Tennis

6:28 PM ET Associated Press SANTIAGO, CHILE — Brazilian teenager Thiago Seyboth Wild won his first title Sunday by beating second-seeded Casper Ruud 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 Sunday in the final of the Chile Open. The 19-year-old clinched the title after Ruud’s backhand went wide. “He played amazing tennis all week,” Ruud said. “I can’t be

1:12 AM ET Rafael Nadal raced to victory in the Mexican Open on Saturday night, dispatching Taylor Fritz in straight sets in Acapulco. The 33-year-old Spaniard dropped his racquet, launched his arms in elation and looked up into the night after a 6-3, 6-2 triumph on a hard court against the overmatched 22-year-old American. Nadal

2:33 PM ET Novak Djokovic eased past Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4 to lift his fifth Dubai Tennis Championships title on Saturday, extending his unbeaten start to the 2020 season. Both players looked solid on serve early in the opening set before Djokovic turned the screw to break in the eighth game with a searing

Feb 29, 2020 Aryna Sabalenka won her sixth career title on Saturday, beating Petra Kvitova in straight sets at the Qatar Total Open. The Belarus player saw off the challenge from Kvitova in just over an hour, winning 6-3, 6-3. Sabalenka finished the first set with an ace and lost just six points while serving.

9:06 PM ET Associated Press SANTIAGO, Chile — Top-seeded home favorite Cristian Garin retired from his Chile Open quarterfinal because of back pain after losing the first set of his match against Brazil’s Thiago Wild. Wild led 7-6 (1) when Garin retired. Wild will face Argentina’s Renzo Olivo in the semifinals. Olivo beat sixth-seeded Hugo

1:55 PM ET World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty has been knocked out of the Qatar Total Open on Friday after she suffered a narrow 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 defeat to Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova in the semifinals in Doha. Kvitova, 29, will face Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka in the final on Saturday after she defeated Russia’s Svetlana

6:54 PM ET Associated Press DOHA, Qatar — Top-ranked Ash Barty beat former No. 1 Garbine Muguruza 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-2 Thursday to reach the semifinals of the Qatar Open. Barty broke for a 5-2 lead in the deciding set and clinched the win when Muguruza sent a forehand wide. The Australian will next face

2:27 PM ET Associated Press INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Kim Clijsters has been given a wild card into next month’s BNP Paribas Open, another step in her tennis comeback at age 36. The four-time major winner won in 2003 and 2005 at Indian Wells before retiring nearly eight years ago. Clijsters hasn’t competed at the

7:54 PM ET Maria Sharapova is nothing if not knowledgeable about herself. For as long as she has been in the public eye, she remained true to that pared-down, hyper-aggressive game (oh, that piercing war cry when she struck the ball!) that earned her a career Grand Slam, albeit one with an asterisk applied due

1:48 PM ET D’Arcy MaineESPNW Writer Maria Sharapova looked tired when she walked into the media room after her first-round loss at the Australian Open last month. Tired of losing, and tired of the questions that inevitably followed. It was her third straight loss in the opening round at a major. But despite the evidence

1:29 PM ET Petra Kvitova needed all her considerable experience to beat Latvian Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 and reach the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open on a windy Wednesday in Doha. The No. 8 seed, who won the Qatar title in 2018, looked on course for a routine victory after running away with the

8:32 AM ET ESPN News Services Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova has announced her retirement. “Tennis — I’m saying goodbye,” she wrote in an essay that appeared Wednesday in Vogue and Vanity Fair. Sharapova turned pro in 2001 at age 14. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the US Open in 2006, the Australian Open

9:42 PM ET Andy Murray‘s hopes to return to the ATP Tour at the Miami Open aren’t exactly dashed, but they appear on hold. Murray is dealing with a side effect from a recent hip resurfacing and it might require him to undergo a surgery — again. “I have not had lots of clarity as

4:07 PM ET Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin crashed out of the Qatar Open on Tuesday, suffering a straight-sets defeat to Dayana Yastremska. Kenin’s serve was broken early in the first set and the American failed to recover as her Ukrainian opponent claimed the frame 6-3. 1 Related Kenin, 21, started the second set stronger

4:59 PM ET Associated Press BOSTON — Former Texas men’s tennis coach Michael Center was sentenced Monday to six months in prison for taking a $100,000 bribe as part of a sweeping college admissions scam. Center collapsed into his chair and sobbed with his face in his hands after the judge declared he would spend

10:24 AM ET Reuters Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print American teenager Coco Gauff broke into the top 50 of the updated WTA rankings released on Monday, becoming the first 15-year-old in 15 years to achieve the feat. Gauff, who continued her dramatic rise by reaching the fourth round on her Australian Open debut

Feb 21, 2020 Kelly CohenESPN Serena Williams, the GOAT in tennis, got real — again — with an Instagram post on Friday that talked about the struggles of being a working mom in her sport. “I am not sure who took this picture but Working and being a mom is not easy. I am often

7:12 PM ET Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO — Third-seeded Cristian Garin beat Italian qualifier Gianluca Mager 7-6 (3), 7-5 in Sunday’s rain-hit final to win the Rio Open. It was Garin’s second title this year after winning the Cordoba Open in Argentina earlier in February. The 25th-ranked Chilean is projected to make the top