The United States Tennis Association will hold the US Open this year without fans amid the COVID-19 outbreak even though some top players have expressed concerns about attending the tournament due to the virus, according to multiple reports.
'I am uncomfortable that the focus of the past weeks has been on me and I hope that we can all now focus on the game and the tournament I love'
World number one Novak Djokovic was released from Australian immigration detention on Monday after winning a court challenge to revive his bid to win a record 21st Grand Slam title at the upcoming Australian Open.
Third seed Rafael Nadal remains on course for a 10th Barcelona Open title, advancing to the quarter finals with a routine 6-3, 6-4 victory over Kevin Anderson.
Serena Williams faces her first seeded opponent at the French Open on Thursday and will hope to use her booming serve to beat Australian Ashleigh Barty in the second round.
Eight-time Grand Slam winner Ivan Lendl said whoever ends up winning the most majors among the 'Big Three' of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic should be considered the greatest male tennis player of the Open era. Federer, who will be 39 in August, leads the race with 20 Grand Slam singles titles, with Spaniard Nadal close on his heels with 19. Reigning world No. 1 Djokovic is three behind the Swiss with 17 majors under his belt and is the youngest of the trio - at 32 he is a year younger than Nadal.
Djokovic did not play badly in the final but it took him 55 minutes before he registered his first game in what turned out to be a mauling.
Professional tennis has been suspended since March because of the outbreak and the ATP and WTA Tours have said the hiatus will continue at least until mid-July. Andy Murray had previously said that tennis would be one of the last sports to resume.
Wawrinka's last ATP title came in 2017 before the former world number three underwent knee surgery.
Russian fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny made a winning start to the New Year as he routed world no. 2 Rafael Nadal 6-0, 6-1 in the final of the Chennai Open on Sunday.
Nadal said the two-week gap between the French Open and Wimbledon was not enough time for him to recuperate
'I physically need to get a little better and hopefully over time I get a little bit faster... I think I will'
World number one Novak Djokovic will bid for a record fourth successive ATP World Tour Finals crown in London later this year after becoming the first man to qualify for the season-ender.
World number one Novak Djokovic said his win over Rafa Nadal in Friday's epic French Open semi-final was one of the top three matches he had played and he would remember it forever.
Novak Djokovic's intentions in organising the ill-fated Adria Tour were good but the world number one could have applied a bit more common sense to how the exhibition event was run, former ATP players' council head Vijay Amritraj said. The Serbian has faced fierce criticism after he, Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and Viktor Troicki contracted COVID-19 following the charity event in Serbia and Croatia.
Tennis's flagship team events the Davis Cup and Fed Cup Finals have been postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said on Friday. Professional tennis has been suspended since March and will not return until August.
Not since Stan Wawrinka's 2016 US Open triumph has a Grand Slam been won by someone other than the 'Big Three', winners of the last 13 major titles.
'Obviously Rafa is in great position to finish World No. 1'
Heavier balls to blame for slower game: Nadal
Federer, a 20-times Grand Slam champion and the world number three, won the last of his eight Wimbledon titles in 2017 and is seeded second this year behind top-ranked Novak Djokovic.
The 20-year-old Korda, son of 1992 runner-up Petr, had enjoyed a dream run in his first Tour-level event on clay and was up against his idol -- the man he named his cat after.
Tennis great Billie Jean King says the financial fallout from the coronavirus shutdown has exposed the unfairness of the sport and that it is important for the top players to lead the cause for change. The tennis season was suspended in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdown will continue at least until mid-July, depriving lower-level players, who depend solely on tournament winnings, of the chance to earn a living.
'I think it's a great competition but ... I can't change my mind that two world cups (within two months) is not real'
Rafael Nadal and the world's best men's tennis players found themselves having to endure a 4 a.m. meeting in the freezing cold after fire alarms forced them to evacuate their central London hotel on Tuesday.
Roger Federer booked his place in the ATP World Tour Finals for a record-tying 12th consecutive year when he dismissed South African Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4 to reach the third round of the Paris Masters on Wednesday.
Simona Halep will take over as the new number one in the WTA world rankings after progressing to the China Open final with a dominant 6-2 6-4 victory over Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko in Beijing on Saturday.
ATP chief hails Nadal's 'unprecedented' return to top
Ronaldo back for Man Utd but injured Shaw faces weeks out
IMAGES from the Australian Open matches played on Wednesday.
Second seed Novak Djokovic outclassed Roger Federer in straight sets to enter the final of Australian Open in Melbourne on Thursday. Seven-time champion Djokovic started off slowly before he took complete control to register an emphatic 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory in the first semi-final.
Roger Federer, who will be chasing an 18th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open later this month, breezed through to the Brisbane International men's semi-finals with a 6-1, 6-1 thumping of Australian Marinko Matosevic.
Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro won a semi-final thriller against Spain's Rafa Nadal on Saturday, outgunning the Spaniard 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(5) in a nervy final set tie-breaker to advance to the Olympic singles final.
Nadal is bidding for his second title in his 15th appearance at Melbourne Park
World number two Novak Djokovic hammered Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 6-1, 6-4 to reach the Paris Masters semi-finals on Friday.
Tennis is on hold until at least the start of August because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while there have been positive noises about the prospects of the US Open taking place, followed by the French Open, Rafael Nadal served a dose of reality.
A summary of Monday's action at the US Open.
Muguruza seals semi-final berth, Pliskova beats Krejcikova at WTA Finals.
Top seed Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin Del Potro set a record for the longest semi-final ever played at Wimbledon on Friday as the Serb favourite eventually triumphed in the fifth set after four hours 43 minutes of scintillating action.
Rafael Nadal's uncle, Toni Nadal, will step down as his coach after this year's ATP Tour, as he feels he has been sidelined by other figures in the player's entourage, he told an Italian tennis magazine.
Rafael Nadal will have his work cut out when play begins next week, not on the Caja Magica's three red dust courts, but on gaming consoles.
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