6:08 AM ET Associated Press TOKYO — Belinda Bencic and Swiss tennis are doing just fine without Roger Federer at the Olympics. The 12th-ranked Bencic beat Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-3 on Thursday to reach the gold-medal match at the Tokyo Games. And that wasn’t all. After a short rest, Bencic was
Tennis
10:33 PM ET ESPN News Services TOKYO — Italian tennis player Fabio Fognini has apologized for yelling at himself with an anti-gay slur during a loss in the Olympic tennis tournament. Fognini used the offensive Italian word repeatedly during the three-set loss to Russian player Daniil Medvedev in the third round on Wednesday. Fognini wrote
3:45 PM ET Tory BarronESPN Editor Close Tory Barron is a Bristol-based writer and editor for ESPN.com. After retiring from playing lacrosse at UConn, the DC native decided to try her hand at writing about people playing sports. Can it be Nov. 19 already? In a powerful new trailer for the upcoming film “King Richard,”
2:07 AM ET Associated Press TOKYO — Bent over in exhaustion before serving. Resting on his racket between points. Grasping for a rubber tube blowing cool air next to his seat on changeovers. Two medical timeouts and one visit from a trainer. Daniil Medvedev was struggling so much with the suffocating heat and humidity at
2:45 AM ET She lit the fire to start the Olympics, but Naomi Osaka‘s Tokyo 2020 dreams were extinguished far too soon on Tuesday in just over an hour by Marketa Vondrousova. With a flurry of unforced errors and growing frustration, Osaka’s Olympics ended with a 6-1, 6-4 loss to Vondrousova, ranked No. 42 in
1:07 AM ET ESPN News Services TOKYO — It wasn’t the ending that tennis superstar Naomi Osaka — nor her fans across Japan and worldwide — had expected for the Tokyo Olympics. Osaka lost to former French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4 in the third round of the Olympic tennis
4:50 PM ET Maryna Zanevska claimed her maiden WTA Tour title on Sunday after a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) victory over Kristina Kucova at the Poland Open in Gdynia. Both players were vying for their first WTA singles titles and it was the Belgian who battled back from double-breaks in both sets to claim victory over
4:45 PM ET Danielle Collins earned her maiden WTA Tour title on Sunday after she beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the final of the 32nd Palermo Ladies Open in Italy. The top seed found herself a break of serve down on two occasions in the opening set, but at 4-2 down the American won four games
12:38 AM ET Associated Press TOKYO — There were never any questions about Naomi Osaka’s potential on the tennis court when she took a two-month mental health break. Especially on hard courts — the surface being used at the Tokyo Olympics and the surface on which Osaka has won all four of her Grand Slam
4:54 PM ET Norwegian Casper Ruud won his third clay court title of the season on Sunday, beating Frenchman Hugo Gaston 6-3, 6-2 in the final of the Swiss Open in Gstaad. The world number 14, who has also notched up tournament wins this season in Geneva in May and Bastad last week, proved too
6:25 AM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com IN 2016, JESSICA PEGULA’S long-awaited breakthrough seemed inevitable. At the US Open, she advanced through qualifying into the main draw and won her first round match since a knee injury had derailed her three years earlier. Her ascent in the rankings continued throughout the season as she added more WTA
12:09 AM ET Ash Barty has been sensationally knocked out of the Tokyo Olympics singles in the first round, stunned by unheralded Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo in straight sets. The world No.48 beat world No.1 and newly-crowned Wimbledon champion Barty 6-4 6-3 in the biggest shock of the Games to date as the Australian fell
11:29 PM ET Associated Press Two-time defending champion Andy Murray has withdrawn from the singles tennis tournament in Tokyo. Organizers did not immediately say why the British player pulled out shortly ahead of his scheduled opener against ninth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada on Center Court. Max Purcell of Australia will play Auger-Aliassime instead. Organizers said
10:25 PM ET Associated Press Two Georgian tennis players have been barred from the Tokyo Olympics after officials in their home country told them they were entered for the Games but never actually sent the paperwork. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that it had to turn away doubles players Oksana Kalashnikova and Ekaterine
5:35 PM ET World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from next month’s U.S. Open tune-up event in Toronto, Tennis Canada said on Friday. A four-time champion in Canada, Djokovic is at the Tokyo Olympics where he will try to keep alive his hopes of achieving a ‘Golden Slam’ — victories at all four Grand
11:19 AM ET Associated Press Tennis star Naomi Osaka has lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games, ending the flame’s long journey from Greece to these delayed Olympics. The cauldron sat atop a peak inspired by Mount Fuji. It’s a sphere that opened like a flower, “to embody vitality and hope,”
1:25 AM ET Associated Press Naomi Osaka‘s opening match in the Olympic tennis tournament has been pushed back from Saturday to Sunday. Organizers did not immediately provide a reason for the switch. They said only that the move came from the tournament referee. 1 Related Osaka was originally scheduled to play 52nd-ranked Saisai Zheng of
11:04 PM ET Associated Press Home hope Naomi Osaka will face 52nd-ranked Saisai Zheng of China and Novak Djokovic will play 139th-ranked Hugo Dellien of Bolivia in the opening round of the Olympic tennis tournament in Tokyo. Draws were held Thursday, two days before play opens at Ariake Tennis Park. Osaka is returning to competition