The plaudits have rung out for Rafael Nadal since his return to the top of the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday. It is a feat few would have thought possible when seeing Nadal desolate at withdrawing during his Roland Garros campaign last year and ultimately dropping to No. 9 in the standings. It was from ninth spot that the Spaniard began 2017 and the tenacity, desire and fighting spirit that has been synonymous with Nadal throughout his career has carried him back to the top. Now Nadal is looking to crown his memorable 2017 by finishing as the year-end No. 1, an achievement that would arguably be of even greater significance in the record books. It is set to be...
The life of an ATP World Tour player can become pretty routine. Wake up. Eat. Practise. Eat. Stretch. Workout. Toss in a match here and there, and you have the life of a player when he's competing at a tournament. But on Monday at the Winston-Salem Open, players were happy to welcome a historic distraction to their daily routine: the eclipse. Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was close to the path of the total solar eclipse, which cut through the continental U.S., from Oregon on the west coast to South Carolina on the east coast, and players, with the help of tournament officials, made sure to take in the once-in-a-100-year phenomenon. [ALSO LIKE] They wore special eclipse glasses and stared into the...
A tennis champion is one who doesn’t just win matches, collects trophies or plays in an aesthetically pleasing way, but in the eyes of fans globally embodies professionalism, commitment and sportsmanship on and off the court. In an era when superlatives are thrown around, when players are categorised and all-time lists are compiled, there are those gilded few, in living memory, from Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who are lionised. Not just for who they are, but what they represent. Nadal has sat on a pedestal, living in the spotlight for much of the past 17 years – from the tennis prodigy who practised three times a week from the age of 14 with...
They were some of the finest moments of his career: Andy Roddick, playing in front of home U.S. fans, blasting aces and hoisting trophies at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments. The right-hander won five Masters 1000 titles during his Hall of Fame career, and at the prestigious events, he also scored some of his biggest wins. Early in his career, Roddick knocked off one of his idols in Pete Sampras and later in his career, he beat one of the all-time greats who's still going, Rafael Nadal. Roddick, a two-time Western & Southern Open champion in Cincinnati, talked with ATPWorldTour.com about how he beat Sampras in Miami and about which ATP World Tour legend he'd play in his dream...
A maiden ATP World Tour title, first Grand Slam match win, career-high Emirates ATP Ranking and now a first Masters 1000 quarter-final. If you ask Yuichi Sugita if he's playing the best tennis of his career, the answer is a resounding 'yes'. Japanese tennis has been on the rise over the past decade, thanks in large part to Kei Nishikori's Top 5 breakthrough and statement as one of the game's most formidable threats. The nation has also experienced a surge of Top 100 stalwarts, including Yoshihito Nishioka, Taro Daniel, Go Soeda and Tatsuma Ito, but none of Nishikori's countrymen have experienced the success that 28-year-old Sugita is enjoying in 2017. "Many players are having their good results after 28 or...
