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Federer, Nadal In Top 10 Of ESPN's World Fame List

May302017

Five ATP World Tour stars among the Top 50 of the new ESPN World Fame List

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have been named among the world’s Top 10 most famous athletes in new analysis by ESPN. Federer is fourth on ESPN’s World Fame 100 list, Nadal is ninth and Novak Djokovic is close behind at 12th.

Federer and Nadal both move up one place from their positions in last year’s inaugural list. Djokovic rises four places from 16th in 2016.

Kei Nishikori surges to 20th from 47th last year. Andy Murray slips one spot to 32nd and Stan Wawrinka, at No. 42, is the other ATP World Tour star to make the Top 100 list.

Real Madrid footballer Cristiano Ronaldo heads the World Fame 100 list, followed by Cleveland Cavaliers basketballer LeBron James in second and Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi in third.

View The Full List

ESPN.com explains how the ratings are calculated…

The ESPN World Fame 100 is our annual attempt to create a ranking, through statistical analysis, of the 100 most famous athletes on the planet.

We started with Forbes’ annual list of the highest-paid athletes and expanded the pool from there using a variety of domestic and international sources to make sure we didn’t overlook any legitimate candidates. We also sought input from ESPN journalists around the world, including colleagues in our bureaus in Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

The data for each athlete in the pool was then fed into a formula created by ESPN director of sports analytics Ben Alamar that weighs athletes’ endorsements, their following on the social media Big Three (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and Google search popularity, producing a comparative ranking system. The analysis includes five categories: endorsement money, Twitter followers, Instagram followers, Facebook followers and Google Trends score.

Nadal is competing this week at Roland Garros, where he is attempting to win a historic 10th title. Federer will return to the ATP World Tour 12 June in Stuttgart, when the grass-court season begins.

Monfils Achieves Career Milestone In Opener

May302017

Frenchman looking to return to last four in Paris

Gael Monfils celebrated a career milestone and etched his name in French tennis history during his Roland Garros opener on Tuesday. The affable Frenchman won his 400^th tour-level match, needing only 89 minutes to prevail against German Dustin Brown 6-4, 7-5, 6-0.

He becomes only the sixth Frenchman to have won 400 tour-level contests:

Frenchman	Tour-Level Wins
Yannick Noah	482
Fabrice Santoro	470
Richard Gasquet	470
Gilles Simon	415
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	410
Gael Monfils	400

400 career wins achieved today at #RG17 by @Gael_Monfils! ?

We’ve been treated to some special moments over the years…#TrickshotTuesday pic.twitter.com/s2iDwmxY3x

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 30, 2017

Monfils won 70 per cent (14/20) of his net points to win his first clay-court match of the season and advance to the second round. The 30-year-old right-hander lost his opener at the BMW Open by FWU in Munich (Chung) and at the Mutua Madrid Open (Simon). Monfils had to withdraw from the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome because of a left knee injury.

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“I felt quite okay today. It wasn’t easy for me to get back on shape, because I was really struggling a lot with my body the last few weeks. It was very tough for me to be almost 100 per cent,” Monfils said.

His best showing at his home Grand Slam came in 2008, when he reached the semi-finals before falling to Roger Federer. The Frenchman will next meet Brazilian Thiago Monteiro, who beat 20-year-old French wild card Alexandre Muller 7-6(4), 2-6, 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-0 in three hours and 43 minutes.

“I think it’s probably been the three-and-a-half most intensive hours of my career,” Muller said. “I enjoyed it. I did my very best. I wish I could have won this match since this is my first participation here. Honestly, I have no regrets. I did have a few tears because the atmosphere was amazing. At the very end, well, I realised I was going to lose, it got very emotional. But I really got a kick out of the moment, too.”

2 showmen sur le court mais un seul vainqueur. Et il s’appelle @Gael_Monfils !
Victoire en 3 sets contre Dustin Brown #RG17 pic.twitter.com/inyRvhaIkX

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 30, 2017

Monfils’ countryman 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will serve to stay in the match when his first-round contest against Argentine Renzo Olivo finishes on Wednesday. Darkness suspended the match with Olivo leading Tsonga, who won his first clay-court title on Saturday in Geneva, 7-5, 4-6, 6-7(6), 5-4.

Should the 25-year-old Argentine pull off the upset, it would be quite the turnaround for the World No. 91. Olivo has lost his past six tour-level matches and is 4-11 so far this season.

The winner of that match will meet Brit Kyle Edmund, who went 12 for 12 at the net to beat Portugal’s Gastao Elias 6-3, 6-2, 7-5. “I was just happy with my balance of play, the way I was thinking out there. When I was in a bit of trouble, I was able to regain momentum well,” Edmund said.

Go inside the tournament at RolandGarros.com.

Nishikori Spoils Kokkinakis' Return To Roland Garros

May302017

Nishikori will next face Chardy

Eighth seed Kei Nishikori overcame a slow start to advance to the second round at Roland Garros on Tuesday, blasting 47 winners to beat Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. Nishikori, a quarter-finalist in Paris in 2015, is making his seventh appearance at the clay-court Grand Slam.

The Japanese right-hander reached the fourth round last year before falling to Frenchman Richard Gasquet. He will next face Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, who beat Moldova’s Radu Albot 6-2, 6-4, 7-6(3).

Nishikori has had an up-and-down European clay-court season so far. He reached the quarter-finals at the Mutua Madrid Open before withdrawing before his last-eight match against Novak Djokovic because of a lingering right wrist injury. The 27-year-old Nishikori fell to Juan Martin del Potro in the third round in Rome but reached the semi-finals last week in Geneva (l. to Mischa Zverev).

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#NextGenATP Aussie Kokkinakis was making his first Grand Slam appearance since the 2015 US Open. He was going for his first Grand Slam win since two years ago at Roland Garros. The 6’5” 21 year old underwent surgery on his right shoulder in December 2015 and has played only two singles matches since then, including an opening loss last week in Lyon to Denis Istomin.

Go inside the tournament at RolandGarros.com.

Murray hints at Margaret Court boycott at Australian Open

Posted: May 30, 2017

Britain’s Andy Murray has suggested he could potentially support a boycott at next year’s Australian Open if its Margaret Court Arena is not renamed.

Australian Court, a 24-time Grand Slam singles champion and now a Christian pastor, is an opponent of gay marriage.

Australian former world number four Sam Stosur hinted earlier on Tuesday that players may refuse to play in protest.

Murray said it would be best to resolve the issue before the tournament begins but added: “We’ll see what happens.”

The Scot beat Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov in four sets to reach the French Open second round on Tuesday.

When asked if he would support players refusing to compete, the world number one replied: “I think if something was to be done it would be a lot more beneficial to do it before the tournament starts.

“For players to be in a position where you’re in a slam and kind of boycotting playing on the court, that would potentially cause a lot of issues.

“If something was going to be happening and the players come to an agreement, if they think the name should be changed or whatever, that should be decided before the event starts.

“But I would imagine a lot of the players would be pretty offended by that.”

Relive text coverage of Murray & Edmund
Konta suffers shock defeat
French Open scores, results & schedule

‘We’ll see who wants to play and who doesn’t’

Court, 74, has said she will not fly on Qantas “where possible” in protest of its support of same-sex marriage.

“I think everyone can have their opinion. I don’t agree with it, but I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to the Australian Open,” Stosur, 33, said earlier on Tuesday.

“We’ll see who wants to play on Margaret Court Arena and who doesn’t.”

The Australian number one added: “I find it very hard to believe that the name would ever be changed – the court’s named Margaret Court Arena because of what she did in tennis.”

Tennis Australia have said they will not rename the Arena, stating that Court’s personal views are her own.

The venue was originally called Show Court One when it opened in 1988 before it was renamed in 2003 in tribute to the multiple Grand Slam winner.

Stosur’s fellow Australian player Casey Dellacqua, who has two children with partner Amanda Judd, tweeted her opposition to Court: “Margaret. Enough is enough”.

And Stosur issued her support for friend Dellacqua, saying: “It’s been pretty fiery. Casey was obviously very adamant, and I wanted to support my friend and that’s why I sent out my first tweet in a very long time.”

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French Open 2017: Johanna Konta suffers shock defeat at Roland Garros

Posted: May 30, 2017

French Open
Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Dates: 28 May – 11 June
Coverage: Listen to live radio commentary and follow text coverage of selected matches on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and online.

British number one Johanna Konta suffered a shock defeat by world number 109 Hsieh Su-wei in the first round of the French Open.

Seventh seed Konta dominated the first set but eventually went down 1-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 to Taiwanese Hsieh.

Konta, 26, has yet to win a match in the main draw at Roland Garros after three successive first-round losses.

She will now head back to the UK and hope for more success in the grass-court season.

Konta, who is ranked eighth in the world, has also lost twice in qualifying in her five visits to Roland Garros.

Her day was summed up by the final game, in which she missed four chances to break back and stay in the match, one through some Hsieh brilliance and another thanks to the cruellest of net cords.

The Taiwanese player clinched a remarkable win when Konta’s return found the net after two hours and 15 minutes.

Konta’s exit means there are no British women left in the singles draw at Roland Garros, while Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund play in the men’s draw later on Tuesday.

Follow all the reaction to Konta’s defeat
Live scores and schedule

Ragged display costs Konta

Konta’s record on clay might be modest at best – just four wins at WTA main draw level in her career – but she is now established in the world’s top 10 and among the title contenders when the Grand Slams come around.

Roland Garros remains the least likely venue for Konta to make that breakthrough, but defeat by such a lowly ranked player with an enticing-looking draw will be a huge disappointment.

She dominated the early exchanges, winning 11 of the first 12 points, and was rock solid on serve for the first set and a half.

A comfortable victory looked likely but Hsieh finally began to land some first serves and started to move Konta out wide with her unorthodox forehand slice.

Both players had ample chances in the second set, Hsieh missing four break points in game seven – the second with a woeful smash into the net – before Konta failed to capitalise from 0-40.

The Briton began the tie-break well but missed a makeable smash at 2-2, and Hsieh took control, scrambling superbly to wrest control of the rallies.

Konta now faced a real test, the early certainty on her groundstrokes long gone and Hsieh now making far more returns.

Having made it through two sets without dropping serve, Konta was broken twice in succession in the third, and the unflappable attitude that has marked her recent rise began to fray at the edges.

There were shakes of the head and pleading looks towards Belgian coach Wim Fissette as she continued to make errors.

A dramatic final game saw more chances come and go but it was a 38th error of what became a ragged display that finally ended Konta’s clay-court season for another year.