BARCELONA, Spain — Taking it easy after months away from competitive tennis, Rafael Nadal was good enough to earn a comfortable first-round win at the Barcelona Open on Tuesday. Nadal looked injury-free in a 6-2, 6-3 win over Flavio Cobolli to advance to the second round in his first tournament in more than three months. Nadal converted on his second match point to seal the victory over the 21-year-old Italian ranked 62nd in the world. The Spaniard will next face Alex de Minaur, who had a first-round bye. “Taking everything into consideration, it was a good first round,” Nadal said. “I played ..read more

Canada’s Félix Auger-Aliassime needed to rally from down a set and go the distance to solve Germany’s Maximilian Marterer in the opening round of the BMW Open. The 23-year-old from Montreal topped Marterer 6-7(5), 7-6(6), 7-6(3) on Tuesday in Munich. Auger-Aliassime, who is the fifth seed in the tournament, fired 11 aces, won 78 per cent of first-serve points and converted two of eight break point opportunities. He also committed five double faults. Marterer made four aces with two double faults. Auger-Aliassime will now face Japan’s Taro Daniel in the second round Wednesday. Daniel advanced w ..read more

STUTTGART, Germany — Zheng Qinwen eased past Sorana Cîrstea 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the Porsche Grand Prix on Tuesday despite a long journey from China to reach the clay-court tournament. The seventh-ranked Zheng travelled from Changsha to Beijing and then on to Frankfurt before a final leg to Stuttgart, but showed little sign of jet lag as she wrapped up her win in 76 minutes. Zheng will play either Marta Kostyuk or former champion Laura Siegemund in the second round. Jasmine Paolini also opened with an emphatic win, beating Italian compatriot and doubles partner Sara Errani 6-1, 6-0 i ..read more

MONACO — Stefanos Tsitsipas swept aside Casper Ruud 6-1, 6-4 on Sunday to win the clay-court Monte Carlo Masters for the third time in four years, and then wept in his chair. Tsitsipas sat holding his head in his hands, briefly crying as he took in his first title of the year and biggest tournament victory for two years. “I’m very proud of myself today. I had been waiting for a moment like this for a long time,” said the 12th-ranked Tsitsipas, who reached a career-high No. 3 ranking in 2021. “I did not know what was going to happen this week.” The big-serving Greek also won the title in 2021 a ..read more

BARCELONA, Spain — Carlos Alcaraz pulled out of the Barcelona Open on Sunday with the same injury in his right forearm that kept him out of the Monte Carlo Masters, leaving his French Open preparation on hold. Alcaraz is a two-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1-ranked player who is currently No. 3. The 20-year-old from Spain won the title at the clay-court Barcelona Open in 2022 and 2023. He hasn’t played in a tournament since losing to Grigor Dimitrov in the Miami Open quarterfinals last month. Alcaraz won the U.S. Open in 2022 and Wimbledon last year. His lone trophy so far ..read more

LONDON (AP) — Emma Raducanu clinched Britain’s berth in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals by taking the last six points of a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1) victory against Diane Parry of France on Saturday for an insurmountable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five-match qualifying round. Raducanu, the 2021 U.S. Open champion who missed most of last season because of injuries, also put together a comeback from a set down in her opening singles match Friday against Caroline Garcia on an indoor clay court in Le Portel, France. This was a rematch from last year in qualifying, when France won; this time, the countries we ..read more

MONACO — Novak Djokovic looked sluggish at times and hit several unforced errors but raised his game on important points to advance to the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday. The top-ranked Serb, a two-time Monte Carlo champion, gained revenge over Lorenzo Musetti, who beat him last year at the Country Club in the third round. Djokovic converted five of six break points and progressed with a confidence-boosting 7-5, 6-3 win. “I lost to him last year here. Similar circumstances,” said Djokovic, who is playing in his first tournament since parting ways with former coach Go ..read more

MONACO — After dominating on aggressive hard courts, Jannik Sinner made a smooth transition to softer clay by beating Sebastian Korda 6-1, 6-2 in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Wednesday. But defending champion Andrey Rublev was eliminated after a 6-4, 6-4 loss to Alexei Popyrin. The second-seeded Sinner won 95% of points on his first serve and saved all three break points in improving his record to 23-1 this year. He has three titles in 2024, including the Australian Open — his first major trophy — and recently the Miami Open. “I moved quite well in these conditions,” sai ..read more

ROQUEBRUNE-CAP-MARTIN, France — Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime was eliminated from the clay-court Monte Carlo Masters tournament on Wednesday after dropping a third-round match 6-4, 7-5 to Lorenzo Sonego of Italy. Auger-Aliassime, ranked 35th in the world, fired just three aces while committing 13 unforced errors in a two-hour and two-minute match. Sonego, ranked 57th, was a “lucky loser” replacement for world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, who pulled out of the tournament on Tuesday because of a muscle injury to his right forearm. With the win, Sonego evened his career record against Auger-Al ..read more

MONACO — Novak Djokovic made light work of his return to clay and did not face a break point when beating Roman Safiullin 6-1, 6-2 to reach the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Tuesday. Serving for the match, Djokovic won on his second match point when Safiullin’s return sank into the net. Overall, Djokovic could perhaps have been a little more clinical, since he forced 19 break points and converted just five of them. It was the top-ranked Serb’s first clay-court tournament since winning the French Open last year to clinch a men’s-record 23rd major title. He added  ..read more