisions that the Biden administration plans to end on May 11. The travel rule will end only when President Biden decides to lift it.The Biden administration has said it will defer to health experts regarding its decision on this rule and all other policies related to Covid-19. More

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    With Indian Wells Days Away, Novak Djokovic Hopes for a Miracle

    The world No. 1, Djokovic remains unvaccinated against Covid-19 and still cannot enter the United States without an exemption. He has asked for one and is awaiting an answer.Novak Djokovic, last seen winning the Australian Open with a three-centimeter tear in his hamstring, has been back on the tennis court this week, steaming his way through the field in Dubai like he usually does.But as the tennis calendar gets serious again, with two of the most significant tournaments outside the Grand Slams scheduled to be held in California and Miami later this month, the Djokovic train seems destined to screech to a halt.Djokovic, once again the world’s No. 1 men’s singles player, desperately wants to play next week at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and later this month at the Miami Open. In recent weeks, he requested an exemption from the rule prohibiting people who are not permanent residents of the United States from entering the country if they have not been vaccinated against Covid-19.To the great consternation of Djokovic and some of the biggest names in the sport, it’s not going well, and time is running out for Djokovic to withdraw from the tournament before his not being able to play leaves a giant hole in the top quadrant of the bracket.John McEnroe, the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion and a television commentator, has called Djokovic’s inability to play in the U.S. “absurd.” If President Biden does not change his mind — and that is what it would take at this point — Djokovic must withdraw by Sunday or a player ranked about 100 spots lower may end up taking his favored spot on the draw sheet, Tommy Haas, the tournament director for Indian Wells, said in an interview on Wednesday.Haas, a former world No. 2 who is from Germany, has been lobbying multiple organizations to try to find a way to get Djokovic into the U.S. The United States Tennis Association has been in touch with its government contacts but has stopped short of formally lobbying on Djokovic’s behalf.“Novak’s situation is obviously frustrating for us,” Haas said. “We want the best tennis player in the world to be here. He’s writing me, he wants to be here. So of course, you’re like, OK, let’s try to make this happen. How can we figure this out that’s going to be realistic? But at the end of the day, unfortunately, that’s not in our hands and that’s what’s frustrating.”A spokesman for Djokovic did not respond to an email seeking comment. Djokovic said earlier this week that he was still awaiting a ruling on his request for an exemption.“Everything is currently in the process,” Djokovic said late last month in Belgrade, Serbia. “I have a big desire to be there.Djokovic, who has won at Indian Wells five times, has not explained why he believes he should qualify for an exemption. He is not vaccinated but the only reason he has ever given for his choice is that he believes people should have the right to decide whether to get vaccinated.The Djokovic situation isn’t the only bothersome development for the Indian Wells tournament.Rafael Nadal, who is still recovering from a leg injury he sustained in the second round of the Australian Open, withdrew earlier this week. Nadal hates missing Indian Wells, and not only because he has won the tournament three times. Nadal often stays at the home of Larry Ellison, the founder of the tech company Oracle who owns the tournament, and Nadal also gets to play plenty of golf in downtime.In another worrisome development for both Indian Wells and tennis, during a match in Rio de Janeiro last weekend, Carlos Alcaraz, the 19-year-old Spanish sensation, aggravated the hamstring pull that kept him out of the Australian Open. The injury forced him to pull out of a tournament in Acapulco, Mexico, this week. Alcaraz thrilled crowds as he won the U.S. Open in September, the last time he competed in America.Carlos Alcaraz of Spain has been dealing with a hamstring injury and may not play at Indian Wells.Bruna Prado/Associated PressEven without some of the biggest stars, Indian Wells will always be one the highlights on the schedule. Players repeatedly rank the tournament among the best in the world. It is a destination for locals and tourists. The snow seems to have cleared out of Southern California for now. The overwhelming majority of the roughly half-million fans who attend the two-week event (including qualifying) come from outside the Palm Springs area.It also helps that tennis in the United States is in the midst of a small boom. The U.S.T.A. announced last month that participation grew in 2022 for the third consecutive year, with more than one million new participants. Overall, 23.6 million people played tennis at least once in 2022, an increase of 5.9 million, or 33 percent, since the start of 2020, when the pandemic drove hordes of new and lapsed players back to the sport.And yet, barring a last-minute change in policy or a decision to grant an exemption, the man who plays the sport better than anyone won’t be there.It’s not clear why Djokovic believes he might qualify for an exemption. The only criteria he would seem to be able to meet involves proving that getting vaccinated would be harmful to his health or that his presence in the United States “would be in the national interest, as determined by the Secretary of State, Secretary of Transportation, or Secretary of Homeland Security (or their designees),” according to the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Last month, the House of Representatives passed a bill rescinding the vaccination requirement 227-203, with seven Democrats joining all Republicans voting in favor. Supporters of the bill said the U.S. policy is out of step with the rest of the world, where vaccination requirements for foreigners have largely gone away. The Senate has not voted on the matter, which, according to the C.D.C., will not end automatically in May when the Biden administration plans to end the Covid-19 national and public health emergencies declared in 2020.Ending the vaccination requirement for foreign travelers will most likely require a separate order from President Biden ending the presidential proclamation that put it into effect.Haas, the Indian Wells tournament director, said there is a silver lining to the absences of Djokovic, Nadal and possibly Alcaraz, at least for the other players.“If I’m like a young American coming up, I’m like, listen this is my time to hold up the trophy,” Haas said. “Now from my point of view as the tournament director and one of the best players can’t compete here, it’s obviously a sad thing, a frustrating thing.” More

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    The Future of Tennis, Carlos Alcaraz, Has Arrived

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

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    Naomi Osaka Finds New Motivation Despite a Loss in Miami

    A couple of years ago, Naomi Osaka told Iga Swiatek she was too good to quit tennis. On Saturday, Swiatek proved her right.MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — A little more than two years ago, over dinner during the Australian Open, Iga Swiatek told Naomi Osaka that she wasn’t sure a career in tennis was going to go her way, so she was thinking of going to college. Osaka, who was 22 then and had already won two Grand Slam titles, told Swiatek that was a terrible idea. You’re really good, Osaka told Swiatek, who at the time was still cramming in high school homework. Don’t divert your energy to college just yet, Osaka advised.Swiatek took Osaka’s advice, and good thing she did. Nine months later she came out of nowhere to win the French Open while she was ranked 54th in the world. Saturday, in a clash of styles, narratives and friends in the finals of the Miami Open, Swiatek ended a run that Osaka hopes will mark the beginning of the next chapter of her turbulent career with a 6-4, 6-0 win to cement her remarkable rise to the top of her sport.Next week, Swiatek will officially take over the No. 1 ranking, the first player from Poland to rise to that lofty perch. As she held the winner’s trophy, Swiatek called Osaka “an inspiration” and said she would never have imagined when they were having that dinner that they might actually be playing each other for championships one day.“I think it’s the start of a great rivalry,” Swiatek said.For Osaka, this tournament marked a remarkable turnaround that few saw coming, even if she felt like it was not far off. Just three weeks ago at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, a lone heckler rattled her during her second round match, bringing her to tears and triggering memories of the racist treatment Serena and Venus Williams endured at the event two decades ago.But it also seemed to suggest that Osaka, who lost 6-0, 6-4 to Veronika Kudermatova that night, might not be up for the grind and pressures of the professional tennis tour after a year filled with breaks and setbacks, a disclosure of a yearslong struggle with her mental health and questions about whether playing tennis could ever make her happy.In South Florida though, her home for most of her childhood, a far-steelier Osaka took the court, and she played a lot like she had when she won four Grand Slam tournaments. She won eight consecutive sets on the way to a semifinal match in which she battled back against an opponent, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, who had beaten her repeatedly for years.Osaka was once more ripping forehands through the court and coming up with unreturnable laser serves when she needed them most. Beyond the tennis, though, there has been a lightness to her experience. Even in defeat Saturday, she could not help but grin as the hometown crowd smothered her with cheers.They were never louder than when James Blake, the former pro and the tournament director for this event, gazed at Osaka during the awards presentation and said, “I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel to see you happy again.”Then it was Osaka’s turn. “I know I haven’t been in this position for a little while,” she told the crowd after her first final since the 2021 Australian Open. “The outcome wasn’t what you wanted, but hopefully I can keep working hard and be in a position to do this again soon.”Swiatek entered Sunday’s final on a 16-game win streak.Erik S Lesser/EPA, via ShutterstockIn the past, she would say later, she would be crying with disappointment following a day like Saturday. Instead, she experienced it as “a sad outcome but a fun day. “It’s cool to see where the level of No. 1 is and to see if I can reach that,” she said.In Swiatek, Osaka ran into a version of a player that didn’t exist when Osaka was last a mainstay of important tournaments.With the sudden retirement of Ashleigh Barty last week, Swiatek earned the No. 1 ranking, owing largely to a white-hot start to the year. Since her loss in the semifinal of the Australian Open, Swiatek has won three masters-level titles, in Doha, Indian Wells, and Miami, events that are just below the Grand Slams.Saturday’s final riding a 16-match winning streak. But it is the manner in which she has managed all the winning that has her opponents leaving the court with a dazed and glazed look in their eyes.Gone is the shaky mind that used to rattle after a handful of lost points or games or a set. She has evolved into a ruthless problem solver who tears through opponents, especially in finals. She has seemingly gained a half-step — or maybe just a willingness to embrace the next level of fatigue — that allows her to extend points and force opponents to hit extra shots when they thought the point was over.She also is just about the only player in the world who can consistently pull off a kind of tennis magic trick when a ball comes rocketing across the net and lands inches from her feet. In a split second, Swiatek squats so low that her skirt is basically on the ground and fires a kind of swinging half-volley that allows her to go back on the attack. She seems to invent a new shot in every match these days. Saturday it was a back-spinning squash shot lob that landed within inches of the baseline.Osaka, who entered the tournament ranked 77th, had little to lose in the final. She had never lost the final of either a Grand Slam or a Masters 1000 tournament, but neither had Swiatek. Osaka positioned herself several steps into the court on Swiatek’s second serve, trying to rely on her quick hands and instinctive skill to punch the ball back and keep Swiatek off balance.The strategy never quite clicked. “I could never really figure out what to do,” Osaka said.Swiatek never faced a break point, and she had Osaka on the defensive from the start. It took Osaka 11 minutes to hold her serve in the first game. On the afternoon, she won nearly two-thirds of the points on her first serve, which hovered in the neighborhood of 120 m.p.h., but just one-third of those on her second, which was often in the mid-70s.Osaka’s next move will be closely watched. The clay court season in Europe is fast approaching. Clay has long been her worst surface. Grass is no picnic for her either. But she said she will travel to Europe later this month to prepare for the Madrid Open, and has an extra week of preparation built into her schedule. After months of questioning what she wanted from her tennis life, she desperately wants to do well, she said. She wants to be seeded for the French Open, which would likely mean being around the top 30. And she wants to be in the top 10 by the end of the year and reclaim the top ranking next year. “It feels kind of good to chase something,” she said. “That is a feeling I have been missing.” More

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    With Biggest Stars Absent, Miami Open Serves Up Some Chaos

    Top men’s seeds and Naomi Osaka fell earlier than expected, but there was some normalcy: Ashleigh Barty won in women’s singles, successfully defending her title.MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — So what exactly happened at the Miami Open over the past two weeks?Other than the top-seeded Ashleigh Barty walking away with the women’s singles title, something like tennis chaos unfolded at the only significant tournament in North America until August.Where to begin? Naomi Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam event winner, lost a match for the first time in more than a year, and on a hardcourt, a surface it seemed she might never lose on again. After the men’s Big Three — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — skipped this tournament, Jannik Sinner of Italy and Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, close friends and doubles partners, dueled in their first ATP Masters 1000 final. Hurkacz blew past Sinner, a player experts have tapped to be an eventual No. 1, 7-6 (4), 6-4.Barty and Bianca Andreescu, who won Grand Slam events in 2019 but barely played in 2020, gave notice they were just about fully back as they met for the first time in the women’s singles final. A 20-year-old with top-class tennis DNA named Sebastian Korda, the son of the former world No. 2 Petr Korda, made the final eight and was the last remaining American.The top two men’s seeds, Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, lost in the quarterfinals. Alexander Zverev, the No. 3 seed, lost in the second round after having a bye in the first. Andrey Rublev was the only player in the top 10 of the ATP Tour rankings to make the semifinals, where he lost to Hurkacz in straight sets.Simona Halep, the No. 3 women’s seed, and Sofia Kenin, the No. 4 seed, each won just a single match, and Maria Sakkari, the No. 23 seed, served a bagel to Osaka in the first set of her 6-0, 6-4 quarterfinal win.In short, Miami provided a glimpse of a tennis future that does not include Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Serena Williams, who withdrew from the event after oral surgery: a sport of surprise and entropy.“Everyone can win now,” Rublev said after his quarterfinal win over Korda. “It’s not about ranking.”Rublev was talking about the tournament’s final rounds, but he could have meant the sport. Djokovic and Nadal are still nearly indomitable at big events, but when they skip one, all bets are off. (Federer, 39, has played just one tournament since his two knee operations last year.)Bernard Tomic of Australia said earlier this year that there was not much difference between a player ranked 60 and one ranked 250. It sounded strange, but now seems prescient.Aslan Karatsev, a Russian qualifier, made the semifinals of the Australian Open. Juan Manuel and Francisco Cerundolo, two brothers from Argentina who are ranked outside the top 100, made the finals of tournaments in South America, with Juan Manuel winning a title. Lorenzo Musetti, 19, an Italian ranked 94th, knocked off two players in the top 16 at the Mexican Open.Musetti, though, is only the second-best 19-year-old Italian at the moment: Sinner, the son of a cook and waitress and a surprise semifinalist at the French Open last year, is staking his claim as one of the brightest young players in the game.“He has everything,” Roberto Bautista Agut, the veteran from Spain, said of Sinner after losing to him in three sets in the semifinals. “Big serve. Tall. Moves well. Very good groundstrokes. Mentally great, and he’s improving.”Sinner is 6 feet 2 inches with long arms and legs that make him seem taller, and he has that priceless ability to pivot from defense to offense from nearly anywhere on the court and when his opponent least expects it. On three occasions against Bautista Agut, it looked like Sinner was about to wither, especially when he was down a set and three break points at 3-3 in the second set. Instead, he knotted the game with two winners, including a risky, floating crosscourt backhand that nicked the outside of the line.“Every match has a story,” Sinner said after that win. Later, he said, “Sometimes a few points can decide a match.”Ashleigh Barty, above, played Bianca Andreescu for the first time on Saturday, and beat her in the Miami Open final when Andreescu retired in the second set.Lynne Sladky/Associated PressThe Miami Open was an opportunity to show on a big stage what tennis could eventually look like.“I knew when Novak, Rafa, Roger and Dominic Thiem said they were not going to play, some of the younger guys would have a chance to play really deep,” said Hurkacz, 24, a lanky, pigeon-toed big server who has won two tournaments this year.Hurkacz, who often trains in Florida, was seeded 26th here, but he beat players seeded second, fourth, sixth and 12th in five days. He came back from a set and a service break down to Tsitsipas on a brutally hot day in the quarterfinal; outslugged Rublev in a gutsy performance, on a cool night in the semifinal; then knocked off the game’s latest boy wonder on a bright and breezy Easter afternoon.Sinner served for the first set at 6-5, but Hurkacz broke him at love. Then a series of errors allowed Hurkacz to cruise through the tiebreaker. Hurkacz frustrated Sinner with a serve that kept kicking up above his eyes, and two early service breaks in the second set made the final result come fast.Before the match, Sinner had begged off anointing himself the next big thing in tennis, cautioning that a good 10 days in Miami guaranteed nothing. “The road is long,” he said. “I know that. My team knows that.”Barty, 24, and Andreescu, 20, also know that. The two young Grand Slam champions had never played head-to-head before Saturday’s final, though the showdown proved an anticlimax. Andreescu, who struggled to find her rhythm against Barty’s relentless groundstrokes, appeared to roll her foot and ankle while down, 2-0, in the second set and defaulted two games later, giving Barty her second consecutive Miami Open title, 6-3, 4-0.Barty, the world No. 1 from Australia, opted not to play when tennis returned last August, because of her country’s strict quarantine requirements for anyone returning home during the pandemic. She played little tennis in 2020 from March until October, when she began to prepare for the Australian summer of tennis. She kept her top ranking only because of a pandemic rule change that allowed players to maintain their points from 2019.She won a tuneup for the Australian Open, but lost in the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam event and in the first round of a tournament the next week. Barty has gained confidence. In Miami, she barely used the slices she tends to hit when she loses her edge. She does not plan to return to Australia until the fall so she can avoid the country’s mandatory two-week lockdown for international arrivals.“I knew eventually I would find it,” Barty said of her form and the patience with which she approached her return to the game. “I knew it might not be in the third week or the 10th week or the 20th week.”Andreescu, a Canadian, caught the injury bug shortly after winning the 2019 United States Open. It kept her from last year’s summer and fall events. In Australia, she showed flashes of her shotmaking prowess but was too inconsistent to play deep into events. In Miami, she prevailed in four three-set matches to make the final, surviving a third-set tiebreaker in the semifinal against Sakkari that finished past midnight. Then came another injury, a final twist in this strange tournament.She tried to play through the pain, but eventually gave in to her trainer, Abdul Sillah, who urged her from courtside not to risk further damage. “Abdul basically saved me from myself,” said Andreescu, who crouched and cried when she knew the end had come.With the Miami tournament over, the tours are planning to shift to the clay- and grass-court seasons in Europe, but events there are shrouded in uncertainty. Italy and France are in various stages of lockdowns as the European Union struggles to distribute the coronavirus vaccines. While organizers say the tournaments, the Italian Open and the French Open, which is the next Grand Slam event of the year, remain on track, it’s not clear whether government officials will allow them to take place.While Nadal and Djokovic will no doubt quickly attempt to restore order, Federer has yet to say how much clay-court tennis he will play. His focus, he has said, is being healthy for Wimbledon.Osaka, the winner of two of the last three Grand Slam events, has never won a tournament on those surfaces, leaving the door open for any number of her competitors to catch up to her.“I have more freedom on the clay and grass because I am still learning a lot,” Osaka said last week.In other words, expect more chaos. More