Three-time Australian Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev has warmed up for an assault on this year's opening Grand Slam in perfect fashion by winning the Brisbane International final. The Russian world number 13 was too strong for American Brandon Nakashima on Sunday and ran out a 6-2, 7-6 (7/1) winner in 96 minutes at Pat Rafter Arena for his 22nd ATP Tour title.
A lot can change in a year on the tennis tour. Around this time in 2024, Naomi Osaka was 57th in the world, still looking for traction following her return from maternity leave. Belinda Bencic was 487th, just getting started on her own comeback. Eighteen-year-old Victoria Mboko was 336th and only beginning to embark on a high-level professional pursuit. Now they're 16th, 11th and 18th in the world, respectively. Amanda Anisimova jumped from 36th to fourth.
Over the next 12 months the capital will host a vast range of sporting events, truly living up to its rep as the planet's greatest city for sport. Those events will include notable firsts, like Wembley hosting its first ever college American football game) and the inaugural rugby union Nations Championship finals, plus important returns, such as NBA at the O2 and tennis' Laver Cup. In September London will become the first city to have ever hosted the Laver twice.
Samba likes to start off his projects with poetry, translating emotion onto the page before raising his camera. Each of the tennis players captured in the film is depicted like a statue, with a raise of a racket featured as a nod to New York's Lady Liberty. The outlines of moving figures are caught in silhouettes, carrying architectural visual language. Samba says: "The intention with the silhouettes in the piece was to mirror New York itself, half in light, half in shadow."
In today's digital age, where every sport spins stories across screens, tennis still seems trapped in its old rhythm, struggling to embrace the pulse of modern content. Taylor Fritz and his girlfriend, Morgan Riddle. who began dating the American star in 2020 and turned her life as a tennis 'WAG' into a social media empire, recently sparked conversation by calling out the sport's rigid approach to online storytelling.
Before Wimbledon in 2019, I remember skimming over the list of men's favorites at a number of sites. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal ... Felix Auger-Aliassime? He was 18 years old at the time and ranked 21st in the world, but no worse than the sixth-favorite anywhere I looked. Auger-Aliassime had famously owned Stefanos Tsitsipas, who beat each member of the Big Three before age 21 and enjoyed plenty of hype at the time, in juniors.
Sinner extended his indoor winning streak to 25 matches, including a victory over Zverev in the Vienna final last weekend. He beat Zverev -- the defending champion in Paris -- for the fourth straight time to lead 5-4 in their career meetings. The second-seeded Sinner was 5-0 up in 25 minutes and then served out a first set in which he won 90% of his first-serve points, compared to only 47% for Zverev. He had five break points on Zverev's serve, converting two of them.
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Has San Francisco rebounded? If all the events this weekend are any indicator, then the answer is a resounding yes. The city's eastern shoreline has seen a flurry of activity this past week. On Saturday, the fourth installment of the popular electronic festival Portola returned to Pier 80, bringing its signature window-rattling bass and tens of thousands of fans fitted out like extras from the '90s cyberpunk classic "Hackers."
Aryna Sabalenka thought she had everything figured out. She believed she had done all the work necessary, harnessing successfully her once uncontrollable power into consistent excellence. After overcoming so many hurdles en route to becoming the best player in the world, she felt ready for anything. Sabalenka was convinced she could handle any challenge that came her way. It was not until her excruciating French Open final defeat against Coco Gauff that Sabalenka understood this was not true.
Nothing says late August in New York quite like the U.S. Open - the city's unofficial fifth season where tennis takes over and style plays as hard as the athletes. This year, Siegelman Stable and Prince are joining forces for the first time, stepping onto the court with a co-branded capsule that feels as sharp as a clean forehand winner. It's not just tennis gear; it's a cultural rally point where nostalgia meets contemporary cool.
Daniel Altmaier had nothing more to say. Moments after one of the biggest wins of his career, the German unwittingly found himself on the receiving end of Stefanos Tsitsipas's ire during their handshake at the net. Before Tsitsipas could finish, though, Altmaier had walked away from the net and he refused to engage in the Greek's attempts to argue with him.
Going into this Grand Slam, Townsend had nowhere near the star power or the name recognition of fellow Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, and she is not even seeded in singles play. Yet the 29-year-old, who is half of the top-ranked women's doubles team in the world and was No 1 as a junior player, has become one of the biggest stories of the tournament through no fault of her own.
This article was last updated in 2022 but, with the US Open upon us, we're giving it another swing. Tennis is a sport of personal intensity and triumph. Granted, there are ways to play tennis in teams, from doubles to Billie Jean King's long-standing dream of making World Team Tennis one of our major sports. But at its core, tennis is about individuals, which is why it lends itself surprisingly well to the movies.
