Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Holger Rune are electrifying the ATP Tour in a way unseen since another certain trio – the sport is in good handsLast week, shortly after Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner played the point of the year so far – exchanges of 80mph cross-court forehands; Sinner hooking the ball back from behind him; Alcaraz falling and recovering; the kind of exquisite drop shots and physics‑defying sliding we’ve come to expect from both; and, finally, a triumphant Sinner whipping up the crowd after a fruitless dive from Alcaraz left the Spaniard sprawled and breathless on Miami’s Hard Rock court – their colleagues took to social media in adoration and disbelief.“Guys, are you from this planet?” and “What...
Swiss who won 20 grand slam titles combined balletic grace with accuracy, power, shot selection and competitive willTime and simple human wear-and-tear told us Roger Federer had to stop playing professional tennis at some point. Here is a man who was winning grand slam tournaments before the iPhone was invented, while Tony Blair still a very popular prime minister, and who first won Wimbledon a month before Carlos Alvarez was born.And yet the news Federer intends to retire now at the ludicrously advanced age of 41 still feels like a shock, an oversight, a rumour that got out of hand. Is everyone really sure about this? Continue reading...
Williams’s career is ending before it would if she were a male player, simply because she must choose between tennis and having more childrenThis was going to be about whether Serena Williams is the greatest sportswoman in history. After all, who was better?Maybe Babe Didrikson, with Olympic gold medals in two separate athletics events and 10 major wins on the LPGA tour; perhaps Larisa Latynina, who won 18 medals over three Olympic Games; or Jackie Joyner-Kersee, with her back-to-back titles in the Olympic heptathlon; or Allyson Felix, who has just retired after winning more medals than any other runner in history. From Williams’s sport there’s Martina Navratilova, with 167 singles titles and another 177 in doubles, or Steffi Graf, who...
The Spaniard meets Daniil Medvedev in the Australian Open final aiming to surpass his two great rivals for major winsThere is a nice symmetry that when Rafael Nadal faces Daniil Medvedev in the final of the Australian Open on Sunday, it will be the Spaniard’s turn to try to win a record 21st grand slam title. Roger Federer had his chance at Wimbledon in 2019, when he had two match points in the final against Novak Djokovic but lost in a deciding tiebreak. Djokovic had his chance at the US Open last year when, having won all three of the year’s previous majors, he reached the final in New York but was beaten by Medvedev, denying him the calendar year...
The 39-year-old was well-beaten by Hubert Hurkacz but has not had a bad tournament after a long injury lay-offRoger Federer has experienced so many different emotions over his 22-year Wimbledon career, unfettered joy and crushing despair alike, but as he stepped out to the baseline on Centre Court and served to stay in the match while trailing two sets and 0-5 against Hubert Hurkacz, he faced an entirely new scenario altogether.Across the 1,525 matches he has played as a professional on the ATP, Federer had only ever received a bagel set once in his life in the 21st century. That alone took the greatest clay-courter of all time, Rafael Nadal, at the height of his powers in the 2008 French...