Sydney Emily

19/03/2024

Manchester is one of four cities that will host the group stage of the Davis Cup Finals from 10-15 September.

The event will take place at the AO Arena as well as in Bologna in Italy, Valencia in Spain and Zhuhai in China.

Great Britain pulled off a thrilling group-stage win over France in Manchester last year as Dan Evans and Neal Skupski saved four match points before winning the deciding tie.

GB were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Serbia.

believe that we are fundamentally the same and have the same basic potential.

19/03/2024

Maria Sakkari beat US Open champion Coco Gauff in a rain-hit match to set up an Indian Wells final against world number one Iga Swiatek.

Greece's Sakkari let a 5-2 second-set lead slip but regrouped to beat third seed Gauff 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-2.

Rain held up play in California in the middle of the first set and again at the start of the second.

Poland's Swiatek earlier needed just 65 minutes to beat Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk 6-2 6-1.

Sunday's final will be a rematch of the 2022 showpiece, which Swiatek won in straight sets.

Swiatek is bidding for her second title of the year after winning the Qatar Open, while Sakkari is aiming for her first.

While Swiatek is yet to drop a set in this year's tournament, Sakkari had to go the distance against American Gauff, missing three match points in the second set.

Gauff dominated the resulting tie-break and broke in the first game of the third set before Sakkari regrouped.

The ninth seed immediately rescued the break and won four games in a row to take a 4-1 lead.

Gauff served to stay in the match at 5-2 down but, despite saving another match point, was unable to hold off Sakkari.

"I don't want to disrespect Coco but it would've been amazing if this match was over an hour ago," Sakkari joked afterwards.

"Coco is such an amazing opponent. I'm just so happy I'm in the final once again here."

In the men's draw, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz plays Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner in the last four from 19:00 GMT, followed by last year's runner-up Daniil Medvedev against home hope Tommy Paul in the second semi-final.

Elsewhere, world number one Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the Miami Open, which starts on 20 March.

The Serb, who was beaten in the third round at Indian Wells by Italian Luca Nardi, said he must be selective with the tournaments he plays.

"Unfortunately I won't be playing the Miami Open this year," Djokovic wrote on X. "At this stage of my career, I'm balancing my private and professional schedule. I'm sorry that I won't experience some of the best and most passionate fans in the world."

07/03/2024

Katie Boulter won her first WTA 500 title by fighting back from a set down to defeat Marta Kostyuk in the San Diego Open final.

The 27-year-old Briton won 5-7 6-2 6-2 in the biggest triumph of her career so far.

After a close first set, Boulter dominated Ukrainian Kostyuk to secure a victory that lifts her to a career-high ranking of 27th in the world.

"I don't know what just happened," Boulter said after the match.

"This week has been very, very special for so many different reasons. This one is pretty amazing, I've worked very hard for it, I played some incredible tennis all week.

"Today was a complete battle, with myself as well, because I was a little bit nervous. But I managed to get over the line, and that I'm very proud of."

Boulter converted seven of her 11 break points and also saved seven of the 11 that she faced.

She recovered from 5-2 down in the first set to get back to 5-5, saving five set points in the process, but Kostyuk took the opener when the Briton double-faulted.

Boulter found her form and dominated from that point, breaking Kostyuk three times in the second set to force a decider. In the final set, she broke serve twice more and served out the match by hitting her first two aces of the match and a forehand winner on championship point.

Boulter was greeted by her boyfriend, Australian player Alex de Minaur, who flew from Acapulco early in the morning after retaining his title at the Mexican Open on Saturday.

"I want to say a small special thank you to my boyfriend," Boulter added.

"He finished last night at midnight and I really want to embarrass him. He got on a 4.15 taxi this morning and six o'clock flight to be here today, so I do appreciate it."

The WTA Tour includes 250, 500 and 1,000-level events - the categories denoting the number of rankings points awarded to the champion.

Boulter has risen 99 places in the rankings since winning her only other tour title at last year's Nottingham Open, a WTA 250 event.

26/02/2024

Karen Khachanov won his sixth ATP tour title at the Qatar Open as he defeated teenager Jakub Mensik in straight sets 7-6 (14-12) 6-4.

World number 17, Khachanov, 27, of Russia, did not drop a set in the tournament.

Czech player Mensik, 18, was the first teenager to reach the Qatar Open final.

Mensik hit 16 aces in the final and Khachanov said: "For a minute, I thought I was playing John Isner and not Jakub Mensik today."

Mensik, who is ranked 116th in the world, had beaten Andy Murray and world number five Andrey Rublev en route to the final.

Elsewhere, in the WTA Dubai Open Jasmine Paolini came from behind to beat Anna Kalinskaya.

15/02/2024

British number two Jodie Burrage has been knocked out of the Linz Open after losing to Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in the quarter-finals.

Top seed Ostapenko won 6-1 6-2 to progress to the last four in Austria.

Burrage, 24, had beaten Romania's Jaqueline Cristian in the previous round to reach the last eight of a WTA 500 event for the first time.

But she struggled after picking up an injury early on against Ostapenko, who won in one hour and 10 minutes.

09/02/2024

Saudi Arabia will host a new elite tennis exhibition featuring Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal and three other Grand Slam winners in October.

The Six Kings Slam event will form part of the Saudi cultural and entertainment festival Riyadh Season.

Major winners Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner will also line up, as well as Holger Rune.

The event will take place during the ATP season, which already has a full schedule that month.

Exhibition events are usually played during breaks in the ATP season or after it has finished but in October players are already due to be involved in Masters 1000 tournaments in Shanghai and Paris.

Spaniard Nadal, who signed up as an ambassador for the Saudi Arabian Tennis Federation last month, said he was looking forward to the event.

"After some other tennis players have done so, I am very excited to play for the first time in Riyadh," the 22-time Grand Slam champion said.

Saudi Arabia already hosts the season-ending Next Gen ATP Finals for the leading men's under-21 players in Jeddah and there has been extensive debate over the country potentially hosting the women's WTA Finals.

Recently, tennis greats Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova wrote an opinion piece outlining their opposition to the women's season-ending event being staged there.

Critics of Saudi Arabia have accused the oil-rich kingdom of using its wealth to invest in sports in a bid to improve its image - known as 'sportswashing'.

It follows recent heavy investment in golf, Formula 1, football and boxing in particular.

Campaigning organisations remain critical of Saudi Arabia's record on human rights and equality.

02/02/2024

The PGA Tour has agreed a private equity deal worth around $3bn (£2.36bn) with a group of investors led by the Fenway Sports Group, which owns Liverpool FC.

As a result, golfers who have remained loyal to the tour and rejected advances from the rival LIV Golf circuit are set to receive $1.5bn in immediate and future equity.

Members have been briefed on the deal, which has been in the pipeline since December last year. This coincides with the launch of PGA Tour Enterprises, a newly formed for profit company which has been initially valued at $12bn and will run parallel with the non-profit, tax-exempt tour.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, who will serve as chief executive of the new profit seeking enterprise, said: "Today marks an important moment for the PGA Tour and fans of golf across the world.

"By making PGA Tour members owners of their league, we strengthen the collective investment of our players in the success of the PGA Tour."

In a joint statement, PGA Tour player directors Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson, Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods, added: "We were proud to vote in unanimous support of this historic partnership.

22/01/2024

Nick Dunlap held his nerve to become the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson in 1991.

The 20-year-old holed a six-foot par putt on the last to claim The American Express title by one shot from South Africa's Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

Because he is an amateur, the American will not receive any prize money, with the $1.5m (£1.2m) winner's cheque going to Bezuidenhout.

"It's so cool to be experiencing this as an amateur," said Dunlap.

"Whether I made or missed that, if you had told me come Wednesday night that I had a putt to win this tournament, I wouldn't have believed you."

Mickelson, a six-time major winner, posted on X: "Such an impressive performance by Nick Dunlap. Congratulations on an incredible win."

Dunlap - who had missed the cut in his previous three events on the PGA Tour - now has a two-year exemption on the circuit as well as entry to the Masters, the US PGA Championship and The Players Championship.

His stock was high even before this sensational victory after he emulated Tiger Woods last year by becoming the second player to win both the US Junior Amateur and US Amateur titles.

His final round at La Quinta's Pete Dye-designed Stadium course featured a double-bogey six on the short par-four seventh after he pushed an iron shot off the tee into a lake as his three-shot overnight lead evaporated.

But the University of Alabama student responded magnificently with three birdies in his next nine holes as he closed with a two-under 70 to hold off a charging Bezuidenhout and become just the seventh amateur to win a PGA Tour event.

The South African - who holed a 138-yard wedge shot for an eagle two on the par-four 15th - also birdied the last in a seven-under 65 to set a clubhouse target of 28 under.

Dunlap, who had moved to 29 under with a birdie on the 16th, admitted he was unaware of Bezuidenhout's final-hole birdie and, when he was standing over his second shot to the last, he thought he had a two-shot lead.

His approach leaked right and hit a spectator before fortuitously coming to rest a couple of yards off the edge of the green.

He chipped up to six feet and nervelessly holed the putt after his caddie told him "it's inside left, you've made a million of these before".

When asked if the next natural step was to turn professional, he replied: "I don't know. I have to take a second to let what just happened sink in a little bit.

"That's a decision that's not just about me. It affects a lot of people, and obviously I'm going to try to enjoy this."