Tennis

Sania Mirza, a former world number one in doubles, said she felt fine on the court on Wednesday. Sania and her Slovenian partner Andreja Klepac defeated Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Anna Blinkova of Russia 6-2, 6-0 in the Qatar Total Open doubles' semifinals Wednesday. The two 34-year-olds also advanced to the six-day tournament's semifinals. Sania claimed that she is no longer infected with COVID-19, which kept her isolated for two months. Sania said she had only light preparation when the COVID-19 pandemic

DOHA: India's Sania Mirza said the elusive dream of winning a medal at her fourth Olympics in Tokyo this year motivated her to return to the WTA circuit after a year-long gap. Mirza, paired with Slovenian Andreja Klepac, reached the semi-finals in the women's doubles at the Qatar Open on Wednesday (Mar 3), her first tournament since Feb 2020 when she played at the same Doha event. The 34-year-old, who recovered from COVID-19 in January, said she wanted to avenge the defeat she

The Qatar Table Tennis Association (QTTA) and Iran's national table tennis organization entered into a partnership yesterday. The contract was signed on the sidelines of the WTT Middle East Center, which is taking place at Lusail Sports Hall. At a signing ceremony witnessed by other representatives from the two organizations, QTTA President Khalil Al Mohannadi joined Mehrdad Ali Gardashi, President of the Iranian Table Tennis Federation. Al Mohannadi shared his pleasure at Gardashi's and the Iran team's participation at the WTT Middle East

Alexander Bublik continued his impressive start to 2021 on Saturday, as he defeated Radu Albot 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the Singapore Tennis Open. Bublik claimed 87 per cent of his service points in the decider (20/23) and struck 12 aces to reach his second final of the year. The Kazakhstani, who retired from last month’s Antalya Open final with a right ankle injury, now owns a 9-3 record in 2021. “[Radu] won three points in the third set on my serve, which means I served great,” said Bublik. After

The WTA 500 tournament organizers reported on Tuesday that World number three Tennis player Simona Halep has been excluded from the Qatar Open in Doha next week.  Halep lost to Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarter-finals last week in straight sets, did not clarify why she was yanking out from the tournament on March 1-6. "Unfortunately, I have made the decision to withdraw from the Qatar Total Open," Halep said in a statement released by the tournament organizers. "It's always one of

SINGAPORE: Japan's Taro Daniel defeated India's Ramkumar Ramanathan on Monday (Feb 22) in a three-set fight to set up a second-round clash with Croatia's Marin Cilic at the Singapore Tennis Open. Daniel won the first set 6-3, but Ramanathan came back to take the second 6-7, prevailing in the tie-breaker. But the Japanese player won the third set 6-3, sealing his victory with a solid forehand volley. "In tennis, you'll always have a chance to have that big break - I think I'm

Arsenal are paying for their poor transfer business, Pickford is showing his worth to Everton and Manchester United are making life hard for themselves. 1) Arsenal’s bright future held back by bad buys As Arsenal edged their way back into the game against Manchester City, there was plenty for Mikel Arteta to take heart from. Yet for all their grit and assurance, the possibility that the hosts might actually steal any points from an uncharacteristically sloppy City side remained painfully distant. With the

Second Australian Open – and fourth major – will not be the last shiny trophy engraved with her name. As a coral sun set behind the Melbourne skyline, Naomi Osaka walked to her mark, danced lightly on the balls of her feet, rapped her left thigh with her left fist two times and crouched, ready to receive Jennifer Brady’s serve. She did this over and over: jig, tap, dip; jig, tap, dip. It was a meditation that secured a second Australian Open title and a

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said on Thursday that The finals of the Billie Jean King Cup, the redesigned Fed Cup which was scheduled to be held from April 13-18 in Budapest, has been deferred once more due to COVID-19 guidelines in Hungary. The opening ceremony 12-nation finals was at first scheduled to take place in March last year before the COVID-19 outbreak obligated authorities to put it back a year. The ITF and the Hungarian National Sports Agency (NSA) said that the

MELBOURNE: Naomi Osaka clinched her fourth Grand Slam title on Saturday (Feb 20) after beating American Jennifer Brady at the Australian Open. The 23-year-old became the first women's player to win her first four Grand Slam finals since Monica Seles in 1991. Here, AFP describes how her two US Opens and two Australian Opens were won: US OPEN 2018 Osaka, 20, became the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam singles title by beating her idol Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 in a

MELBOURNE: Confidence is king and Daniil Medvedev has plenty of it, with the affable Russian morphing into not just one of tennis's best players and premier athletes, but among the smartest. Standing at a lanky 6 ft 6 in and pencil-thin, he has emerged at the forefront of the next wave looking to smash the 'Big Three' monopoly of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. After reaching the 2019 US Open final, where he lost to Nadal, he has worked hard on

MELBOURNE: Second-seeded Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka swept past Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova to clinch their maiden Australian Open doubles crown on Friday (Feb 19). The Belgian-Belarusian combination proved too strong for the third-seeded Czech pair, winning 6-2, 6-3 at the Rod Laver Arena after sealing the match on their fourth championship point. "It's been a tough couple of weeks, so thank you to everyone involved. Glad to have fans back," said Mertens. It was their second Grand Slam success as a

MELBOURNE: Jennifer Brady spent two weeks in hard quarantine gathering mental strength for her tilt at a maiden Grand Slam title, and will hope there is plenty in reserve when she takes on Naomi Osaka in Saturday's (Feb 20) Australian Open final. While some of those in hard quarantine complained about not being able to train before the Grand Slam, Brady likened it to a long decompression session that probably helped her bulldoze through the draw against better-prepared players. Now the rising 25-year-old

Naomi Osaka ended Serena Williams’ bid for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title with an imperious 6-3 6-4 win on Thursday, a victory that booked her spot in her second Australian Open final and left the American great in tears. In a rematch of their tumultuous 2018 U.S. Open decider, Osaka underlined her status as the new queen of women’s tennis and soaked up the cheers from the Rod Laver Arena crowd as fans returned to the Grand Slam after a five-day lockdown.

Naomi Osaka claimed an impressive victory over Serena Williams to reach the Australian Open final and end the American's latest quest for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title. Three-time Slam champion Osaka withstood early pressure from Williams to win 6-3 6-4. Osaka is on a 20-match unbeaten streak and has never lost a Slam final. The Japanese will face Jennifer Brady in Saturday's final after the American beat Karolina Muchova. Brady came past the Czech 6-4 3-6 6-4 to seal a spot in

Novak Djokovic beat Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev  6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 53 minutes to reach his ninth final in of the Australian Open. He will now face the winner of the second men's singles semi-final between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev. Through the tournament, Djokovic has spoken about the abdominal injury that has hampered his movement but the Serb looked his best so far in the tournament and played an incredibly consistent game to get this easy victory. Karatsev made history by becoming the

In the middle of the first set, sensing her peril, Serena Williams bent at the waist and screamed to herself. “Make a shot,” she yelled. “Make a shot.” If only it was that easy. Unlike most of her matches during her legendary, two-decade-plus career, the Australian Open semifinals wasn’t so much about what Serena could do, but what her opponent could do … only better. Williams’ latest quest for her 24th Grand Slam championship ran into the buzzsaw known as Naomi Osaka in

MELBOURNE: Daniil Medvedev came out on top of a brutal all-Russian clash Thursday against Andrey Rublev to move into his first Australian Open semi-final and inch closer to a maiden Grand Slam title. The fourth seed had more firepower than his younger, eighth-seeded rival in scorching conditions on Rod Laver Arena, grinding him down 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 to extend his win-streak to 19 matches. His reward is a last-four clash with either 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal or fifth-seeded Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas."I

Karolina Muchova staged a stunning comeback Thursday to upset Ashleigh Barty and storm into the Australian Open semi-finals. Karolina Muchova staged a stunning comeback Thursday to upset Ashleigh Barty and storm into the Australian Open semi-finals, rallying from a set down to shatter the world number one's dreams. The Czech 25th seed looked on her way out after Barty raced through the opening set, but after a medical timeout Muchova returned a different player to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena

15 Feb 2021: Australian Open: Novak Djokovic registers 300th Grand Slam win World number one Novak Djokovic defeated Milos Raonic in two hours and 56 minutes on Rod Laver Arena to book a spot in the Australian Open quarter-finals for the 12th time. With 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Canadian number 14 seed, Djokovic went on to record his 300th win at Grand Slams.Here is more on the same. Fact: Djokovic only behind Federer in terms of Grand Slam winsDjokovic became