Tennis

Apr 19, 2024, 09:57 AM ET Open Extended Reactions Bulgarian umpire Pavel Atanasov has been banned from tennis for life after withdrawing his appeal for betting-related violations and charges of corruption, the International Tennis Integrity Agency said Friday. Atanasov, a national-level official, was also given a $10,000 fine for 21 breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption

Associated Press Apr 18, 2024, 02:33 PM ET Open Extended Reactions BARCELONA, Spain — Casper Ruud defeated Jordan Thompson in straight sets to earn his season-leading 26th win and secure a spot in the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open on Thursday. The third-seeded Norwegian won 6-1, 6-4 to move one victory ahead of Australian Open

Associated Press Apr 18, 2024, 08:47 AM ET Open Extended Reactions LONDON — Italy will kick off the defense of its Davis Cup title against Brazil in Bologna on Sept. 11. The full schedule of the Davis Cup Finals group stage was announced on Thursday, with all the matches taking place from Sept. 10-15 across

Associated Press Apr 17, 2024, 01:10 PM ET Open Extended Reactions BARCELONA, Spain — Rafael Nadal‘s first tournament since January lasted only two matches, with the Spaniard losing 7-5, 6-1 to Alex de Minaur at the clay-court Barcelona Open on Wednesday. Nadal, back from an injury layoff, looked like his old self for brief moments

Associated Press Apr 17, 2024, 04:31 PM ET Open Extended Reactions STUTTGART, Germany — Coco Gauff battled her way to the quarterfinals of the Porsche Grand Prix on Wednesday with a hard-fought 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 win over compatriot Sachia Vickery. The 134th-ranked Vickery created 19 break points but could only convert seven of them against

Apr 17, 2024, 06:22 AM ET Open Extended Reactions World No. 3 Coco Gauff said she is full of optimism heading into the clay-court season as she targets a first French Open crown, but the American said her immediate focus was on ending her trophy drought on the surface over the coming weeks. Gauff last

Associated Press Apr 16, 2024, 04:09 PM ET Open Extended Reactions STUTTGART, Germany — Zheng Qinwen eased past Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the Porsche Grand Prix on Tuesday despite a long journey from China to reach the clay-court tournament. The seventh-ranked Zheng traveled from Changsha to Beijing and then on

Associated Press Apr 16, 2024, 02:32 PM ET Open Extended Reactions BARCELONA, Spain — Taking it easy after months away from competitive tennis, Rafael Nadal was good enough to earn a comfortable first-round win at the Barcelona Open on Tuesday. Nadal looked injury-free in a 6-2, 6-3 win over Flavio Cobolli to advance to the

Tom Hamilton, Senior WriterApr 15, 2024, 08:26 PM ET Close • Joined ESPN in 2011• Covered two Olympics, a pair of Rugby World Cups and two British & Irish Lions tours• Previously rugby editor, and became senior writer in 2018 Open Extended Reactions Andy Murray will avoid surgery on the ankle injury he suffered last month but there

Apr 16, 2024, 12:27 AM ET Open Extended Reactions World number three Carlos Alcaraz has cast doubt on his Madrid Open title defense later this month as the Spaniard nurses a right arm injury that has forced him to miss key tune-up events for the French Open. The 20-year-old successfully defended his Indian Wells title

Simon Cambers Apr 15, 2024, 02:02 PM ET Open Extended Reactions Barring any last-minute issues, Rafael Nadal will return to action Tuesday when he plays in the Barcelona Open. It will be his first clay-court event of the year, just his second tournament in the past 15 months — and his eagerly anticipated comeback will

Apr 15, 2024, 09:47 AM ET Open Extended Reactions Rafael Nadal on Monday confirmed that he’ll play this week’s Barcelona Open in what will be the Spaniard’s first tournament since January. “I arrived here … in a last-minute decision as I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play,” the 22-time Grand

ESPN News Services Apr 14, 2024, 11:59 AM ET Open Extended Reactions Stefanos Tsitsipas swept aside Casper Ruud 6-1, 6-4 on Sunday to win the clay-court Monte Carlo Masters for the third time in four years and then wept in his chair. Tsitsipas sat holding his head in his hands, briefly crying as he took

ESPN News Services Apr 14, 2024, 09:42 AM ET Open Extended Reactions Reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz has pulled out of the Barcelona Open because of a right arm injury that also forced him to miss this week’s Monte Carlo Masters, tournament organizers said Sunday. The 20-year-old two-time Grand Slam champion from Spain won the Barcelona

Associated Press Apr 13, 2024, 04:53 PM ET Open Extended Reactions LE PORTEL, France — Emma Raducanu clinched Britain’s berth in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals by taking the last six points of a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1) victory against Diane Parry of France on Saturday for an insurmountable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five-match

Associated Press Apr 13, 2024, 02:02 PM ET Open Extended Reactions MONACO — Casper Ruud finally got the better of Novak Djokovic, beating the top-ranked Serb 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 on Saturday to set up a Monte Carlo Masters final against two-time champion Stefanos Tsitsipas. Tsitsipas won the earlier semifinal against a tiring Jannik Sinner 6-4,

D’Arcy Maine, ESPN.com Apr 12, 2024, 06:21 PM ET Open Extended Reactions The sport of tennis might be on the verge of some major changes. Over the past several years, players have become increasingly vocal about their concerns, ranging from equal pay to challenging travel and tournament conditions to economic hardships for lower-ranked players. Now,

Associated Press Apr 12, 2024, 01:43 PM ET Open Extended Reactions MONACO — Novak Djokovic is back in the semifinals at the Monte Carlo Masters for the first time since 2015. Nine years after he won the last of his two titles at the clay-court tournament, the top-ranked Serb secured a spot in the last