It wasn't so long ago that David Goffin's immediate outlook was, well, blurry. In February, the 27-year-old was trailing 3-6, 0-1 in his semi-final match against Grigor Dimitrov at the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament when he framed an attempted volley directly into his left eye. That led to the premature end to the match and required an immediate trip to the hospital. The eye injury wasn't deemed serious, but it was still bad enough that the Belgian was forced to withdraw from events in Marseille and Indian Wells. It also required the use of a special contact lens in the damaged left eye while competing. Goffin admits his eyesight isn't completely clear. After his Round of 16 win over...
To attempt to get inside Novak Djokovic's head these days is to imagine a battle of desire vs. reality: The former No. 1 in him wants to return to his glory days right now and to beat Dominic Thiem in the fourth round of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. But the more realistic side of Djokovic, the part of him that remembers he's played only nine matches in nine months, realises pushing the fifth-seeded Thiem, the only player to beat Rafael Nadal on clay last year, to three sets is by itself an accomplishment this early in his comeback from his right elbow injury. “Ideally I'd want to be playing the way I played for so many years,” said Djokovic, who...
Rarely does the 6’6” Alexander Zverev find himself overmatched in height, but that’s exactly what John Isner did in the final of the Miami Open presented by Itau. At a whopping 6’10”, the American struck 18 aces and was unbroken throughout the match, finally earning victory in a tightly contested 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 decision over Zverev. The win was his first over the German in four tries – although the two go back even farther than their ATP World Tour meetings. The two have been frequent practice partners at Saddlebrook Resort for years and have shared a friendship for years. “The first practice that we ever played I think I was 15, and it was the last day of the...
Roger Federer knows better than anyone, at 36, it is as much about keeping a spark of motivation alive as it is about managing his body. Defeat then to the 175th-ranked Thanasi Kokkinakis in his opening match at the Miami Open presented by Itau, comes with a silver lining – the chance to rest and reinvigorate that hunger in time for the grass-court swing. The loss prompted an announcement that, for the second consecutive year, he would skip the clay-court season, including Roland Garros. It proved a masterstroke in 2017 as he went on to claim a record eighth Wimbledon title. Federer will hand over the No. 1 ATP Ranking to Rafael Nadal on April 2, having spent 309 weeks...
Novak Djokovic has seemingly always found a way to play great tennis. It’s how he got to No. 1 in the ATP Rankings and occupied the top spot for 223 weeks during his career. It’s how he has won 30 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, tied for the record with Rafael Nadal. It’s how he had won 30 of his past 31 matches at the Miami Open presented by Itau, where he has won six titles. But since suffering an elbow injury that kept the Serbian out for the final six months of last season, the 30-year-old has struggled to find that great tennis. And on Friday afternoon, he lost his third consecutive match, something he had not done...
