#novak-djokovic

#novak-djokovic

Great Britain have been handed a tough draw in the group stage of the Davis Cup Finals, where they will take on last year's runners-up Australia along with France and Switzerland at Manchester's AO Arena in September.Leon Smith's side qualified for the group stage by defeating Colombia 3-1 away in February.

The BNP Paribas Open begins this week just as professional tennis hits a crossroads, navigating toward an uncertain future without the great rivalry among the "Big Three" of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on the men's side and without Serena Williams ' charisma and historic feats to set standards for the women.

MELBOURNE, Australia The tennis breakthroughs keep coming for Tommy Paul and his American friends.Taylor Fritz became the first of their peer group to win a Masters 1000 title last year at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.A few months later, Frances Tiafoe became the first of their group to reach a Grand Slam semifinal in singles, pushing eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz to five sets.

MELBOURNE, Australia Keep fighting, Serena Williams said to an 18-year-old Sania Mirza when they met at the net after a match at the Australian Open.That was in January 2005, and Mirza, strong-minded to begin with, took even more strength from the advice.A Muslim from Hyderabad, India, who started playing tennis on courts made of cow dung, Mirza became the most successful women's tennis player in India's history at an early age but kept pushing for more, experiencing success above all in doubles and in inspiring women from South Asia and beyond to think bigger.

MELBOURNE, Australia Two young tennis players born just six months apart were in different arenas but in the same predicament on Monday: trying to figure out how to prevail in a fifth set.Neither Holger Rune nor Ben Shelton had been this far at an Australian Open.Shelton, a 20-year-old American lefty with a friendly manner and an unfriendly serve, had never played in the Australian Open at all until this month: not even as a junior.

When Felix Auger-Aliassime won the first two sets of his men's quarterfinals against Daniil Medvedev at last year's Australian Open, Gonzalo Escobar started prepping for his mixed doubles semifinals, the next match in Rod Laver Arena.As the third set progressed, Escobar and his partner Lucie Hradecka, along with their opponents Jason Kubler and Jaimee Fourlis, began loosening up.

Canada's Denis Shapovalov has fallen out of the Delray Beach Open, losing 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 to American Michael Mmoh in second-round action on Wednesday in Delray Beach, Fla.The Richmond Hill, Ont., native hit four aces and 30 winners but also committed four double faults and 30 unforced errors.Shapovalov broke on two of his 10 opportunities and won 75 per cent of his first-serve points.

Footage taken at the Australian Open appears to show Srdjan Djokovic, the father of the Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, posing with fans who were carrying Russian flags and symbols.In the video, posted on a prominent pro-Putin YouTube account, Srdjan Djokovic is briefly seen alongside the fans, one of whom is wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the pro-war Z emblem and carrying a flag featuring an image of President Vladimir V. Putin.

On Monday, the girlfriend of the American tennis player Frances Tiafoe posted a video from what she called a fashion show.In it, Mr. Tiafoe, ranked 17th in the world, tried on a kit sent to him by Nike, his sponsor, as he readied for the Australian Open.It's definitely a lot, but I'm here for it, his girlfriend, Ayan Broomfield, a tennis player from Canada, says as Mr. Tiafoe walks to a mirror to see the outfit: a sleeveless top and shorts covered in multicolored waves, like an oil slick rainbow or a lava lamp.

MELBOURNE, Australia There were 94,854 fans at the Australian Open on Saturday, setting a single-day attendance record.But perhaps even more surprising than the size of the audience was that four American men remained in contention for the men's singles title: Sebastian Korda, Ben Shelton, J.J. Wolf and Tommy Paul.

MELBOURNE, Australia After spending the past week receiving all the laurels of a hometown favorite, Nick Kyrgios suddenly withdrew from the Australian Open on Monday with a knee injury, a little more than 24 hours ahead of his scheduled first-round match.In an interview Friday, Kyrgios, the temperamental Australian star who was a finalist at Wimbledon last year, said he had been battling soreness in his left knee during the off-season, but he expected to be able to play in the year's first Grand Slam.

The year's first major tennis tournament suffered a major blow on Friday when Carlos Alcaraz, the precocious men's world No. 1 from Spain, announced that he was withdrawing from the Australian Open with a right leg injury.Alcaraz, a 19-year-old phenom with an acrobatic and all-court game, won his first Grand Slam singles title in September at the U.S. Open in often-spectacular fashion, prevailing in a series of compelling and frequently lengthy matches.

Boris Becker, the three-time Wimbledon champion, returned to his home country of Germany on Thursday after he was freed from prison in Britain, his lawyer said.The Southwark Crown Court in London sentenced Mr. Becker to 30 months in prison in April for hiding his assets after he was declared bankrupt.

Boris Becker has spoken openly about the emotional turmoil he felt before being sentenced over bankruptcy offences.The 55-year-old tennis star, who won Wimbledon at the age of 17 along with six grand slams, is expected to be released imminently after spending nearly eight months in prison.He was convicted in April of hiding 2.5 million-worth of assets and loans to avoid paying his debts.