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      Naomi Osaka Withdraws from Wimbledon

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      Osaka has not played at Wimbledon since 2019.Naomi Osaka, whose four Grand Slam wins came on hard courts, will not play at Wimbledon later this month, she announced in a social media post on Saturday.Her message shared photos of her rehabbing and receiving acupuncture treatment on her left Achilles’ tendon, an injury which plagued her through a first-round ouster at the French Open last month.“Trying to find the positives in a negative situation so all love. But there goes my grass dreams,” Osaka said.Osaka, who has won both hard court Grand Slams — the Australian and U.S. Opens — twice, has never made it past the third round at Wimbledon. She last played the event in 2019, losing in the first round in a year that saw her change coaches after rising to her first No. 1 ranking.After her exit at Roland Garros last month, Osaka told reporters that she was leaning toward not playing at Wimbledon after the WTA Tour stripped the Grand Slam event of ranking points in response to Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players.“I feel like if I play Wimbledon without points, it’s more like an exhibition,” Osaka said. “I know this isn’t true, right? But my brain just like feels that way. Whenever I think something is like an exhibition, I just can’t go at it 100 percent.” More

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      Rafael Nadal, Chasing Grand Slam, Will Head to Wimbledon

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      Nadal, hobbled by a foot injury while winning the French Open, said he would play in the grass-court tournament, which begins on June 27.PARIS — The Grand Slam is still in play.On Friday, Rafael Nadal confirmed at a news conference in Majorca that he will travel to London on Monday with the intention of playing Wimbledon, which begins on June 27.Nadal, who has won the first two Grand Slam tournaments of the year, had cast doubt on his participation in Wimbledon because of his chronic left foot problem.The condition, Muller-Weiss syndrome, has troubled him since his late teens. He received painkilling injections from his personal physician to numb the foot before each of his matches at this year’s French Open.Nadal won that clay-court tournament for the 14th time on June 5, extending his lead in the three-way major titles race with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. Nadal now has a men’s record 22 Grand Slam singles titles, two more than Djokovic, whom Nadal beat in the quarterfinals in Paris, and Federer, who at age 40 is still recovering from his latest knee surgery. But Nadal said he would not take similar injections or measures at Wimbledon and instead has tried to find a longer-term solution for his foot by undergoing radio frequency ablation, which deadens nerves through the use of radio waves.Nadal, 36, had the procedure in Barcelona on June 7, leaving the medical facility on crutches, but he resumed practicing on grass this week on his home island of Majorca. He said on Friday that though the procedure did not give him “100 percent” relief immediately, he was able to push off with his left foot with less pain. He said that there was still occasional numbness in his foot but that he had been told that should dissipate with time.“I’m content,” Nadal said on Friday. “I’ve gone a week without limping. Day to day, I have experienced some different kind of pain than what I had before. That’s progress for me. We will have to wait and see how everything evolves.”While confirming that he intended to play Wimbledon, Nadal also confirmed that he and his wife Maria Francisca Perello are expecting their first child.“I don’t know how it changes your life because I don’t have experience with that,” he said. “But this does not change my professional life.”Nadal after defeating Casper Ruud to win his 14th French Open men’s singles title.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesOn Friday, Nadal trained on grass at the Mallorca Country Club with Feliciano Lopez, the 40-year-old Spanish veteran who is set to play Wimbledon for the 20th consecutive time.Nadal, who won Wimbledon in 2008 and 2010, has not played in any grass-court tournament since 2019, when he lost in the semifinals of Wimbledon to his longtime rival Federer.“I’ve still got a week of training in London, and if everything goes well I will start the tournament,” said Nadal, who is scheduled to play in an exhibition in London before Wimbledon. “Playing well at the French Open helps in terms of confidence and gives you a bit more peace of mind. But grass is a very difficult surface in the sense that there is little logic. Obviously when you have gone the years that I’ve gone without playing on grass and with the fact I am not going to play official matches beforehand, any round could be complicated.”Nadal has made a habit of talking down his chances, but the men’s field at Wimbledon will be understrength this year. Wimbledon has barred Russian and Belarusian players because of the war in Ukraine, which means that No. 1 ranked Daniil Medvedev and No. 8 Andrey Rublev, both Russians, will not take part. No. 2 Alexander Zverev of Germany tore ligaments in his right ankle in his French Open semifinal against Nadal and underwent surgery. Zverev could be out of action for several months.But Novak Djokovic, the world’s best grass-court player in recent years, will play Wimbledon, where he has won the last three men’s singles titles. He will be seeded No. 1 and start as a strong favorite. Nadal will be seeded No. 2, and like Djokovic a year ago, is chasing a Grand Slam, which requires a player to win all four majors in the same calendar year.The last man to do it was Rod Laver in 1969. Djokovic came up one match short, losing the 2021 U.S. Open final to Medvedev. Nadal, for the first time in his long career, has won the first two legs of the Grand Slam after winning the Australian Open and French Open.But he has not won Wimbledon in 12 years and has not won any grass-court title in seven years. More

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      U.S. Open Will Allow Russian and Belarusian Tennis Players to Compete

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      The move leaves Wimbledon as the only Grand Slam tournament to bar Russians and Belarusians in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.The U.S. Open will not follow Wimbledon by barring Russian and Belarusian players from this year’s tennis tournament.The United States Tennis Association, which owns and operates the U.S. Open, announced the decision on Tuesday after a recent meeting of its board of directors. The move leaves Wimbledon as the only Grand Slam tournament to bar Russians and Belarusians in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.“This horrible atrocity absolutely weighed on all of us,” said Lew Sherr, the new chief executive of the U.S.T.A., referring to the war in Ukraine. “But I think at the end of the day we chose not to hold the individual athletes accountable for the decisions of their respective governments.”Wimbledon’s ban, made partly in response to pressure for action from the British government, has received strong support from the British public, as demonstrated in opinion polls. But the ban was met with disapproval from the men’s and women’s tennis tours, which responded by stripping Wimbledon of ranking points this year despite considerable debate and dissent among players.Sherr said U.S.T.A. officials had discussions in recent weeks with the leaders of Wimbledon and the other two Grand Slam tournaments, the French Open and the Australian Open. “It was very clear each of us was dealing with a unique set of circumstances,” he said. “Wimbledon, in their case, there was a government directive involved as well, and we came out and strongly supported their decision given their circumstances. Our circumstances are different, and in our case, we felt this was the right decision for us.”Better Understand the Russia-Ukraine WarHistory and Background: Here’s what to know about Russia and Ukraine’s relationship and the causes of the conflict.How the Battle Is Unfolding: Russian and Ukrainian forces are using a bevy of weapons as a deadly war of attrition grinds on in eastern Ukraine.Outside Pressures: Governments, sports organizations and businesses are taking steps to punish Russia. Here are some of the sanctions adopted so far and a list of companies that have pulled out of the country.Stay Updated: To receive the latest updates on the war in your inbox, sign up here. The Times has also launched a Telegram channel to make its journalism more accessible around the world.Russian and Belarusian players will compete in the U.S. Open, which will begin Aug. 29, under a neutral flag, just as they have been competing on tour and at the recently concluded French Open.Daniil Medvedev of Russia won the U.S. Open men’s singles title last year and is back at No. 1 in the ATP singles rankings this week. Victoria Azarenka of Belarus is a three-time U.S. Open women’s singles finalist. Aryna Sabalenka, another Belarusian women’s star, reached the semifinals of last year’s U.S. Open.Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus reached the semifinals of last year’s U.S. Open.Frank Franklin Ii/Associated PressAll will be absent from Wimbledon, which begins on June 27, and Russian and Belarusian players have also been barred from the preliminary events this month in Britain at Queen’s Club, Eastbourne and other venues. The U.S.T.A. ultimately chose to go in a different direction, even though Sherr reiterated on Tuesday that it viewed the tours’ decision to strip points from Wimbledon as “disproportionate.”For now, no other tour events outside Britain have followed Wimbledon’s lead, although tennis authorities did move swiftly after the invasion of Ukraine to bar Russian and Belarusian teams from competing in team events like the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup.“This is not an easy situation,” Sherr said. “It’s a horrific situation for those in Ukraine, an unprovoked and unjust invasion and absolutely horrific so anything we talk about pales in relation to what is going on there.”Sherr said the U.S.T.A. would use the U.S. Open to help raise funds for relief efforts in Ukraine and to “demonstrate our support for the Ukrainian people.”Sherr said the U.S.T.A. had received no pressure or directive from the U.S. government related to the participation of Russian and Belarusian players.Russian players like Medvedev have already competed in the United States since international restrictions were put in place, playing in March at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and at the Miami Open. Russian stars in other sports, like Alexander Ovechkin of the N.H.L.’s Washington Capitals, have continued to compete for their North American clubs.“The discussion in the board was really about principles and what we felt was right for us and not a function of what the N.H.L. might be doing; not a function of even what might be happening elsewhere in tennis,” Sherr said. “Really it was a fundamental issue of on the one hand you have atrocities and a horrible situation and on the other hand are we prepared to hold these individuals accountable for those decisions?”Though Medvedev should be able, if healthy, to defend his title in New York, the player he defeated in last year’s final, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, remains unable to enter the United States because he is an unvaccinated foreigner. That policy, which kept Djokovic from competing in Indian Wells or Miami this year, could change before the U.S. Open begins, but Sherr made it clear on Tuesday that the U.S.T.A. would not be seeking an exemption for unvaccinated foreign players to compete in New York.“We are going to follow the government and C.D.C. directives,” said Sherr, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More

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      Serena Williams Plans to Play at Wimbledon

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      Williams hasn’t competed since she was injured during the first round of Wimbledon last year.PARIS — Serena Williams, absent from competitive tennis for nearly a year, said on Tuesday that she intends to return for Wimbledon, which begins on June 27.Williams, 40, has not played on tour since leaving a match in considerable pain with a right leg injury during the first round of Wimbledon last year against Aliaksandra Sasnovich.Sasnovich, a Belarusian, is one of the players banned by Wimbledon this year because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has been supported by Belarus. But Williams plans to return, and Wimbledon confirmed on Tuesday that she was receiving a wild card to play singles.If she does indeed take part, it will be her 21st appearance at Wimbledon, where she has won seven singles titles and seven doubles titles, six of the doubles titles with her older sister Venus Williams.It is unclear whether Venus Williams, 41, is also planning on returning to the tour. She has not competed since last August in Chicago.Because of the inactivity, both sisters’ rankings have dropped far from their usual zones. Venus Williams is No. 571. Serena Williams is No. 1,208, which explains why she required a wild card to gain entry to Wimbledon.In her brief Instagram post on Tuesday announcing her plan to play Wimbledon, Serena Williams also tagged the Eastbourne International tournament. That suggests that she intends to return to competition for the WTA grass-court event in Eastbourne, England, which begins on Saturday. That would give her at least some match play before Wimbledon. More

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      Nadal Has a Chance at Winning All 4 Grand Slams, if His Foot Cooperates

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      Rafael Nadal said he planned to have his chronic left foot injury treated before Wimbledon begins in three weeks, then decide whether to play.PARIS — Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer have won and done so much in nearly 20 years of hoarding the loot in men’s tennis.But there is one gap in each member of the Big Three’s story line. None has managed to complete the Grand Slam by winning all four major tournaments in the same calendar year.Djokovic got close, agonizingly close, falling just one match short last year by losing in the final of the U.S. Open to Daniil Medvedev. (He also fell short in the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics, ruling out a Golden Slam.)Now at 36, an advanced age in tennis, Nadal has created his best opportunity by winning the first two legs of the Grand Slam: He delivered a big-surprise victory at the Australian Open in January and claimed his 14th career victory at the French Open on Sunday, a win that should only have come as a surprise because he was playing with a numb left foot.Nadal is still just halfway to the Grand Slam, but he has never been this close to a feat that was last achieved in the men’s game in 1969 by the Australian Rod Laver.In 2009, the only other time Nadal won the Australian Open, he was beaten for the first time at Roland Garros, losing in the fourth round to Robin Soderling of Sweden.But this year Nadal can head to Wimbledon, which begins June 27, with the Grand Slam still in play. The question is, will he head to Wimbledon at all?He revealed on Sunday, after his 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 thrashing of the 23-year-old Norwegian Casper Ruud in the French Open final, that he had received painkilling injections to numb his left foot before each of his matches on the red clay in Paris this year. He said he would not do the same again at any tournament, not even Wimbledon, because of the risks. Instead, he plans to undergo a procedure this week called radio frequency ablation to try to provide longer-term pain relief by deadening the problematic nerves in his foot.“I’m going to be in Wimbledon if my body is ready to be in Wimbledon,” Nadal said. “Wimbledon is not a tournament that I want to miss. I think nobody wants to miss Wimbledon. I love Wimbledon.” Despite that sentiment, there will be plenty of missing players at Wimbledon this year. The All England Club has barred players from Russia and Belarus from participating in this year’s tournament because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Those affected include Medvedev, a Russian who will reclaim the No. 1 ranking in men’s singles from Djokovic next week; and the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, a semifinalist in Wimbledon’s women’s singles draw last year.The men’s and women’s tours have responded to the ban by stripping Wimbledon of ranking points, which left the former No. 1 Naomi Osaka openly questioning in Paris whether she was still motivated enough to take part in Wimbledon.Nadal, as part of the ATP player council, was deeply involved in the internal debates on stripping points, but he has an elemental connection to Wimbledon beyond whatever rankings boost it can provide.“I had a lot of success there,” he said. “I lived amazing emotions there.”He won one of the most acclaimed matches in tennis history in 2008 when he beat Federer in a Wimbledon final that stretched to 9-7 in the fifth set in the twilight. Nadal won Wimbledon again in 2010, beating Tomas Berdych for the title. But since losing the 2011 final to Djokovic, Nadal has not advanced past the semifinals and has twice missed the tournament because of injury: in 2016 because of his left wrist and last year because of the chronic foot condition known as Müller-Weiss syndrome that is linked to a deformity in the navicular bone and first threatened his career in his late teens.Roger Federer, left, and Nadal played a thrilling Wimbledon final in 2008. Nadal has 22 Grand Slam singles titles, while Federer and Novak Djokovic are tied for second at 20.Anja Niedringhaus/Associated PressHe managed the problem for years with orthotic inserts and custom-designed shoes and anti-inflammatory medication, but the condition is clearly threatening his career again even if the short-term concern is Wimbledon.Larry Chou, an American physician in Havertown, Pa., specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation, said that radio frequency ablation was “relatively low risk” but has widely varying rates of success depending on the joint involved. He said it was rare to use on the foot.“If it works, it’s for symptomatic relief, but it’s not fixing the underlying issue,” Chou said. “The mechanical stress going through his foot is still going to be there.”Chou has performed radio frequency ablations on backs and knees but not on feet. He said if the procedure worked, which was no guarantee, the pain relief would typically not be immediate.“It usually takes a few weeks to kick in, mostly because the nerve gets irritated when you are killing it and you can develop a little neuroma,” Chou said, using another term for a pinched nerve, “but that’s usually not as bad as the original pain. The problem for Nadal is that Wimbledon begins in three weeks, and three weeks is a relatively short time frame. But it’s one of those things where he’s beaten the odds before in his career and you hope that he beats the odds again.”Chou said it was no doubt remarkable that Nadal could win the French Open without having feeling in one of his feet.“But then again,” Chou said, “he’s been playing tennis at this level for so long. And these guys like Nadal, their mechanics and how they move, they have such great muscle memory. They just do it.”Nadal certainly did it well: defeating four top-10 seeds at Roland Garros this year and running his record in French Open finals to 14-0 and his overall French Open record to an astounding 112-3.But Wimbledon has belonged more to his archrivals. Federer has won it eight times, a men’s record. Djokovic has won it six times, including the last three times it has been contested, in 2018, 2019 and 2021.Even if Nadal somehow recovers in time to compete, the Grand Slam will remain a daunting prospect with Djokovic in the field and back on the Centre Court grass.But doubting Nadal’s resilience, tenacity and talent has been a bad play for quite some time, as he proved again in Paris.“Let’s see what happens,” he said on Sunday night. “I’m a positive guy.” More

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      As the French Open Begins, the War in Ukraine Roils the Locker Room

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      “I feel like it’s not united,” Iga Swiatek, the top-ranked women’s player, said of a decision by the tours to punish Wimbledon for barring players from Russian and Belarus.PARIS — The idea by the men’s and women’s tennis tours was to take a strong stand against Wimbledon’s decision to keep out players from Russia and Belarus, then let tennis and competition move the conversation away from politics and the invasion of Ukraine.It has not worked out that way.On Monday, the second day of the French Open, the politics of tennis and Russia reared its head once more. The professional tours’ announcement Friday night that they would not award rankings points this year at Wimbledon, essentially turning the most prestigious event in tennis into an exhibition and punishing players who did well there last year, has roiled the sport, igniting a sharp debate over the game’s role in a deeply unpopular war and dominating the conversation at the year’s second Grand Slam.Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine spoke emotionally about the invasion, saying it has made her care little about winning or losing. Iga Swiatek, the world No. 1, talked of the sport being in disarray. Naomi Osaka, one of the biggest stars, said she was leaning toward skipping Wimbledon if the decision not to award rankings points for match victories there stands.“I feel like it’s not united,” Swiatek said after defeating Tsurenko, 6-2, 6-0, in her opening match while wearing a Ukraine pin on her cap, as she has for the past three months. “It’s all the people who are organizing tournaments, like, for example, WTA, ATP and I.T.F., they all have separate views, and it’s not joint. We feel that in the locker room a little bit, so it’s pretty hard.”Swiatek’s comments came shortly after Tsurenko described how lost she has been since late February. Tsurenko, who was ranked as high as No. 23 in 2019, said she at first wanted simply to go home and figure out how she could help with the war effort, but she decided to keep playing and competed in important tournaments in Miami and Indian Wells, Calif.Then, after an early loss at a tournament in Marbella, Spain, and no tournament on her schedule for another three weeks, she realized she had nowhere to live or train. With the help of another player from Ukraine, Marta Kostyuk, she landed at the Piatti Tennis Center in Italy, but the psychological challenge remains of balancing her career while her country faces an existential threat.“I just want to enjoy every match, but at the same time, I don’t feel that I care too much,” she said. “I’m trying to find this balance between just go on court and don’t care versus try to care. In some cases it helps.”Tsurenko spoke emotionally about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying it had made her care little about winning or losing.Thibault Camus/Associated PressAfter feeling emboldened by Wimbledon’s decision to bar players from Russia and Belarus, Tsurenko and her compatriots were disheartened by the WTA’s decision to strike back.“When it’s not in your country you don’t really understand how terrible it is,” Tsurenko said. Compared with what she and her country have been through, giving up the chances for rankings points seems like a small price to pay, she said. “For them, they feel like they are losing their job,” she said of the players who are barred. “I also feel many bad things. I feel a lot of terrible things, and I think, compared to that, losing a chance to play in one tournament is nothing.”She hates the propaganda used by the Russian government to disparage her country. She said no more than five players had expressed their support for her since the start of the war. She dreads being drawn against a Russian player in a tournament.Dayana Yastremska, who is also from Ukraine and who also lost Monday, said the decision to withhold points for Wimbledon was not fair to players from Ukraine.“We are not a happy family right now,” said Yastremska, who still does not have a training base and was unsure where she would spend the next weeks.In an interview this month, Steve Simon, the chief executive of the WTA Tour, said the organization had to live up to its principle that access to tournaments for players should be based on merit alone. He also said that discriminating against a player because of the actions of her country’s government was not acceptable.“I can’t imagine what the Ukrainian people are going through and feeling at this moment, and I feel bad for these athletes who are being asked to take the blame for someone else’s actions,” Simon said.Russian players have expressed disappointment in Wimbledon’s decision and appreciation for the tours’ support in protecting what they view as their right to play, though no player has sought relief in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Jeffrey Kessler, a lawyer with experience in right-to-play cases, said tennis players from Russia and Belarus would most likely have a strong case.“We are professional athletes, we put effort every day in what we do and basically want to work,” said Karen Khachanov of Russia, who won his opening-round match Sunday and was a semifinalist at Wimbledon last year.One of the few players not to express an opinion was Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, a former world No. 1 and member of the WTA Players’ Council, but her distress over the disagreement was clear.Glyn Kirk/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“I say one thing, it’s going to be criticized; I say another thing, it’s going to be criticized,” said Azarenka, who once had a close relationship with President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus.In its statement Friday, the ATP said its rules and agreements existed to protect the rights of all players as a whole: “Unilateral decisions of this nature, if unaddressed, set a damaging precedent for the rest of the tour. Discrimination by individual tournaments is simply not viable on a tour that operates in more than 30 countries.”The tangible impact of the ATP and WTA decisions on the sport was evident Monday as Osaka made her feelings known about possibly skipping Wimbledon. She is not a fan of grass surfaces to begin with, and without an opportunity to improve her ranking, she might struggle to find motivation.“The intention was really good, but the execution is kind of all over the place,” Osaka said.Swiatek, who is from Poland, which has supported Ukraine perhaps more than any other country, said locker room conversations, which might once have been about changing balls during matches, have shifted to discussions of war, peace and politics. She stopped short of overtly stating her position, but she hardly masked her sentiments.“All the Russian and Belarusian players are not responsible in what’s going on in their country,” Swiatek said. “But on the other hand, the sport has been used in politics and we are kind of public personas and we have some impact on people. It would be nice if the people who are making decisions were making decisions that are going to stop Russia’s aggression.” More

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      Tennis Tours Penalize Wimbledon Over Ban on Russian Players

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      PARIS — The men’s and women’s tennis tours responded to Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players on Friday by stripping the event of ranking points this year, the most significant rebuke to date of efforts by global sports organizations to ostracize individual Russian athletes as punishment for their country’s invasion of Ukraine.It is a move without precedent in tennis, and without the points, Wimbledon, the oldest of the four Grand Slam tournaments, will technically be an exhibition event, bringing no ranking boost to those who excel on its pristine lawns this year.“The ability for players of any nationality to enter tournaments based on merit, and without discrimination is fundamental to our Tour,” the ATP said in a statement, saying that the ban undermined its ranking system.The International Tennis Federation, a governing body that operates separately from the tours, also announced it would remove ranking points from the junior and wheelchair events at Wimbledon this year.Though Wimbledon, for now, is the only one of the four major tournaments to ban Russians and Belarusians, the power play by the tours could lead to countermeasures, including the possibility of Grand Slam events considering an alternative ranking system or aligning to make more decisions independently of the tours.Organizers of Wimbledon, a grass-court tournament and British cultural institution that begins on June 27, announced the ban on Russian and Belarusian players last month in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was undertaken with the support of Belarus. Other British grass-court tournaments that are staged in June, including the Wimbledon prep events at Eastbourne and at Queen’s Club in London, have announced similar bans.So have sports as diverse as soccer, auto racing, track and field and ice hockey. Russia has been stripped of the hosting rights to events and has seen its teams ejected from major competitions like soccer’s World Cup. But only a few sports, notably figure skating and track and field, have barred individual athletes from Russia and Belarus from competing.Both tours condemned the invasion of Ukraine but argued that individual athletes should not be prevented from competing, in the words of WTA chief executive Steve Simon, “solely because of their nationalities or the decisions made by the governments of their countries.”But Sergiy Stakohvsky, a recently retired Ukrainian men’s player now in the Ukrainian military, expressed bitterness at the decision, calling it a “shameful day in tennis” in a post on Twitter.Standing by its ban, Wimbledon expressed “deep disappointment” and said stripping points was “disproportionate” in light of the pressure it was under from the British government.The ATP’s and WTA’s move was made after extensive internal debate and despite considerable pushback from players. A sizable group of men’s and women’s players was gathering support for a petition in favor of retaining Wimbledon’s points before the tours made their announcements. But removing the points is expected to have little effect on the tournament’s bottom line.The world’s top players who are not from Russia and Belarus are still expected to participate. Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1 men’s player from Serbia and a six-time Wimbledon champion, made it clear on Sunday after winning the Italian Open in Rome that he would not support skipping the event in protest even if he remained against the decision to bar the Russian and Belarusian players.“A boycott is a very aggressive thing,” Djokovic said. “There are much better solutions.”This year’s Wimbledon champions will still play in front of big crowds, lift the same trophies hoisted by their predecessors and have their names inscribed on the honor roll posted inside the clubhouse of the All England Club. They will be considered Grand Slam champions although it remains unclear whether Wimbledon will maintain prize money at its usual levels.Stripping points will have consequences on the sport’s pecking order. Daniil Medvedev, a Russian ranked No. 2, is now in excellent position to displace No. 1 Novak Djokovic after Wimbledon because Djokovic’s 2,000 points for winning Wimbledon last year will come off his total without being replaced. Medvedev, who reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon last year, will only lose 180 points.The leadership of the ATP, including its player council, which includes stars like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, ultimately decided that it was important to dissuade tournaments from barring players — now or in the future — based on political concerns.“How do you draw the line of when you ban players and when you don’t?” Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a Russian and a former No. 1 singles player, said in a telephone interview from Moscow.Unlike Wimbledon, the lead-in events in Britain have retained their ranking points despite being formally part of the tours. Wimbledon, as a Grand Slam event, operates independently but does have agreements with the tours on many levels. But the ATP and WTA chose not to strip points from the British lead-in events because other European tournaments were still open to Russian and Belarusian players during those three weeks of the season. The WTA did announce that it was putting the British tour events in Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne on probation because of the ban.Russia-Ukraine War: Key DevelopmentsCard 1 of 4Russia’s punishment of Finland. More

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      How Do You Solve a Problem Like a Tied Set?

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      On a trial basis, the four major tennis tournaments will begin playing their matches under the same regulations.Nick Kyrgios knew he could be a top tennis player when he won his first main draw match at the French Open in 2013.“It was memorable because I beat Radek Stepanek in three tiebreakers,” said Kyrgios, who has twice reached major quarterfinals and been ranked as high as No. 13 in the world. “To have them all go my way, that’s when I fell in love with tiebreakers. I think they’re pretty special.”When the French Open begins on Sunday, the tournament will feature yet another new tiebreaker rule that will, for the first time, see the four major championships — Wimbledon, and the French, United States and Australian Opens — using the same tiebreaker policies.When a match reaches 6-6 in the final set, which is the fifth set for men’s singles and the third for women’s singles, the players will contest a super-tiebreaker. The first player to win 10 points by a 2-point margin will win the set and the match. The rule change is being used as a trial in the three majors this year and in next year’s Australian Open.“Our challenge is to protect the soul of [the French Open ] while entering a new era,” said Amélie Mauresmo, the tournament’s new director and a former world No. 1. “We’re trying to modernize things on a daily basis.”A 2010 first-round Wimbledon match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes over three days, finally concluding when Isner took a 70-68 fifth-set win. Pool photo by Suzanne PlunkettTiebreakers, or tiebreaks, as they have inexplicably been renamed by many in the sport, were introduced at the 1970 U.S. Open as a way of shortening matches and holding the attention of spectators and television audiences, as well as preserving the health and well-being of players.Back then, tiebreakers — first a 9-point “sudden death” version that ended when a player won 5 points, which was later changed to a “lingering death” alternative that required a player to win 7 points by a margin of 2 — were played in all sets except the final one. Final sets required that play continue until someone won by a two-game margin.The four tournaments that comprise the Grand Slam could never agree on a format for the deciding set, so each event made its own rules. Beginning in 2016, the Australian Open introduced a super-tiebreaker at 6-6, while Wimbledon began playing a traditional tiebreaker at 12-12 in 2019. The rule was immediately put to the test that year when Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 13-12 (7-3) for the men’s title.Wimbledon was under pressure to make the change after two defining matches. The first was a 2010 first-round match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut that lasted 11 hours and five minutes over three days, finally concluding when Isner took a 70-68 fifth-set win. Then, in 2018, Isner and Kevin Anderson played a six-hour, 36-minute semifinal that Anderson ultimately won, but that left him so depleted that he lost the final in straight sets to Djokovic.The U.S. Open has been contesting a 12-point tiebreaker (the first to 7 points wins) in all sets since 1975. During that time, only one men’s final has featured a tiebreaker in the final set: In 2020, Dominic Thiem came back from two sets down to beat Alexander Zverev 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) in a made-for-television match in which no fans were allowed in the stands because of the coronavirus pandemic.“I love tiebreakers,” said Hana Mandlikova, 60, who vividly recalled every point of the final tiebreaker against Martina Navratilova at the 1985 U.S. Open. “You have to be risky, and you have to be a little bit lucky.”Bettmann/Getty ImagesTwo women’s finals have gone the distance. Tracy Austin defeated Martina Navratilova 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-1) in 1981 and Hana Mandlikova upset Navratilova 7-6 (7-3), 1-6, 7-6 (7-2) in 1985.“I love tiebreakers,” said Mandlikova, 60, who vividly recalled every point of the final tiebreaker against Navratilova, including a diving cross-court backhand volley on match point. “People who play riskier tennis instead of staying along the baseline have a better percentage of winning the tiebreaker,” she continued. “You have to be risky, and you have to be a little bit lucky.”Kyrgios, who beat Stepanek 7-6, (7-4), 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (13-11) in that 2013 French Open first-rounder, said a tiebreaker was not based on skill. “It obviously favors the bigger serve at times, but it can go either way,” he said. “That’s the beauty of the scoring in tennis. Every point counts.”Until this year, the French Open shunned the final-set tiebreaker. Since the tournament began in 1891, it has featured very few extended final sets, though the slow red clay and never-ending rallies have produced multiple five-hour matches. Only twice in the men’s draw has a final gone the distance: a 1927 match won by René Lacoste over Bill Tilden 11-9 in the fifth set and a 2004 final between Gastón Gaudio and Guillermo Coria, which Gaudio ultimately won 8-6 in the fifth.Jennifer Capriati’s win over Kim Clijsters in the final set of the 2001 French Open was one of the tournament’s most suspenseful endings.Philippe Wojazer/ReutersThe women, on the other hand, have produced some extraordinary final sets in the French Open, including an 8-6 third-set win by Steffi Graf over Navratilova in 1987, a 10-8 third-set win by Monica Seles over Graf in 1992, a 10-8 third-set win by Graf over Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in 1996 and one of the tournament’s all-time highlights, a 1-6, 6-4, 12-10 victory by Jennifer Capriati over Kim Clijsters in the 2001 final.Danielle Collins, one of the top-ranked U.S. pros, remembers honing her tiebreaker skills while competing in junior matches.“If you split sets, you played a 10-point tiebreaker for the third set,” Collins said. “I would get down all the time. One time I was down 9-1 and came back to win. Those 10-point tiebreakers can be really fun.” Stefanos Tsitsipas likes the idea of never-ending matches but understands the need for final-set tiebreakers in today’s increasingly physical matches.“As a kid I liked watching these crazy best-of-five matches that went all the way to 18-16,” he said. “It was just fun to watch and see who was going to break first. On the other hand, you can’t allow players to play until 6 in the morning with that format. It can get quite exhausting.”In the 2020 U.S. Open, Dominic Thiem, of Austria, came back from two sets down to beat Alexander Zverev, of Germany.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesStan Wawrinka, who won the French Open in 2015, would prefer that the majors stop tinkering with their tiebreaker formulas.“What I liked before was that they were all a different ending,” said Wawrinka, who is working his way back from knee surgery. “I enjoyed that. But it’s impossible to find one thing that everybody will like. To all be the same now is not my favorite thing, but it is what it is and we don’t have a choice.”Djokovic is proud that he and Federer got to play the first championship match in Wimbledon history to feature a final-set tiebreaker. He also knows it was a one-and-only now that Wimbledon will also play final-set tiebreakers at 6-6 instead of 12-12.“There is history in extended play in most of the Slams,” Djokovic said. “That Isner-Mahut, the longest match ever, it’s written down with golden letters in the history of tennis. Many people remember that match, and it has brought a lot of attention to our sport from the wider audience.” More