The impending retirements of Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal — winners of a combined 65 major singles titles — have some worried about the end of the glory days of tennis. But a bigger existential crisis is facing the sport: climate change. All sports, if they haven’t already, are expected to suffer in […]
Seventeen years ago, a sculpted Spaniard tore through the French Open draw. Rafael Nadal was only 19 in 2005 when, wearing his sleeveless green top and capri-length pants, he won the first of his 13 French Open titles. But might this be the year the King of Clay is finally unseated at Roland-Garros by a […]
Rafael Nadal has unearthed a valuable cache of points hidden in the red dust of Roland Garros. The 13-time French Open champion dominates a specialized statistical category that may unlock a formula for how he wins on clay: the third shot of a rally. When Nadal strikes the third shot in a back-and-forth with an […]
First, we discuss Naomi Osaka’s abrupt withdrawal from the French Open, following her announcement that she was refusing to attend the mandatory post-match press conferences for reasons of mental health. It’s a tricky issue. Player agency and mental health struggles are beginning to be treated with the seriousness that they deserve, and the post-match conferences […]
For the first time since 1945, there will be no Wimbledon this year. And there’s no guarantee that the coronavirus pandemic won’t yet cancel the U.S. Open, scheduled to start in late August, and the French Open, which was postponed from May to September. If the rest of the 2020 tennis season is abandoned altogether, […]