'I took the wildcard for Eastbourne and it's great to be feeling the grass again, and I'm happy the clay court season is already finished.'
Novak Djokovic will begin his Australian Open title defence against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, while reigning women's champion Sofia Kenin meets wild card Maddison Inglis, following the draw for the year's first Grand Slam on Friday.
Serena Williams stayed on track for an eighth Wimbledon title as she fought back to beat Italian Camila Giorgi 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a fiercely contested quarter-final.
Serena Williams breezed past Romanian Edina Gallovits 6-1, 6-2 while Justine Henin beat Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-4, 6-2.
Other nominees for the prize are Angelique Kerber (Germany), Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic and Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark).
Garbine Muguruza roared into the French Open semi-finals with a 6-2, 6-1 demolition job of Maria Sharapova on Wednesday.
Venus Williams is planning to return to Wimbledon next year to make her 20th appearance confident in the belief that there is no such thing in life as impossible. The oldest woman in the draw at 36, Williams lost 6-4 6-4 to Germany's Angelique Kerber on Thursday but has enjoyed something of a renaissance in reaching her first grand slam semi-final since 2010. She returned to the world's top 10 last year following a frustrating run of results since she revealed in 2011 that she had been diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, an auto-immune disease that leaves her short of energy.
Up next for the twice Grand Slam champion is Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who ended Angelique Kerber's resurgence with a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
Federer and world number one Nadal won the first three grand slam titles of the season as they came back to prominence with a bang, and nothing suggests their first-round opponents, American Frances Tiafoe and Serbian Dusan Lajovic, will bother them.
Serena Williams came away with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Angelique Kerber in the first round of the US Open.
Serena Williams crashed out of the US Open after losing in the semi-final to Karolina Pliskova costing her a shot at a 23rd Grand Slam title and resulted in her losing her record 187th straight week at number one.
Serena Williams will miss next week's Qatar Open because of the flu, she said on Tuesday, marking the second consecutive tournament the world number one misses due to illness.
Eight-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, who turns 40 this year, takes on Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in round one.
Germany soccer coach, Joachim Loew, was recognised with an "Integration" award and former skipper Bastian Schweinsteiger a honorary service accolade at the BAMBI Awards in Berlin on Thursday.
Images from Day 6 of Wimbledon at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London, on Saturday.
Angelique Kerber feels vindicated that she now belongs at the upper echelons of the women's game after four years of consistency helped her into her first Grand Slam final at the Australian Open on Thursday.
Second seed Caroline Wozniacki came through a late wobble to reach the Australian Open final for a first time with a 6-3, 7-6(2) victory over Belgian Elise Mertens on Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.
World No 1 Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams have been named as top seeds for the US Open, which will commence from August 29.
Images from all the action from Day 1 of the French Open played at Roland Garros in Paris on Sunday
Italy's Flavia Pennetta advanced to her first Australian Open quarter-final with a 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 victory over ninth-seeded German Angelique Kerber.
Novak Djokovic barely got out of first gear but had more than enough in the tank to beat Briton Kyle Edmund 6-3, 6-3 in the second round of the Miami Open on Friday.
The year's final grand slam began with an upset as 13th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet was upended 6-2 6-2 6-3 by Britain's world number 84 Kyle Edmund at the U.S. Open on Monday. Gasquet, who has reached the last 16 at Flushing Meadows four times in his career, was outplayed throughout and his U.S. Open experience lasted just one hour, 41 minutes.
Zhang Shuai stunned Wimbledon Champion Angelique Kerber 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 in the China Open on Thursday to set up a quarter-final clash with Naomi Osaka.
Images from Day 9 of the 2021 US Open in New York on Wednesday.
In the women's draw, Angelique Kerber was knocked out in a 6-3, 6-1 defeat to Czech Katerina Siniakova while Coco Gauf won her first ever match on clay.
Here is a list of US Open women's singles champions since the open era began in 1968:
Images from Day 6 of the 2021 US Open in New York on Saturday.
Defending champion Jelena Jankovic ousted fellow Serb Aleksandra Krunic to reach the Hong Kong Open third round on a rain-hit Wednesday with the other singles matches suspended. Jankovic, the seventh seed, took less than 90 minutes to seal a 6-4 6-3 win over Krunic, who made six double faults and was broken twice in the opening set. "She (Krunic) is a player who is very talented and I've known her a long time," Jankovic told reporters. "I used to be her mentor and now I play against her. It's amazing to see her grow up and come to this stage.
Venus Williams powered into the Italian Open quarter-finals on Thursday with a dominant 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 victory over fifth seed Johanna Konta.
Garbine Muguruza emerged as a favourite to win the Italian Open after beating Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko to reach the third round after world number one Angeliquer Kerber had earlier bowed out to Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit.
By losing, Ostapenko joins a ignominious group including, as well as Myskina, Steffi Graf, Jennifer Capriati, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Angelique Kerber who all lost as Grand Slam champions on the first run of their defences.
Jelena Jankovic made it a Serbian win double in Asia on Sunday as she fought back from a set down to beat Germany's Angelique Kerber to take the Hong Kong Open title.
American Serena Williams was third time lucky as she finally equalled Steffi Graf's long-standing record of 22 Grand Slam wins after defeating Germany's Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 in the Wimbledon final on Saturday.
The 36-year-old, talked about what she has been going through since giving birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia, who turns one this September.
Images from Tuesday, Day 8 of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, in London.
World number one Ash Barty became the first Australian woman to win the Wimbledon singles title for 41 years on Saturday when she defeated Czech Karolina Pliskova in the final.
Former world number one Venus Williams salvaged a small bit of family pride when she fought back from a set down to see off Italy's Roberto Vinci 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(4)and reach the final of the Wuhan Open on Friday.
British qualifier Emma Raducanu beat Canada's Leylah Fernandez 6-4 6-3 in a battle of two unseeded teenagers to win the U.S. Open women's title on Saturday.
Images from Day 3 of the US Open, at Flushing Meadows, New York.
The second round match between former champion Angelique Kerber and Anhelina Kalinina, originally scheduled to begin after Schwartzman and Anderson, was pushed to Thursday.
