Category: Tennis

NEW YORK: Iga Swiatek surged to the third Grand Slam title of her career with a maiden victory at the US Open on Saturday, defeating Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in straight sets to extend her remarkable finals winning streak.

The 21-year-old world number one from Poland saw off a second set fightback from history-chasing Jabeur to prevail 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) in 1hr 52min at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The win was Swiatek’s second Grand Slam title of 2022 to set alongside her French Open victory in June, which followed her maiden Grand Slam win at Roland Garros in 2020.

Swiatek’s victory was her 10th straight win in a final. She is unbeaten in finals since suffering a lone reverse in her first WTA final in Lugano three years ago.

Swiatek collapsed on court in relief after a win that saw her pocket a hefty $2.6 million in prize money.

“I’m really glad it’s not in cash,” she quipped as she was presented with her winner’s cheque for a tournament she entered with low expectations when the season began.

“I wasn’t sure if I was on the level yet to win actually a Grand Slam, especially at the US Open where the surface is so fast,” she said.

“It’s something that I wasn’t expecting for sure. It’s also like a confirmation for me that the sky is the limit.

“I’m proud, also surprised a little bit, just happy that I was able to do that.”

But the loss was another agonising near-miss for Jabeur, who had been bidding to become the first woman from Africa to win a Grand Slam title.

The 28-year-old from Tunis had also been beaten in the final of Wimbledon in July.

“I have nothing to regret because I did everything possible,” said Jabeur.

“I’m not someone that’s going to give up. I am sure I’m going to be in the final again and I will try my best to win it.”

Jabeur impressed en route to the final, dropping only a single set and stitching together a string of assured performances.

But she was in trouble almost from the get-go against the clinical Swiatek, who was into her stride quickly with her serve and signature forehand functioning smoothly.

Jabeur by contrast looked jittery and was broken to love in her first service game.

Swiatek held easily to go 3-0 up with only eight minutes gone in the first set.

Jabeur did threaten a revival when she held and then broke to close the gap to 3-2.

But the fifth seed was let down again by her shaky service game, a problem throughout Saturday’s final, and Swiatek broke back for a 4-2 lead.

Jabeur was broken again as she served to stay in the set and Swiatek took the first set.

Swiatek threatened to run away with the second set after breaking Jabeur and holding to go 3-0 up.

Yet Jabeur showed great determination to break Swiatek to cut the deficit to 3-2.

Once again however Jabeur was unable to make the service break count and Swiatek broke again for a 4-2 lead.

This time, though, Jabeur dug deep to claw her way back into the contest, assisted by a slice of luck when a Swiatek return clipped a net cord to clinch a service break.

Jabeur held to level the score at 4-4 and suddenly the momentum had shifted.

The next three games went with serve and Jabeur was left serving to stay in the match. She fought off a match point at 5-6 and 30-40 down before holding for 6-6.

Jabeur recovered from 4-2 down to lead 5-4 in the tie break, but it was Swiatek who showed greater composure, converting her second match point when Jabeur smacked a return long.

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NEW YORK: Carlos Alcaraz defeated Frances Tiafoe in a gladiatorial US Open semi-final on Friday, setting up a showdown for the title and world number one ranking against Casper Ruud.

The 19-year-old Spaniard triumphed 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 to become the youngest men’s Grand Slam finalist since compatriot Rafael Nadal captured the first of his 22 Slams at the 2005 French Open.

Norway’s seventh-ranked Ruud earlier defeated Russia’s Karen Khachanov 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 to also reach his first Grand Slam final.

Tiafoe went down fighting, however, saving three match points and retrieving breaks in both of the last two sets.

“We are in the semi-final of a Grand Slam, we have to give everything we have inside, we have to fight until the last ball,” said Alcaraz, the youngest US Open finalist since Pete Sampras in 1990.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re fighting for five hours or six hours. It doesn’t matter, you have to give everything on the court.”

For Alcaraz, who unleashed 59 winners, it was his third successive five-setter as he closes in on a maiden Slam and becoming the youngest ever world number one.

“It’s my first time in a final of a Grand Slam. I can see the number one in the world, but at the same time it’s so far away,” he added.

“I’m going to give everything that I have. I will have to handle the nerves of being in the final of a Grand Slam but obviously I’m really happy.”

“I gave everything I had, too good from Carlos tonight,” said Tiafoe.

“Honestly I came here wanting to win the US Open, I feel like I let you guys down. This one really hurts.”

Alcaraz saw two break points come and go in the seventh game of the opener before needing to save a set point in the 12th which featured a breathtaking rally that the Spaniard claimed from two seemingly losing positions.

The teenager saved three more set points in the tiebreak but Tiafoe converted his fifth when Alcaraz served up his third double fault of the 64-minute opener.

Alcaraz saved a break point in the third game of the second set, at one stage stretching for a winning point with his back facing Tiafoe to win another memorable rally.

His flamboyance was rewarded when he broke for 4-2 on his way to levelling the semi-final thanks to Tiafoe burying a return in the net.

Alcaraz had needed nine hours and 10 sets in his last two rounds, including a quarter-final which finished at 2:50 a.m. Thursday, to reach the semi-final.

However, he looked the fresher of the two men when he raced to a double break, 4-0 lead in the third set, allowing Tiafoe just three points.

For good measure, Alcaraz broke the American a third time in the seventh game.

World number 26 Tiafoe, who knocked Nadal out of the tournament in the last-16, was hoping to become the first American man in a major final since Andy Roddick at Wimbledon in 2009.

He gamely retrieved two breaks in the fourth set, saved a match point in the 10th game with a nerveless drop shot before claiming the tiebreak to send the clash into a decider.

It was an eighth successful tiebreak out of eight for the American.

Alcaraz broke for 2-0 in the fifth set only for Tiafoe to again claw his way back to 2-2.

The American, however, double-faulted to hand the advantage back in the fifth game.

Tiafoe saved two more match points in the ninth game before Alcaraz went on to seal victory in four hours and 19 minutes when his opponent netted a weary backhand.

Ruud will be appearing in his second Grand Slam final of the season after finishing runner-up to Nadal at the French Open in June.

“After Roland Garros, I was extremely happy but at the same time humble enough to think that could be my only final in a Grand Slam in my career,” said Ruud.

“They don’t come easy. So here I am a couple of months later – it feels beyond words to describe.”

The 23-year-old Norwegian set the tone for his dominance early in the semi-final when he came out on top in a 55-shot rally to convert a third set point in the opening tiebreak which his Russian rival described as “crazy”.

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NEW YORK: World number one Iga Swiatek defeated Aryna Sabalenka in three sets to set up a US Open final showdown with Ons Jabeur on Thursday.

Two-time French Open champion Swiatek came from behind to defeat sixth-seed Sabalenka 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 at Arthur Ashe Stadium and reach her maiden US Open final.

Sabalenka had been chasing the first Grand Slam final of her career after just missing out with semi-final defeats at Wimbledon and the US Open last year.

But the 24-year-old from Belarus suffered a late collapse while leading in the third set as Swiatek edged victory.

Polish star Swiatek said an emergency bathroom break after losing the first set had been crucial.

“I kind of needed to go,” Swiatek said. “For sure I felt lighter. I’m sorry — that’s disgusting,” the 21-year-old added.

“I tried to use that time to think about what to change because I remember when I was younger all I would do in the bathroom between sets after I lost was cry.

“But this time I could think about what to change and actually problem solve.”

Sabalenka looked well placed to break her final duck as she swept into an early lead against the top seed.

The hard-hitting Sabalenka broke Swiatek three times in the opening set, rattling her opponent’s shaky service game and stretching her with an array of powerful groundstrokes.

But Swiatek looked rejuvenated after her bathroom break following the first set and came out for the second all guns blazing.

She broke Sabalenka to love in the opening game and then held twice for a 3-1 lead.

She sealed a further break with a backhand cross-court return of serve to open up a 4-1 advantage as Sabalenka struggled to cope with the change in tempo.

She was broken again in the seventh game, Swiatek levelling the match after Sabalenka fluffed an easy volley at the net on set point.

Nevertheless Sabalenka appeared to have stopped the bleeding in the third set.

She broke Swiatek in the opening game and then broke again for a 3-2 lead after Swiatek had broken back.

She held serve for a 4-2 lead and the momentum seemed to be with her.

But Sabalenka’s game disintegrated from that point on. Swiatek broke her to love to make it 4-4 and then held for a 5-4 lead.

Sabalenka was overrun in the 10th game as Swiatek raced into a 0-40 lead to move to triple matchpoint.

Sabalenka held off the first with a forehand volley at the net, but her 44th unforced error  on the next point sealed her fate.

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NEW YORK: World number one Iga Swiatek reached her first US Open semi-final on Wednesday with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) win over Jessica Pegula of the United States.

The French Open champion will face Aryna Sabalenka for a place in Saturday’s final after making the last-four of a Slam for the third time in 2022.

“That will be a very tough match. There will be some fast serves and heavy hitting, just like tonight,” said Swiatek

In a mistake-filled quarter-final on Wednesday, there were 13 breaks of serve and a combined 61 unforced errors.

“It means a lot to be in the semi-finals for the first time,” said Swiatek.

“I am very happy as I have worked very hard but have kept my expectations low.

“It was a really tight match. I tried to push her back but she was putting pressure on me so that’s what it went to a tiebreak.”

Swiatek overcame giving up the first break of the match in the fifth game to reel off 16 of the next 18 points to claim the opening set in 38 minutes.

The 21-year-old Pole and American eighth seed exchanged three service breaks apiece in the first eight games in an untidy second set.

It was the French Open champion who carved out the seventh break on a net cord to give herself the opportunity to serve for the match.

Eighth-ranked Pegula roused herself to stay alive in the contest before a double fault on break point in the 11th game handed Swiatek a second opportunity to seal a spot in the semi-finals.

The top seed failed again as Pegula sealed the 10th break to send the set into a tiebreak which the Pole dominated to clinch a third win over the American this year.

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NEW YORK: Serena Williams bowed out of the US Open and headed into retirement on Friday after a battling loss to Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic.

On another night of searing emotion in the Billie Jean King Tennis Center’s main Arthur Ashe Stadium, 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams finally met her match in Tomljanovic, losing 7-5, 6-7 (4/7) 6-1 in an attritional slug-fest lasting more than three hours.

The defeat was almost certainly Williams’ last ever appearance in a Grand Slam singles event, the final act of a 27-year professional career that saw the 40-year-old American become a sporting and cultural icon who many believe is the greatest women’s tennis player in history.

“It’s been a fun ride,” a clearly emotional Williams said in an on-court interview following her loss.

“It’s been the most incredible ride and the journey I’ve ever been on, I mean, in my life.

“I’m just so grateful to every single person that’s ever said, ‘Go, Serena,’ in their life. You got me here.”

Although Williams has not definitively announced her retirement, she said in a Vogue magazine essay last month that she would “evolve” away from tennis after the US Open.

Williams said Friday that she was excited by the prospect of her life after tennis.

“I’m ready to, like, be a mom, explore a different version of Serena,” she said.

“Technically in the world, I’m still super young, so I want to have a little bit of a life while I’m still walking.”

Golf superstar Tiger Woods and former US first lady Michelle Obama were among a legion of admirers who paid tribute to Williams following her US Open exit.

“[Serena Williams] you’re literally the greatest on and off the court,” tweeted Woods.

“Thank you for inspiring all of us to pursue our dreams.”

Obama meanwhile saluted Williams’ rise from the gritty Los Angeles neighbourhood of Compton to the pinnacle of her sport.

“Congrats on amazing career, [Serena Williams]! How lucky were we to be able to watch a young girl from Compton grow up to become one of the greatest athletes of all time,” tweeted Obama.

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NEW YORK: Rafael Nadal overcame a freak injury scare when he accidentally hit himself with his own racquet to reach the US Open third round on Thursday as Serena Williams saw one chapter of her epic tennis journey close.

Nadal defeated Italy’s Fabio Fognini 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 but only after suffering a bizarre self-inflicted injury when leading 3-0 in the fourth set.

The four-time champion, and holder of a men’s record 22 Grand Slam titles, was hurt when his racquet bounced back off the court as he stretched for a ball and hit him squarely on the nose.

The 36-year-old Australian and French Open champion dropped his racquet to the Arthur Ashe Stadium floor and sprinted to the sidelines where he lay on his back with his nose bloodied.

He required a medical timeout to have the wound tended before resuming with a bandage across the bridge of his nose.

“I was a little bit dizzy and it was a little bit painful,” said Nadal, who said he had suffered a similar injury in the past caused by a golf club.

Nadal said that despite being a set and 4-2 down, he was happy to have recovered after coming into the tournament still worried by the abdominal injury he suffered at Wimbledon.

“I had to play better. It was one of the worst starts ever for me,” he said.

“It has been tough in the last month so I knew these kind of things can happen.”

For the first time since 2018, Serena and Venus Williams revived a partnership which has brought them 14 doubles titles at the majors.

However, their hopes of collecting a third crown in New York were dashed in a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 defeat to Czech pairing Linda Noskova and Lucie Hradecka.

The loss leaves 40-year-old Serena free to focus on what is widely expected to be the final singles campaign of her landmark 27-year career before retirement.

On Friday, the 23-time Slam singles winner will face Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic for a place in the fourth round.

Serena and her 42-year-old sister went down fighting, clawing back from 1-4 down in the second set before the Czech pair steadied the ship.

NEW YORK: Serena Williams roared into the third round of the US Open on Wednesday, overpowering second seed Anett Kontaveit with a battling performance to extend her Grand Slam singles career in dramatic fashion.

The 40-year-old tennis icon — who has signalled she plans to retire after the tournament — drew on all her reserves of resilience and sheer fighting spirit to take down Kontaveit with a 7-6 (7/4), 2-6, 6-2 at an electric Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Kontaveit appeared to have gained the upper hand over the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion after levelling the match at 1-1 with a dominant second-set display.

But Williams showed her champion’s mentality to yank back momentum in the decider, breaking Kontaveit twice before closing out victory to leave a sell-out crowd featuring the likes of golf superstar Tiger Woods on its feet.

“You know this is what I do best,” a delighted Williams said after her win.

“I love a challenge and love rising to the challenge. I haven’t played many matches but I’ve been practising really well and in my last few matches it just wasn’t coming together…But the last couple of matches here in New York it’s really come together.”

Williams admitted she had feared the worst after she was unable to respond as Kontaveit upped her game to take the second set.

“I thought ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve got to give my best effort because this could be it,” Williams said. “I just wanted to keep trying and see what I could do and do my best.”

Williams, who won the first of her Grand Slam singles titles as a 17-year-old at the US Open in 1999, said she was now playing with no pressure with the finish line of her remarkable career in sight.

“I don’t have anything to prove, I don’t have anything to win. I have absolutely nothing to lose,” she said.

Williams will return to Arthur Ashe on Thursday to take part in the women’s doubles, where she will reunite with elder sister Venus for the first time since 2018.

Kontaveit meanwhile admitted she had been rattled by a ferociously partisan New York crowd.

“I expected it but it was really hard,” Kontaveit said. “I knew it was coming. It was something I’d never experienced before.”

Serena’s victory once again stole the show on day three of the tournament.

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NEW YORK: Pakistan star Tennis player Aisam-ul-Haq and his Kazakhstan partner Aleksandr Nedovyesov on Friday sealed a resounding first-round victory 6-1, 7-5 in the Men’s doubles of the US Open 2022.

The Pak-Kazakh duo of Aisam and Nedovyesov displayed sheer dominance on their Argentine team consisting of Sebastian Baez and his compatriot partner Tomas Martin Echeverri.

In the first set of the match, Aisam and his compatriot pounded their Argentine opponents and pulled ahead with an early 1-0 lead by claiming the first set 6-1.

Baez and Echeverri ante their level up in the second set and gave tough competition to their opponents, who, however, held their nerves calm to edge past the formers in a tense second 7-5 and ran away with the victory.

Aisam and Nedovyesov will now take on Jean-Julien Rojer and Marcelo Arevalo in the second round of the Grand Slam on Friday.

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NEW YORK: Emma Raducanu became only the third defending champion to exit the US Open in the first round on Tuesday while four-time winner Rafael Nadal overcame an early scare against a player ranked 198 in the world.

Raducanu, 19, slumped to a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to veteran French player Alize Cornet who is competing in a record 63rd consecutive Grand Slam.

Nadal saw off Australian wildcard Rinky Hijikata 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 to register his 65th career win in New York.

Also going through to a politically-charged clash were three-time runner-up Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.

Raducanu has struggled in the spotlight of being a Grand Slam winner, failing to get beyond the second round of any of the previous three majors in 2022.

“In a way, I’m happy because it’s a clean slate. The target will be off my back,” said the teenager.

World number three Nadal, who is chasing a 23rd Grand Slam title and third of 2022, arrived at the tournament having played just one match since an abdominal injury forced him to forfeit his Wimbledon semi-final.

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PARIS: Former men’s world number one Novak Djokovic said he will not play in the US Open which begins on Monday as Covid protocols mean he cannot travel to the United States.

It is the second Grand Slam the 35-year-old Serb will miss due to not being vaccinated as he was deported prior to the Australian Open earlier this year.

“Sadly, I will not be able to travel to NY this time for US Open,” tweeted Djokovic, a three-time US Open champion.

Djokovic’s announcement, which was widely anticipated, came hours before the draw for the final slam of the season — organisers announced he would be replaced by a lucky loser from qualifying.

Stacey Allaster, US Open Tournament Director, regretted his absence.

“Novak is a great champion and it is very unfortunate that he will be unable to compete at the 2022 US Open, as he is unable to enter the country due to the federal government’s vaccination policy for non-U.S.citizens,” she said in a statement.

“We look forward to welcoming Novak back at the 2023 US Open.”

Tennis legend John McEnroe has blasted the Djokovic ban as a “joke”

“At this point, in the pandemic, we’re two and a half years in, I think people in all parts of the world know more about it, and the idea that he can’t travel here to play, to me is a joke,” said McEnroe.

Ironically, during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Djokovic was allowed to compete at New York where he was champion in 2011, 2015 and 2018.

He has not played since securing a seventh Wimbledon title last month which took him to 21 Grand Slam victories, one short of Rafael Nadal’s record of 22.

Only last month, Djokovic said he was “preparing to play” in the US Open where a traumatic defeat in last year’s final at the hands of Daniil Medvedev dashed his hopes of a Grand Slam sweep of the four majors.

Djokovic signed off his tweet saying he hoped to be back soon.

“Good luck to my fellow players! I’ll keep in good shape and positive spirit and wait for an opportunity to compete again.

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