kei nishikori

Juan Martin Del Potro Earns His Best Win Of The Year

One of 2016’s best storylines was the resurgence of Juan Martin del Potro, a U.S. Open winner who sank below No. 1000 during his long absence from the tour to deal with wrist injuries. But his ascent slowed this year, as the 28-year-old Argentine, whose No. 34 ranking still grossly undersells his talent, kept getting…

The Indian Wells Men's Draw Is One Big Clusterfuck

Today, out in the Coachella Valley, the Indian Wells Masters will begin. It’s the highest-profile tennis tournament in the world after the four Grand Slams, dropping a fat bounty of 1000 ranking points on its winners. Everyone in the tennis universe should be excited, except for Serena Williams and all her fans, after…

Kei Nishikori Is Shook

Kei Nishikori is the fifth-best tennis player in the world and even his practice sessions get mobbed in his native Japan. His trademark shot is the down-the-line backhand, a smoothly flicked frozen rope. You might have last seen him in January taking Roger Federer to five sets in the quarters of the Australian Open.…

Alexandr Dolgopolov's Best Weapon Is The Screwiest Game In Tennis

One complaint lobbed at today’s game is that everyone is content to play the same style of tennis: Just stand at the back of the court and hit hard topspin groundstrokes over and over until your opponent, who’s attempting the same, can’t keep up. We live in a “power baseline” era, and it didn’t use to be that way, the…

Roger Federer Was Better Than Vintage

“It’s not so much fun,” said Tomas Berdych, the 10th seed at the Australian Open, after getting picked apart in a neat 92 minutes. “I would rather be in the stands watching than on the court.”

Stan Wawrinka And Kei Nishikori Had To Work At The Australian Open's First Round

The first round’s over in the Australian Open and no giants have been toppled yet, but two are already exposing their vulnerabilities: No. 4 seed Stan Wawrinka and No. 5 seed Kei Nishikori were both stretched to five sets in their opening matches.

"Baby Federer" Is Growing Up, Collecting Scalps

It can’t be totally pleasant to attract premature comparisons to the greatest of all time. Too early in his career, Grigor Dimitrov was saddled with the nickname “Baby Fed,” a comparison that spoke more to aesthetics than to his record of success: He has the same lethal, fluid groundstrokes as the Swiss master, that…