Tennis

Top-seeded Bianca Andreescu needed just 61 minutes on Monday to post a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Spanish qualifier Andrea Lazaro Garcia in the first round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg in France. The Canadian won 83.9 percent of her first-serve points while winning in her first match since losing to Australia's Ashleigh Barty in the Miami Open final on April 3. Andreescu next faces Belgium's Maryna Zanevska, who defeated Yuliya Hatouka of Belarus 6-2, 6-1 in a battle of qualifiers. Among other matches,

American Coco Gauff is brimming with confidence ahead of the French Open, buoyed by strong results in Italy on clay in the past two weeks that have helped the 17-year-old climb 10 places to a career-best 25th in the rankings. Gauff has already made the fourth rounds of the Australian Open and Wimbledon in her nascent career, and this week she will be seeded at a Grand Slam for the first time in her career when the clay court major starts on Sunday

Canadian Denis Shapovalov said on Sunday he will not play at the French Open due to a lingering shoulder injury. The world number 14 lost to Norway's Casper Ruud 7-6(6) 6-4 in Saturday's Geneva Open final. "I'm saddened to share that after consulting with my medical team I've made the difficult decision to withdrawal (sic) from @rolandgarros," he tweeted. "Unfortunately my shoulder has been bothering me and while medical tests look good, it is for the best to rest. See you in 2022,

American 17-year-old Coco Gauff clinched her second WTA title by beating Wang Qiang 6-1 6-3 in the final of the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma. Third seed Gauff - ranked a career-high 30th in the world - needed just one hour 14 minutes to overcome Wang - a player 12 years her senior. Gauff saved three break points at 5-1 before sealing the first set. She then broke Wang in the fifth game of the second set to cruise to her first clay-court title

LONDON: The BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California that was scheduled to be held in March will now take place in October, the ATP said on Thursday. The dual ATP-WTA hardcourt event was planned for March 8-21 but was postponed due to COVID-19 concerns, the second consecutive year the tournament was impacted. Popularly known as the "fifth major" after the four Grand Slams, the 2020 Masters 1000 tournament was the first major professional sporting event in the United States to

Rafael Nadal won his 10th Italian Open with a 7-5 1-6 6-3 victory over world number one Novak Djokovic in Rome. Both players dropped serve early on in the first set before Nadal took it after securing the key break at 5-5. Djokovic dominated the second set but paid for not taking two break points in the fifth game of the decider. A stunning backhand from Spaniard Nadal saw him break the Serb in the next game before he went on to hold

ROME: World number one Novak Djokovic's quarter-final match against Stefanos Tsitsipas has been pushed back until Saturday after play was suspended because of rain on Friday. Monte Carlo winner Tsitsipas was leading defending champion 6-4, 2-1 when the match was interrupted for a second time at the Foro Italico. The match was first halted for 3 hours 30 minutes with the fifth seed leading 4-3 before heavy rain hit the Italian capital. Play resumed at 16:45 GMT, enough time for Tsitsipas to close

ROME: World number one Novak Djokovic swept into the Italian Open quarter-finals on Thursday (May 13) with a straight-sets win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in front of spectators at the Foro Italico. The five-time Rome champion won 6-2, 6-1 in 70 minutes against the 48th-ranked Spaniard, with the venue filled to 25 percent of capacity for the first time amid the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. "It was not good, it was great. I missed the crowd," said the 33-year-old, who next plays Stefanos

ROME: Champion Simona Halep was forced to retire injured in the second round of the Italian Open on Wednesday (May 12) weeks before her bid to reclaim the French Open. The world number three pulled up with a left calf issue while leading Germany's Angelique Kerber 6-1, 3-3 in their match on clay at the Foro Italico in Rome. The 29-year-old limped back to her chair helped by officials but left the court in tears after treatment. The injury comes three weeks before

ROME: Serena Williams will this week play her first match since her Australian Open semi-final exit in February but the American does not feel unprepared for the WTA 1000 event having had enough practice before arriving in Rome. The 39-year-old said she felt "pretty fresh" ahead of the clay court swing as she prepares for the French Open, which starts at the end of May. "I trained for the past two-and-a-half weeks at Patrick's (coach Mouratoglou's) academy, and then training a lot on

LONDON: Russian Daniil Medvedev overtook Rafael Nadal and moved into No 2 in the ATP rankings on Monday. And for the first time since the computerized rankings began in August 1973, there is no American man in the top 30. Novak Djokovic remained No 1, extending his all-time record to 320 weeks. Medvedev slid in behind him after Spain's Nadal fell to eventual champion Alexander Zverev of Germany in the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open last week. A first-round loss in Madrid

Japan's Naomi Osaka said on Sunday that while she has spent her entire life waiting to compete at the Olympics, the risks of holding the Tokyo Games amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic should continue to be carefully discussed. Opinion surveys have shown that most Japanese oppose holding the Games this summer due to worries about the coronavirus, and Tokyo itself is currently under a state of emergency to tame a rise in infections. Osaka, the world number two women's tennis player and one

LONDON: Alexander Zverev underlined his credentials as a French Open title contender with a battling 6-7(8) 6-4 6-3 victory over Italian Matteo Berrettini on Sunday to claim his fourth Masters 1000 crown and second Madrid Open title. Germany's Zverev, conqueror of claycourt specialists Rafa Nadal and Dominic Thiem en route to the final, dropped his first set of the tournament. However, he fought back under a closed roof at the Manolo Santana stadium to lift his first claycourt title since 2019. "I feel

Aryna Sabalenka put on a powerful display to beat world number one Ashleigh Barty 6-0 3-6 6-4 and win the Madrid Open. The Belarusian raced through the opening set in just 25 minutes as Barty failed to win a game in a set for the first time in four years. Sabalenka's standard dropped in the second set as Barty dug in to level it. A sloppy service game from Barty at 4-4 in the third handed the advantage to Sabalenka who served out

Spain's Rafa Nadal was named the 2021 Laureus Sportsman of the year on Thursday, while fellow tennis player Naomi Osaka won the top women's honour. Japan's Osaka won her second U.S. Open title last year, while Nadal equalled Roger Federer's record of 20 Grand Slam titles by claiming his 13th French Open crown. Nadal picked up his fourth Laureus honour, having previously scooped the Breakthrough, Comeback and men's individual awards. "The rest of the sportsmen probably deserve the trophy the same as me,

Top-seeded Ashleigh Barty of Australia outlasted Petra Kvitova 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 on Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open. Barty needed one hour, 48 minutes to defeat the Czech to improve to 11-1 in three-set matches she's played in 2021. "It's just always staying in the fight," Barty said. "Always staying in the hunt and never letting it slide away. That certainly doesn't guarantee results, doesn't guarantee success. It guarantees you give yourself the best chance to do what you do

MADRID: World number three Simona Halep was dumped out of the Madrid Open on Tuesday (Apr 4), losing 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in the last 16 to Belgian Elise Mertens, while Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev won their opening men's matches. Romania's Halep, who won the Madrid title in 2016 and 2017, is still yet to reach a WTA Tour final this season and this was her earliest exit in the Spanish capital since a 2015 first-round loss. Halep had sailed through the first

Britain's Dan Evans reached the second round of the Madrid Open with victory over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy. The British number one, who had never won in Madrid, came through 7-6 (8-6) 6-7 (7-9) 6-2. Evans had three match points in the second set but the world number 51 saved them to send it to a decider. However, the world number 26 started the third set positively and broke his opponent twice, sealing it with an ace to go through to the last 32.

Britain's Cameron Norrie fought back to beat second seed Cristian Garin and reach the Estoril Open semi-finals. Norrie, who came through a three-hour match in Portugal on Thursday, beat the 22nd-ranked Chilean 3-6 7-5 6-3. The British number two received treatment on his left wrist after the first set but rallied to register his 17th win of the season and reach a second semi-final of the year. He will face sixth seed Marin Cilic of Croatia for a place in the final. Norrie,

LONDON: The Wimbledon Championships will become a 14-day tournament from 2022, with matches set to be played on Middle Sunday, traditionally a day off at the grasscourt Grand Slam, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) said on Tuesday. The first Sunday of Wimbledon is normally a rest day, on which tournament organisers work to get the courts back into top shape for the latter rounds, resulting in a packed "Manic Monday" schedule. "From 2022, to coincide with the centenary of centre court,