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Novak Djokovic Puts Everyone Down Under His Feet, Reigning Again In Australia

On Friday, our assessment of Novak Djokovic’s semifinal victory over Stan Wawrinka at the 2015 Australian Open contained the central thesis that Wawrinka lost the match more than Djokovic won it. That happens in sports. Sometimes, you win because you excel. Other times, you win because your opponent falters. Sometimes, you lose because you stunk […]

Madison Keys, Serena Williams, And The Doors Of Time

It is easy to focus on certain details, certain individuals, certain contexts, to the exclusion of others. Thursday afternoon in Melbourne, Australia, it was so easy to look at Madison Keys — all of 19 years old — crushing a tennis ball with a smooth and relaxed stroke, and conclude that “the future of women’s […]

Authoritative And Emphatic: Azarenka Makes A Statement Against Wozniacki

The Australian Open isn’t just the first major tournament (the first important event) of the tennis calendar. It is the one major tournament which exists far removed from the other three. The Australian Open really does exist on an island, an appropriate reality for a country which is in fact geographically isolated from other continents. […]

Australian Open Affirmations: Nadal And Sharapova Do What They Do Best

If a single theme can be gleaned from the first three days of the 2015 Australian Open, it is this: For anyone who has played professional tennis for an appreciable length of time, the cauldron of major-tournament pressure reveals the essence of that player — not always in a career-long context, but often enough to […]

Australian Open Women’s Draw Analysis

The draws are out for the 2015 Australian Open. In both the women’s and men’s events, the first few days of the tournament offer the promise of a few main-event matches, which is not always something you get at a major. It can take time to stumble upon the kind of centerpiece which pushes other […]

The 5 Most Significant Australian Open Women’s Matches

Before 1988, when the Australian Open moved to its current (and gleaming) facilities at Melbourne Park, the event simply didn’t exist on par with the other majors. Before 1988, the Australian Open lacked 128-player draws, meaning that all players in the tournament did not have to play or win the same amount of matches to […]

WTA Finals: Serena Wins, Halep Takes Her Place, And Wozniacki Steals The Show

The Women’s Tennis Association moved its end-of-the-year showcase event from Istanbul to Singapore this year. The time difference put a lot of matches on American television in the middle of the night. The sport is bigger than one country or continent, and Li Na — who retired before the 2014 WTA Finals began — had […]

China Open WTA Wrap-Up: Maria Sharapova And The Mysteries Of Tennis

The just-concluded China Open in Beijing is not quite a crown jewel on the Women’s Tennis Association’s annual calendar. Yet, it owns the distinction of being the last main-stage event before the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore, which begin on Oct. 20. You can identify this event as part of the “Asian swing” on the […]

When you beat Maria Sharapova in three sets, you’ve done something significant and rare in women’s tennis. When you do so at the U.S. Open and in nasty, punishing weather conditions, you’ve done something far more impressive. Wozniacki enjoyed a favorable draw in the quarterfinals and semifinals before running into Serena Williams in the final. However, Wozniacki’s win over Sharapova was the trial the Danish star had to endure, the hurdle she had to clear on the way to her second major final.

Out Of The Darkness

When an athlete drinks in one of the great moments of her career, it’s natural to want the perfect setting for such an occasion. However, at the very moment Caroline Wozniacki defeated Maria Sharapova on Sunday at the U.S. Open, dark storm clouds loomed not too far away. Those very clouds soon poured down rain, […]

The WTA Carries The Day

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell whether the women or the men are carrying the run of play at a major tennis tournament. Not this time. Not in New York. Not at the 2014 United States Open. The women have ruled the Big Apple in the first of the two weeks at the Billie Jean King […]

Cincinnati ATP & WTA Recap: Steel Beneath The Velvet

We’ve seen two utterly fascinating weeks of North American hardcourt tennis since the world’s best (minus Rafael Nadal, Juan Martin del Potro, and Li Na, among others) came to Canada in early August. Tour action continues this week in New Haven (Connecticut) and Winston-Salem (North Carolina). Moreover, a few of the big names on the WTA […]

Montreal-Toronto Combo Review: A Weekend In Canada, A Change Of Scene

A weekend in Canada, a change of sceneWas the most I bargained forAnd then I discovered you, and in your eyesI found the love that I couldn’t ignore. — Canadian Sunset, 1956  * Norman Gimbel, the lyricist for a song that’s almost 60 years old, knew what a weekend in Canada could do for the […]

A Name Worth Chanting

There were two kinds of upsets to marvel at on Tuesday, as Wimbledon became “Wimbledonnybrook.” One of those upsets offered a portrayal of an underdog surpassing a favorite on the favorite’s own terms, as Angelique Kerber outfought one of the best fighters in women’s tennis, Maria Sharapova. The write-up for that match is here. The […]

Outfighting The Fighter

It was a memorable Tuesday afternoon at the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Two significant upsets visited SW19. On the men’s side of Wimbledon, Nick Kyrgios had no mercy in his takedown of Rafael Nadal. A write-up of “Kyrgios Eleison’s” victory can be found here. A few hours earlier, on the same hallowed patch […]

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