Tennis

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Tennis

      Ashleigh Barty Exits the French Open Because of an Injury

      by

      Just eight of the top 16 women’s seeds at Roland Garros remained after Barty withdrew during the second round because of an injury, but the defending champion, Iga Swiatek, has looked very strong.PARIS — Naomi Osaka, the No. 2 seed, did not play her second-round match at the French Open. Ashleigh Barty, the No. 1 seed, could not finish hers: She trudged to her chair in the second set on Thursday, leaving her racket behind, and then walked to the net to shake the hand of her opponent, Magda Linette.“It’s disappointing to end like this,” said Barty, the matter-of-fact Australian who won the French Open in 2019. “I’ve had my fair share of tears this week.”Barty’s comment on the setback was made at a post-match news conference, a virtual gathering in which she shared background on her left hip injury and her decision to stop the match when trailing by 1-6, 2-2. Osaka, who has recently revealed her bouts with depression and social anxiety, withdrew on Monday because of a dispute with tennis officials over participating in similar media duties.Barty, 25, said her injury had occurred when she landed after a serve during a practice just before the start of the French Open.“Completely new injury,” she said. “Something that I’ve never experienced before.”Now Roland Garros is running low on top seeds. After just two rounds, eight of the top 16 women are out. But that does not mean this Grand Slam tournament has become a wide-open landscape of red clay and great opportunity for all.Iga Swiatek, the defending champion, has yet to drop a set, just as she did not lose one — or even go to a tiebreaker — in the seven matches of her surprise run to the 2020 title. Last month, she won the Italian Open on clay, defeating the former No. 1 Karolina Pliskova, 6-0, 6-0, in the final.Swiatek, a 20-year-old from Poland, has carried that momentum into Roland Garros, where she is seeded No. 8, and where she recorded another steamroller score line on Thursday, defeating Rebecca Peterson, 6-1, 6-1. To make matters more ominous for the rest of the women’s field, Swiatek practiced with Rafael Nadal for the first time last week.On Thursday, which was his 35th birthday, Nadal also rumbled into the third round, defeating his longtime foil Richard Gasquet, 6-0, 7-5, 6-2. (At least during the first set, it was perhaps best for Gasquet, the only remaining French singles player, that spectators were not yet allowed to attend the new night sessions at Roland Garros.)Ashleigh Barty, the top seed, waving goodbye after retiring from her second-round match because of a hip injury.Michel Euler/Associated PressSwiatek has modeled more than her heavy topspin forehand after Nadal, a 13-time French Open champion. Like Nadal, she seems to grasp the importance of concentrating on the rally at hand instead of on the draw at large.Her margins of victory are related not only to talent but also to her ability to focus, which is probably linked to her decision at an early age to prioritize mental preparation.“Your mind can fly away,” she told me on Thursday when I asked about her score lines. “You have advantage for sure, but you have to always be aware that this can change.”Swiatek comes across as a particularly thoughtful young athlete, even in a second language, and she is exceptionally powerful, too. It should require a special performance to stop her in Paris. Though Nos. 1 and 2 are gone, she is well aware that her next opponent, the No. 30 seed Annet Kontaveit, has won both their previous matches.“We see that so many players can win a Grand Slam not having so much experience; I had that situation,” Swiatek told me. “I don’t care that many seeds have pulled out or already lost. I’m just focusing on my next round.”The third round at Roland Garros has quite a lineup and quite an age range. Carlos Alcaraz, an 18-year-old Spaniard, became the youngest man to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since Nadal at the 2004 Australian Open. Coco Gauff, the 17-year-old American, reached the third round for the first time in Paris and will face Jennifer Brady in one of three upcoming all-American women’s matches. In the others, Sofia Kenin will face Jessica Pegula, and Serena Williams will play Danielle Collins.Kenin, seeded fourth and a finalist here last year, has struggled this season but played better after arriving in Paris without a coach; she has ended her coaching relationship with her father, Alex. Pegula is having a breakout 2021.Williams, still chasing a 24th Grand Slam singles title, is not the only 39-year-old remaining in the French Open. Roger Federer defeated Marin Cilic, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (4) 6-2, on Thursday.Federer and Cilic have played on bigger occasions, with Federer prevailing in the 2017 Wimbledon final and the 2018 Australian Open final. But this second-round match had plenty of high-level shotmaking, as Cilic repeatedly hit thunderous groundstrokes into Federer’s backhand corner.Federer generally held firm but uncharacteristically lost his patience when trailing by 1-3 in the second set, as he was called for a time violation while toweling off as Cilic prepared to serve at deuce. It is rare for returners to be hit with a time violation, and Federer, generally one of the game’s most expeditious players on his own serve, was indignant. He debated the decision for nearly three minutes in French with the chair umpire, Emmanuel Joseph.“Are you listening to me or are you speaking?” Federer said at one stage. “I listened to you before. Now you can listen to me.”The Grand Slam rule book says players shall play “to the reasonable pace of the server,” and though the rule is enforced inconsistently, Cilic was clearly irritated earlier in the set by Federer’s making him wait, knocking a serve that did not count in Federer’s direction.Roland Garros spectators have an infamously low tolerance for players’ arguing with the umpire, but they also like Federer, so they cheered or stayed silent instead of booing.During his debate with Joseph, Federer asked Cilic directly if he was playing too slowly, and Cilic reminded him of the rule. Federer returned to the baseline, lost the game and continued bantering with Joseph, saying he should have warned him there was a problem before issuing a code violation.Joseph said he thought Federer had understood and could have gotten the message from Cilic’s behavior. “Try to think it through a bit, not just think,” Federer said before returning to the court and complaining that he no longer even “dared” to use his towel during return games.It was all quite extraordinary, as was Federer’s decision to overrule Joseph and concede an ace to Cilic on the first point of the tiebreaker in the third set. To sum up: Federer, who has played so little since the pandemic rules on towel use were put into place, is still adjusting.“I just feel like it was a misunderstanding on many levels,” he explained later at a news conference that provided useful context.“I didn’t understand it and figure it out, and I guess I’m just new to the new tour,” he said, making air quotes with his fingers and chuckling as he said the word “new.” More

    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Tennis

      2021 French Open: What to Watch on Friday

      by

      Serena Williams, John Isner and Victoria Azarenka will play on Court Philippe-Chatrier as the third round of the French Open begins.How to watch: 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time on Tennis Channel; streaming on Tennis Channel+ and the Peacock app.The third round of the French Open begins on Friday, and 12 Americans will play singles matches in the next two days. John Isner and Reilly Opelka, who are seeded, will be looking to fix a recent issue: There are no American men ranked in the top 30 for the first time in more than 50 years. There are no such issues on the women’s side, with Sofia Kenin and Serena Williams in the top 10 and five more Americans behind them in the top 30.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Court Philippe-Chatrier | 6 a.m.Victoria Azarenka vs. Madison KeysVictoria Azarenka of Belarus, the 15th seed, reached the semifinals of the French Open in 2013, but has not been past the third round since. In the past year, she reached the U.S. Open final, but was also knocked out in the first round of the Australian Open. After injuring her back at the Madrid Open in early May, it was unclear whether Azarenka, 31, would be able to play at Roland Garros. So far, Azarenka, a former world No. 1, has performed well, but she will be facing a formidable opponent in the third round.Madison Keys of the United States, the 23rd seed, has also struggled in 2021, not winning consecutive matches until this week at the French Open. Keys, 26, reached the semifinals in 2018 and the quarterfinals in 2019, but lost in the first round last year. Both players are hard-hitting baseliners. It should be an electric match.Court Philippe-Chatrier | 10 a.m.Serena Williams vs. Danielle CollinsSerena Williams celebrated after winning a long point in a tough match against Mihaela Buzarnescu in the second round on Wednesday.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesSerena Williams, the seventh seed, showed signs of vulnerability in the second round against Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania. After losing the second set, Williams, 39, limited her errors and ended up storming through the third set, 6-1, with a dominant performance returning serves. After some early-round exits during the clay-court swing, Williams must take every challenge seriously.Danielle Collins, an American ranked No. 50, swept past Anhelina Kalinina in the second round, losing only two games. Collins, who had surgery for endometriosis in the spring, did not play a tournament on clay in preparation for the French Open, but she has shown match fitness in the first two rounds. Collins, 27, will be a troublesome opponent for Williams. When the two met on hardcourts in January, Williams barely won in a third-set tiebreaker. Now, on a less favorable surface, there is the potential for an upset.Court Philippe-Chatrier | 3 p.m.Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. John IsnerJohn Isner has a booming serve, but his ground game will be tested in the third round.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesJohn Isner, the 31st seed, does not have a game that would traditionally favor clay. Isner, a 6-foot-10 American, has a booming serve that favors him on hardcourts and grass, but he has worked in recent years to improve his ground game. This helped him as he broke his second-round opponent, Filip Krajinovic, three times in the second set. Now, Isner’s ground game will be tested to its limit as he looks for an upset.Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, the fifth seed, has had a strong clay-court season, winning the Monte Carlo Masters and the Lyon Open and reaching the final of the Barcelona Open. Tsitsipas, 22, swept through the first two rounds of the French Open without dropping a set, and is a favorite to reach the final from his half of the draw. On Friday, he will have to find a way to adjust to Isner’s strong serve. If he can settle in on return games and get some early breaks, he should be able to control the flow of the match.Court 14 | 5 a.m.Casper Ruud vs. Alejandro Davidovich FokinaCasper Ruud, the 15th seed, has spent the last few years knocking down national records that were once held by his father, Christian. This time, he will look to be the first Norwegian player to reach the round of 16 at more than one Grand Slam event after doing so for the first time at the Australian Open this year. Ruud picked up his second ATP title, and his second on clay, in Geneva last week.Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, ranked No. 46, struggled in a five-set match against Botic van de Zandschulp in the second round. The match lasted 3 hours 42 minutes, with far more errors than winners coming from both players as they attempted to grind out long points and exhaust each other. It will be a challenge for Fokina, 21, to recover in time.Here are a few more matches to keep an eye on.Aryna Sabalenka vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova; Court Simonne-Mathieu, 5 a.m.Pablo Carreño Busta vs. Steve Johnson; Court Simonne-Mathieu, 10 a.m.Daniil Medvedev vs. Reilly Opelka; Suzanne Lenglen Court, 10 a.m.Paula Badosa vs. Ana Bogdan; Court Simonne-Mathieu, noon. More

    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Tennis

      Injury Forces Ashleigh Barty Out of French Open

      by

      Barty, the world’s No. 1 player, had to leave the court for medical treatment during her second-round match.PARIS — Ashleigh Barty, the No. 1-ranked player in women’s tennis, is out of the French Open after aggravating a left hip injury during her second-round match with Magda Linette on Thursday.“It’s heartbreaking,” said Barty, who won the French Open in 2019 and did not defend her title last year after she chose to stay at home in Australia instead of traveling during the coronavirus pandemic.Barty lost the opening set by 6-1 to Linette, an unseeded 29-year-old from Poland. Barty then left the court for medical treatment as Linette stayed in her chair, reading the tactical notes she had brought to the court.Barty stopped playing at 2-2 in the second set and told her opponent, Magda Linette of Poland, that she could not continue.Michel Euler/Associated PressBarty returned for the second set, but at 2-2, she walked toward her chair, put down her racket and then approached the net to shake hands with Linette, putting an end to the match.Barty, a 25-year-old Australian, received treatment on her hip during a hard-fought first-round victory over Bernarda Pera on Tuesday.“It’s going to be a little bit tough this week,” Barty had said after that match.She turned out to be correct, explaining on Thursday that she had injured her hip while serving during a practice session just before the start of the tournament.“Completely new injury,” she said. “Something that I’ve never experienced before, even chatting with my physio, it’s something she has not seen regularly either. So we’ve been consulting with people all over the world to try and give us some insight into what the best ways to manage it are. I’m confident we do have a plan. It’s just that we ran out of time here.”Barty pulled out of her first-round doubles match on Wednesday to try to manage the injury.“I just tried to give myself a chance,” she said. “Obviously practicing we’ve had our restrictions and essentially tried to stay as fresh as possible and not aggravate it in any way. But in a match that’s unavoidable at times. It got worse today, and it was becoming at the stage where it was unsafe.”“As hard as it is,” Barty added of the retirement, it “had to be done.”With the French Open just getting started, the top two women’s seeds are out of the tournament. No. 2 Naomi Osaka, who could have challenged Barty for the top ranking with a deep run in Paris, withdrew after her first-round victory because of a dispute over media obligations with tournament organizers that has dominated early coverage of the event.Simona Halep, the world’s third-ranked player and a former French Open champion, withdrew before the tournament began with a muscle tear in her left calf.Aryna Sabelenka, the No. 3 seed, is now the highest seed remaining in the women’s singles draw, but Sabalenka, a power player from Belarus, has yet to advance past the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament. The No. 4 seed Sofia Kenin, a finalist at the French Open last year when it was postponed and played in October, has struggled this year while navigating the difficult decision to stop being coached by her father, Alex.Kenin arrived in Paris without a coach but has shown signs of resurgence and defeated the American qualifier Hailey Baptiste, 7-5, 6-3, on Thursday. Kenin should face a tougher test in the third round, however, when she plays a fellow American, Jessica Pegula, who has been having a breakout season and is seeded 28th at Roland Garros.Sofia Kenin, the fourth seed this year, beat the American qualifier Hailey Baptiste on Thursday.Christophe Archambault/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDespite the attrition and instability at the top, this tournament may not be as wide open as it appears. The defending champion Iga Swiatek is still in the draw and has not dropped a set in two rounds, just as she did not lose a set in any of her seven matches in her run to the 2020 title. Last month, she won the Italian Open on clay, defeating the former No. 1 Karolina Pliskova, 6-0, 6-0, in the final.Barty was, in a sense, defending a title in Paris, too. The tour shut down for five months in 2020 because of the pandemic and when it resumed last year in August, she chose to skip the year’s two rescheduled majors, the United States Open and the French Open.She has held the No. 1 ranking since September 2019 in part because of temporary changes made to the ranking system to protect players during the pandemic. But she has often played like a No. 1 since her return to action in 2021, winning the Miami Open on a hardcourt and the Stuttgart Open, and reaching the final of the Madrid Open, where she lost to Sabalenka.It has been a busy schedule, and perhaps too demanding after her layoff. Injuries have cut short her last two tournaments. At the Italian Open, she retired in the second set of her quarterfinal against Coco Gauff with a right arm injury that she said had occasionally flared up since her teens. She said the arm had not troubled her in Paris, but that did not spare her from more pain.“It’s disappointing to end like this,” she said. “I’ve had my fair share of tears this week.”Barty now has less than a month to recover before Wimbledon, which begins June 28 and where the grass surface should be a fine fit for her varied game. For now, her only Grand Slam singles title is the 2019 French Open.“Everything happens for a reason,” Barty said in her news conference after her defeat. “There will be a silver lining in this eventually. Once I found out what that is, it will make me feel a little bit better. But it will be there, I’m sure.” More

    • 138 Shares179 Views

      in Tennis

      At the French Open, Serena Williams Wins While Roger Federer Waits

      by

      Both players are 39 years old, and both are rounding into form as they eye another Grand Slam, whether on Paris’s clay or Wimbledon’s grass.PARIS — They have been on often-parallel tracks for two decades and as they close in on the big four-oh, Serena Williams and Roger Federer still cannot break the habit.Both are ranked eighth in the world at age 39 after playing very little so far this year. Both are back at the French Open trying to keep their minds from racing ahead to Wimbledon, even if both have to know their chances are better on the well-manicured lawns of the All England Club in London than on the gritty red clay of Roland Garros where younger set can grind them down.Federer has conceded that he is not going to win it all in Paris, even if he will not be easy to beat. Williams has conceded nothing of the sort and while Federer took a break on Wednesday on the eve of his second-round match with Marin Cilic, Williams fought hard on Court Philippe-Chatrier.Her opponent was Mihăela Buzarnescu, a 33-year-old lefthander from Romania with a Ph.D. in sports science and a ranking of 174 that does not do justice to her talent or her ability to conjure winners from unexpected places. She was ranked as high as 20th in 2018 before injuries and shoulder surgery knocked her down.Williams controlled the play in the opening set, lost command in the second and then reclaimed full possession of the steering wheel in the third: roaring, shrieking, smiling but never not caring.“It’s always good when you enjoy your job,” she said, looking weary but relieved as she spoke on court after her 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 victory.There was ample cause for concern. She is not yet at her fittest, not close to her finest. Court coverage is a challenge: she suffered in the longer rallies on Wednesday. So are changes of direction and consistency. But she has looked better in both her matches in Paris than she looked in her matches in Rome or Parma, Italy, last month, where she lost early in both clay-court tournaments in her return to competition after a three-month break. “When she played Rome and Parma, I told her that she was not at all ready,” said her coach Patrick Mouratoglou. “The results did not surprise me because she was not prepared, and I told her that when you are not prepared, it is better to train than to compete. But after Parma we had 10 days, and we did the best we could in those 10 days. I think she’s much better now than she was in Italy, but I still cannot say she is as ready as she was in Australia.”At this year’s Australian Open in February, she looked particularly fit and focused before a deflating and unexpectedly lopsided 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Naomi Osaka in the semifinals.“All tournament long in Australia, Serena had a very high level,” Mouratoglou said. “The only match she let pass her by was the match against Osaka. But here in Paris she is suffering and anyone who thinks she wasn’t suffering today was not watching the match.”Very few were watching in person. Pandemic-related restrictions have limited daily crowds at Roland Garros to just over 5,000 spectators, and only a few hundred were seated in the Chatrier Court as Williams and Buzarnescu faced off for the first time in their careers.When Federer won on the same court on Monday in the late afternoon, the sun was shining, the shadows on the red clay sharply defined as the photographers snapped away from the otherwise-empty top tier.Roger Federer at his opening match on Monday.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesIt felt theatrical, like a play, in that the ending seemed to have been written in advance. Federer’s opponent, the veteran qualifier Denis Istomin, was more foil than threat, providing Federer with all manner of big opportunities to express his beautiful game.“I sensed quickly that I could win the points a lot of different ways,” he said of his 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 victory. “Then you can enjoy it: come to net, serve and volley, drop shots, take risks. You could really choose everything, so I think this opponent was ideal for the first round.”It was the movement that dazzled. Federer cannot be as quick as he was, not at 39 and after three knee operations: the most recent two coming in 2020, both on his right knee, and keeping him off the tour until March of this year.But his innate sense of anticipation and fluidity remain: the ability to get around the ball nimbly enough to slap that inside-out forehand, the ability to glide forward (or backward) and win pretty. That is no guarantee that the gears won’t start grinding and the mishits won’t start piling up on Thursday against Cilic, the 2014 United States Open champion who lost to Federer in the 2018 Wimbledon final and the 2019 Australian Open final before falling back in the rankings.But there was no genuine suspense against Istomin, a player with a triple-digit ranking whom Federer had beaten in all seven of their previous matches.“It was nice to play someone I already knew, and it will be nice to play Marin again for the same reason,” Federer said, perhaps happy to see familiar faces as he returns after an extended break with nearly all of his peers long retired.He is the oldest man in the singles draw, and Williams, with her older sister Venus out of the tournament, is now the oldest woman in the singles draw as she prepares to face Danielle Collins, an American ranked 50th, in the third round.Both Williams and Federer have played at Roland Garros in the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s and now the 2020s.They have such different styles: Federer the self-contained fencer; Williams the fiery boxer. But they share the essential at this advanced stage.“If you don’t have the flame burning in you, you just cannot compete at this level,” Mouratoglou said. “They express it in different ways, but it’s still burning for both of them. And though it’s harder for me to speak about Roger than Serena, they both must feel capable of still winning Grand Slams. Otherwise they wouldn’t still be out here. Of that much I am certain.” More

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in Tennis

      2021 French Open: What to Watch on Thursday

      by

      Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Iga Swiatek and Ashleigh Barty feature in an action-packed second round at Roland Garros.How to watch: 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time on Tennis Channel; streaming on Tennis Channel+.The four Grand Slam tournaments are the most important tennis events of the year. For good reason, they draw the world’s best players. But it’s a rarity for all of the top players, the tournament favorites, to be playing in the same half of the bracket.On the women’s side, Iga Swiatek and Ashleigh Barty, the past two winners of the French Open, are both looking to extend their Roland Garros win streaks to nine matches. On the men’s side, the three most decorated champions of the sport, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, are appearing in the same half of a major draw for the first time. With 58 Grand Slam titles among them, the Big Three are still dominating. Any other player in their half will have quite a challenge to reach the final.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Philippe Chatrier Court | 10 a.m.Roger Federer vs. Marin CilicRoger Federer, a 20-time Grand Slam champion in men’s singles, recently returned to the ATP Tour after a pair of operations on his right knee. Now 39, he has missed the French Open four times in the past five years, often resting during the clay-court swing.Marin Cilic has won just one Grand Slam tournament, the 2014 U.S. Open, which made him the fourth most successful male player entering this year’s French Open. Twice, Cilic was denied a second major title by Federer, at Wimbledon in 2017 and the Australian Open in 2018.The two players are not well suited to the crushed brick of Roland Garros; Federer’s elegant slices and Cilic’s powerful serve and volley are dampened on clay. This match will revolve more around tennis fundamentals and fitness than on stylistic strengths.Philippe Chatrier Court | 10 a.m.Sloane Stephens vs. Karolina PliskovaSloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, had to play through the qualifying rounds of the Italian Open in May, the first time she needed to qualify into a tournament since 2012. In the first round at Roland Garros, she edged Carla Suárez Navarro on Tuesday in a late-night match. Both players have had off-court struggles in the past year; Suárez Navarro recently underwent treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma, and Stephens had deaths in her extended family from Covid-19.Karolina Pliskova, the ninth seed, had a good run on the clay-court swing, reaching the final of the Italian Open. But then she was dismantled by the 2020 French Open champion, Iga Swiatek. Pliskova won only 13 points and lost, 6-0, 6-0. She will need to shake off any doubts from that performance.Philippe Chatrier Court | 8 a.m.Ashleigh Barty vs. Magda LinetteAshleigh Barty, above, beat Bernarda Pera in the first round, and will next meet Pera’s doubles partner, Magda Linette.Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesAshleigh Barty, the first seed, was pressed by Bernarda Pera in the first round. To win in three sets, Barty focused on consistency, making only 25 unforced errors as she focused on lengthening points. Her first serves were not in fine form, however. She landed only 66 percent of them, and when they did land, she was less likely to win the point than on her second serves. The 2019 French Open champion, Barty will need to address this issue.Magda Linette, ranked No. 45, struggled at the beginning of 2021, losing five of her first six matches. She has turned it around just in time, gaining some confidence as she reached the semifinals of the Internationaux de Strasbourg last week in France. Now, she will try to avenge the loss by her doubles partner, Pera, and upset Barty to equal her best major result.Court 7 | 10 a.m.Aslan Karatsev vs. Philipp KohlschreiberPhilipp Kohlschreiber, ranked No. 132, was once a regular presence in the fourth round of major tournaments. But in the past eight Grand Slam events, he has not made it past the second round, and this once fearsome player now seems to be edging toward the end of his career. That’s not to say that he is without hope. In the first round, he beat Fernando Verdasco, a clay-court specialist and former world No. 7.Aslan Karatsev, the 24th seed, burst into the public eye with an outrageous run to the semifinals of the Australian Open as a qualifier, knocking out three seeded players before being dismissed by Novak Djokovic. It was not just a flash in the pan. He followed that with his first ATP Tour title at the Dubai Open and big victories on clay over Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev. Karatsev’s consistency can be tested over the best-of-five format if Kohlschreiber imparts pressure with aggressive baseline play.Here are a few more matches to keep an eye on.Elina Svitolina vs. Ann Li; Suzanne Lenglen Court, 5 a.m.Sofia Kenin vs. Hailey Baptiste; Court 14, 5 a.m.Novak Djokovic vs. Pablo Cuevas; Suzanne Lenglen Court, 10 a.m.Rafael Nadal vs. Richard Gasquet; Philippe Chatrier Court, 3 p.m. More

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in Tennis

      Mental Health Is on Sloane Stephens's Mind, Too

      by

      “I should have asked to go to my grandparents’ funeral,” she said. “It’s something that I’ll probably regret for the rest of my life.”As Sloane Stephens plays in the French Open, the second Grand Slam event of the year, she has regrets about having competed at the first one.“Looking back on it now, I should have asked to leave the bubble,” Stephens said Tuesday, referring to the mandatory 14-day quarantine for players in Melbourne before the Australian Open.Stephens’s family had been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. Between Christmas and the Australian Open, which began in February, Stephens lost an aunt, a grandmother and a grandfather to Covid-19. She attended the funerals for her grandparents via teleconference from her hotel room on the other side of the world.“I should have asked to go to my grandparents’ funeral,” she said. “I should have made those inquiries and seen if I could get out of the bubble and go home. I didn’t. It’s something that I’ll probably regret for the rest of my life, because I prioritized my tennis over things that were happening in my life.”She added: “The only thing I can do now is move on and move forward. There’s nothing wrong with having a therapist or two and a grief counselor and all of these things. I have to do what’s best for me and work on myself.”Players’ mental health had been a focus for Stephens even before Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open citing mental health concerns.“I think there definitely needs to be more open dialogue on what not only her but everyone on tour goes through,” Stephens said. “I think we don’t talk about it enough. I support her and I appreciate her speaking out because maybe that will help other players and other people speak out on how they’re feeling. Feelings are real, and we’re all human, so I hope she takes the time she needs.”Stephens serves on the WTA Players’ Council. She has become a sounding board for the players.“Players’ Council has really opened my eyes because I can kind of see the reality of a lot of other people’s situations,” she said. “It’s been enlightening and I think made me a better person to just open my eyes and see what’s going on around me, and not being so self-centered and focused on myself.”Stephens spoke about Osaka with empathy.“I have just read a lot of things that were just unkind and very insensitive, and I just feel like there’s no room for that,” she said. “There’s no room for kicking someone when they’re already down. I just don’t see that as a way to go forward, especially with someone on tour that we love and we adore and is really great for the game.”Stephens has also worked on being kind to herself as her results have slipped. From a career high of No. 3 in 2018 on the strength of a runner-up finish at the French Open, a title at the Miami Open and a win at the 2017 U.S. Open, Stephens is now ranked No. 59.Her diminished ranking relegated her to playing in the qualifying rounds of the Italian Open last month; it was the first time she had needed to enter the qualifying rounds of any WTA tournament since 2012, when she was still a teenager.“Covid. Death. Traumatic things happening in life, things that are out of my control,” Stephens said, summing up her year. “I kind of just had to manage, and I feel like I have just done the best I can.” Stephens has been playing steadily better this year, despite instability in her team. After stopping work with her longtime coach Kamau Murray, Stephens worked with Diego Moyano, a coach based in Florida, and the active Barbadian player Darian King. Most recently, Stephens has worked with Francis Roig and Jordi Vilaró, coaches based in Barcelona, Spain. The partnership has been successful so far: After reaching the semifinals of a WTA tournament in Parma, Italy, last month, Stephens opened her French Open on Tuesday evening by rallying to beat Carla Suárez Navarro, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4.Through the changes, patience has been a constant for Stephens, who will play ninth-seeded Karolina Pliskova in the second round on Thursday.“I’ve gone through a lot, and to have the expectation of ‘Oh, I’m going to get out there and kill it’? That’s not going to happen,” she told reporters in April.But Stephens, whose U.S. Open win in 2017 came in just her fourth tournament back from a foot injury, also knows how quickly fortunes in the sport can change.“I think tennis is a very quick turnaround sport,” she said in April. “It’s going to get better. No one stays in a rut for the rest of their life or the rest of their career. It’s just literally not possible. At some point the tables do turn, the tides turn, and you have to be ready for when that does happen.” More

    • 88 Shares179 Views

      in Tennis

      Naomi Osaka’s Uneasy Rush Into the Spotlight

      by

      Since emerging as an elite tennis player and Grand Slam tournament champion in 2018, Osaka has experienced success and anguish, both of which played out in public. It is “a lot to put on anyone’s plate.”PARIS — A self-described introvert, Naomi Osaka has had to learn to deal with global stardom on the fly.At times, Osaka, 23, has been thrust into the brightest of spotlights. At times, she has sought that central role. Since emerging as an elite tennis player and a Grand Slam tournament champion in 2018, she has had an uncommonly eventful journey: full of great success on and off the court but also full of dramatic, unexpected developments and no shortage of anguish.On Monday, Osaka, who is the highest-paid female athlete in the world, walked away from the French Open after her first-round win because of a dispute with tournament organizers over her participation in post-match news conferences. She announced last week that she would not do any press at the French Open, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments, citing concerns for her mental health. On Monday, she elaborated, saying she had “suffered long bouts of depression” since her victory at the United States Open in 2018. “I have had a really hard time coping with that,” she added.“It’s been just an unbelievable three years for her to have to digest,” said Jim Loehr, a performance psychologist who since the 1980s has worked with athletes, including tennis players like Jim Courier, Monica Seles and Novak Djokovic, but not Osaka. “When you consider the social justice issues and Covid and all the other things that are going on, that’s a lot to put on anyone’s plate so young for sure.”A look at some of the experiences Osaka has had to navigate:Indian Wells, March 2018“This is probably going to be like the worst acceptance speech of all time.”Osaka after winning the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., in 2018.John G. Mabanglo/Epa-Efe, via Rex, via ShutterstockOsaka had been considered a potential breakout star since her late teens. She had easy baseline power and an imposing serve reminiscent of a young Serena Williams. But agents were also convinced that her multicultural background could help her connect to fans internationally. Osaka was primarily raised in the United States, by a mother who is Japanese and a father who is Afro-Haitian. What she was missing was a breakout result. It came at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. Unseeded and ranked 44th, she rolled through the draw in the desert, defeating leading players like Maria Sharapova, Agnieszka Radwanska, Karolina Pliskova and Simona Halep, then ranked No. 1.Osaka did not come close to dropping a set in her final three matches, making a tough task look easy, but the harder part was to come: the victory ceremony in which her fear of public speaking made it difficult for her to get through the speech.“The thing is I prepared and everything, and I knew what I was going to say in which order, but then when he called me, I freaked out,” she said later. “And then I just started saying whatever came into my mind first, which is why I think I kept stopping halfway through my sentences, because I just remembered something else I had to say. So, yeah, that was pretty embarrassing.”U.S. Open final, September 2018“I know that she really wanted to have the 24th Grand Slam, right? Everyone knows this. It’s on the commercials. It’s everywhere.”Osaka and Serena Williams hug after Osaka won the 2018 U.S. Open.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesIn her first Grand Slam final, Osaka managed the moment with exceptional poise and precision, defeating the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 in a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium.But the match turned tumultuous in the second set when Williams had a series of confrontations with the chair umpire, Carlos Ramos, as he cited her for three code-of-conduct violations. The violations resulted in escalating penalties, with Williams being docked a point and then a game.Many in the crowd were outraged and confused, unfamiliar with the rules on penalties, and the booing continued during the victory ceremony as Osaka pulled her visor down to shield her eyes and cried.“That is the most traumatic way any champion has ever won their first major,” Pam Shriver, the ESPN analyst and a former leading player, said on Monday.Again, the tennis, for those sitting courtside, seemed like the easy part for Osaka.Williams tried to remedy the situation: putting her arm around her much younger, much less experienced opponent during the ceremony and asking the fans not to boo. Osaka has repeatedly made it clear that she harbors no ill will toward Williams.On Monday, when she announced her withdrawal from this year’s French Open, she said she had “suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018.”Wimbledon first round, July 2019“Can I leave? I feel like I’m about to cry.”Osaka reacted during her upset loss to Yulia Putintseva on the first day of Wimbledon in 2019.Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated PressWhatever psychological challenges Osaka had to navigate after New York did not stop her from winning a second straight major singles title, this one at the 2019 Australian Open. The victory put her at No. 1 in the rankings, but she surprisingly split with her coach, Sascha Bajin, after Australia and was unable to recapture her form in the tournaments that followed.At Wimbledon, she was upset in the first round by Yulia Putintseva on the grass courts that did not suit Osaka’s big-swinging power game nearly as well as the hardcourts of New York and Melbourne.At the post-match news conference, Osaka was subdued, answering questions politely but economically. About halfway through her scheduled time, a British reporter asked if it had been difficult for her to adjust to her new level of fame. Osaka turned to the moderator and asked if she could leave because she was beginning to tear up.“I’m sorry, we have to leave it there,” the moderator told the reporters, as Osaka swiftly exited the room.U.S. Open third round, August 2019“I just thought about what I wanted her to feel leaving the court.”Osaka consoled Coco Gauff after their match at the U.S. Open in 2019.Justin Lane/EPA, via ShutterstockThere were no boos after this Osaka victory in Ashe Stadium, but there were still powerful emotions as she faced Coco Gauff, an American 15-year-old brimming with talent and high hopes for her U.S. Open debut.The match was a rout as the much steadier Osaka prevailed, 6-3, 6-0. Gauff was crestfallen during and after the handshake, but Osaka, who had practiced at the same Florida academy as Gauff, felt a connection.She wanted to help and convinced Gauff to share the stage with her for the post-match interview on court so that Gauff could connect with the fans who had cheered her on.“I wanted her to have her head high, not walk off the court sad,” Osaka explained. “To, like, be aware that she’s accomplished so much, and she’s still so young.”Seen through the lens of this year’s French Open, it is tempting to take a more nuanced view of that moment. Osaka now has made it clear that she believes athletes should not be obliged to speak to the news media after defeat. But that night in New York was poignant, and Gauff was appreciative.Now 17, she returned the favor on Tuesday, offering Osaka her support in Paris. “She’s just a really nice person,” Gauff said. “I hope she can push through this. Mental health, it’s a dear subject to me, and I feel for her.”Western & Southern Open, August 2020“Before I am an athlete, I am a black woman. And as a black woman I feel as though there are much more important matters at hand that need immediate attention, rather than watching me play tennis.”Osaka wore a Black Lives Matter T-shirt while she waited to be escorted over to the Grandstand court for her semifinal match during the Western & Southern Open.Jason Szenes/EPA, via ShutterstockThe coronavirus pandemic shut down the tennis tours for five months in 2020, and Osaka spent the time working on her game at home in Los Angeles with her new coach, Wim Fissette. She also became involved in the social-justice and police-reform movements. In May, Osaka flew to Minneapolis with her boyfriend, the rapper Cordae, shortly after the murder of George Floyd to “pay our respects and have our voices heard on the streets,” she wrote in an essay in Esquire.She returned to the tour in August with a new awareness of the power of her platform. At the Western & Southern Open, she won her quarterfinal match and then announced that she would not play her semifinal against Elise Mertens. Joining athletes and teams in other professional leagues, she was intent on bringing attention to the issue of police violence against Black people.“If I can get a conversation started in a majority-white sport, I consider that a step in the right direction,” she said in a social media post.She started more than a conversation. The United States Tennis Association, WTA and ATP jointly announced that they would pause play for the day to support the stand against social injustice and racial inequality. Osaka won her semifinal match the next day, withdrew from the final to manage a hamstring injury, and then went on to win her second United States Open title. Before each of her matches, she walked onto the court wearing a mask bearing the name of a Black victim of racist violence.Osaka defeated Victoria Azarenka in the final and improved to 3-0 in Grand Slam finals. The young champion who had once struggled to get through a victory speech had found her voice.French Open, June 2021“I’m going to take some time away from the court now.”Osaka’s wave to the French Open crowd on Sunday proved to be a goodbye.Caroline Blumberg/EPA, via ShutterstockIt was, in part, the memory of her empowered 2020 season that made Osaka’s pretournament announcement in Paris so surprising. In Melbourne earlier in the season, she had been resolute, winning a second Australian Open despite quarantine, bubble life and the two match points she had to save in the fourth round against Garbiñe Muguruza.But that confidence proved ephemeral. She lost early at the Miami Open and then even earlier on clay in Madrid and Rome.Before the start of Roland Garros, she announced that she wanted to protect her mental health by not speaking with the news media during the tournament. That caught outsiders and insiders by surprise and created a dispute with tennis officials.Osaka won her first-round match on Sunday over Patricia Maria Tig but was fined $15,000 for skipping the mandatory news conference and was threatened with a default if she continued to flout the rules. On Monday, she withdrew, and she will take a break from the tour of uncertain duration. Her attempt to seek some refuge in silence instead generated more global chatter and distraction. But this could also turn out to be a watershed in how professional tennis accommodates players with mental-health concerns.Osaka revealed her challenges with depression and the “huge waves of anxiety” she experienced before speaking to the news media.“I think there definitely needs to be more open dialogue on what not only her but everyone on the tour goes through,” Sloane Stephens, the American player, said on Tuesday. “I think we don’t talk about it enough. I support her, and I appreciate her speaking out, because maybe that will help other players and other people speak out.” More

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Tennis

      Naomi Osaka and the Changing Power Dynamics in Sports

      by

      With relatively few words, she said a lot as she bowed out of the French Open on her terms, reflecting the growing empowerment of athletes.Thirteen sentences.That’s all we got from Naomi Osaka as she bowed out of the French Open on Monday after causing a ruckus over her plan to skip post-match news conferences. She did not speak those sentences. They were posted on her Instagram account. Nor did she provide anything like deep explanation. A global icon at age 23, Osaka left unclear when she would return to the women’s tour. She revealed for the first time that she had struggled with depression since beating Serena Williams in a controversy-cloaked final at the United States Open in 2018.Thirteen sentences.That was all she needed to rock the sports world and to provide another lesson in the increasing power of athletes to own their message and set their terms.She waded briefly into the water, made a splash and stepped away.Using social media posts, first last Wednesday then on Monday, Osaka called out one of the most traditional practices in major sports: the obligatory news conference, vital to reporters seeking insight for their stories, but long regarded by many elite athletes as a plank walk.After monumental wins and difficult losses, Osaka has giggled and reflected through news conferences and also dissolved into tears. In Paris, she said she wanted nothing to do with the gatherings because they had exacted a steep emotional toll.So in her slim posts she sent a message with significant weight:The days of the Grand Slam tournaments and the huge media machine behind them holding all of the clout are done.In a predominantly white, ritual-bound sport, a smooth-stroking young woman of Black and Asian descent, her confidence still evolving on and off the court, holds the power.Get used to it.Intentionally or not, Osaka stands at the leading edge of a broad, transformational movement in athlete empowerment. What she does with this role will say a great deal about the power shift, for better or worse.This much is clear. By walking away from the French Open as she did, Osaka became an obsession in the sports world and far beyond.Pundits, fans, fellow players and people who typically care little about athletes are analyzing her motivations. They worry about her future in tennis and, of course, her mental health.They project what they want onto her and argue accordingly.Some commentators say the press goes too far in dissecting athletes. Others say that Osaka is somehow symbolic of a new, far-too-coddled breed of star.Still others suggest she struggles from being racially isolated, the rare champion of color in a tennis world dominated by fans, officials and a press corps that is overwhelmingly white.One social media post, assessing Osaka’s refusal to play beyond the first round of the French Open, compared her to Malcolm X.And yet, once again, as befits a celebrity in our times, Osaka hewed to a minimalist approach. Thirteen sentences, just under 350 words, are all that exist for fans and foes to parse.It is impossible to know the depth of Osaka’s internal anguish.But we do know she has had difficulty coping on the world stage at a young age.“The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open of 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that,” she wrote, before noting that she often wears headphones during tournaments to “dull my social anxiety.”She arrived in France committed to drawing a line and engaging in a power play with tennis officials who have a difficult time with anything that disrupts the status quo.When Osaka took to social media last week and announced she wasn’t going to attend post-match news conferences, the game’s power brokers got their backs up, fined her $15,000 and threatened her with suspension.Did she quit to get back at them, to show that she has the clout, and not them?We don’t know because Osaka didn’t elaborate, and she definitely isn’t speaking to reporters.That’s fitting — and unnerving to a journalist — because like so many of the biggest stars in modern sports, Osaka is now much more than an athlete.She lives in the world of celebrity inhabited by her idol, Serena Williams. Osaka is famed not just for the four Grand Slam titles she has won since 2018 or because the $37.4 million she earned in the past year made her the highest-paid female athlete in the world.Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam tournament champion, holds the No. 2 singles ranking.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesHer background — raised primarily in the United States by a Japanese mother and an Afro-Haitian father — gives her a potent allure. Add to the mix a disarming personality and a willingness to enter the fray on social issues that emerged during the pandemic, and she has become tennis’s newest supernova.So it comes as no surprise that she feels less need to deal with the traditional press.Such is the way of the modern celebrity — be they an athlete, an entertainer, a business tycoon or a political leader. They are all looking for workarounds, ways to tell their stories as they prefer, usually in short bursts, offering small tendrils of their lives and their opinions, their triumphs and pain, often without the depth that comes from great journalism.It wasn’t always this way. Think about the powerful insights Muhammad Ali gave in interviews with David Frost — meditations in which Ali opened up about race, power, civil rights and the Vietnam War. In tennis, Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe would speak at length about the most pressing topics. You knew not only where they stood, but also about their motivations, the evolution of their thinking and their visions of the future.Athletes still speak out, but they tend to do so on their own terms — very often limited to 280 characters on Twitter.One of the highlights of sports in 2020 was Osaka’s willingness to go against the grain in tennis and take a stand against racial injustice. She decided not to play one day at a tournament last summer to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, saying on social media, “Before I am an athlete, I am a black woman.”Point made. Message delivered. The tournament paused for a day, allowing Osaka to keep her promise without defaulting.She then went to the U.S. Open and again seized the conversation. This time it was with the masks she wore — adorned with the names of Black victims ofracist violence — as she took to the court for each of the seven matches she played on her way to winning the tournament.“What was the message you wanted to send?” she was asked.“Well, what was the message that you got?” she replied, in a way that was heartfelt, simple and profound. “I feel like the point is to make people start talking.”And that was it. She seized the moment with a snippet, directed the conversation by giving up little, and by turning the question back on itself.What was the message that you got? What do you, the fan, the reporter in the media scrum, the casual observer, see in me?Whatever it is, deal with it.She said much the same this week in Paris, delivered this time in 13 spare sentences. A strong statement, no doubt, and one that fits with the tone and technology of the present day, but count me among those who want to hear more. More