Tennis Random, Random (On Court)

[ti-amie]

He's referring to the fact that Juan-Carlos Ferrero, due to weather if I'm remembering correctly, played back to back before his Final vs Roddick who was the fresher player.

I've always side eyed that Final.

He's also 100% correct. Learner Tien vs Djokovic?
Leylah in Sabalenka's section? Sinner getting to the semi's without facing a top ten player?

[ti-amie]

Petra Kvitova: ‘I’m totally ready to retire. I don’t regret anything’
Simon Cambers
As she prepares for final tournament, two-time Wimbledon champion is grateful for her ‘second career’ after 2016 knife attack


Petra Kvitova is looking forward to spending more time with her young son, Petr, after retiring. Photograph: Robert Prange/Getty Images

Wed 20 Aug 2025 10.37 EDT

It would be tempting for Petra Kvitova to dwell on what might have been as she prepares for what will be her last tournament before she retires from tennis. For all her many achievements – she won two Wimbledon titles, 31 tournaments worldwide and reached world No 2 – there has long been a feeling that she could, maybe should, have won even more. Martina Navratilova, her fellow Czech who won Wimbledon a record nine times, said she felt Kvitova could go on to win it five times. But like Rafael Nadal, who always found a way to put things in perspective, Kvitova heads into retirement content that she has given absolutely everything she had.

“It’s my personality, probably, that I didn’t win more,” Kvitova, 35, says on the eve of the US Open. “I think I had a talent. Maybe I could work a little bit more, but then, on the other hand, I think maybe it will kill my talent or my mentality.

“I think I could [have won more]. But what can I do? I played in the final of the Australian Open [in 2019], I lost to Naomi Osaka when she played incredibly in the third set. There are always a few question marks in the number of grand slams. Being world No 1, that’s what I’m missing. Probably that’s the thing I would love to have. But if it’s not happened, it’s not happened. It would not give me a better life or make me happier.”

Given what Kvitova went through in the middle of her career, it’s an impressive sentiment. The champion at Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, the left-hander was ranked No 11 when, in the off-season at the end of 2016, she suffered a horrific knife attack from an intruder in her own home. She needed extensive surgery on her left hand and her doctors gave her only a 10% chance of playing again. But not only did she come back within six months, she went on to win 12 more titles and reached a career-high ranking of No 2, within a sniff of the top ranking.

It required an inner strength she didn’t know she possessed. “I knew I was a big fighter on the court but at that time I realised how I am an even bigger fighter in a totally different version of myself,” she says. “That was great, even though it was very tough to play tennis. I cried on the court, I had really bad flashbacks, I was having nightmares. So it really wasn’t easy. It took a while, but it’s all good now. There was a big question mark, can I play tennis or not? And I could. It was my second career. It was amazing.”

Married to her coach, the former player, Jiri Vanek, Kvitova gave birth to her first child, son Petr, in July 2024. She returned to the Tour only seven months later but struggled physically, winning one of her nine matches. “I’m ready to stop,” she says, and adds that she would like to have another child in due course. “Mentally, I think I can’t do it any more, as well as emotionally and physically.

“You still remember how you played before, how everything was smooth and I was hitting winners and suddenly it’s not there.

“I’m totally ready [to retire]. I’m not regretting anything. I still love tennis but everything else, waiting for the practices, waiting for the car, waiting for a match, it’s just tiring. And having a son, it’s a totally different life. I just want to spend more time with him as well.”

With a big serve and crushing groundstrokes, Kvitova was one of the purest ball-strikers of her generation. At her best, she was almost unbeatable, going 31-11 in finals and winning at least one WTA Tour title every year from 2011 to 2019. Her performance in the 2014 Wimbledon final, when she blitzed Eugenie Bouchard of Canada 6-3, 6-0 in 55 minutes, is regarded as one of the best of all time. Not surprisingly, that’s one of her proudest moments. “It’s totally different to win it for the second time than for the first time,” Kvitova says. “If you know how it feels for the first time, you just want to win it. It’s nothing, nothing more. You just know that winning feeling. That was probably the best memory.”

There were many other highs, not least her six Fed Cup titles with the Czech Republic. She won the WTA Finals on her debut in 2011, won the bronze medal at the Olympics in 2016 and, in 2023, she surprised everyone by winning the Miami Open at the age of 33. “That’s one I was very proud of,” she says. “I didn’t play the best before, I wasn’t really confident at all, I was getting tired and old, and this happened. Very proud of that.”

Looking back, she rues her loss to Kirsten Flipkens in the quarter-final at Wimbledon in 2013 – “I remember I was sick” – but if there is one match she would like back, above all, it would be that Australian Open final when she was edged out by Osaka.

“That was the most painful match of my career, it was terrible,” she admits. “On the other hand, after what happened to me, I would have signed everything to be in the final over there and have a chance to play against the best and be competitive with them. There was maybe one game, I do remember one return, which was a little bit long, that maybe could change everything. I had a break point. But overall, I don’t know what I could change. I think Naomi was just a little bit better. That’s it.”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/ ... pen-tennis

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Ríos' career was marked by a number of controversies.

In 1998, he fired his coach Larry Stefanki shortly after he became world No. 1, claiming that he wanted to go in a different direction.

After achieving number one in singles, an Argentine reporter asked him what it felt like to be at the same status as Guillermo Vilas; he answered, "I've been compared to Vilas for a while now. I do not know him. All I know is that he was No. 2, and I'm No. 1."

He was fined US$10,000 for speeding during the 1998 Stuttgart Indoor tournament.

In a confusing incident, he ran over his physical trainer, Manuel Astorga, in his jeep, causing serious foot injuries. Astorga was later fired as trainer.

After a magazine published some photos of him dancing seductively with a woman at a Paris disco, his girlfriend (later to be his first wife), Giuliana Sotela, broke up with him. During a Davis Cup press conference, Ríos read a letter, asking Sotela for forgiveness. He ended the press conference in tears.

He was accused by his second wife, María Eugenia Larraín, of throwing her out of his car while driving to visit his daughter in Costa Rica. Larraín arrived at Santiago's airport in a dramatic fashion, in a wheelchair, and showing multiple bruises on her legs. He claimed that the bruises were not caused by him but were from a skiing accident.

He was disqualified from the 2000 Mercedes-Benz Cup tennis tournament in Los Angeles, California during a first-round match with Gouichi Motomura of Japan and fined US$5,000 for saying "(expletive) you" to the chair umpire.

He was arrested in Rome in 2001 after he punched a taxi driver on the nose and then had a fight with the policemen arresting him.

In 2003, while training for a Davis Cup tie with Ecuador, he allegedly urinated on some men in a La Serena bar's bathroom and was later expelled from his hotel after being accused of swimming nude. As a consequence, the Chilean team missed a flight to Ecuador the following day. He later apologized for the incidents.

In 2003, he and a friend were expelled from a Santiago bar after insulting other clients and being involved in a brawl with some waiters. Both were arrested and later released.

In 2018, Rios was fined $2,500 by the ITF after refusing to be interviewed in his then duty as an assistant to the Chilean Davis Cup team, and instead insulting journalists during a Davis Cup tie vs. Ecuador. He responded to the questions with: "As my personal friend Diego Maradona says, I never speak to reporters as you can all suck it."

In 2021, during an Instagram livestream, he accused Pamela Jiles, a Chilean deputy, of having tried to rape him as a 14-year-old, claiming that she had attempted to "take a shower" with him after an interview.

[skatingfan]

It is not a secret that tournaments have a power to affect the outcome of certain matches by scheduling. The most known example is Roddick's 2003 title. Did Cincinnati owner Bob Navarro wanted Alcaraz more than Sinner? Possibly. It is not a rocket science to figure out that the guy from Murcia has better tolerance for heat than the one from Alps.
What was his reasoning? Maybe perceived popularity or marketability of Alcaraz. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Sinner was scheduled to play Emma Navarro in US mixed doubled, but then she was replaced by Siniakova. IDK what was the sequence of events in this case. Maybe it was the other way around. In any case I think it is wrong that tournaments play this game. It was wrong in Roddick's case and no less wrong now.
Alcaraz could've won anyway even the evening match, who knows. But sure it would've been more competitive.

Emma Navarro withdrew from the US Open Mixed Doubles to take the wildcard into Monterray, so why would her father punish Sinner? Also the tournament final was scheduled for 3pm EST months ago before anyone knew who the finalists were. Do you think the tournament intentionally got Sinner sick? I can disagree with the scheduling of the tournament, but it was fixed long before the event even started.

[skatingfan]

Also, I looked up the final between Roddick, and Juan Carlos Ferrero - it was 2006, not 2003. I don't have any recollection of this tournament so I can't speak to the accuracy of the rest of the assertions that have been made in this thread.

[ti-amie]

[mick1303]

Also, I looked up the final between Roddick, and Juan Carlos Ferrero - it was 2006, not 2003. I don't have any recollection of this tournament so I can't speak to the accuracy of the rest of the assertions that have been made in this thread.

You're mistaken. In 2006 Roddick played Federer.

[mick1303]

What I remember from 2003 is that it was clear that rain was coming. They had time to play Roddick which is what happened. But they could easily play the other semis in another stadium simultaneously. But chose not to. And JCF ended up playing semis AND the final on Sunday. Which was an atrocity - should've been postponed to Monday. Not to mention questionable officiating in the semis vs Nalbandian.

[ponchi101]

He's referring to the fact that Juan-Carlos Ferrero, due to weather if I'm remembering correctly, played back to back before his Final vs Roddick who was the fresher player.

I've always side eyed that Final.

He's also 100% correct. Learner Tien vs Djokovic?
Leylah in Sabalenka's section? Sinner getting to the semi's without facing a top ten player?

Are you saying they are rigging the draws? At Cincy?

[skatingfan]

Also, I looked up the final between Roddick, and Juan Carlos Ferrero - it was 2006, not 2003. I don't have any recollection of this tournament so I can't speak to the accuracy of the rest of the assertions that have been made in this thread.

You're mistaken. In 2006 Roddick played Federer.

No, it was 2006. Roddick played Mardy Fish in the 2003 final, and lost to Federer in the 2005 final.

https://www.atptour.com/en/players/atp- ... /r485/f316

[ti-amie]

He's referring to the fact that Juan-Carlos Ferrero, due to weather if I'm remembering correctly, played back to back before his Final vs Roddick who was the fresher player.

I've always side eyed that Final.

He's also 100% correct. Learner Tien vs Djokovic?
Leylah in Sabalenka's section? Sinner getting to the semi's without facing a top ten player?

Are you saying they are rigging the draws? At Cincy?

No.

This is a bigger problem at Slams but more so at the US Open. The 2006 Final (thanks skating fan) was played at a distinct disadvantage to Ferrero. As far as I can see the M1000/WTA 1000 events are not that bad. After all countries want their players to do well and there are always shenanigans but the US Open sticks out as being over the top.

Now scheduling...that's a whole other thing.

[ti-amie]

U.S. Tennis president is an out and proud gay man with a husband, 2 kids and a vision for the sport
Former pro tennis player Brian Vahaly speaks on his tennis journey, his struggles as a young gay man and the happiness he's now found.

Colby Grey
August 14, 2025, 8:00 am PDT


USTA President Brian Vahaly, right, with his husband, Bill Jones, and their twins, Parker and Bennett. | Courtesy of Brian Vahaly

Brian Vahaly wears several hats.

He’s chairman and president of the U.S.Tennis Assn. board, the national governing body for tennis in the United States. He’s a former professional tennis player, who reached a high of No. 64 in the world before succumbing to a shoulder injury. He’s an alumni and the first All-American player at the University of Virginia. With a double degree in business and finance, he serves as a senior advisor at Brown Advisory. He’s also a husband — he married his partner, Bill Jones, in 2015 — and a father to twins, Parker and Bennett.

Ahead of the U.S. Open, which starts Aug. 18, Outsports spoke with Vahaly about his history with professional and collegiate tennis, balancing life as a husband and father, his new role at the USTA, and the organization’s initiatives to expand access and make tennis a trailblazer in equal opportunity for all communities.

Outsports: When did you first start playing the game?

Vahaly: I started playing back when I was 2 years old in Atlanta. I don’t know a life without tennis. I played my first tournament at 6 years old. What became a fun hobby playing at local parks became a job at a very young age.

Did you always know you wanted to be a professional tennis player?

There was always the dream of playing professionally, but I was aware of the reality that the vast majority of athletes don’t make it to that level. I grew up watching Andre Agassi and Michael Chang — heroes of mine. After reaching world No. 17 in the juniors, I was one of the few players who decided to go to college. I saw it as a viable option not just for my tennis but primarily for my college education.

At the time, playing collegiate tennis and going pro was more of an either-or situation. What helped you decide to go to college before going pro, and how was your experience?

It was an unusual path but the right one. The difficult lifestyle of traveling the world, finding financial sponsors, and managing a busy schedule all in a relatively individual and lonely sport is an understandable difficult struggle for any 18-year-old. Going to the University of Virginia to play college tennis was a great decision, and I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. It came with some potential sacrifice of losing years on tour, but it developed my game and gave me tremendous career opportunities to fall back on, allowing me to be the best player I could be on court.


Brian Vahaly reached a high of No. 64 in the world rankings.

How did you begin to work with the USTA and what initiatives are you focused on?

After I retired at 27 from professional tennis, I was asked to serve on the board of the USTA. It felt like a wonderful opportunity at that stage of my life to give back. I started as a volunteer for the USTA at 16. Eventually I was elected to serve as president and chairman of the board.

Our goal is to try to serve every community as best as we can to make tennis easily accessible, from investing in public courts to increasing financial commitments to nonprofits like the Trevor Project to prioritize mental health.

You came out as gay several years after playing professional tennis. At what age did you realize you were gay, and how did this affect your upbringing?

I didn’t come to terms with my sexuality until my mid 20s. One of the things tennis teaches you is how to compartmentalize your feelings. There were some I had that I treated as bad ones, and some I denied outright.

Early on, I equated the LGBTQ community with pride parades and bars, none of which I saw myself reflected in. I was an athlete first. I grew up in a conservative, religious upbringing and I wasn’t drawn to that world. Because of this, I was fairly lonely and confused, wasting many years of my life not understanding myself and feeling like an outlier.

During this time, I attended conversion therapy through a church. It was with a group of other men … who were deemed sexual deviants. After a while, you begin to believe that you are some kind of defect yourself.

We had daily or weekly meetings, accountability partners, connecting with each other about our shame, talking about how God could sort of help you through this horrible defect that you had. When you hear that week after week, it’s hard not to believe it a little bit.

And frankly, it was in my mind, helping me to get to the path toward marriage, love and kids, which I thought could only be through a heterosexual relationship. It was hard to want that so badly and feel like my body was betraying me and how to to reconcile that. I just wasted a lot of time fighting against who I authentically am, and that came with some damage.

It took a while to unpack this experience later in my life after sitting in a room where you’re consistently shamed for who you are. It’s hard. But I did this voluntarily.

What motivates me about telling my story and having more athletes tell their story? It’s incredibly confusing when you don’t have people to talk to. You don’t understand the landscape well and you’ve got a lot of personal history to navigate through, telling your friends. What does this mean? Can I still go to church and feel this way? And even at times, the belief that I could still, if I was ultimately attracted to women in some capacity, is there a way that I can fix this or change it? And how can a religious conversion therapy group help me do that?

There’s a lot of unfortunate decisions and a lot of confusing times that I had and I’d love to help other people and in this sort of sports landscape avoid. Because I wasted a lot of years that I shouldn’t have. Now, my goal is to help people not make the same mistake I did.

After your experience in conversion therapy, how did you reconcile your faith with your sexuality?

Today, I’m on the board of the board of directors for the Washington National Cathedral, which is sort of the church of our country. And it’s been great. I quickly learned that I’m not a big fan of organized religion, but I am a big believer in God.

There is hypocrisy in organized religious places, so I’m certainly not comfortable aligning with organized religion, but there are wonderful churches to be connected to. I think the Washington National Cathedral is an unbelievably accepting and loving and warm place. So I found a great church and I think the spiritual component of people’s lives are really important. I worry about members of our community who just feel so unwelcomed, because I do think part of mental health lies in spiritual health as well.

I’ve been able to find that balance, but it is a hard balance. It’s hard to notice that in many churches you go into, you are not welcomed in the love-the-sinner, hate-the-sin approach. But I’m not willing to write off God because of the way humans in organized religions behave. So for me, it’s always a delicate balance. And I certainly respect many members of our community who want nothing to do with it. However, it’s a space that’s important to me.

The women’s tour has a number of out gay players. But in comparison, the men’s tour has only one who has come out while playing. Why do you think this is? Was there something in particular that dissuaded you from coming out while you were on tour?

When I was playing professional tennis in the 2000s, it was a different time and culture, one where being openly gay wasn’t quite as socially acceptable. There were amendments going on to constitutionally ban gay marriage. People were losing their careers over coming out.

I also had hurdles around my religious upbringing to get through. I had hurdles within sport where you often heard homophobic language used as a means to create humor in the locker room, creating a lot of internalized homophobia.

When you work at something for 20-plus years and you’re fortunate enough to be able to become a professional and make a living, it’s the ultimate dream. To take a risk and and talk about sexuality felt like the opportunity to take a sport I loved away from me. And that was a risk, and based on the work I had put in, it was a risk I wasn’t willing to take, let alone the fears that I had, as you think about traveling to countries … where it was illegal to be gay. … And so now, by coming out, I’m limiting where I can play. It felt like a distraction to focus on love and not the quality of my play. That was a bridge too far for me, especially as somebody who considers himself quite an introvert; I wasn’t ready to be known as the gay player.

Afterwards, the driving decision behind my coming out was to share my story in hopes of being a role model to show the type of life my younger self never saw, but always wanted: a life that included being in love, having kids, and all while being an athlete.

Now, you’ve come a long way since this point, fulfilling your dreams to be married and with children.

My life has considerably changed, especially since our kids were born. I think deeply about my kids’ future and what kind of parent I want to be to them. That’s more important to me than beating some Top 10 players.

This year, the U.S. open is hosting its fifth annual Pride event. Is there an itinerary yet?

On Aug. 28, we will be hosting U.S. Open Pride, including a brunch and celebrations in the evening at Arthur Ashe Stadium. My goal is to make tennis the most inclusive sport that it can be, and having people from all walks of life feel welcomed at a sports event. And selfishly, I believe tennis is the right sport for all communities.

Is there anything special about this year’s U.S. Open you are looking forward to?

After watching Serena [Williams] play against [Roger] Federer at the Hopman Cup in 2019, I kept thinking: How could we get some of the greatest men’s and women’s players ever on a court together? Now, we’re launching a brand-new approach to the U.S. Open mixed doubles. All of the top players will be competing for a Grand Slam title and a $1 million prize during the fan week so that it doesn’t interfere with the singles schedule. This has never been done before, and I think it highlights the inclusive nature of our sport.

Mixed doubles in the past has struggled with fan attendance and publicity. Did this play a part in the U.S. Open’s decision to change the draw?

Yes. The mixed doubles finals were not drawing crowds. Most players were picking their partner the week before the tournament. For us, that didn’t feel deserving of a Grand Slam title — an honor that stays with you for life. Knowing that mixed doubles had so much potential, we wanted to reimagine what it could be. We are incredibly proud to see our top athletes competing, and we’re not surprised that ESPN wanted to televise it and that the venue sold out.



https://www.outsports.com/2025/8/14/241 ... r-husband/

[ashkor87]

Saw a panel discussion recently between Lindsay Davenport, Chanda Rubin and Coco Vandeweghe.. the topic was constructing the ideal female tennis player.
There was unanimity on a couple of dimensions:
Serve - Rybakina. Not just the pace and accuracy but the varuety and the fact that her motion is so simple she csn repeat it over and over, consistently
Backhand - Anisimova, with a nod to Kalinskaya
Forehand - the panel was a bit divided, between Swiatek and Sabalenka
Movement - the panel came dotn to Coco on defense and Iga on offense
Competitive spirit - Coco was the unanimous choice
Variety - Jabeur, Andreeva and Davenport finally said 'Krejcikova or Muchova'
----------------------------------
do you agree?
On backhand, I personally would have chosen Coco
Competitive spirit - Ireally dont think Coco is that good- Iga is better
Movement - it is not a footrace, footwork also counts. I would mention Paolini
I was a bit surprised there was no mention of volley (i would say Muchova in singles and Townsend or Siniakova in doubles)
or service return (Coco or Azarenka)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
What about the men? That was not discussed..
Serve - Taylor Pritz
Forehand - Sinner
Backhand - Zverev
Volley and movement, and variety - Alcaraz (Bublik gets a nod for variety)
service return - Djokovic..
Competitive spirit -tough one, I would say Alcaraz (beaten only once in a grand slam final)

[skatingfan]

What I remember from 2003 is that it was clear that rain was coming. They had time to play Roddick which is what happened. But they could easily play the other semis in another stadium simultaneously. But chose not to. And JCF ended up playing semis AND the final on Sunday. Which was an atrocity - should've been postponed to Monday. Not to mention questionable officiating in the semis vs Nalbandian.

Okay, I see the problem here. I thought you were talking about Cincinnati, and you're talking about the US Open. I still don't remember the scheduling issue you're referring to.