3:01 AM ET American Danielle Collins has been dismissed from the World TeamTennis (WTT) event in West Virginia for breaking coronavirus protocols, organisers said on Tuesday. One of only a few live sports events allowing fans in North America to attend amid the coronavirus pandemic, the entire three-week regular season of the WTT is being
Tennis
8:33 AM ET On July 10, Matteo Berrettini, the No. 8-ranked men’s player, lost a semifinal on red clay to Andrey Rublev during an exhibition tournament on a chilly, wet day in Kitzbuhel, Austria. Barely 24 hours later, Berrettini triumphed in an Ultimate Tennis Showdown semifinal on a hard court under sunny but hot and
9:24 PM ET Associated Press LEXINGTON, Ky. — Serena Williams is planning to make her return to competition at a new hard-court tournament in Kentucky next month. It’ll be the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion’s first action since playing for the U.S. in the Fed Cup in February, before all sanctioned tennis was shut down
6:45 PM ET Associated Press LONDON — The Tennis Integrity Unit has fined and suspended a Belarusian chair umpire and a Greek tournament director for match-fixing and betting offenses. Umpire Alexey Izotov was suspended for three years and fined $10,000 on Thursday for failing to report a corrupt approach and of soliciting other umpires to
4:09 PM ET Associated Press BERLIN — Amid face masks, disinfectant and temperature checks for the coronavirus, Dominic Thiem defeated Matteo Berrettini 6-7 (4) 6-4, 10-8 in the men’s final of a grass-court exhibition tournament on Wednesday. The Steffi Graf Stadium in Berlin’s Grunewald district was largely empty for the match with spectator numbers restricted.
3:33 PM ET Anti-corruption officials in tennis are bracing for a potential uptick in match-fixing alerts when the official tours restart later this summer due to the significant number of formal reports of “suspicious matches” that came to the attention of the Tennis Integrity Unit during the lockdown triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. “We anticipate
1:01 PM ET Associated Press PARIS — Former top-10 tennis pro Lucas Pouille will have surgery on his right elbow and miss the return of sanctioned tennis — if the tours do return in August from their pandemic-forced hiatus. The 26-year-old Frenchman said Tuesday on Twitter that he would have the operation in Paris this
11:58 AM ET Associated Press The U.S. Tennis Association has canceled several amateur events in August because of the coronavirus pandemic but is still planning to hold the US Open starting Aug. 31. USTA national championships in certain junior age groups for singles and doubles are being scrapped. That includes boys’ 18s in Orlando and
Jul 14, 2020 Associated Press The Swiss Indoors tennis tournament has been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Organizers say it would be “irresponsible and logistically difficult to go ahead” amid uncertainty about public health and the economy. Tournament head Roger Brennwald says “social distancing or matches played behind closed doors were out of the
9:25 AM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com When the global coronavirus pandemic shut down the WTA Tour in March, CiCi Bellis suddenly found herself with indefinite free time. But, having spent the better part of the past two years dealing with injuries and being sidelined from tennis, she knew immediately how she would pass the time. The
11:36 AM ET Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia — Sam Stosur, the 2011 U.S. Open champion, is now a mom. The 36-year-old Australian tennis pro announced Monday on Instagram that her partner, Liz, gave birth to a girl in June. “Life in lockdown during coronavirus has been challenging in many ways but personally it’s been one
4:34 PM ET Associated Press WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Tennys Sandgren celebrated a game-clinching point in pandemic-appropriate fashion, retrieving the ball himself in the absence of ball kids, and exchanging an awkward fist-to-elbow bump with a teammate as the World TeamTennis season started before mask-wearing fans on Sunday. WTT’s nine teams have come together
6:46 PM ET Associated Press STATELINE, Nev. — Former tennis player Mardy Fish birdied the final five holes Saturday to take a three-point lead over former Buffalo defensive tackle Kyle Williams in the American Century Championship. The celebrity tournament is being played without fans at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course because of the coronavirus pandemic. The
8:03 AM ET Associated Press LONDON — The Tennis Integrity Unit has raised concerns over 24 “suspicious matches” at exhibitions organized while the men’s and women’s tours are shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic. The TIU, which investigates match-fixing cases in the sport, said Friday it received reports of the matches at private tournaments staged
4:45 PM ET Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. — On Richmond’s Monument Avenue, the collection of towering statues honoring Confederate veterans was interrupted by one noticeably different: a monument to Black tennis legend and civil rights activist Arthur Ashe. The Ashe statue seemed safe from defacement during recent protests over racism and police brutality, when protesters
9:30 AM ET The All England Club, which hosts Wimbledon, announced Friday that it will pay prize money to all players who would have qualified for the canceled tournament. Pulling from a pot of £10 million ($12.6 million), the organization will distribute prize money to the “620 players whose world ranking would have enabled them
8:58 AM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com After being at home for several months because of the global coronavirus pandemic, Sofia Kenin was more than eager to return to competition. So when the opportunity arose to play World TeamTennis this summer, she jumped at the chance. It was only after she agreed to participate that she realized
7:33 AM ET Pro-tennis player Dayana Yastremska has defended pictures she posted on social media of her doing blackface as “misunderstood.” The World No. 25 ranked player posted four photos of herself with half her body painted black and a caption which read “Equality.” Following criticism, Yastremska deleted the pictures and posted an explanation on