Tennis
A NEW GRAND SLAM CHAMP EMERGES TODAY
Today, with world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, second-ranked Rafael Nadal and 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer all out of the picture, the 27-year-old, Dominic Thiem will get his next and best chance to win his first Grand Slam singles title.
He earned it on Friday with a 6-2, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-5) US Open semi-final victory over Daniil Medvedev that was much more grinding and draining than a normal straight-set affair.
“Definitely anything but,” Thiem said, with sweat dripping off his face and clothes during the post-match interview.
The No. 2 seed from Austria had to rally from a service break down in each of the final two sets against his unpredictable Russian opponent and had to save a set point in the second-set tiebreaker.
But, despite pain in his Achilles tendon and two falls in the match, Thiem was the more balanced and reliable threat, and he will now face Alexander Zverev in today’s final.
The winner will be the first new Grand Slam singles champion in the men’s game in six years.
It will be the first Major final for German Zverev, 23, who has long been considered a star in the making.
For Thiem, who has lost the last two French Open finals to Nadal and a taut five-set Australian Open final to Djokovic in January, this will be his fourth Slam final.
“If I win, I have my first,” the world No. 3 said. “If not, I probably have to call Andy Murray about how it is to be 0-4.”
The Scot lost his first four Major finals before finally winning the US Open in 2012.
Thiem has beaten all three of the “Big Three” and Murray on multiple occasions but, throughout his career, they have blocked his path at the Grand Slams.
This time, he did not have to face any of them and will be the favourite against Zverev, who he has beaten seven times in nine matches, including all three of their duels in the Majors.
“It’s all or nothing,” Thiem said. “The last one we had was an amazing one in Australia: two tiebreaks for me, super, super close. And I guess the main thing I have to focus on is to return good.
“His first serve is out of this world: so fast and so precise. So just try to get that back in play. It’s a great friendship, a great rivalry… I’m looking forward to playing that first Major final with him.”
Zverev beat Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in the first semi-final on Friday.
It was the first time in his short career that he had won a match after losing the first two sets.
But what mattered most to the world No. 7 was taking one more giant step toward a Slam title.
Thiem and Zverev, along with Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, are all in their 20s and have rightly been considered the most likely candidates to succeed the “Big Three”.
Zverev looked anything but likely to win on Friday in the early going as he mistimed groundstrokes, struggled to win quick points with his heavy serve, double-faulted into the net and spread his long arms wide, looking imploringly at members of his team in the sparsely populated stands of the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“I was actually looking at the scoreboard when I was down two sets to love,” he said.
“I was like, I can’t believe it. I’m playing in a semi-final where I’m supposed to be the favourite, and I am down two sets to love, and I have no chance; I’m playing that bad.
“So I knew I had to come up with better tennis and knew I had to be more stable.”
Easier thought than done, but Zverev is used to working his way out of trouble and, though he had never come all the way back before from two sets down, he has proved himself in five-set matches and is now 14-6 in them.
However, he will clearly need to play a much more complete match if he is to pose a serious threat in the final.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Zverev said of his comeback. “But there’s still one step to go for me.”
- NYTIMES
Argentina’s 36-year-old Marco Trungelliti proved tennis dreams do not come with an expiration date when he became the oldest first-time tour-level finalist in the Open Era after beating the top seed at the Grand Prix Hassan II semi-finals in Marrakech on Saturday.
Trungelliti, who came through the tournament’s qualifiers, upset Italy’s defending champion Luciano Darderi 6-4 7-6(2) to break the previous record held by Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic, who reached his first final aged 34 years in 2015.
Darderi, ranked 19 in the world, was only six-years-old when Trungelliti turned pro in 2008. With the victory, Trungelliti secured just his second career top-20 win.
“Of course, I believed it, that’s one of the reasons that I’m here. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible,” Trungelliti said in the on-court interview.
“I’ve worked a lot, me and my team and also my wife, my kid. We all believed in breaking the record basically and that’s exactly what we have done now.”
The milestone caps a remarkable journey for Trungelliti, who made his first ATP Tour semi-final in 2018 in Umag, Croatia – 402 weeks ago.
Having entered the tournament ranked 117 in the world, Trungelliti’s breakthrough week has already guaranteed he will crack the top 100 for the first time. He is currently ranked number 75 in the live rankings.
“It’s been happening the whole week, leaving the court with a victory,” added Trungelliti, who has dropped only one set at the tournament. “So hopefully (there) is one more to go.”
He will face Rafael Jodar on Sunday after the Spaniard prevented an all-Argentine final with a 6-2 6-1 victory over Camilo Ugo Carabelli.
-Reuters
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Serena Williams has been listed as eligible to return to tennis by the sport’s drug-testing body (ITIA) as of February 22, though it remains unclear whether the 23-time Grand Slam champion will make a stunning comeback to the women’s tour.
The 44-year-old raised eyebrows late last year after rejoining the tennis anti-doping testing pool, though she denied at the time the move signalled she was preparing to return to the sport she dominated for nearly two decades.
She reignited speculation last month when she deflected questions about a possible return during an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show.
The Women’s Tennis Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours.
Williams, who won her last Grand Slam singles title in 2017, has not competed since the 2022 U.S. Open.
-Reuters
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Serena Williams has re-entered the tennis anti-doping testing pool but the 23-times Grand Slam champion denied on Tuesday that the move had anything to do with her making a return to the sport she dominated for nearly two decades.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency confirmed to Reuters that Williams, who has not competed since the 2022 U.S. Open, was among the list of players in its testing pool, which requires individuals to provide their whereabouts at any given time, every day, and participate in random testing
But as the story of 44-year-old Williams’ inclusion on the list, first reported earlier on Tuesday by The Athletic, gained traction and sparked talk about her potential return, the tennis great took to social media to deny a comeback was in her plans.
“Omg yall I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy,” Williams wrote on X.
Her agent did not immediately respond to an email from Reuters asking why the player had re-entered the testing pool.
Williams’ name appears on the ITIA website’s list of retired players and would be able to return to a sanctioned event after making herself available for out-of-competition testing for at least six months.
Last week former world number one Williams posted a series of photos on Instagram showing herself on a tennis court with her youngest daughter, Adira River, whom she gave birth to in August 2023.
In August 2022, ahead of her final U.S. Open, Williams announced in a Vogue article that she was “evolving away from tennis.”
Williams, who won her last Grand Slam singles title in 2017, had been chasing an elusive 24th crown that would have drawn her level with Australian Margaret Court, who holds the record.
The American came tantalisingly close to achieving that feat, featuring in four major finals since giving birth to her first daughter, Olympia, in 2017.
-Reuters
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