Tennis

Dec 29, 2024, 12:18 PM ET Open Extended Reactions PERTH, Australia — Alexander Zverev eased past Thiago Monteiro 6-4, 6-4 as Germany beat Brazil for a winning start to its United Cup defense Sunday while the Czech Republic, United States and Italy were all victorious. Zverev had a lengthy spell on the sideline after damaging

Associated Press Dec 29, 2024, 05:56 AM ET Open Extended Reactions WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka says she won’t “hang around” in tennis if her results fail to match her high expectations. The 27-year-old Japanese player will play her first match since she suffered a back injury in the China

Dec 29, 2024, 05:15 AM ET Open Extended Reactions BRISBANE, Australia — Novak Djokovic said his recently retired rival Andy Murray was bringing a unique perspective as his new coach and he was eager to put into practice what the duo have discussed when he begins his season at the Brisbane International. Djokovic, a 24-time

Dec 28, 2024, 10:55 AM ET Open Extended Reactions SYDNEY — Former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic made her return to the elite circuit after her maternity break to lead Switzerland to a 2-1 win over France in the United Cup mixed team tournament Saturday. The 27-year-old beat Chloe Paquet 6-3, 6-1 in her first WTA

Dec 28, 2024, 04:02 AM ET Open Extended Reactions Nick Kyrgios has launched a savage attack on tennis stars Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek for breaches of the sport’s anti-doping program, labelling their conduct as “disgusting for our sport”. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) levelled charges against world No.1 Sinner and former world No.1

Associated Press Dec 27, 2024, 11:16 PM ET Open Extended Reactions BRISBANE, Australia — Nick Kyrgios will make his return to tournament tennis Saturday at the Brisbane International when he takes on 21-year-old Giovanni Perricard of France. It will be the first tour-level appearance by Kyrgios since the Stuttgart Open in June 2023. The 29-year-old

Dec 27, 2024, 10:30 AM ET Open Extended Reactions Elena Rybakina guided Kazakhstan to a 2-1 victory against Spain in her United Cup debut at the RAC Arena in Perth on Friday, and Gao Xinyu stunned Beatriz Haddad Maia in China’s victory over Brazil. World number six Rybakina defeated Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-2 6-3 in

Dec 26, 2024, 08:44 AM ET Open Extended Reactions Simona Halep will delay her start to the 2025 season and skip the Australian Open due to pain in her knee and shoulder, the former world No. 1 said Thursday. Halep, whose career stalled due to a doping ban that was reduced on appeal this year,

Associated Press Dec 23, 2024, 01:44 AM ET MELBOURNE, Australia — Two-time Grand Slam winning doubles player Max Purcell has entered a voluntary provisional suspension under tennis’ anti-doping rules. The International Tennis Integrity Agency announced the sanction in a statement on Monday after the 26-year-old Australian admitted to violating Article 2.2 of the Tennis Anti-Doping

Associated Press Dec 22, 2024, 03:02 AM ET Open Extended Reactions MELBOURNE, Australia — Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen has announced she will not play at the United Cup mixed-teams tournament starting later this month, opting instead to focus on preparations for the 2025 season’s first Grand Slam. In a breakthrough season for the 22-year-old,

Dec 20, 2024, 05:57 AM ET Open Extended Reactions The Australian Open will embrace one of the fastest growing sports in the world when it hosts the inaugural AO Pickleball Slam on the final weekend of next month’s tennis major with $100,000 in prize money. Invented in 1965 by a group of American friends, pickleball

Dec 20, 2024, 09:27 AM ET Open Extended Reactions IT’S AN EARLY Friday morning in late November, and Joseph “Joey” Losgar and seven other men, all dressed in gray sweatpants or shorts and white T-shirts, are setting up pickleball nets in a brightly lit gym. Their sneakers squeak on the wood surface as they roll

Associated Press Dec 19, 2024, 11:07 AM ET Open Extended Reactions ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The identities of 15 “highly abusive account authors” were reported to national law enforcement and about 12,000 posts or comments were pointed out to social media platforms this year as part of a new attempt to protect tennis players and

ESPN News Services Dec 19, 2024, 06:38 AM ET Open Extended Reactions Jenson Brooksby tugged at the right shoulder of his red T-shirt and fiddled with some strands of his dirty blond hair as he spoke to The Associated Press about what he would like the world to know about him. Once a member of

Dec 18, 2024, 02:45 AM ET Open Extended Reactions Former world No. 1 Simona Halep, whose career stalled due to a doping ban that was reduced on appeal this year, will step up her comeback at the Australian Open after receiving a wild card for the qualifying event on Wednesday. Halep, 33, was provisionally suspended

Associated Press Dec 18, 2024, 09:17 AM ET Open Extended Reactions LONDON — The ATP men’s tennis tour paid out $1.3 million to a total of 26 players in 2024 under a new financial program called Baseline that guarantees minimum annual incomes for players ranked in the top 250. Players received money in each of

ESPN News Services Dec 17, 2024, 01:16 AM ET Open Extended Reactions Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios will team up to play doubles at the Brisbane International, Kyrgios posted Monday on social media. “Doubles at Brisbane. See y’all there,” Kyrgios wrote on his Instagram story with a photo of their meeting at Wimbledon in 2022.

Associated Press Dec 13, 2024, 12:46 AM ET Open Extended Reactions MELBOURNE, Australia — Three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka was among nine wild-card entries awarded Friday for the Australian Open in January. Tennis Australia said Wawrinka would be joined at Melbourne Park — where the main draw begins on Jan. 12 — by Australians Tristan