Z-PRO MEDIA

  Alexander Zverev's back-to-back stellar Grand Slam performances have elevated him to No. 2 in the world behind Wimbledon champion Jannik Sinner of Italy. The ATP rankings revealed Monday have Zverev inching into second ‌ahead of Spain's Carlos Alcaraz, who missed both the French Open and Wimbledon with a wrist injury. Zverev won the French Open last month for his first career major title and reached Sunday's Wimbledon final before falling to Sinner in four sets. "I think I've been pushing those guys," ⁠Zverev said after the loss to Sinner. "I haven't beaten them this year, but I've pushed them to the limits, I would say." Since the start of 2024, Sinner and Alcaraz have won 10 of 11 Grand Slam titles -- five apiece. Zverev is the only other winner during the span. Zverev is aiming to turn the top twosome into a trio of top players. "There was always this conversation, ‘Who will be the third guy?'" Zverev said. "I've a...

  Italy's Flavio Cobolli will need to start booking his accommodation for longer at Grand Slams if his current rate of progress continues after admitting his win over Alex ‌de Minaur on Monday left him temporarily homeless. The 24-year-old turned what was expected to be a closely fought battle into a one-sided romp as he outclassed the Australian fifth seed 7-5 7-6(4) 6-3 on a blazing Court One to set up a clash with ⁠British wildcard Arthur Fery. It is the second year running Cobolli has impressed at Wimbledon after reaching his first Grand Slam quarter-final last year, so it was surprising to learn his accommodation had not been booked for the duration of the Championships. Asked immediately after his match what he was going to do to celebrate his victory, soccer-mad Cobolli said: "Ice cream and today my dad cooks pasta with tomato and onion. "It's the World Cup ‌so ⁠I want to see Spain and Portugal. I hope I can go early to the house but first of all we have to fin...

  American great Serena Williams will return to Wimbledon with her sister Venus ‌following a four-year absence after the All England Club gave the pair a doubles wildcard on Tuesday and added a fascinating storyline to this year's tournament. Serena has 23 Grand Slam singles titles, including seven at Wimbledon, and has also captured six doubles titles at the All England Club playing alongside her older sibling. The 44-year-old made ⁠a long-awaited comeback this month at the Queen's Club Championships, playing doubles with Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko. That partnership was cut short after Mboko suffered a knee injury that ruled her out of Wimbledon. Williams is now gearing up for the grasscourt Grand Slam beginning on June 29 by playing doubles in Berlin this week partnering Karolina Muchova. Her last match at Wimbledon was in 2022 when she also needed a wildcard and lost to Harmony Tan in the first round. Wildcards are handed to players whose ranking does not allow them au...

  Czech qualifier Nikola Bartunkova knocked off No. 9 seed Diana Shnaider of Russia 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-3 in a back-and-forth first-round match at the Berlin Tennis Open on Monday. Bartunkova ‌fell behind 3-0 in the second set, rallied for a 5-4 lead and served for the match before Shnaider saved double match point, then prevailed in the tiebreaker. Shnaider went up 3-0 again in the third set but Bartunkova ripped ⁠off six straight games to turn the tables. Only two other main-draw matches were played on Monday. Belgium's Elise Mertens charged back for a 1-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory over Russia's Liudmila Samsonova, and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova won her first set 6-1 before Austrian opponent Anastasia Potapova retired. Lexus Nottingham Open No. 3 seed Emma Navarro shrugged off a first-set tiebreaker loss and defeated Hungary's Anna Bondar 6-7 (6), 6-3, ‌6-2 ⁠in the first round in Great Britain. Navarro won an impressive 76.8% of her total service points (63 of 82) to counter Bonda...

  Poland's Kamil Majchrzak notched a stunning upset quarterfinal victory on Friday, taking down top-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 6-3 in 69 minutes in the Libema Open at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. Majchrzak won 85.1% (40 of 47) ‌of his service points while earning his second career Top-10 victory. He will play in his third career ATP semifinal against the winner of Saturday's quarterfinal between No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia and Marin Cilic of Croatia. Medvedev registered a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (6) victory over ⁠Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands, while Cilic rallied for a 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over Nuno Borges of Portugal. No. 2 Alex de Minaur will face France's Adrian Mannarino in the other semifinal. Australia's de Minaur swept France's Benjamin Bonzi 6-2, 6-4, and Mannarino beat China's Zhang Zhizhen 7-6 (4), 6-3. BOSS Open Defending champion Taylor Fritz rallied for the second straight day, this time posting a 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Ita...

  American great Serena Williams said she was still to decide whether to play at Wimbledon after making a winning comeback on Tuesday nearly four years after her last competitive match. The 44-year-old stole the limelight ‌at the Queen's Club WTA event on Tuesday as she returned to the court alongside Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko to beat Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe in front of a packed stadium. Her performance, packing plenty of her trademark firepower, was impressive and with Wimbledon just around the corner, the prospect of her returning to the site of seven of her Grand Slam ⁠singles titles is an enticing one. While she has been coy on a possible singles return, a doubles appearance would be a huge boost to the tournament's TV ratings and she would almost certainly receive a wildcard. "Like I said the other day, it's just a day at a time. I still have a little time to decide, and they have been great about giving me that space and time to decide,...

  Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk said she would carry her remarkable claycourt winning streak "to the grave" after it was ended by Russia's Mirra Andreeva in Thursday's French Open semi-finals, but the crowd's support for her war awareness efforts would be her defining memory of the tournament. Kostyuk's ‌6-1 6-3 semi-final defeat ended a 17-match winning run on clay this season, a stretch that included a Madrid Open title and a victory over Andreeva in the final. "For sure, my streak. I take it with me to the grave," Kostyuk told reporters with a smile. "Very happy with my claycourt season, just one loss. I would never believe it if someone told me this a couple of months ago." The 15th ⁠seed struggled to find her rhythm against a relentless Andreeva, who reached her maiden Grand Slam final, but refused to dwell on the defeat. "Everything that could go her way went her way. Everything that could not go my way didn't go my way," ...

  Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori retained their French Open mixed doubles title on Thursday, staging a comeback to defeat ‌American Evan King and Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski 4-6 6-3 (10-4). The Italian duo dominated the deciding match tiebreak on Court Philippe Chatrier and are the first pair to successfully defend the French Open mixed doubles title since ⁠Croatia's Ivan Dodig and Taiwan's Latisha Chan in 2018 and 2019. This latest triumph marks a remarkable run of success for Errani and Vavassori, securing their fourth mixed doubles trophy in the last seven Grand Slam tournaments, a stretch that includes back-to-back U.S. Open titles in 2024 and 2025. The top-seeded duo needed 79 minutes to secure the ‌title ⁠and extend one of the most successful mixed doubles partnerships in recent years. "Still a dream for me," Errani said during the on-court trophy presentation. "All my dreams have been here. Andrea, ⁠you are my best friend. To share this with you is somet...

  Poland's Maja Chwalinska is loving her tennis at the moment and after becoming just the second qualifier in the Open era to reach the French Open semi-finals, the 24-year-old is delighted she returned from a mental health career break. Chwalinska, ranked 113th in the world coming into Roland Garros, had to battle her ‌way through three qualifying rounds in Paris and dropped one set in her eight-match run to the last four which culminated in Wednesday's 7-6(3) 6-3 win over Russia's Anna Kalinskaya. In 2021, Chwalinska announced she had been suffering with depression for over 18 months and was stepping away from the court. "I pushed at the beginning. I thought that I just need to stay very strong, tough, and just keep practicing," Chwalinska told reporters after Wednesday's win. "But then I just ⁠couldn't get out of bed anymore. I was just lifeless, to be honest. I knew that I need to take a break, because otherwise I'm just not able to live. ...

  Russian outsider Diana Shnaider battled from a set and a double break down to shock world number one Aryna Sabalenka 3-6 7-5 6-0 in blustery conditions and charge into ‌the French Open semi-finals on a windswept Wednesday. In a tournament that has witnessed several shocks including the exits of defending champion Coco Gauff and four-times winner Iga Swiatek, Sabalenka's defeat sent another jolt through the wide-open women's draw. Shnaider reached her maiden Grand Slam semi-final after an inspired battle in which she won the last 10 games having been two points away from defeat, and she takes on Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska in the last four. "Obviously, the first time playing Aryna, I was super nervous. The first set, I was trying to adjust to her game, trying to figure ⁠out how to play," Shnaider said. "I feel like I was trying to focus point by point, not thinking about the score. She's the world number one, so I just tried to do my best. I just had to...

  American great Serena ‌Williams on Monday announced her long-anticipated return to competitive tennis following a prolonged absence at this month's Queen's Club Championships, as the 44-year-old reignited memories of her dominance over two decades. Williams, who won the last of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles in 2017 and has not competed since the 2022 U.S. Open, received a wildcard entry into the doubles draw, the London-based club said in a statement. She posted a video on social media in which she was shown walking ⁠off a tennis court to her buzzing phone. "Guess everybody heard the news," she said, while the post had the caption: "Good news travels fast." A LONG-AWAITED RETURN Speculation around Williams' return had intensified after she was cleared to officially enter tournaments after rejoining the tennis anti-doping testing pool last year. "Queen's Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter," former world number ...

  Iga Swiatek's 25th birthday celebrations turned sour at the French Open on Sunday as the former champion lost 7-5 6-1 to 15th seed Marta Kostyuk and ‌her hunt for a fifth title ended just when she had looked to be rediscovering her form. Swiatek's shock loss comes amid a chaotic spell at Roland Garros, during which men's world number one Jannik Sinner, 24-times Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic and defending women's champion Coco Gauff all went out in the last three days. It leaves world number one Aryna Sabalenka as favourite to capture her first title in Paris, though Ukrainian Kostyuk will be one to watch as she builds on the momentum that has helped her sparkle on clay this season. "I'm still in shock," Kostyuk said in ⁠an on-court interview. "I feel like I've given myself more space to just create something, to challenge my opponents. I woke up in the morning and all I thought was 'what an unbelievable day I have to live today ... there...

  Novak Djokovic's latest bid to capture a record 25th Grand Slam title was left in tatters after a stunning third-round defeat by Brazilian teen sensation Joao Fonseca in an entertaining epic at the French Open on Friday. Djokovic's 4-6 4-6 6-3 7-5 7-5 defeat meant the 39-year-old ‌Serb's wait to surpass Margaret Court will go on in the twilight of a glorious career, as the draw in Paris opened up further a day after world number one Jannik Sinner's shock exit. Victory in an epic clash lasting four hours and 53 minutes ensured that Fonseca became the first teenager to beat Djokovic at the Grand Slams, as he announced himself as another genuine contender to claim a maiden major crown. "I actually didn't believe I could win the match, I just played and enjoyed being on the court. What an idol we have and what a pleasure it was to step onto the court against him, so I thank him. I'm very happy," Fonseca said. "I was just trying to hit the ball as fa...

Jannik Sinner continued his ominous form ahead of the French Open as the Italian world number one set a record ‌with his 32nd consecutive Masters 1000 victory, brushing aside Russia's Andrey Rublev 6-2 6-4 to reach the Italian Open semi-finals on Thursday. Sinner has now moved clear of Novak Djokovic's record and set his sights on further milestones. Djokovic remains the only man to have won all nine Masters 1000 events - a feat Sinner, 24, could match if he goes on to lift the title on home soil in Rome. "I don't play for records. I play just for my own story," Sinner ⁠said. Sinner awaits former world number one Daniil Medvedev or Spanish youngster Martin Landaluce, who play later on Thursday. "At the same time, it means a lot to me, but tomorrow is another opponent. We're going to play in different conditions - it's going to be a night match," Sinner added. "Now the highest priority for me is trying to recover as much as I can ...