WTA

Novak Djokovic Set to Return to Indian Wells After 5-Year Absence In a significant comeback, Novak Djokovic is gearing up to participate in the BNP Paribas Open, marking his first appearance at the prestigious event in five years. The world's top-ranked male player's last presence at Indian Wells dates back to 2019, where he was ousted in the third round. His absence in the subsequent years was attributed to his non-vaccination against COVID-19, a requirement for noncitizen visitors to the U.S. until the

Emma Raducanu is through to the second round of the Slovenia Open after winning her first match since her unsuccessful US Open title defence. British number one Raducanu was leading 6-2 5-3 when her opponent Dayana Yastremska was forced to retire. The 22-year-old Ukrainian, who is 89th in the world, injured her wrist while 30-0 down serving to stay in the match. Raducanu, 19, went into the WTA 250 hard-court event as top seed but having slid from 11th to 83rd in the

The Women's Tennis Association has announced the immediate suspension of all tournaments in China amid concern for Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai. Peng, 35, disappeared from public view for three weeks after accusing a top Chinese official of sexual assault. WTA chief Steve Simon said he had "serious doubts" that Peng was "free, safe and not subject to intimidation". "In good conscience, I don't see how I can ask our athletes to compete there," he said. The WTA has repeatedly called for a

ROME: Serena Williams will this week play her first match since her Australian Open semi-final exit in February but the American does not feel unprepared for the WTA 1000 event having had enough practice before arriving in Rome. The 39-year-old said she felt "pretty fresh" ahead of the clay court swing as she prepares for the French Open, which starts at the end of May. "I trained for the past two-and-a-half weeks at Patrick's (coach Mouratoglou's) academy, and then training a lot on

STUTTGART: World number one Ashleigh Barty fought back to reach the semi-finals of the WTA Stuttgart clay-court tournament with a 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 win over Karolina Pliskova on Friday (Apr 23). "It was an incredible match, with two very different opening sets, and the third was extraordinary," said Barty after her 18th win this year. "I felt like I created a lot of opportunities and Karolina was able to come up with some quality stuff on some massive points. "It was a really

STUTTGART, Germany: Karolina Pliskova will face world number one Ashleigh Barty in the quarter-finals of Stuttgart's WTA clay-court tournament after seeing off Jelena Ostapenko in a three-set battle on Thursday (Apr 22). Pliskova, the sixth seed, recovered from losing the first set in a tie-break by firing down 21 aces, 10 of which came in the last set alone, for a 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 6-3 second-round win. "I like spending time on this court," joked Pliskova, the 2018 Stuttgart champion, after needing almost

Eighth-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Germany's Nastasja Schunk on Monday in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix at Stuttgart, Germany. Bencic completed the victory over the 17-year-old Schunk in one hour and 28 minutes. Schunk made it into the main draw with two qualifying victories. The day's only other first-round match featured Maria Sakkari and the Greek recorded six aces while posting a 6-2, 6-2 victory over German wildcard Andrea Petkovic. Sakkari won

Sloane Stephens, looking to shake off a poor start to the season, notched her biggest victory of 2021 on Wednesday, upsetting eighth-seeded Madison Keys 6-4, 6-4 in the second round of the Volvo Car Open at Charleston, S.C. Stephens lost in the first round of each of her first four events of the year, including the Australian Open, before falling in the second round at the recent Miami Open. On Tuesday, she defeated China’s Xinyu Wang in straight sets before winning an all-United

MIAMI, Florida: After players at the Miami Open expressed a reluctance to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the women's tennis governing body said on Tuesday (Mar 30) it would educate athletes and encourage them to get the shot. After fourth round wins on Monday, Ukrainian Elina Svitolina and Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka had aired concerns about how quickly the vaccines had been rolled out and said they would wait before deciding whether to get one. Svitolina added that getting the vaccine made no sense since

Marie Bouzkova expected some adjustment to her first tennis tournament in nearly six months. First was the matter of shedding rust from the layoff caused by the coronavirus shutdown. The Czech Republic player also had to get her mind around the inaugural Top Seed Open and a significantly subdued competitive atmosphere without spectators and a sprinkling of officials around center court. “The beginning felt like practice because my coach was clapping at some point,” said Bouzkova, who quickly adapted to upset No. 3

When the @TennisTV Twitter account asked its followers to pick one of eight tennis-related options, 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer's choice was easy: to bring back his favorite retired player. Turned out that this meant a legion of beloved former champions - including a selection of WTA Legends to whom the former ATP World No.1 paid tribute. Naturally, he began with Swiss compatriot Martina Hingis, with whom Federer won the 2001 Hopman Cup: "She was amazing, loved watching her play. Tennis IQ was off the charts,"

Maria Sharapova stepped away from the beautiful game of tennis after having amassed a total of 36 WTA titles, spending 21 weeks on top of the rankings and with a personal fortune estimated at $300 million. A star-studded career where she reached the pinnacle of women's tennis in her early days when she won Wimbledon at the age of 17. Sadly, her flourishing career had to end with an injury and fans all around the world were blown upon hearing the sudden retirement