MELBOURNE – The scene is heartbreaking, not just for Nadal fans, but for any tennis follower. Rafael Nadal leaves Australia, injured, walking to the locker room through the hall of champions of the Rod Laver Arena as he has rarely
MELBOURNE – Understanding the Australian way of speaking is one of the most complex challenges for anyone who’s learning English. Especially the accent and slang of that typical suburban, thin, blond, mustachioed like in the seventies, long-haired character who makes
MELBOURNE – Nadal and Djokovic have met 59 times in their lives on every possible stage, have the same number of tennis titles (92) and are neck-and-neck for the record number of major trophies. The race that Novak Djokovic and
MELBOURNE – Juncheng Shang had the luxury of dismissing a world number one. Marcelo Rios had a fleeting experience as coach of the young Chinese, who in Australia, explained his dismissal: “He was disrespectful”. “For me and my family, the
SYDNEY – “Djokovic not playing? I didn’t know that.” Taylor Fritz smiles when he is told that Novak Djokovic won’t be able to play Indian Wells, the tournament the top-ranked U.S. player has to defend in March. “There is my
SYDNEY – Freshness, novelty and entertainment is what the United Cup is bringing. The mixed teams tennis competition, which fuses elements of its predecessors, has those who have tried it very happy. They love it. The last great memory of
SYDNEY – The United Cup, the tournament that revived mixed competitions in tennis, can be even better: at least that’s what Spaniard Rafael Nadal believes, who made a proposal to change the format after his second defeat in the event.
Riyadh – Money. Few tennis players dare to talk about money and accept that taking a wad of cash sometimes is their main motivation. The dunes are beautiful in Riyadh, the people are welcoming and the food is fantastic. That’s
HALLE, Germany – Nick Kyrgios hits hard. Especially on his serve, the ball seems to travel faster than usual. He celebrates loudly when he hits a winner. He curses when the ball goes wide. And he throws himself to the
At the beginning of January 2022, tennis seemed to surrender to Novak Djokovic: the Serb would add several Grand Slam titles and neither Rafael Nadal nor Roger Federer would be able to stop him. The GOAT (or the most successful,
