Tokyo 2020: Roger Federer pulls out of Olympic Games
Twenty-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer pulls out of the Tokyo Olympics because of a knee injury.
Twenty-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer pulls out of the Tokyo Olympics because of a knee injury.
Matteo Berrettini may have fallen one match short of Wimbledon glory on Sunday, but after a quick dash to Wembley football stadium he became a part of Italian celebrations, following the nation’s victory over England in the European Championships football final.
The 25-year-old watched from the stands as Italy beat England 3-2 on penalties (1-1 after extra time) with his girlfriend, WTA pro Alja Tomljanovic. Afterwards, they went onto the pitch to celebrate the victory.
“I wanted to see this match live to try to let the disappointment go,” Berrettini told Sky Sports Italia. “It was cool. I was more nervous than my parents were during my Wimbledon final!”
Berrettini then flew on Monday to Rome, where he was invited to join the celebrations at the Quirinale Palace, the official resident of Sergio Mattarella, the President of the Italian Republic.
There, the World No. 8 had another opportunity to congratulate the football team and also gave one of his tennis racquets to President Mattarella. He then moved onto the Palazzo Chigi, residence of the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
Ufficio stampa Quirinale
Berrettini, who has kept in contact with several Italian footballers, including Gianluigi Donnarumma, Giorgio Chiellini, Ciro Immobile, Leonardo Bonucci, Alessandro Florenzi and Nicolo Barella throughout the past few weeks, was also part of the victory bus parade.
Before Berrettini’s semi-final win over Pole Hubert Hurkacz and his 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 loss to Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final, he and Italian football manager, Roberto Mancini, shared the respect they have for each other with their social media followers.
Nearly every tournament Ivo Karlovic plays, the Croatian has a chance to set an age-related record. But if you talk to the 42-year-old, he feels younger by the year.
“I don’t feel any weaker or slower, even though I didn’t compete a lot in the past year. I’m 42 years old, but I feel pretty much the same as I did 10 years ago,” Karlovic told ATPTour.com. “It’s just a matter of motivation and being able to win matches. Tennis-wise and physically, I’m the same.
“Even when people ask me my age, I go backwards. Next birthday, I’ll be 41.”
The No. 210 player in the FedEx ATP Rankings is outside the Top 200 this week for the first time since March 2011. But with a wild card at the Hall of Fame Open, Karlovic hopes to start moving in the right direction.
The International Tennis Hall of Fame has historically been a good venue for the 6’11” right-hander, who won the title here in 2016.
“Here I’ve done well in the past. It’s a really nice event and I’ve always liked it here. That’s why I’m really happy that I got a wild card,” Karlovic said. “Hopefully I’ll do well here and then we’ll see how it’s going to be for the rest of the year.”
This is just Karlovic’s eighth tournament since professional tennis returned last August following a suspension of more than five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Croatian did not want to take risks during this period, so he opted to focus on training rather than traveling and playing tournaments.
“I’m 42 years old, and I’m happy that I’m still able to compete,” Karlovic said. “Even though I haven’t traveled a lot in the past year-and-a-half due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it’s nice to be back on Tour.”
Karlovic most recently competed in qualifying at Wimbledon, where he lost in the first round against Russian Roman Safiullin. The former World No. 14 then went to Croatia to practise for two weeks before flying to the United States.
The winner of 370 tour-level matches does not want to talk about goals at the moment given how few tournaments he has played in the past year. But he is keen to add matches to his tally, starting with his first-round clash on the Newport grass Tuesday against Spaniard Bernabe Zapata Miralles.
“I just want to compete again and have fun on the court. I think that here in Newport, on these courts, I will have a chance to win matches,” Karlovic said. “I’m really happy that they gave me a wild card and hopefully I will be good and prove that I deserved it.”
#NextGenATP American Jenson Brooksby’s rise is showing no signs of slowing down. The 20-year-old defeated Russian veteran Evgeny Donskoy 7-5, 6-3 on Monday to reach the second round at the Hall of Fame Open, a grass-court ATP 250 in Newport, Rhode Island.
World No. 152 Brooksby has won three ATP Challenger Tour titles this season and made the final at another. However, this was just his second tour-level win, and his first since beating Tomas Berdych in the first round of the 2019 US Open.
“I try to treat every match the same. But I want to prove that I can do the same things at all the ATP Tour events as I’ve done at the Challengers so far,” Brooksby said. “I’m very motivated to prove myself and for everybody to see how well I can do here. I’m pushing for that.”
Brooksby will face a stiff challenge in the next round against countryman Denis Kudla, who eliminated 2018 champion Steve Johnson 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4.
Kudla is a grass-court stalwart who qualified for Wimbledon and reached the third round, in which he tested eventual champion Novak Djokovic in a tight straight-sets defeat. Brooksby had never played a match on the surface until Monday, but he is confident his game will work well on the lawns.
[WATCH LIVE 1]“I think grass can actually be the best surface for my game style. Not quite yet, I’ve only played one match, but I think in the future it could actually be the best surface for my style, how I train and how I play,” Brooksby said. “I’m excited to play some more on grass.”
Former World No. 5 Kevin Anderson, the 2018 Wimbledon finalist, made a good start to his week with a 7-5, 6-3 win against Ukrainian Illya Marchenko.
Feature – Anderson On Fixing The Oceans: ‘Everybody Really Needs To Play Their Part’
The eighth-seeded wild card only lost three first-serve points (18/21) and saved all three break points he faced. The South African will next face Austrian qualifier Sebastian Ofner or Japan’s Yasutaka Uchiyama. Another Japanese player, Yuichi Sugita, ousted Austrian Jurij Rodionov 7-5, 6-3.
Novak Djokovic has finally caught Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the grand slam counter with yet another Wimbledon win.…
Ashleigh Barty is now a grand slam winner for the second time in her career, adding Wimbledon to her 2019 French Open victory.…
Stefanos Tsitsipas lost his first-round match at Wimbledon, which was his first tournament after falling short in a heartbreaking five-set Roland Garros final against Novak Djokovic. But the Greek, who is the top seed at this week’s Hamburg European Open, is working hard to improve so that he is prepared to take advantage of his next big opportunity.
“I try and get the best out of it. I think this particular match I will most likely take it as strength, because I am mad. Of course you are mad. I want something different. I want a different outcome,” Tsitsipas said in an interview with tournament reporters and WTA star Andrea Petkovic. “I want a different result in the next encounter and I want to be able to show something better. That’s why I’m out on the court.
“If I was somebody who feels comfortable with ordinary, with average, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing. For me, it’s always taking it to the next level.”
The 2019 Nitto ATP Finals champion is not leaving that clash against Djokovic — in which he led two-sets-to-love — in the rearview mirror. Instead, he is trying to use the experience to his advantage.
“There were a lot of physical elements that I was weaker at than Novak. I think that was the main reason I wasn’t able to withstand that match and play at the level that I was playing [throughout],” Tsitsipas said. “There are a few things that of course with my team I will have to discuss and come to a solution in order to be able to win my first Grand Slam. I was really close, for sure I was.
“It was frustrating and sad at the end, although I didn’t really show it in the locker room. It was a difficult moment to reflect [on]. It wasn’t easy, especially when you are that close.”
[WATCH LIVE 1]Tsitsipas will try to get back on track this week in Hamburg, where he will try to lift the ATP 500 trophy. Two years ago, he made the final here and fell just short against Russian Andrey Rublev in a thrilling three-set final. The Greek is excited to be back.
“We are away from our home many times a year and we don’t really get to connect with our homeland. For sure, we want to have places that when we travel, we feel connected,” Tsitsipas said. “It just clicks with certain places. You feel the atmosphere, the vibe better than any other place. For me it’s just so organised here… it definitely has something to it in the air.”
The World No. 4, who will begin his Hamburg run against one of two Germans — Dominik Koepfer or Maximilian Marterer — is not just trying to improve on the court. Tsitsipas is pushing the boundaries in everything he does to try to connect with fans through social media and other platforms.
“There is a constant need for development, for clarification of myself, which I haven’t been able to expose to its full potential yet. I’m a guy who has a lot of interests outside the court. I’m still looking for my voice,” Tsitsipas said. “It’s a daily thing, where I’m trying to see the things i can bring to the table, how many people I can potentially inspire with the ideas I have to bring.”
There is a trash skimmer in Newport Harbor operated by Clean Ocean Access to help keep the water clean. And before the start of this week’s Hall of Fame Open, passionate environment supporter Kevin Anderson visited it to learn how the skimmer works and help tidy up.
“It’s definitely been something I’m really interested in. It’s a huge problem, keeping waterways across the world clean, both in the oceans and rivers. It’s everywhere,” Anderson said. “The whole issue of plastics is something that I think everybody really needs to play their part in. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it really needs to be people’s focus, because the problem is only going to get worse.
“This could really make a difference. It’s great to see that there are a lot of people who are spending a lot of time and trying to fix this. On the Tour, we’re really trying to shift our focus and try to make a difference, so I’m really excited to be a part of that.”
The Hall of Fame Open’s Official Sustainability Sponsor, 11th Hour Racing, is a Newport-based organisation that works with Clean Ocean Access. It uses sports to help promote change that will benefit the health of the oceans.
Anderson spent time talking with Clean Ocean Access Program Manager Max Kraimer about how the skimmer works, plastics’ harmful impact and the environment.
“It’s really important for tournaments, like the Hall of Fame Open, to lead the way. Joining forces with these initiatives, it’s really important,” Anderson said. “Obviously from a player’s standpoint, we need to do our part. But we need to work together with the tournaments, and having things like specific environment days and just raising awareness is really valuable. I was happy to see this.”
Italian Marco Cecchinato beat former World No. 7 Richard Gasquet 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 on Monday to reach the second round at the Nordea Open in Bastad. The victory meant more than a typical three-set triumph for the 2018 Roland Garros semi-finalist.
“I’m very happy for today because I beat Richard for the first time in my career,” Cecchinato said. “When I was young, he was my idol, so I’m very happy to beat him.”
[WATCH LIVE 1]Cecchinato remembers watching Gasquet compete in the Nitto ATP Finals. The 28-year-old has a one-handed backhand like the Frenchman, and enjoys playing a similarly artistic game.
“So many years he was in the Top 10. He was like me with the one-handed backhand, his forehand, good kick, good drop shot,” Cecchinato, who will next face Francisco Cerundolo or Federico Coria, said. “He was my idol for that, so I’m very happy with this match today.”
In other first-round action, German Yannick Hanfmann beat Brazilian Thiago Monteiro 6-2, 7-5. Hanfmann will next play Czech Jiri Vesely or Italian Salvatore Caruso.
Philipp Kohlschreiber, who first competed at the Hamburg European Open in 2002, recorded a 7-6(5), 6-4 victory over Spain’s Jaume Munar in two hours and five minutes on Monday at the ATP 500 event.
The German, a semi-finalist in 2014 and 2017, saved three set points when Munar served for the first set at 5-4. Kohlschreiber broke early in the second set and will next play sixth-seeded Serbian Filip Krajinovic or fellow German wild card Daniel Altmaier.
[WATCH LIVE 1]Earlier in the day, Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild recorded his first tour-level victory of the season, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2, over Spanish wild card Nicola Kuhn in just under two hours. The Brazilian qualifier awaits the winner of seventh-seeded German Jan-Lennard Struff and Laslo Djere of Serbia.
Argentine lucky loser Sebastian Baez swept past Corentin Moutet of France 6-1, 6-2 in 63 minutes and will next challenge third-seeded Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, the 2018 and 2019 titlist. Baez is currently in eighth position in the ATP Race To Milan for a spot at the Next Gen ATP Finals.
