Category: Tennis

Novak Djokovic came from a set down to beat Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 and book his spot in the second round of the French Open on Sunday.

The 24-time major champion Djokovic is seeking to win a fourth Roland Garros crown, which would send him beyond Margaret Court as the player with the most Grand Slam titles in the history of the sport.

“His service is practically impossible to see… Only once or twice in my career (have I seen a serve like it),” Djokovic said on-court of his big-serving opponent.

It was a first victory on the red dirt of the season for the 39-year-old after he skipped the vast majority of the clay-court swing due to a shoulder issue.

Djokovic showed his rustiness by blinking first in the opening set as Mpetshi Perricard got the Parisian crowd on their feet with a break of serve in the 11th game, before holding comfortably to get his nose in front.

Djokovic managed to engineer his first two break points of the match in the sixth game of the second frame but failed to convert as the 22-year-old roared back to ensure the set stayed level at 3-3.

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But the Serb, one of tennis’ all-time great returners, was starting to get the measure of the 2.01-metre Mpetshi Perricard’s bullet serve and eventually got the break he so desperately craved in the 12th game of the second set to level the match.

When Mpetshi Perricard sent a wide stretched forehand after chasing down a Djokovic drop shot, it was the first break point converted by the former world number one out of 10 across the set.

With his eye now firmly in, Djokovic wasted no time in getting ahead in the third frame as he broke the former world number 29 in the second game to race into a 3-0 lead.

The unrelenting Djokovic then won three of the next four games to claim a rapid-fire third set. The pair exchanged breaks right at the start of the fourth set before the match settled back into its earlier ebb and flow.

Djokovic struck again to get 4-3 ahead, this time serving out to book his spot in the round of 64, where he will face another Frenchman, Valentin Royer.

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Tennis stars will protest against perceived low pay by limiting their media duties in the build-up to the French Open, a source said Wednesday.

Certain players, whose names have not been announced, will speak to the press for only 15 minutes on media day at Roland Garros and will then refuse to be interviewed by the Grand Slam tournament’s TV rights holders, according to a source, corroborating reports in the French daily L’Equipe.

Jannik Sinner, earlier this month, called for the Slam events to show “respect” to players in a row over prize money.

Players have claimed they are currently only paid 15 percent of the current revenue from the Grand Slams, asking for 22 percent instead.

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Women’s world number one Aryna Sabalenka said earlier this month at the Italian Open that players might have to boycott the sport’s four biggest tournaments to “defend our rights”.

The French tennis federation said Wednesday that the players’ decision to cut short media duties “penalises all stakeholders in the tournament — the media, broadcasters, the federation’s staff, and the entire tennis family who enthusiastically follow each edition of Roland Garros”.

A meeting between the French Open organisers and “some of the players’ representatives” is to be held on Friday.

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Novak Djokovic arrives at Roland Garros this year facing a familiar opponent, but one that cannot be outmanoeuvred even by the record 24-time Grand Slam champion: time.

The Serbian, who turns 39 this week, is no longer the immovable presence he once was, his famed durability now increasingly a concern in a sport shaped by younger, physically explosive rivals.

The question is not simply whether he can win another French Open, but how he continues to adjust his game and mindset to defy the natural erosion that comes with advancing years.

While his scheduling is more selective and his approach more pragmatic, Djokovic conceded he would have liked more time on clay before coming to Paris.

He has played in just three tournaments in 2026, and lost his only match on clay to Croatian qualifier Dino Prizmic at this month’s Italian Open.

Djokovic pulled out of tournaments in Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid while dealing with a shoulder injury — with strapping visible during his brief stay in Rome.

“It’s not an ideal preparation, to be honest,” said Djokovic, who will be seeded third at Roland Garros.

“I don’t recall the last time I had in the last couple of years where I didn’t have any kind of physical issues or health issues in the last couple of years, coming into the tournament. There’s always something. Kind of a new reality that I have to deal with.”

It is a candid admission from a player who has built his career on meticulous planning and physical resilience, but who is confronting the realities of an ageing body.

“It is frustrating,” he said. “At the same time it’s my decision to still perform in that kind of state and conditions.”

Djokovic’s record at Roland Garros underlines why he cannot be discounted. The absence of defending two-time champion Carlos Alcaraz is another factor in his favour.

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A three-time French Open champion and one of the few players to consistently trouble Rafael Nadal on the surface, Djokovic has reached the quarter-finals or better at each edition since a third-round loss in 2009.

But the physical demands of clay are unforgiving, and Djokovic is acutely aware of the marginal losses that come with age.

“I see what I’m missing,” he said. “Late half a step. I’m not definitely where I want to be for the highest level, to compete at the highest level and to be able to get far.”

Recent seasons have also shown the growing challenge of sustaining peak performance over the two-week grind of a Grand Slam. Matches that once tilted towards him now demand sustained excellence from first point to last.

His preparation, as he openly acknowledges, has limits. “I train hard. I train as much as the body allows me to,” he said. “Then how it turns out on the court, that’s really unpredictable.”

However, Djokovic is one of just two men to beat red-hot title favourite Jannik Sinner this season, having ended his Australian Open reign.

Djokovic delivered what he called one of his best performances in a decade to outlast the Italian in five sets in the semi-finals in January, fired up by those who had written him off.

“I never stopped doubting. I never stopped believing in myself,” said the former world number one at the time.

“There’s a lot of people that doubt me. I see there is a lot of experts all of a sudden that wanted to retire me or have retired me many times the last couple of years.

“I want to thank them all because they gave me strength. They gave me motivation to prove them wrong.”

Djokovic would go on to lose to Alcaraz in the final, and has not added to his Grand Slam haul since the 2023 US Open, but it would be foolish to dismiss him again, as he has proved many times over.

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Carlos Alcaraz’s hopes of regaining his Wimbledon title have been dashed with the two-time champion announcing Tuesday he is withdrawing as he recovers from a wrist injury.

“My recovery is going well and I’m feeling much better, but unfortunately I’m still not ready to play, I am obliged to withdraw from both Queen’s and Wimbledon,” said Spaniard Alcaraz, who lost to world number one Jannik Sinner in last year’s final.

“These are two really special tournaments for me and I’ll miss them a lot. We’ll keep working to come back as soon as possible.”

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Alcaraz sustained the injury during the first round of the Barcelona Open and subsequently pulled out of tournaments in Madrid and Rome and then Roland Garros, where he is the reigning two-time champion.

The world number two became the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam in January with his triumph at the Australian Open. The 23-year-old holds a 22-3 record this season and also won a title in Doha.

Wimbledon will be only the third Grand Slam that Alcaraz has missed since making his main draw debut at the 2021 Australian Open.

Alcaraz’s injury has stopped him continuing his exciting rivalry with Italian Sinner, 24, who is firm favourite to triumph in Paris and London.

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Jannik Sinner won the Italian Open on Sunday after beating Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 to claim a record-extending sixth consecutive Masters 1000 tournament victory.

World number one Sinner has now completed the ‘Golden Masters’ by winning all of the ATP’s top-ranked events after becoming the first Italian champion at the Foro Italico since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago.

Only Novak Djokovic had previously won all nine Masters 1000 events before Sunday, but there was little doubt about Sinner triumphing over the last 10 days.

Sinner heads into Roland Garros, which starts next weekend, on a 29-match winning streak after beating Ruud for a fifth time in as many meetings.

And his run of match wins is even longer, 34, in Masters 1000 tournaments, another record he has established in a season in which he has dominated the men’s tour.

Jannik Sinner can complete his collection of Grand Slams at Roland Garros, and with his great rival Carlos Alcaraz out of action, few would bet against him securing a first title on Paris clay.

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Ruud has won more matches and tournaments on clay than anyone else on the men’s tour since the start of 2020 — last winning a Masters 1000 event at Madrid last year, but he couldn’t beat Sinner for the first time.

Norwegian Ruud had never won a set against Sinner in any of their previous four meetings, but immediately improved on the fearful hammering he received here from the Italian last year by winning the first two games.

But Sinner broke straight back and took the lead in the match after an opening set in which world number 25 held his own against a player he’d previously said, “cannot lose”.

Sinner then broke Ruud again at the start of the second set, and from there it was just a matter of time before he won the championship, even though Ruud performed with credit in front of a packed centre court crowd.

It was a good day for Italian tennis as Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori also won the men’s doubles title, beating second seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 7-6 (10/8), 6-7 (3/7), 10-3.

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Jannik Sinner reached the semi-finals of the Italian Open on Thursday after seeing off Andrey Rublev and establishing a new record of consecutive wins in Masters 1000 tournaments.

Another straight-sets victory, this time 6-2, 6-4 over Rublev, moved Sinner up to 32 straight wins in the ATP’s top-ranked events, one more than the previous record established by Novak Djokovic in 2011.

“I don’t play for records, I play just for my own story,” said Sinner on court.

“At the same time, it means a lot to me, but tomorrow is another day, another opponent, a different opponent.”

Rublev was Sinner’s first seeded opponent at this year’s tournament in Rome, and the world number one made short work of his task in front of a delighted center court.

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On Friday, Sinner could face Daniil Medvedev, winner of the 2023 title at the Foro Italico, with the seventh seed taking on lucky loser Martin Landaluce in the first match of the evening session, which is scheduled to start at 17:00 GMT.

Sinner looks near unbeatable at the moment, and with his great rival Carlos Alcaraz out injured, he is the heavy favorite to become the first Italian to win the Rome title in five decades, with a potential career Grand Slam on the cards at the French Open.

Rublev offered little resistance, the Russian dropping his own serve in the first game of both sets to give Sinner a handy leg-up, and committing 28 unforced errors in 18 games.

Sinner, meanwhile, showed flashes of his best tennis but also started to look tired towards the end of the match, visibly touching his left thigh before confidently serving for the match.

“I’s starting to feel that I’ve been playing a lot, so I need to recover as much as possible because tomorrow wil be very difficult,” Sinner later told reporters.

“However it goes it will be a win for me, if I win great but even if things don’t go well that OK because I’ll have a few more days to prepare for Paris which is my main objective this year.”

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Jannik Sinner breezed into the last 16 of the Italian Open on Monday after swatting aside Alexei Popyrin in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0, to continue his bid for a first title in Rome.

The world number one easily won his 25th straight match, taking just over an hour to see off Australia’s Popyrin and set up an Italian derby with Andrea Pellegrino in the next round.

Pellegrino, 29, who beat 20th seed Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (10/8), 6-1, is a qualifier ranked 155 in the world who before this week had never played in the main draw of a Masters 1000 tournament.

“It’s fun to play a derby in Italy, he’s having an incredible tournament with a lot of victories against some really good oppoonents,” Sinner told reporters.

“We’ve played each other a long time ago (in 2019 in an ITF tournament), but he was a different player, and I was a different player.”

Sinner, meanwhile, is trying to extend his own record-breaking run of overall victories in the ATP’s top-ranked events after having won his last five.

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The 24-year-old joins Novak Djokovic as the only player to win a year’s first 25 Master 1000 matches, with the Serbian tennis icon’s record run stretching to 31 matches in 2011.

Popyrin was suffocated by Sinner and made 23 unforced errors on his way to a comprehensive defeat.

The world number 60 only got 48 percent of first serves into play and that allowed Sinner to break five times and close out a match which was barely a contest.

“He’s a big server so his percentage was not very high, which helped me for sure a little bit, but I’ve been returning very well the second serves,” said Sinner.

Should Sinner prevail at the Foro Italico he will be the first Italian to win there since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago, and would complete his collection of Master 1000 tournaments.

With great rival Carlos Alcaraz out injured and Novak Djokovic eliminated early, Sinner will be red-hot favorite as he builds towards completing the career Grand Slam at the French Open, which starts next week.

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Mal Anderson, the first unseeded player to win the US Open men’s singles title, has died aged 91, Tennis Australia said on Monday.

Anderson’s career started on a dirt court on a farm, and he went on to become an Australian tennis great, winning the US crown in 1957 and three major doubles titles.

Although unseeded at what was then the United States Championships, Anderson beat three seeds and dropped only two sets on his way to the title.

He also won the Davis Cup twice.

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After retirement, Anderson mentored young Australian players, including Pat Rafter, who went on to become world number one.

“I was really sad to hear of Mal’s passing. He was one of those people who helped shape my tennis from very early on,” said Rafter, who twice won the US Open.

“He was a true legend of the game, but more importantly, he was a terrific bloke, humble, generous with his time and always happy to help younger players along.

“Tennis in Australia has lost one of its greats, and a lot of us have lost a mate and mentor. I feel very lucky to have known him.”

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Novak Djokovic was eliminated from the Italian Open in the second round on Friday by Croatian qualifier Dino Prizmic 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion was making his comeback from a shoulder injury in the last big tournament before the French Open.

Djokovic was playing for the first time since losing in the last 16 at Indian Wells in March, having pulled out of tournaments in Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid.

The 38-year-old had not been knocked out this early in a tournament since the Madrid Open last year, and looked a long way from the player who has won six Rome titles.

“I don’t think I played so bad, to be honest,” Djokovic told reporters. “It was OK, it was a good battle in the end, but obviously I see what I’m missing. I’m late half a step. I’m not definitely where I want to be for the highest level to compete.”

Novak Djokovic added that he hopes he can be in good condition for Roland Garros, which starts later this month, saying, “let’s see what happens”.

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Playing with a shoulder brace, Djokovic had breezed through the first set, helped by Prizmic’s 13 unforced errors.

But the world number four’s hitting started to look increasingly tentative as Prizmic rattled off four straight games at the start of the second set, with his powerful ground strokes finding their mark.

Prizmic came to the Italian capital with a career-high ranking of 79 after reaching the third round in Madrid — beating world number six Ben Shelton in the process — and had also dispatched Marton Fucsovics to set up his clash with Djokovic.

The 20-year-old reached the third round of a second consecutive Masters 1000 event with the biggest scalp of his career to date.

Djokovic is Prizmic’s idol, and a landmark win gives the young talent a match with either Ugo Humbert or Vit Kopriva and a chance to make the fourth round of a top-tier event on the ATP Tour for the first time.

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Aryna Sabalenka breezed into the third round of the Italian Open on Thursday with a straight-sets win over Barbora Krejcikova, 6-2, 6-3.

World number one and favourite for the women’s title in the Italian capital, Sabalenka took one hour and 25 minutes to see off Czech Krejcikova in the final match of the day on centre court.

Sabalenka has never won the Italian Open. Her run to the final two years ago, when she was lost to Iga Swiatek, was her best result.

But with the French Open around the corner, the Belarusian made no mistake against Krejcikova, a former Wimbledon and French Open champion.

Sabalenka lost the first game on her serve, but from there comfortably dealt with Krejcikova to set up a match with Sorana Cirstea in the next round.

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“I’m super happy to be through. She’s a great player. We had a lot of tough matches in the past,” Sabalenka said on court. “I’m of course happy with the level I played and to get this tough win.”

The top seed is on the same side of the draw as Coco Gauff, who beat Sabalenka in last year’s French Open final and made short work of Tereza Valentova in her opening match of the tournament.

American star Gauff beat Valentova 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 34 minutes in front of a sparsely-populated centre court, and will play Argentine Solana Sierra in the next round.

Earlier, Jasmine Paolini launched her title defence by battling back from a set down to beat France’s Leolia Jeanjean 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 6-4.

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