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      ‘Break Point’ Just Might Be the Best Way to Watch Tennis

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      The docuseries feels more like a prestige psychodrama — which gets the highs and lows of the pro circuit right.In the sixth episode of the Netflix docuseries “Break Point,” Ajla Tomljanovic, a journeywoman tennis player who has spent much of the last decade in the Top 100 of the world rankings, is shown splayed across an exercise mat in a drab training room after reaching the 2022 Wimbledon quarterfinals. Her father, Ratko, stretches out her hamstrings. She receives a congratulatory phone call from her sister and another from her idol-turned-mentor, the 18-time major champion Chris Evert, before Ratko announces that it’s time for the dreaded ice bath. “By the way,” Tomljanovic says at one point, “do we have a room?” Shortly after his daughter sealed her spot in the final eight of the world’s pre-eminent tennis tournament, Ratko was seen on booking.com, extending their stay in London.This is not the stuff of your typical sports documentary, but it is the life of a professional tennis player. Circumnavigating the globe for much of the year with only a small circle of coaches, physiotherapists and perhaps a parent, they shoulder alone the bureaucratic irritations that, in other elite sports, might be outsourced to agents and managers. If at some tournaments they surprise even themselves by outlasting their hotel accommodations, most events will only harden them to the standard torments of the circuit, which reminds them weekly of their place in the pecking order. As Taylor Fritz, now the top-ranked American men’s player, remarks in one “Break Point” episode, “It’s tough to be happy in tennis, because every single week everyone loses but one person.” This is a sobering audit, coming from a player who wins considerably more than his approximately 2,000 peers on the tour.“Break Point,” executive-produced by Paul Martin and the Oscar-winning filmmaker James Gay-Rees, arrived this year as a gift to tennis fans, for whom splashy, well-produced and readily accessible documentaries about the sport have been hard to come by. Tennis, today, finds itself in the crepuscular light of an era when at least five different players — the Williams sisters, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — have surely deserved mini-series of their own. But the sport has never enjoyed its own “All or Nothing,” the all-access Amazon program that follows a different professional sports team each season, or the event-television status accorded to “The Last Dance,” the Netflix docuseries about Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, with its luxury suite of talking heads: Nas, Isiah Thomas, “former Chicago resident” Barack Obama. Perhaps this is because the narrative tropes of the genre tend toward triumphs and Gatorade showers, while the procedural and psychological realities of professional tennis lie elsewhere. The 10 episodes of “Break Point” render tennis unromantically: This is the rare sports doc whose primary subject is loss.In Andre Agassi’s memorably frank memoir, “Open,” he describes the tennis calendar with subtle poetry, detailing “how we start the year on the other side of the world, at the Australian Open, and then just chase the sun.” This itinerary more or less dictates the structure of “Break Point,” which opens at the year’s first Grand Slam and closes at the year-end championships in November. At each tournament, the players it spotlights post impressive results — and then, typically, they lose, thwarted sometimes by the sport’s stubborn luminaries but more often by bouts of nerves or exhaustion. They find comfort where they can, juggling a soccer ball or lying back with a self-made R.&B. track in a hotel room. But many tears are shed, after which they redouble their commitments to work harder, be smarter, get hungrier. “You have to be cold to build a champion mind-set,” says the Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas.‘It’s tough to be happy in tennis.’Those who watched Wimbledon this month might find, in all this, an instructive companion piece to live tennis. “Break Point” is frustratingly short on actual game play, shaving matches down to their rudiments in a way that understates the freakish tactical discipline required of players; viewers will not, for example, come away with any greater understanding of point construction than they will from having watched Djokovic pull his opponents out wide with progressively heavier forehands, only to wrong-foot them with a backhand up the line. They will, however, come to understand how intensely demoralizing it must be to stand across the net from him. In an episode following last year’s Wimbledon, we watch the talented but irascible Nick Kyrgios, as close as tennis has to its own Dennis Rodman, play Djokovic in the final. He gets off to a hot start and then, like so many before him, begins to wilt. “He’s calmer; you can’t rush him,” he says of Djokovic, in a voice-over the series aptly sets against footage of an exasperated Kyrgios admonishing the umpire, the crowd, even friends and family in his own box. These are athletes we’re accustomed to seeing at their steeliest or their most combustible; the matches in “Break Point” may be fresh in the memory of most tennis fans, but the series benefits greatly from its subjects’ clearer-headed reflections.For all its pretensions to realism, “Break Point” is a shrewd, and perhaps doomed, attempt to fill the sport’s impending power vacuum. Kyrgios and Tsitsipas are among a handful of strivers it positions as the sport’s new stars, along with others like Casper Ruud, Ons Jabeur and Aryna Sabalenka. All, naturally, subjected themselves to Netflix’s cameras. This kind of access is increasingly crucial to sports documentaries, a fact that often results in work that’s unduly deferential to its subjects, as with “The Last Dance” and Michael Jordan.Tennis, though, runs counter to this mandate. It is perhaps the sport most conducive to solipsism. Singles players perform alone. On-court coaching is generally prohibited, so there are no rousing speeches to inspire unlikely comebacks. The game’s essential psychodrama takes place within the mind — often in the 25 seconds allotted between points, or in the split seconds during which one must decide whether to go cross-court or down the line, to flatten the ball or welter it with spin. I can remember, as a junior-tennis also-ran, my coaches saying that once my eyes wandered to my opponent across the net, they knew I would lose. This might explain why tennis players so often resort to their index of obsessive tics, like hiking up their socks or adjusting their racket strings just so.By the season’s end, we meet Tomljanovic again at the U.S. Open, where she earned the awkward distinction of sending Serena Williams into retirement. At the time, ESPN’s broadcast of the match yielded nearly five million viewers, making it the most-watched tennis telecast in the network’s history. This was Serena’s swan song, but “Break Point” depicts it from the perspective of our reluctant victor. Between the second and third sets, Tomljanovic shields her face with a sweat towel, as if to quiet the sound of 24,000 spectators rooting against her. In tennis, it seems, even winning can feel like a drag.After the match, we find Tomljanovic cooling down on a stationary bike. Ratko, who has emerged as the show’s sole source of comedic relief, comes up from behind, embracing his daughter with a joke about her beating the greatest player of all time. “But why do I feel so conflicted?” she asks. There is no Gatorade bath, no confetti. To win the tournament, she still has four more matches to go.Opening illustration: Source photographs from Netflix; Tim Clayton/Corbis, via Getty ImagesJake Nevins is a writer in Brooklyn and the digital editor at Interview Magazine. He has written about books, sports and pop culture for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books and The Nation. More

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      Alcaraz Wins Wimbledon in a Thrilling Comeback Against Djokovic

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      Carlos Alcaraz won his first Wimbledon title and left Novak Djokovic, the overwhelming favorite, with his first finals loss at the All England Club in a decade.After years of false starts, men’s tennis finally has a proper war between the generations.In a startling comeback that rocked the All England Club’s venerable Centre Court, Carlos Alcaraz, the 20-year-old Spanish star who has blitzed the sport in his brief career, pulled off the nearly impossible, beating Novak Djokovic in a Wimbledon final on the grass that the man widely recognized as the greatest ever to play the sport has long treated as his back lawn.Besides chasing the Grand Slam, Djokovic was aiming to extinguish the dreams of another heralded upstart challenging his hold on the game, which, so far, has amounted to 23 Grand Slam tournament titles. Alcaraz is the standard-bearer of the next group of players who are supposed to move the sport beyond the era of the Big Three, an era that includes Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and that Djokovic has ruled longer than many expected.Alcaraz won the U.S. Open last year in thrilling, acrobatic fashion, serving notice that men’s tennis was going to be shaken up by an unusual talent. This year, he withdrew from the Australian Open to nurse an injury and was defeated by Djokovic in the semifinals at the French Open. But the buzz around him and his future never diminished.“It’s great for the new generation,” Alcaraz said, “to see me beating him and making them think that they are capable to do it.”Down after the first set and struggling simply to avoid embarrassment, Alcaraz rediscovered his unique combination of speed, power and touch and figured out the subtleties of grass-court tennis in the nick of time.He clawed his way back into the match in an epic, 85-minute second set in which he was a point away from what figured to be an insurmountable two-set deficit.He seized control of the match midway through the third set, then teetered in the fourth set as Djokovic, Wimbledon’s four-time defending champion and seven-time winner, rediscovered the footwork that has long served as the foundation of his success.Djokovic is as dangerous a player as there has ever been when facing defeat, but Alcaraz rose once more to claim victory, 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, not only overcoming Djokovic’s endless skills and talents but breaking his spirit, too.When the momentum swung one last time, as Alcaraz cranked a backhand down the line to break Djokovic’s serve early in the fifth set, the Serb with the steely mind smashed his racket on the net post. A few points earlier, he had frittered away his chance to seize control, swinging at a floating forehand in the middle of the court and sending it into the net. Now, just a few minutes later, the thing that has so rarely happened to him in recent years — a loss to a relative newcomer on a grand stage, especially this grand stage — was happening.Last month, Djokovic, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, finally eclipsed his longtime rivals, Nadal and Federer. But this loss cost him a shot at one of the few prizes he has not achieved — becoming the first player since 1969 to achieve the Grand Slam in men’s singles, winning all four major tournaments in a single year. He was within one match of pulling off the feat two years ago. This time, at 36 years old, an age when most champions have retired to the broadcast booth, he was eight matches away.It seemed so close, but in the final game, Alcaraz showcased why everyone has been making such a fuss about him for so long. He finished Djokovic with his sexiest weapons — the silky drop shot, the artful topspin lob, a blasting serve and one last ripping forehand that Djokovic reached for but could not lift over the net.Alcaraz dropped to the ground and rolled on the grass, his hands over his face in disbelief. He hugged Djokovic at the net, shook hands with the umpire, picked up a loose ball from the grass and punted it into the crowd before heading into the stands to hug his parents and his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero.“Beating Novak at his best, in this stage, making history, being the guy to beat him after 10 years unbeaten on that court, is amazing for me,” Alcaraz said.After taking the champion’s trophy from Catherine, Princess of Wales, on a day that brought out A-list celebrities like the actors Brad Pitt, Daniel Craig, Emma Watson and Hugh Jackman and the singer Ariana Grande, he got to joke with King Felipe VI of Spain, who also watched the young Spanish player’s triumph.“Now that I won I hope you are coming to more of my matches,” Alcaraz said to the king.King Felipe VI of Spain was among those who watched Alcaraz’s triumph.Sebastien Bozon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOne of Alcaraz’s many mentors, Nadal, the great Spanish player who had dethroned another Wimbledon icon, Federer, in 2008, wrote on social media that Alcaraz had brought “immense joy” to Spanish tennis.“A very strong hug, and enjoy the moment Champion!!!” wrote Nadal, who missed the tournament because of recent hip and abdominal surgery.The loss created a rare moment for Djokovic, who acknowledged that on this day at least he had lost to a better player.“A tough one to swallow,” Djokovic said of the loss. He then choked back tears as he looked at his son, who was smiling at him from a courtside seat. “Thank you for supporting me,” he told his family. “I will give you a big hug and we can all love each other.”On Saturday, Mats Wilander, the seven-time Grand Slam winner who is now one of the most respected voices in the sport, put Djokovic’s chances of beating Alcaraz and winning the four 2023 Grand Slam events at 90 percent.“He’s got too many weapons,” Wilander said. “He knows everything there is to know about the sport. He’s got it all down to a science. The opponents aren’t ready for him.”In the first minutes of Sunday’s final, Wilander looked prophetic. The most important men’s match on the tennis calendar looked like a contest between two players who had walked onto Centre Court under completely different circumstances.It was the usual July Sunday for Djokovic. But Alcaraz was playing in his first Wimbledon final, and that weight was made heavier after the stress-induced, full-body cramps he suffered during his semifinal showdown with Djokovic at the French Open last month. That had been the first major moment when Alcaraz, the top seed and the world No. 1, failed to live up to his hype.Sunday was different. But not at first.Alcaraz finished the match much stronger than he began.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesFrom the opening moments, Djokovic pinned Alcaraz in the back corner of the court with low slicing shots that made it impossible for Alcaraz to go on the attack. He crushed service returns, aiming at the brown patches of dirt at Alcaraz’s feet and sending him running backward.Djokovic was a set up before the match was a half-hour old but Alcaraz held a 2-0 lead in the second.Alcaraz’s chance to salvage his maiden Wimbledon final came down to a crucial tiebreaker at the end of an epic second set that lasted three times as long as the first one. Tiebreakers are Djokovic’s specialty. Entering the final, he had won 14 straight in Grand Slam matches.The moment brought out the best in both players — the big serves to the corners; nasty drop shots; crisp, point-saving winners with the opponent closing in at the net — and the packed crowd, with alternating chants of “Novak, Novak,” and “Carlos, Carlos” echoing around the Centre Court overhangs.And then just when it looked as if Djokovic was poised to grab a commanding two-set lead, he sent two backhands into the net to give Alcaraz a chance to draw even. Alcaraz then cracked a backhand return of Djokovic’s serve down the line to knot the match at a set each.Djokovic struggled against Alcaraz’s combination of power and speed and lost the second and third sets.Dylan Martinez/ReutersThe former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson once said that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.Alcaraz had landed a shot to Djokovic’s jaw, and Djokovic felt it. The third set became an array of Djokovic errors. He battled to regain a foothold in the match, never more so than a game midway through that went to 13 deuces, that ended with a Djokovic forehand into the net.As he usually does when he is down, Djokovic took a lengthy bathroom break before the fourth set. He splashes water on his face and talks to himself in the mirror. Usually, he emerges a different player, and Sunday was no different, as he seized the initiative once more, breaking Alcaraz’s serve midway through, getting back in his head and taking the set as Alcaraz, once more edgy and on the defensive, double-faulted.After nearly four hours, they were back where they started. Nearly five hours of drama would come down to a few moments.“He surprised me. He surprised everyone,” Djokovic said of Alcaraz, who, in his eyes, had taken elements of his style, Nadal’s and Federer’s and produced a prowess on grass — his grass! — far sooner than he expected. “I haven’t played a player like him, ever.”Alcaraz with his first Wimbledon trophy but probably not his last.Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press More

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      Carlos Alcaraz Shows Novak Djokovic That His Championships Are Numbered

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      Djokovic had won the past three Grand Slams he played in to reach 23 major titles, but Alcaraz, Wimbledon’s newest singles champion, proved on Sunday he is not invincible.With the driving force of a forehand winner, Novak Djokovic slammed his racket into a net post, then quickly picked up the twisted wreckage and sat down. It was an uncharacteristic outburst of rage from the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, and it seemed to be about more than the point he had just lost.Djokovic, who fully expected to win Wimbledon on Sunday, and perhaps a few more times in the coming years, appeared to be gaining a realization in that moment: His singular dominance of the men’s tennis tour in recent years may be over.Carlos Alcaraz, the 20-year-old Spaniard, was demonstrating incredible mental strength and tennis skill in a five-set gem, and an enticing new rivalry was being born.“Ha, I hope so,” Djokovic, the 36-year-old Serb, said with a laugh. “For my sake. He’s going to be on the tour for quite some time. I don’t know how long I’ll be around.”Just when Djokovic had outlasted Roger Federer and peak Rafael Nadal, now he has to contend with a composed, talented and versatile young bull who has everything it takes to be one of the greats of the game.If a torch was not passed on Sunday, it was at least up for grabs.“Novak’s got someone to deal with now, for sure,” said Chris Evert, the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion, who watched from the royal box as Alcaraz beat Djokovic in an electrifying conclusion to Wimbledon. “It’s like when Steffi Graf came up and started beating me and Martina. We saw right away how good she was, and she went on to win more Slams than either of us.”From 1981 until 1986, Evert and Martina Navratilova, who was also in the royal box Sunday, won 18 of the 20 major titles, including a run of 15 in a row. Then Graf vanquished Navratilova in the 1987 French Open final and went on to win 22 major championships in all.Until Sunday, Djokovic seemed invincible in best-of-five-sets matches at Grand Slam tournaments and especially on Centre Court, where he had not lost in 10 years. With Federer retired and Nadal dealing with chronic injury problems at 37, one could have envisioned Djokovic vacuuming up several more trophies over the next few years while Alcaraz honed his game.It’s plenty honed.Alcaraz was known for being good on clay and hardcourts but he surprised Djokovic with his skill on grass.Isabel Infantes/EPA, via ShutterstockAlcaraz put it all on display in the 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory that gave him his first Wimbledon singles title and robbed Djokovic of the chance to win five Wimbledons in a row and a record-tying eighth for his career.Djokovic was also hoping — and was favored — to win his 24th major title, which would have tied Margaret Court for the most in a career and left just the U.S. Open later this summer to complete the Grand Slam. It all seemed virtually inevitable, but now he may have to recalibrate.“I haven’t played a player like him ever, to be honest,” Djokovic said. “Roger and Rafa have their own obvious strengths and weaknesses. Carlos is very complete player. Amazing adapting capabilities that I think are a key for longevity and for successful career on all surfaces.”Perhaps the reason for the racket slam, which Djokovic attributed to the frustration of the moment — Alcaraz had just broken his serve in the fifth — is because the Wimbledon grass was where Djokovic had hoped to enjoy a slight edge over his precocious new rival in the coming years.Alcaraz grew up playing mostly on clay, but he quickly adapted to hard courts and won the U.S. Open in September when he was only 19. Djokovic was absent from that event and Alcaraz’s victory came against Casper Ruud of Norway, who is a good player, but no Novak Djokovic.Now he has shown his mettle on grass, against the best players in the most prestigious tournament in the world. During an on-court ceremony after the match, Djokovic, who teared up when mentioning his son, graciously lauded Alcaraz. He noted that, yes, he knew Alcaraz would be an instant force on red clay and blue paint. Now, grass, too? Already?“I didn’t expect him to play so well this year on grass,” Djokovic said. “But he’s proven that he’s the best player in the world, no doubt. He’s playing some fantastic tennis on different surfaces and he deserves to be where he is.”Even before the racket smash, there was another extended moment when Djokovic might have gotten the signal that he was in for a challenging few years.With Djokovic serving at 1-3 in the third set, the two men played a 32-point game with 13 deuces that lasted over 26 minutes. Both players ran and dove and made amazing shots, and the spectators hollered in delight at the extraordinary play, and the guts on display.“The nerve Alcaraz showed was absolutely remarkable,” Evert said.Finally, after Djokovic hit a forehand into the net, Alcaraz had broken serve again. He put his finger to his ear, asking the crowd for more noise, and right there Djokovic had to know. For as many years as he can hang on, Alcaraz will probably be there, too, even on grass.“I think it’s good for the sport, 1 and 2 in the world facing each other in almost a five-hour, five-set thriller,” Djokovic said. “Couldn’t be better for our sport in general.” More

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      Ons Jabeur Calls Wimbledon Loss ‘the Most Painful’ of Her Career

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      “Honestly, I felt a lot of pressure, feeling a lot of stress,” Jabeur said after losing the women’s singles final to Marketa Vondrousova.With the hopes of a country, a continent and a world of tennis lovers who felt she was long overdue urging her toward history, Ons Jabeur fell agonizingly short. For the second time at Wimbledon, and the third time in a year at a Grand Slam, Jabeur had hoped to become the first woman from Tunisia, the first from Africa and the first Arabic speaker to win a major women’s singles tournament.The pressure of playing for so much and so many may have caught up to her, again.“Honestly, I felt a lot of pressure, feeling a lot of stress,” Jabeur said Saturday after losing the women’s singles final, 6-4, 6-4 to Marketa Vondrousova. “But like every final, like every match I played, I was telling myself, ‘It’s OK, it’s normal.’ I honestly did nothing wrong.”For years on tour, Jabeur has done everything right, except win a title that she and her fans so desperately desire. Tears flowed again on Centre Court, as Jabeur joined the likes of Andy Murray and Jana Novotna, two former Wimbledon finalists who each cried after losing finals they had hoped would be their breakthrough championships.Jabeur, who lost last year’s Wimbledon final — and the final of the last U.S. Open — struggled against Vondrousova, who won to become the first unseeded Wimbledon women’s champion.Shortly after, during the on-court ceremony, Jabeur broke down, wiping tears from her pink eyes as she spoke to spectators, and holding the runner-up trophy like a dirty dish. She called it “the most painful loss” of her career. Then, when she receded into the elegant hallways of Wimbledon’s main stadium, Catherine, Princess of Wales, offered a consoling hug.“I told her hugs are always welcome from me,” said Jabeur, who required the same sympathetic shoulder last year after losing to Elena Rybakina in the final.Another famous royal hug was given in 1993 by the Duchess of Kent to Novotna, after Novotna had lost to Steffi Graf in the final and began to weep during the trophy ceremony. Five years later, Novotna won it all.In 2012, Murray was in pieces after losing to Roger Federer in the final, barely able to speak to the fans — and to a nation — during his on-court speech. Carrying the hopes of British sports fans yearning for their first men’s champion in 77 years at their home grand slam, Murray’s voice cracked and he dabbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. A few weeks later he won the U.S. Open and the following year he won Wimbledon, by beating Novak Djokovic, this year’s men’s finalist who plays on Sunday against Carlos Alcaraz.There is precedent, and perhaps some luck, for popular players who demonstrate their vulnerability and shed a tear after a gutting loss. Jabeur also received a hug from Kim Clijsters, who lost four finals in major tournaments before finally winning the U.S. Open in 2005. She eventually finished her career with four Grand Slam singles titles, one for every loss.“It brings back a lot of memories and thoughts about how you go about it,” Clijsters said in an interview Saturday after the match. “I was trying to remember the process I went through. There is no real secret, it’s just trying to give yourself the opportunity to get to that stage again.”At the 2001 French Open, Clijsters sought to become the first Belgian woman to win a major tournament. She lost to Jennifer Capriati, 12-10, in an epic third set, one day after her 18th birthday. Clijsters said she was too young to handle all the attention, scrutiny and on-court challenges if she had won that day.Jabeur showed flashes of resilience early in the second set against Vondrousova, but could not make the most of it.Andrew Couldridge/ReutersJabeur, who turns 29 in August, feels more than ready to win. But the pressure only increases with each failed attempt. Clijsters noticed that Jabeur had poor body language Saturday, slumping after mistakes and showing zero positive emotions following a good shot.“That shows that the doubt was overpowering everything during the match,” Clijsters said. “The biggest thing she has to learn is to fake it. Fake it until you make it.”Faking it could be hard for Jabeur, who appears as genuine as she is talented; one of the many reasons fans are so drawn to her. As the No. 6 seed, she played magnificently here, avenging last year’s devastating loss to No. 3 Rybakina in a quarterfinal and No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka in their semifinal. Many thought it was Jabeur’s time, making the loss more excruciating and eliciting sympathy even from Vondrousova’s camp.“When I saw her, I started to cry, too,” said Stepan Simek, Vondrousova’s husband. “Ons is a very lovely human. She has a good heart and is very friendly with opponents, and even to me. I was very sad because she deserves to be a Grand Slam champion. She will make it one day.” More

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      Marketa Vondrousova Wins Wimbledon Over Ons Jabeur

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      Vondrousova of the Czech Republic overpowered Ons Jabeur of Tunisia in the first set and never looked back, winning 6-4, 6-4.Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic became one of the most unlikely Wimbledon champions Saturday, beating Ons Jabeur, a trailblazing Tunisian, in straight sets.Vondrousova, 24, became the latest in a long line of Czech-born women to lift the most important trophy in the sport, going back to Martina Navratilova’s domination of Wimbledon in the 1980s, after Navratilova had defected to the United States.Like Navratilova, Vondrousova is a left-handed player with a nasty slice serve that she used throughout the afternoon in the tensest moments when Jabeur tried to take control of the match or mount yet another comeback.For Jabeur, the loss in a second straight Wimbledon final, against an opponent who had accomplished far less than other women she beat on the way to the precipice of tennis history, was nothing less than heartbreaking. Jabeur has now lost three of the last five Grand Slam finals, falling just short of becoming the first woman of Arab descent and from Africa to win the most important championships in tennis.Like most tennis players, Jabeur has long dreamed of winning Wimbledon and last year used a picture of the women’s trophy as the lock screen on her phone.Jabeur started fast, breaking a nervous Vondrousova’s serve repeatedly in the first set. She was in tight form the beginning, but holding a 4-2 lead in the first set she unraveled, sending forehands into the net, floating backhands beyond the baseline.Ons Jabeur struggled uncharacteristically throughout the match.Tolga Akmen/EPA, via ShutterstockBefore she knew it, Jabeur was down a set and had lost her serve to start the second. For her part, Vondrousova was doing all she needed to, keeping the ball in play, whipping her curling, spinning shots that were so different from the power which Jabeur had faced in her recent matches.While Jabeur steadied herself, and even surged to another lead in the second set, at 3-1, it all went away once more, as Jabeur struggled to find the court and sent too many balls into the middle of the net.She lost five of the last six games, and another woman from Czech Republic was the Wimbledon champion. More

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      Billie Jean King on Victories Past, and the Battles to Come

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      The tennis champion’s activism won equal pay for women at the 1973 U.S. Open. Now 79, she is still leading the fight for equity — in sports and beyond.The more Billie Jean King talked about the past, the more animated she became about the future.King, the 79-year-old grand champion of tennis and gender equity, said she wanted to see more investment in women’s sports. More teams. More leagues. More women owners. More racial diversity, more data, more access and more opportunities.She charged crosscourt from one topic to the next, not content to celebrate the history she had made; she was too busy creating the template for tomorrow.“Equal investment is the most important thing,” she said during a telephone interview from London, while attending this year’s Wimbledon. “If I talk to a C.E.O., I ask him, or her, or whoever, ‘Do you spend as much on women’s sports as men’s sports?’ That’s the magic question.”It always has been.This summer marks 50 years since the United States Open awarded equal prize money for men and women, becoming the first of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments to offer it. King, who won 39 major titles, made that milestone possible with her relentless activism and by securing corporate sponsors behind the scenes.King celebrates after defeating Margaret Court in their women’s singles second-round match at Wimbledon in 1962. King went on to capture 20 Wimbledon titles.Central Press/Hulton Archive, via Getty ImagesOn the eve of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup — set to showcase the rise of women’s soccer and the movement for equal pay, led by the U.S. Women’s National Team — King’s influence still ripples through the sports ecosystem.“She is working as hard today as she was 50 years ago,” said Stacey Allaster, the United States Tennis Association’s chief executive of professional tennis, and the first female director of the U.S. Open, said. “And she’s so focused, I would say possessed. She’s continuing to live by what she believes: that sport is for social change, and it’s not what you get, but what you give.”King and her wife, Ilana Kloss, who is also her longtime business partner, have invested in six sports. In June, it was announced that Billie Jean King Enterprises would help run a new six-team women’s ice hockey league starting in January along with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ majority owner, Mark Walter, and his wife, Kimbra Walter.“We believe this is transformational, and it’s a sport that hasn’t had the platform that we believe it needs,” said Kloss, 67, a former doubles champion from South Africa and the chief executive of BJK Enterprises.Although she admitted that the path to establishing a successful women’s hockey league has been a “long road” (one that’s littered with past failures), she applauded the Walters’ commitment to women’s sports. “That belief sends an incredible message to the rest of the investment community,” Kloss said.Flashback to 1970 when King and eight other players, outraged the men were earning more than eight times the prize money that the women were at one tournament, signed $1 contracts to form a offshoot professional women’s tennis tour. The women, known as the “original nine,” risked being banned by tennis officials, but the gambit worked. In 1973 at Wimbledon, King led players in a vote that created what is now called the Women’s Tennis Association.King speaking before the Senate education subcommittee in Washington in 1973. After Title IX was passed, King started the Women’s Sports Foundation to develop more sports opportunities for girls and women.Associated PressIt was a heady time for women’s sports. In 1972, Congress enacted Title IX, which prohibited sex discrimination in schools and thus led to the creation of sports programs that spawned a generation of female athletes. Against that backdrop, King, No. 1 in the world, won the 1972 singles titles at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.In New York, she was incensed to earn $10,000 — $15,000 less than the U.S. Open men’s champion, Ilie Nastase, did. King recalled how she met then with the tournament director Bill Talbert in a referees hut.Turning her chair to face him in the tiny space, she argued that a fan poll showed massive interest in women’s tennis. Then she revealed her ace: She had secured a sponsor — Bristol Myers’s “Ban” deodorant — to make up the difference in total prize money. Equal prize money became official in 1973.A few weeks after the 1973 U.S. Open, King crushed former No. 1 Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes spectacle that catapulted gender equality onto a world stage.“It’s hard to believe that 50 years have gone by — boink!” King said.This year’s U.S. Open, starting Aug. 28, will mark the equal prize money anniversary in multiple ways, including posters of King, an opening night tribute and an “equity lounge” on the site of the United States Open in Flushing, which in 2006 was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.When she’s on the way to her office there, Allaster touches a sign bearing King’s motto: “Pressure is a Privilege.”Allaster, the previous chief of the WTA, said King was an “accessible leader,” not just for her, but for rookies and superstars alike. Allaster called Venus Williams a “modern-day Billie Jean King” for how, during her prime, Williams lobbied Wimbledon officials — and by extension the French Open — to award equal prize money to women.King’s advocacy has always transcended tennis. She started the Women’s Sports Foundation in 1974 to develop sports opportunities for girls and women post-Title IX. After she was publicly outed for being gay in 1981 and lost many of her endorsements, she later became an activist for gay rights.King standing with her wife, Ilana Kloss, also her business partner of more than 40 years. The pair have invested in six sports, including women’s hockey.Chris Tanouye/Freestyle Photography, via Getty ImagesPhaidra Knight, a World Rugby Hall of Fame player and past president of the Women’s Sports Foundation, said King created an inclusive culture at the group. “Through that LGBTQ+ lens and her courage, she has inspired courage in many other lanes, for people to work together,” Knight said in an interview.Beyond King’s encouragement of her as a Black and gay woman, Knight said she valued how King taught her to approach rugby officials to improve business opportunities for the women’s game.Angela Ruggiero, another past president and a former women’s ice hockey Olympian, has also followed King’s lessons. She co-founded the Sports Innovation Lab, a market research company that uses analytics to understand digitally savvy sports fans. Her research shows that fans of every gender are responding to women’s sports. She has frequent brainstorming sessions with King, who never stops asking questions.“We’re going back and forth on how do we bring more capital into women’s sports,” Ruggiero said. “She’ll be at the edge of her seat, fired up. It’s just her nature to be an agent of change.”King said she secretly advised the soccer player Julie Foudy and eight of her teammates in 1995 to hold out for fair contracts and get the younger players behind them. The team won the 1996 Olympics and ignited the frenzy for women’s soccer by winning the 1999 Women’s World Cup before 90,185 fans in the Rose Bowl.Twenty years later, Megan Rapinoe led the U.S. women to another World Cup victory, this time with the fans chanting “Equal Pay.” In 2022, the women’s national team settled its gender discrimination lawsuit against the national federation for $24 million, and a pledge to equalize salaries and prize money.Megan Rapinoe led Team USA to victory at the 2019 World Cup, as fans in the stands shouted “Equal Pay.” Rapinoe recently said that the 2023 World Cup will show that “equality is good for business.”Alex Grimm/Getty ImagesLast month, Rapinoe talked at a news conference about how the 2023 World Cup would be a game-changer for women’s sports, showing that “equality is actually good for business.”King chuckled.“Every generation thinks they are the first to say this — it’s fun to listen to them,” she said. “I’m glad we’re on the same page trying to get things done.”As always, capital is key. She and Kloss — who joined the celebrity ownership group of Angel City Football Club of the National Women’s Soccer League in 2020 — were encouraged by Y. Michele Kang’s recent $35 million purchase of the league’s Washington Spirit.“We need more people to continue to step up,” King said. “If you look at everything now, it’s the billionaires. And then you look at the Middle East, that’s going to be another thing.”In a news conference, King supported the WTA’s exploration of funding from Saudi Arabia, which has already bought in to professional golf with its LIV Golf merger with the PGA Tour. Although she acknowledged the country’s discriminatory policies around women and homosexuality, she told reporters, “I don’t think you really change unless you engage.” She added that this was her opinion. “I’d still probably go and try to talk with them,” she said.Engagement has always been King’s life philosophy, along with knowing your history. She’s not ready to finish writing hers.In November, King will turn 80.“She really has a sense of running out of time,” Kloss said, “and she can’t get enough.” More

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      Carlos Alcaraz Gets a Shot at Novak Djokovic in Wimbledon Singles Final

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      “For Novak, it is one more day, one more moment,” Alcaraz said of Sunday’s final. “For me, it’s going to be the best moment of my life, I think.”If Carlos Alcaraz were more patient, perhaps he could just wait for Novak Djokovic to fade away. At 20, Alcaraz is 16 years younger than the great champion, and the day is likely to come when Djokovic is either retired or in decline, and Alcaraz can claim the tennis kingdom as his own.But Alcaraz has never demonstrated an inclination to wait. When he won the United States Open in September at 19 years 129 days, he became the youngest male player to reach the No. 1 ranking, and he was the second youngest, after Pete Sampras at 19 years 28 days, to win that tournament in the Open era. Djokovic was absent from that event.Now, with one more win, he would become the fifth male player in the Open era to win more than one Grand Slam tournament title before his 21st birthday. What better way to do it than to grab it now, straight out of Djokovic’s steely grip? In boxing, it is said that to capture the crown, one must convincingly vanquish the champ, and Sunday’s Wimbledon men’s singles final could be the grass court equivalent of a 15-round heavyweight bout.It features a potentially riveting matchup between Alcaraz, who defeated Daniil Medvedev, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, in their semifinal on Friday, against Djokovic, who also dismissed Jannik Sinner in straight sets. It is No. 1 against No. 2 — the 23-time Grand Slam tournament winner, who is 7-1 in Wimbledon finals, against a young Spaniard playing in his first.It is also a network programmer’s dream, a premier matchup that will determine whether Djokovic will extend his record of 23 Grand Slam tournament titles by winning his fifth consecutive Wimbledon trophy, or whether the heavy-hitting newcomer overcomes past nerves to ascend the throne.Alcaraz with Russia’s Daniil Medvedev after their semifinal match on Friday.Dylan Martinez/ReutersAlcaraz wants it now, and he wants to do it against Djokovic with millions of people watching — not against a lesser-known player like Casper Ruud, his opponent in the U.S. Open final, which was a mostly one-sided affair.“It’s more special to play a final against a legend of our sport,” Alcaraz said. “If I win, it will be amazing for me, not only to win a Wimbledon title, but to do it against Novak. I always say, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.”Alcaraz and Djokovic have met only twice on court, and each has won. Alcaraz took a best-of-three match on clay at the 2022 Madrid Masters. Djokovic’s victory was perhaps more telling. It was in a semifinal at the French Open last month, a match that included a second set of remarkable tennis. But then Alcaraz began to cramp up across his entire body. First it was assumed it was from heat or a lack of fluids. But Alcaraz admitted it was from nerves.He managed to play through it, but a match that had been developing into a classic soon deflated into a gentle cruise for Djokovic, who went on to win the French Open, his second major title of the year.“He does nothing wrong on the court,” Alcaraz said. “Physically he’s a beast. Mentally he’s a beast.”Alcaraz promised on Friday, after he had run Medvedev off the court, that he would employ brain exercises to cope with the pressure, and he did not fear a repeat of his last encounter with Djokovic. But when he walks into that Centre Court coliseum in front of an audience thirsting for some sort of history, all of the intellectual games and self-assuring mantras could be worthless, especially against a player of Djokovic’s talent, determination and experience.Sunday will be unlike anything Alcaraz has experienced, even in his one previous major final, against Ruud. Djokovic will be playing in his 35th major tournament final. In Alcaraz’s mind, Djokovic might as well be taking out the trash.“For Novak, it is one more day, one more moment,” Alcaraz said. “For me, it’s going to be the best moment of my life, I think.”“For Novak, it is one more day, one more moment,” Alcaraz said. “For me, it’s going to be the best moment of my life, I think.”Andrew Couldridge/ReutersOne element of intrigue goes back a few days, to when Alcaraz’s father was spotted videotaping Djokovic as he practiced. Alcaraz dismissed the notion that he could gain any competitive advantage from it. All the video evidence he needs of Djokovic’s tactics and tendencies is easily accessible from Djokovic’s eight previous Wimbledon finals, which were shown on television.When Alcaraz was asked about the matter at a news conference, it was presented as a gotcha moment. But he did not hide it.“Oh, probably it is true,” he said. “My father is a huge fan of tennis. He doesn’t only watch my matches. I think he get into the club at 11 a.m., get out at 10 p.m., watching matches, watching practice from everyone. Able to watch Djokovic in real life, yeah, probably it is true he filmed the sessions.”More important than the practice courts is what happens on Centre Court. Alcaraz certainly looked ready on Friday, using his combination of overwhelming forehand and deft backhand slices to outlast Medvedev, who has beaten both and has lost to both.“Interesting match,” Medvedev mused. “We cannot say who is going to win for sure.”We can say that the winner will be one of the two best in the world. More

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      Djokovic to Face Alcaraz in Wimbledon Final After Easily Beating Sinner

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      The 23-time Grand Slam champion may have mellowed, but he is as determined as ever to win his favorite title again. He will play Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday.Six months ago, having just won the Australian Open one year after being deported from the country, Novak Djokovic collapsed in the arms of his family and his coaches in a moment of strained ecstasy.He had drawn even with Rafael Nadal in the race for most Grand Slam singles titles. When he finally took the lead last month, at the French Open, he fell onto his back in the red clay of Roland Garros and then called winning that tournament, his 23rd Grand Slam title, his version of scaling Mount Everest. He donned a warm-up jacket emblazoned with the No. 23 and jetted off to the Azores for a hiking vacation with his wife.To be in the presence of Djokovic these past two weeks is to be around someone who, at least when he is not working within the confines of the grass tennis court, is almost unrecognizable from his previous self. Gone is the pugnacious battler carrying around a career full of angst. His default facial expression, something like an inquisitive scowl, has been replaced with a relaxed grin.Walking on the streets of São Miguel or the grounds of the All England Club, from the practice courts to the locker room, he no longer stares mainly at the ground, moving purposefully past the passers-by. He stops and chats. He poses for a selfie and to sign an autograph. After a moderator cuts off his news conferences, he insists on sticking around for an extra question or two. When his day is done, he returns to the home he is renting close by for dinner with his wife and their young children.Djokovic signed autographs after his match.Neil Hall/EPA, via ShutterstockIt really is very good to be Novak Djokovic right now, and it got a little bit better on Friday. Djokovic easily handled Jannik Sinner, the rising Italian star who is supposed to be one of the special talents of the sport’s next generation, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4), setting up a men’s singles final showdown with Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday.The final point was a microcosm of the match and nearly all of Djokovic’s Grand Slam matches lately — a spirited rally in which Djokovic is thoroughly dialed in, ending with another opponent’s dreams crushed with a final backhand into the net.Cue Djokovic’s fist pump, his pounding the grass, his waves to the crowd.For the moment, he has stopped making declarations about Serbia’s long-running territorial conflict with Kosovo, inserting himself into a pitched and occasionally violent 700-year fight, or political battles over public health and personal freedom.Sure, the fans pull for his opponents, especially early on, when the beatings begin and perhaps some charity applause or any kind of support will extend the match a bit and bring a little more value to the Centre Court ticket that might have cost a week’s salary. Djokovic gets it. Just don’t do it when he’s about to serve or in the middle of the point.This was his 34th consecutive win at Wimbledon, and this one earned him a spot in Sunday’s final, a chance to win his fifth straight singles title here and to tie Roger Federer’s record eight singles titles.Jannik Sinner, the rising Italian star, lost to Djokovic in the semifinals.Alastair Grant/Associated Press“I still feel goose bumps and butterflies and nerves coming into every single match,” he said after his win on Friday. “I’m going to be coming into Sunday’s final like it’s my first, to be honest.”Djokovic is now eight matches from becoming the first man to win all four Grand Slam singles titles in the same calendar year since Rod Laver managed the feat in 1969.Is it possible for a best-of-five sets match to be over in the second game? With Djokovic on the court it is. That is how long it took for Djokovic to break Sinner’s serve. Sinner had a chance to forestall the inevitable outcome slightly in the fifth game, when, down by 3-1, he earned a chance to break Djokovic’s serve, but he sent his forehand just wide, and that was that.In his nearly 20-year career, Djokovic has lost just five times at a Grand Slam tournament after winning the first set, and just once after winning the first two. And all of that took place before he became this nearly invincible version of Djokovic.Another detail or two, if you are not convinced.There was a tense game early in the second set when Djokovic let out an extended roar after ripping a backhand down the line and the chair umpire penalized him by giving the point to Sinner because Djokovic was still yelling while Sinner was swinging. Djokovic was not happy about that, or with being called for taking too long to hit his serve a few moments later.He wandered behind the baseline to gather himself and control the frustration that would have boiled over and crippled a younger, more impetuous Djokovic. Then came some solid serves and crisp strokes, and the game was over.There was another moment of annoyance in the third set, after Sinner had raised his level of play, started whacking the ball through the court and ultimately earned two set points with Djokovic serving at 4-5, 15-40.Carlos Alcaraz will play Djokovic in the finals. “He’s young, he’s hungry — I’m hungry too,” Djokovic said. “Let’s have a feast.”Sebastien Bozon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDjokovic sent his first serve into the net and a few fans seated close by cheered. Another yelled, “Come on, Rafa!”Djokovic didn’t like any of it. He raised a sarcastic thumb in the air and shook his head, and then stared down the hecklers after he won the next point and the game. Eventually, there was a tiebreaker. Djokovic doesn’t lose tiebreakers, especially not when he is sliding into backhands and forcing his opponents to keep hitting one more shot, and then another, as he did against Sinner to climb back from a 3-1 deficit and win six of the next seven points.Djokovic has won six of the 11 Grand Slam tournaments since tennis returned from its Covid-19 break in 2020, but he has played in only eight of them. He missed two because of his refusal to be vaccinated against the virus and was defaulted from a third, the 2020 U.S. Open, when he accidentally hit a line judge with a ball he swatted in anger.More times than not, the only way to keep him from winning the most important titles in the sport is to keep him from competing.Federer is retired. Nadal is out indefinitely, recovering from hip and abdominal surgery. Andy Murray, a friend and boyhood rival from Djokovic’s teenage years in junior tennis, has a metal hip and can’t get past the first week of Grand Slams anymore.For 15 years, Djokovic dedicated his career to being better than them — not just for one match or one tournament, but forever.Now that his rivals are on their way out, Djokovic has gone on the hunt for new motivation. He has already largely vanquished one generation of future stars — Medvedev, Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov, who generally crumble against him in the Grand Slam events, half-beaten by his aura and his past domination of them before his first forehand sharply angles across the court.“In the pressure moments, he was playing very good, not missing,” Sinner said. “That’s him.”Now he has another Grand Slam title in his sights, and the 20-something upstarts want to topple him before he eventually exits the game. He doesn’t often speak of taking any special pleasure from beating players whose legs have so many fewer miles than his do, players who really should be sending off an opponent in the second half of his thirties. But he did just that, briefly, earlier in the week, after beating Rublev, who is 25 and put up a solid effort in the quarterfinals, losing in four sets.“They want to win, but it ain’t happening still,” Djokovic said on the court when it was over.Now comes Alcaraz for the second time in five weeks. In the French Open semifinal, an overstressed Alcaraz suffered nearly paralyzing full-body cramps.Now, the 20-year-old Spanish star, the only player younger than 27 with a Grand Slam title, gets another chance against an even more relaxed Djokovic, playing his ninth Wimbledon final. Alcaraz has played only 12 matches at Wimbledon in his life.“He’s young, he’s hungry — I’m hungry too,” Djokovic said. “Let’s have a feast.” More