Tennis
NOVAK DJOKOVIC’S SERBIA BEATS RAFAEL NADAL’S SPAIN TO WIN ATP CUP
Novak Djokovic inspired Serbia to victory in the inaugural ATP Cup team event in Sydney after defeating his long-term Spanish rival Rafael Nadal in singles on Sunday (Jan 12) before playing a pivotal role in the deciding doubles match.
With the final locked at 1-1, Djokovic partnered veteran Victor Troicki to beat Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta and Feliciano Lopez 6-3 6-4, triggering celebrations that would not be out of place at a Belgrade football match.
The 16-times Grand Slam champion proved to be a calming influence throughout, especially after the Serbian pair fell behind early in the match.
He used his powerful serve and fleet-footed returns to haul his country back into the first set and create a momentum shift Serbia rode all the way to a victory completed in the early hours of Monday morning.
“We are filled with joy,” Djokovic said. “It was probably one of the best doubles we’ve played.”
For Spain, it was a lost opportunity to prove it has the world’s best men’s tennis team, having recently won the revamped Davis Cup and boasting two top 10 players in its ATP Cup side.
Nadal, a capable doubles player who won the doubles Olympic gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, was substituted out of the Spanish combination in a surprise last-minute move he said was a team decision.
The world number one cited a gruelling tournament schedule and lack of energy as part of the reason.
Djokovic earlier beat Nadal 6-2 7-6(4), extending his dominance over the Spaniard on hardcourts, a surface Nadal has not beaten him on since 2013.
Djokovic has created the blueprint to beat the Spaniard on hard courts, although he is one of the very few players good enough to follow the instructions.
The Serbian held his line, and was rarely pushed back deep into the court by the Spaniard’s heavy spin, a position from which Nadal usually dictates terms.
“I was trying to take away as much time as possible from him,” Djokovic said. “I’m just extremely satisfied with the way I performed.”
Djokovic broke Nadal’s serve in the first game, lighting up a near capacity crowd in the 10,500-person canopied-stadium. The noise from the flag-waving Serbian supporters between serves weighed on Nadal, who at one stage gave a sarcastic thumbs-up gesture to his rival’s supporters.
The Spaniard’s reaction only enticed the crowd deeper into the contest as they bellowed Djokovic’s nickname – “Nole, Nole”.
While Nadal is the undisputed king of clay, he hasn’t taken a set off Djokovic played on a hardcourt in nine attempts since his 2013 US Open victory.
After a dominant first set marked by Djokovic’s strong serving, the contest tightened. Nadal employed more attacking serve-volley tactics, and settled into a harder-hitting rhythm.
Trailing 0-40 on his serve in the sixth game of the second set, Djokovic looked likely to crack, but the Spaniard was unable to convert.
The second set was decided in a tiebreak, ending when Nadal netted a forehand.
Earlier, Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut completed a flawless tournament by defeating Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic 7-5 6-1.
The ATP Cup received mixed reviews from players. They applauded the high standard of tennis while also questioning the wisdom of having back-to-back men’s team events, with the Davis Cup completed just weeks before the Sydney event started.
But the victors said the ATP Cup victory was a career highlight. The Serbian team danced on the centre court, and promised to party with their fans through the night.
Djokovic quipped that he might also return to Serbia to celebrate and come back for the Australian Open, which starts next week.
-Reuters
The Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA) has filed a lawsuit against the sport’s governing bodies, accusing them of anti-competitive practices and a disregard for player welfare.
The PTPA, an independent players’ union co-founded by Novak Djokovic in 2019, said on March 18 that after years of good-faith efforts to reform professional tennis, it had been forced to take legal action to end “monopolistic control” of the sport.
In a statement, it said that along with more than a dozen players, the PTPA had filed papers in a New York court against the ATP Tour, the WTA Tour, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).
“Tennis is broken,” said Ahmad Nassar, executive director of the PTPA.
“Behind the glamorous veneer that the defendants promote, players are trapped in an unfair system that exploits their talent, suppresses their earnings, and jeopardises their health and safety.
“We have exhausted all options for reform through dialogue, and the governing bodies have left us no choice but to seek accountability through the courts. Fixing these systemic failures isn’t about disrupting tennis, it’s about saving it for the generations of players and fans to come.”
In response, the ATP accused the PTPA of choosing “division and distraction” and having no meaningful role in the sport.
“We strongly reject the premise of the PTPA’s claims, believe the case to be entirely without merit, and will vigorously defend our position,” it said in a statement.
“ATP remains committed to working in the best interests of the game – towards continued growth, financial stability, and the best possible future for players, tournaments, and fans.”
The WTA defended its record of growing women’s tennis, describing the lawsuit as “baseless”.
“Every decision taken at the WTA Board level includes the input of players via their elected Board representatives, and athletes receive substantial financial rewards and other benefits from participation in the WTA,” the organisation said.
The ITF, meanwhile, stressed its goal is to ensure the growth of tennis as a global sport.
“As a not-for-profit organisation and global guardian of the game… we reinvest 90 per cent of our income into the global development of the game, via our 213 member National Associations,” an ITF spokesperson said.
Describing the various governing bodies as a “cartel”, the PTPA, which has also begun legal action in Britain and the EU, accuses them of paying “artificially low compensation to professional tennis players” and imposing a “draconian” ranking system that forces them to compete in certain tournaments.
The lawsuit also calls the schedule unsustainable, says players are made to play in extreme heat and often in the early hours of the morning, that tennis balls chosen by the tournaments are a factor in chronic injuries and that players’ privacy rights are being abused by random drug tests.
Prior to filing the lawsuit, the PTPA said it met with more than 250 players across the tours, including the majority of the men’s and women’s top 20.
“The overwhelmingly positive player feedback was a resounding confirmation – change is needed now, and players are united in their fight for reform,” the statement added.
Serbia’s 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic has been a fierce advocate for change to the organisation of tennis, insisting that the revenues generated by the sport are not fairly shared out to players.
“Women and men who are around 200 and lower ranked in the world, they are struggling a lot,” he said in a CBS 60 Minutes interview in 2023.
“They can’t afford a coach, they can’t afford travels, they skip tournaments, many of them leave tennis who are super talented and maybe capable of reaching great heights.”
The ITIA, which manages the sport’s anti-doping and anti-corruption programmes, responded to the lawsuit by saying: “Any credible international sport requires robust anti-doping and anti-corruption programmes, and we are proud of our role in contributing to a clean and fair sport.”
-Reuters
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Jannik Sinner has accepted a three-month ban from tennis after the world No. 1 admitted team mistakes led to him twice testing positive for traces of banned substance clostebol in March 2024.
The February 9 to May 4 suspension means Sinner will be free to play in the French Open, the second grand slam of the season, which begins on May 25 at Roland Garros.
In a statement, Sinner said that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accepted that he “had no intent and did not derive any competitive advantage from the two positive tests”.
Australian Open champion Sinner has always said that clostebol entered his system when his physiotherapist used a spray containing it to treat a cut, then provided massage and sports therapy.
“This case had been hanging over me now for nearly a year and the process still had a long time to run with a decision maybe only at the end of the year,” Sinner said.
“I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and realise Wada’s strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love. On that basis I have accepted Wada’s offer to resolve these proceedings on the basis of a three-month sanction.”
Wada said separately that “Sinner did not intend to cheat” but that he would serve his suspension as he is responsible for the actions of his entourage.
The agreement between Sinner and Wada means that Sinner will be able to play in front of his home fans at the Rome Open which kicks off just after the end of his suspension and is the last big clay court tournament before Roland Garros.
-AFP
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Naomi Osaka has parted ways with coach Wim Fissette after four years together across two stints, the 26-year-old announced late on Friday.
The former world number one won two of her four Grand Slam titles under the guidance of the Belgian, but is currently 75th in the rankings having returned to the tour nine months ago after a lengthy maternity break.
“Four years, two slams and a whole lot of memories,” Osaka wrote in an Instagram post.
“Thanks Wim for being a great coach and an even greater person. Wishing you all the best.”
Of the 16 tournaments Osaka has played this season, she has made the quarter-finals in only two – Doha and ‘s-Hertogenbosch – and the Japanese player has also failed to go past the second round in each of the four Grand Slams
-Reuters
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