Nadal to retire after Davis Cup

Rafael Nadal is calling it a career. In a video on his X account on Thursday, the 22-time Grand Slam champion announced that he will officially retire from professional tennis competition following the 2024 Davis Cup Finals in November.

"The reality is that it has been some difficult years, these last two especially," Nadal said. "I don't think I have been able to play without limitations. It is obviously a difficult decision, one that has taken me some time to make. But in this life, everything has a beginning and an end. And I think it's the appropriate time to put an end to a career that has been long and much more successful than I could have ever imagined."

Nadal previously alluded to the fact that 2024 might be his last professional season, but hadn't made any announcements prior to Thursday. Most recently, Nadal participated in the 2024 Paris Olympics in both the singles and doubles tournaments.

"I am very excited that my last tournament will be the final of the Davis Cup and representing my country," Nadal said. "I think I've come full circle, since one of my first great joys as a professional tennis player was the Davis Cup final in Seville in 2004."

Nadal, 38, has dealt with significant injuries in recent years as he missed nearly all of the 2023 tennis calendar due to a hip injury. He suffered another setback at the start of the year with a small muscle tear in his hip, though not in the same spot where he underwent surgery.

In June, Nadal announced that he was going to skip Wimbledon this year as he prepared for the Summer Games. The Spanish star has two Wimbledon titles to his name with the most recent win coming in 2010. He has also won a pair of Olympic gold medals during his professional career, taking home an Olympic singles gold medal in 2008 and an Olympic doubles gold medal in 2016.

Nadal has won 22 Grand Slam titles over the course of his career. His greatest success came at Roland Garros where he won the French Open an astonishing 14 times. The 38-year old won his final Grand Slam tournament in 2022 when he was victorious at the French Open.

line judges eliminated at Wimbledon too

LONDON — Wimbledon is replacing line judges with electronic line-calling, the latest step into the modern age by the oldest Grand Slam tennis tournament.

The All England Club announced that technology will be used to give the “out” and “fault” calls at the championships from 2025, eliminating the need for human officials to make them.

Wimbledon organizers said the decision to adopt live electronic line calling was made following extensive testing at the 2024 tournament and “builds on the existing ball-tracking and line-calling technology that has been in place for many years.”

“We consider the technology to be sufficiently robust and the time is right to take this important step in seeking maximum accuracy in our officiating,” said Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Club. “For the players, it will offer them the same conditions they have played under at a number of other events on tour.”

The move makes the French Open the only Grand Slam tournament without some form of electronic line-calling. The Australian Open and U.S. Open already had eliminated line judges and only have chair umpires on court.

Line judges at Wimbledon were dressed in famously elegant uniforms and, for traditionalists, were part of the furniture at the All England Club.

Bolton said Wimbledon had a responsibility to “balance tradition and innovation.”

“Line umpires have played a central role in our officiating set-up at the championships for many decades,” she said, “and we recognize their valuable contribution and thank them for their commitment and service.”

Line-calling technology has long been used at Wimbledon and other tennis tournaments to call whether serves are in or out.

At the U.S. Open, there has been no line judges — and only chair umpires — since 2021, with Hawk-Eye Live electronic line-calling used for all courts.

Federer announces retirement

Roger Federer announced his decision to retire from tennis after next week's Laver Cup in a statement shared on his verified social media accounts Thursday (September 15) morning.

Federer, a 20-time Grand Slam champion, cited recent injuries and surgeries as factors leading to his decision.

"As many of you know, the past three years have presented me with challenges in the form of injuries and surgeries," Federer said. "I've worked hard to return to full competitive form. But I also know my body's capacities and limits, and its message to me lately has been clear.

"I am 41 years old. I have played more than 1,500 matches over 24 years. Tennis has treated me more generously than I ever would have dreamt, and now I must recognize when it is time to end my competitive career."

Serena and LeBron named athletes of the decade

Serena Williams dominated the decade, on the court and in conversation.

There were, to begin with, the dozen Grand Slam single titles — no other woman had more than three over the past 10 seasons — and the 3 1/2 years in a row at No. 1 in the WTA rankings.

And then there was the celebrity status that transcended tennis, making everything she did and said newsworthy, whether it was the triumphs and trophies and fashion statements or the disputes with tournament officials, the magazine covers or the Super Bowl ad with a message about women's power, the birth of her daughter or the health scare that followed.

Still winning matches and reaching Grand Slam finals into her late 30s, still mattering as much as ever, Williams was selected by The Associated Press as the Female Athlete of the Decade on Saturday after a vote by AP member sports editors and AP beat writers.

***

He left Cleveland for Miami, finally became a champion, went back to his beloved northeast Ohio, delivered on another title promise, then left for the Los Angeles Lakers and the next challenge. He played in eight straight finals. No NBA player won more games or more MVP awards over the last 10 years than he did. He started a school. He married his high school sweetheart.

“That’s all?” LeBron James asked, feigning disbelief.

No, that’s not all. Those were just some highlights of the last 10 years. There were many more, as the man called “King” spent the last decade reigning over all others — with no signs of slowing down.

James is The Associated Press male athlete of the decade, adding his name to a list that includes Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky and Arnold Palmer. He was a runaway winner in a vote of AP member sports editors and AP beat writers, easily outpacing runner-up Tom Brady of the New England Patriots.

50 greatest black athletes

The Undefeated partnered with SurveyMonkey to poll the public on the 50 Greatest Black Athletes. In April, 10,350 adults were asked to rank 200 athletes on 20 different surveys.

Respondents were asked how great of an athlete each person was/is using a scale of 1 to 10 stars. The athletes were ranked in order based on their average scores to form a top 50 list. From there, the top 60 athletes (including the first 10 who didn’t make the cut to 50) were used to create a final ranking. Each athlete was ranked on four factors: overall ranking, dominance, inspiration and impact on society. Average scores were calculated from each factor to create a composite score.

Athletes were ranked in order by their composite score to determine our final list, which will be unveiled in groups of 10 per week for five weeks. We’ll have more on how the public voted – broken down by race, age, gender, education level and census region – after the final group is revealed. The Undefeated’s Justin Tinsley, Jerry Bembry and Aaron Dodson wrote the biographies of the athletes, although they didn’t agree with some of the rankings. But the people have spoken, and the results should spark some serious debate.

***

Here's a sample of how controversial (and ridiculous) the rankings are.  Here's number 60-50:

    No. 60: Floyd Mayweather Jr.
    No. 59: Randy Moss
    No. 58: Kobe Bryant
    No. 57: Scottie Pippen
    No. 56: Moses Malone
    No. 55: Dominique Wilkins
    No. 54: Russell Westbrook
    No. 53: Walt Frazier
    No. 52: Evander Holyfield
    No. 51: Kevin Durant

Kobe ranked behind Pippen and Dominique and Clyde?  Dominique wasn't even rated as a top 50 basketball player!  (Admittedly though, not by me.)

OK, let's scroll down the count-down.

50.  Tim Duncan

49.  Isaiah Thomas

48.  Earl Campbell

47.  Derek Jeter

46.  David Robinson

45.  Joe Frazier

44.  Barry Sanders

43.  Reggie Jackson

42.  Larry Fitzgerald (what?)

41.  Ernie Banks

40.  Roberto Clemente

39.  Ray Robinson

38.  Arthur Ashe

37.  Ken Griffey Jr.

36.  Bill Russell (you're kidding)

35.  George Foreman

34.  Herschel Walker (really? well he was good in college)

33.  Florence Griffith Joyner

32.  Carl Lewis

31.  Michael Johnson

30.  Jim Brown (I'd rank him in the top 5, only 23 in dominance?)

29.  LeBron James

28.  Stephen Curry (above LeBron and Bill Russell and Kobe?)

27.  Jackie Joyner-Kersee

26.  Wilt Chamberlain (I'd rank him in the top 5 too)

25.  Bo Jackson (he wouldn't be on my list)

24.  Sugar Ray Leonard

23.  Joe Louis

22.  Pele (he'd be top 10 on my list)

21.  Wilma Rudolph

20.  Gale Sayers (what's he doing here?)

19.  Emmitt Smith (ditto)

18.  Satchel Paige

17.  Julius Erving (well he was awesome in the ABA)

16.  Shaquille O'Neal (well he did star in Kazaam)

15.  Venus Williams (what?)

14.  Usain Bolt

13.  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

12.  Walter Payton

11.  Magic Johnson

10.  Jerry Rice

9.  Gabby Douglas (really? Well they did make a movie about her)

8.  Simone Biles (huh?)

7.  Hank Aaron

6.  Serena Williams

5.  Jesse Owens

4.  Willie Mays (I'm a fan, but this high?)

3.  Muhammad Ali (I'd put him no. 1)

2.  Jackie Robinson (I'd put him no. 2)

1.  Michael Jordan

No O.J.?  No Barry Bonds?  I guess I understand..  What about Mike Tyson? Tiger Woods is not black?

Nishikori stuns Djokovic

NEW YORK >> Japan's Kei Nishikori became the first man from Asia to reach a Grand Slam final, stunning top-ranked Novak Djokovic 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 in stifling heat Saturday at the U.S. Open.

"It's just amazing, an amazing feeling beating the No. 1 player," Nishikori said during an on-court interview.

He had played five-set marathons in his last two matches totaling more than 8 1/2 hours, yet he looked far fresher than a player known as one of the fittest on tour.

"He just played better in these conditions than I did," Djokovic said.

Under coach Michael Chang, the 1989 French Open champ, the 24-year-old Nishikori has sharpened his mental game to pull out victories like these.

"We've been working super well," Nishikori said, referring to Chang and co-coach Dante Bottini. "That's why I'm here."

***

NEW YORK >> Instead of Novak Djokovic vs. Roger Federer for the U.S. Open title, first-time Grand Slam finalists Kei Nishikori and Marin Cilic will vie for the championship after a pair of semifinal surprises Saturday.

First, Japan's Nishikori became the first man from Asia to reach a major singles championship match by staying fresher than Djokovic in stifling heat and winning 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Then, Croatia's Cilic used every bit of his 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) frame to deliver stinging serves and flat groundstrokes during a quick-as-can-be 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Federer.

"It's fairly simple, I think: Marin played great and I maybe didn't catch my best day," Federer said after his 1-hour, 45-minute loss. "That's pretty much it in a nutshell."

So much for No. 1-seeded Djokovic facing the No. 2-seeded Federer in a matchup between men who have combined to win 24 Grand Slam trophies. In what some will see as signaling a generational shift in tennis, Monday's final will be No. 10 Nishikori against No. 14 Cilic.

"That's going to be a sensational day for both of us," said Cilic, who at 25 is a year older than Nishikori.

For the first time in nearly a decade -- since Marat Safin beat Lleyton Hewitt at the Australian Open in January 2005 -- a major final will be contested without at least one of Federer, Djokovic or Rafael Nadal, who didn't attempt to defend his 2013 U.S. Open title because of a right wrist injury.

That trio won 34 of the past 38 Grand Slam trophies, including two months ago at Wimbledon, when Djokovic edged Federer in a five-set final.

Alyssa Tobita streak ended by freshman

St. Francis freshman Taylor Lau defeated defending three-time state champion Alyssa Tobita of Mililani 6-1, 6-3 to win the girls singles title at the Carlsmith Ball/ HHSAA State Tennis Championships in Wailea, Maui, on Saturday.

"After it was over, I was sad for Alyssa," Lau said. "It's always good winning, but it's sad seeing the effects that winning can have on people because she was trying to win it four times."

Lau, who is rated a four-star recruit and ranked 80th in her age group nationally by tennisrecruiting.net, earned her bronze ball by finishing third in a junior tournament in Mobile, Ala., in March.

She also won the USTA President's Day Junior Section Championship in February and the Wailuku Winter Junior Sectionals in January. Lau advanced through her bracket with 6-0, 6-0 wins in her first three matches. In the semifinals, she beat ILH champion Ashley Ishimura of Punahou by winning 3-6, 6-2, (2).

 *** [5/3/14]

One match is all that separates Mililani's Alyssa Tobita from a 4-peat in girls singles.

The senior swept past third seed Lani-Rae Green out Waimea 7-5, 6-1 in the semifinal round of the Carlsmith Ball/HHSAA State Tennis Championships on Maui on Friday. 

She got into the semifinal with a quarterfinal win earlier in the day, a sweep of sixth seed Serena Le of Punahou, 6-0, 6-0. Tobita faces St. Francis' Taylor Lau for the title. 

*** [5/2/14]

Mililani senior Alyssa Tobita is two days away from her fourth straight girls singles title.

Tobita swept Baldwin's Jessica Pressman 6-0, 6-0 in the first round of the Carlsmith Ball/HHSAA State Tennis Championships on Maui on Thursday and followed it up with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Kaiser's Lisa Owen in the second round. She will take on Serena Le of Punahou in today's quarterfinals and either third seed Lani-Rae Green of Waimea or OIA runner up Hina Goldsmith of Roosevelt in the semis.

The Tennis Chain-Saw Miracle

Tennis is the sport of a lifetime — or so the saying goes. How many sports have an 80-and-over division? But in 1994, just a year out of college, I was told that I would never play again. Doctors agreed that the two herniated disks in my lower back were so severe that playing any sport that involved running would only increase the intense pain I was experiencing. So, at 23, tennis disappeared from my life, apparently for good. I had no idea that, nine years and one morphine-induced epiphany later, it would return. With a vengeance.

-- by Marc Howard, Tennis.com Magazine, January/February 2007

Murray defeats Djokovic at Wimbledon

LONDON >> From the lawns of Wimbledon to the lochs of Scotland, all of Britain can celebrate.

Andy Murray made it possible Sunday, winning his country's hallowed tennis tournament to become the first British man in 77 years to raise the trophy at the All England Club.

Yes, this was history, and Murray's 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 victory over top-seeded Novak Djokovic was a fitting close to nearly eight decades of British frustration in its own backyard: A straight-setter, yes, but a hard-fought, 3 hour, 9 minute affair filled with long, punishing rallies and a final game that may have felt like another 77 years, with Murray squandering three match points before finally putting it away after four deuces.

On a cloudless, 80-degree day on Centre Court, Murray put his name beside that of Fred Perry, the last British man to win Wimbledon, back in 1936.

That sentence doesn't have to be written again.

The second-seeded Murray beat the best in Djokovic, a six-time Grand Slam winner known for both a mental and physical fitness built to handle what he faced Sunday: A crowd full of 15,000 partisans rooting against him, to say nothing of Murray himself, who, since falling to Roger Federer in the final last year, had shed some baggage by winning the Olympic gold medal on Centre Court, then following that with his first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open.

Andy Roddick announces retirement

The man who has defined American tennis, for better and worse, over the last decade or so, announced on Thursday, his 30th birthday, that this year's U.S. Open will be his last tournament.

He's calling it quits at the scene of his biggest triumph, the 2003 U.S. Open, and at the place where his name was virtually always on the marquee, even as his days as the world's top-ranked player faded further into the rearview mirror.

[9/5/12] Andy Roddick loses to Del Potro in his retirement match

the greatest winning streak

The UConn women went for their 89th straight victory last night when they squared off against Florida State. With their win, they passed John Wooden’s famous UCLA men’s teams of the 1970s that put together the 88-game win streak that served as the gold standard in college basketball before Geno Auriemma’s women began their run. Yet neither of these two teams have the greatest winning streak in sports history.

With a streak that is nearly eight years long and counting, Dutch wheelchair tennis starlet Esther Vergeer has persevered from a spinal cord surgery at 8 years old which rendered her paraplegic to dominate the tennis courts like no other.

No matter the surface, Vergeer has known nothing but victory when she hits the court. Heading into next month’s Australian Open, the Dutchwoman is at 401 straight singles victories and counting. During that streak, further, Vergeer went over two years (from August 2004 to October 2006) without losing a single set — a stretch of 250 sets in which she was pushed to a thirteenth-game tiebreaker but once. Vergeer has won every Grand Slam tournament in which she’s competed in singles and all but her first (the 2002 Australian Open) in doubles. She’s taken seven singles and six doubles titles on the hard courts of Melbourne, all four editions of the French Open wheelchair tournament in both singles and doubles, both of the Wimbledon doubles tournaments held on the lawns of the All-England Club, and all five editions of the U.S. Open for both singles and doubles.

59 to 59

WIMBLEDON, England - On and on and on, and on some more, they played — longer than anyone ever had before. And still there was no winner.

John Isner of Tampa, Fla., and Nicolas Mahut of France were tied at 59-59 in the fifth set at Wimbledon after exactly 10 hours of action when play was suspended because of darkness Wednesday night. It is by far the longest match in terms of games or time in the century-plus history of tennis.

“Nothing like this will ever happen again. Ever,” Isner said.

***

WIMBLEDON, England — The top players took care of business on the big courts at Wimbledon, then found themselves immersed in the drama unfolding on little Court 18.

"Unreal," Andy Roddick tweeted.

"Absolutely amazing," Roger Federer said.

"It's longer than a marathon," Venus Williams said.

The match between John Isner of Tampa, Fla., and Nicolas Mahut of France lasted so long it was suspended because of darkness — for the second night in a row. After 10 hours of play, 881 points and 193 aces over two days, the fifth set was at 59-all.

It kept going because neither player could break the other.

"He's serving fantastic. I'm serving fantastic," Isner said. "That's really all there is to it."

The electronic scoreboard froze and then went blank, perhaps from the fatigue of trying keeping up with the longest match in the sport's history. The Wimbledon website also lost track of the score.

Following an overnight suspension, the match resumed Wednesday at the start the fifth set. More than seven hours later, there was still no winner.

"Nothing like this will ever happen again," Isner said. "Ever."

They were to resume Thursday, still tucked away on Court 18, while Queen Elizabeth II was expected in the Royal Box on Centre Court for her first visit to Wimbledon since 1977.

***

Isner finally prevails after 11 hours and 5 minutes, 70-68.

Jared Spiker to play for UH

University of Hawai‘i men’s tennis coach John Nelson announced the addition of two players to the 2010-11 roster. Jonathan Brooklyn, a native of Hillingdon, England, and Jared Spiker, a two-time Hawai‘i state singles champion, both signed with UH and will join the program this fall.

Spiker is a 2010 graduate of Kalani High School who has won back-to-back state singles titles for the Falcons. The native of Honolulu played just two years of high school tennis and during that span went undefeated, winning two league and two state singles titles. In 2009 Spiker became the first O‘ahu Interscholastic Association player to win a state singles tennis title in 26 years.

The 5-9 Spiker is also a brown belt in judo and was accomplished in that sport—winning three national championships—before turning to tennis. His two older brothers both competed collegiately in wrestling after winning a combined five state high school championships.