ATP World Tour players of past and present from Jim Courier and James Blake to Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic pay tribute to former World No. 2 Tommy Haas, who officially announced his retirement at the BNP Paribas Open — for which he is tournament director — on Thursday evening. Video courstesy of the BNP Paribas Open. Photo Credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images.
Former World No. 1 Ken Flach, one of the world’s leading doubles players of the 1980s, a winner of six Grand Slam titles and the 1988 Seoul Olympics gold medal (w/Seguso), passed away aged 54 on Monday after a brief illness. One week ago, Flach was playing 36 holes of golf, the sport he was addicted to, in California. Later that day, Flach fell ill with bronchitis, which in the space of four days turned into pneumonia and then into sepsis. Put on life support, he slipped away on Monday night with his family by his bedside at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. Carling Bassett, a former WTA pro and the wife of Robert Seguso, said in...
In the locker room, where players let down their guard and opinions often fly around, there has been an animated, yet sensitive presence, well versed over the past 20 years as a player, a diplomat and as an ambassador. Today, as Andre Sa transitions from playing to a coaching career, charged with overseeing his compatriot, Thomaz Bellucci, a political future — inside the sport he’s played for the past 32 years — has been mapped out. For four years, Sa was a knowledgeable, perceptive and respected advocate for the development of tennis on the ATP Player Council between 2012 and 2016, a period highlighted by greater prize money distribution at Grand Slams, ATP Challenger Tour and player pension enhancements, and...
Kei Nishikori didn’t want to play the 2008 Delray Beach Open for fear of being outclassed, even embarrassed. At 18 years of age, he didn’t think he belonged at tour-level at all. Two weeks earlier, the Japanese teenager had lost in the third round of qualifying at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Dallas against KJ Hippensteel, who won a single tour-level match in his career. So how would Nishikori, World No. 244, make it through qualifying at an ATP World Tour event? “I told my coach I didn’t want to play in Delray because it’s a different level and [there’s] no way I’m going to win those tournaments,” Nishikori told ATPWorldTour.com. “But my coach pushed me to play.” It’s...