Tennis

12:32 PM ET ESPN News Services Amid an unusual silence on an empty center court at the French Open, defending champion Rafael Nadal celebrated his 35th birthday with something very familiar: another victory against Richard Gasquet. Nadal won 6-0, 7-5, 6-2 against Gasquet to improve to 17-0 for his career against the Frenchman since they

4:45 PM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com The expectations were high for Ashleigh Barty entering Roland Garros. The world No. 1 won the French Open title in 2019, and she showed evidence of her returned championship form on clay during lead-in events after opting out of the event in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. She collected

7:12 AM ET Associated Press Top-ranked Ash Barty has withdrawn from the French Open. The 2019 champion trailed 6-1, 2-2 in the second round when she signaled she was not able to keep playing against Polish opponent Magda Linette on Court Philippe Chatrier. Barty has been dealing with a left hip problem and struggled through

7:05 PM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com The four women who have beaten Serena Williams in major finals since she returned from childbirth are no longer in Paris for the French Open. Simona Halep pulled out because of injury before the tournament got underway. Angelique Kerber and Bianca Andreescu were upset in the first round. Naomi Osaka

2:37 PM ET ESPN News Services PARIS — Serena Williams is back in the third round at the French Open. The 23-time Grand Slam champion beat 174th-ranked Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 on Wednesday. At last year’s tournament, which was moved to a September start because of the pandemic, Williams retired before her second-round match

8:45 PM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com The sun had long set and there were no fans remaining in the stands by the end of Carla Suarez Navarro‘s first-round match against Sloane Stephens on Tuesday night at the French Open. But the smattering of people who remained in the stadium at Court Simonne-Mathieu — mostly the players’

2:06 PM ET Associated Press The leaders of the four Grand Slam tournaments reacted Tuesday to tennis star Naomi Osaka‘s stunning withdrawal from the French Open by promising to address players’ concerns about mental health. The pledge came in a statement signed by the same four tennis administrators who threatened the possibility of disqualification or

10:30 AM ET ESPN News Services Top-ranked Ash Barty overcame a strong challenge from American Bernarda Pera to win her first match at Roland Garros since she claimed the 2019 French Open title. Barty played with her left thigh bandaged and struggled before getting medical treatment at the start of the deciding set. Barty improved

6:30 AM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com Between all the upsets, potential upsets and media obligations controversy early in the French Open, it’s understandable if you missed Sunday’s announcement that Venus Williams and Coco Gauff are teaming up to play doubles at the tournament. Wednesday’s first-round match will be the first time playing together for the 40-year-old

5:59 PM ET Simon Cambers When Roland Garros added night sessions to its schedule for the first time this year, the French Open organizers knew they would need a star for the opening night. Step forward, Serena Williams. Though there were no fans allowed inside the Court Philippe Chatrier stadium Monday night, due to the

2:07 PM ET Naomi Osaka has withdrawn from the French Open, saying Monday that she will “take some time away from the court” one day after she was fined and threatened harsher sanctions for skipping her mandatory media obligations. Osaka, in a statement posted to social media, said she “never wanted to be a distraction”

10:28 AM ET Simon Cambers Something strange happened to Daniil Medvedev on the way to Roland Garros. He started to believe he can play on clay. Few top players in recent memory have been as open about their distaste for a surface as Medvedev. The Russian comes to Paris as the world No. 2, but

10:50 AM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com With the eyes of the tennis world locked on her, Naomi Osaka quietly strode to victory Sunday during one of the first matches of the 2021 French Open. The four-time major champion took the court at Philippe-Chatrier to face Patricia Maria Tig engulfed in controversy following Osaka’s decision not to

6:00 AM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com SEBASTIAN KORDA COULDN’T believe what he was seeing. It was the first day of his two-week preseason training block in Las Vegas and across the net was his father, Petr, the 1998 Australian Open champion who reached the world No. 2 ranking. Next to him was Steffi Graf, the 22-time

9:33 AM ET Associated Press Coco Gauff and Venus Williams are teaming up in doubles at the French Open. The women’s doubles draw was announced in Paris on Sunday and Gauff, 17, and Williams, 40, are a surprise entry. Gauff has beaten Williams twice in Grand Slam singles action — at Wimbledon in 2019 and

4:27 PM ET While the French Open returns to its normal May/June time slot after the COVID-19 pandemic pushed last year’s edition of the Grand Slam event to the fall, there is still one constant: Everyone on the men’s side will be trying to figure out how to beat the King of Clay. Four-time defending

1:55 PM ET Associated Press PARMA, Italy — Sebastian Korda won his first ATP trophy with a straight-sets victory over Italian wild-card Marco Cecchinato at the Emilia-Romagna Open on Saturday. Korda became the first American man in 11 years to lift a trophy on European clay, since Sam Querrey won in Belgrade in 2010. The

1:33 PM ET Associated Press PARIS — Five Americans made it through the qualifying rounds for the French Open tennis tournament, the most since 2004. Jenson Brooksby of Sacramento, California; Bjorn Fratangelo of Pittsburgh; and Mackenzie McDonald of Piedmont, California, give the U.S. three men who qualified for the Grand Slam event played on red