Browsing: Wimbledon

Jannik Sinner clinches first title since Wimbledon with China Open triumph | Jannik Sinner

Jannik Sinner continued to piece together one of the greatest seasons of his career as he clinched his 21st career title at the China Open with a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 victory over Learner Tien.

Sinnerâ€s victory marks his third title of 2025 after winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon earlier this year. The Italianâ€s record now stands at 42-5 (89%) this year and he has reached the final in seven of eight tournaments, including all four grand slams.

Only Carlos Alcaraz has come close to Sinner on hard courts, with Sinner winning 79 of his last 80 matches on the surface against players besides the ATP No 1. Other than Alcarazâ€s four hard court wins over Sinner during this period, Sinnerâ€s loss to Andrey Rublev at the Canada Masters last year remains his only defeat on his favourite surface since November 2023.

Despite the pair competing in different countries against different fields of opponents, this week has further underlined how superior Sinner and Alcaraz are to the rest of the tour. A day earlier, Alcaraz defeated Taylor Fritz to win his eighth title of the season in Tokyo.

In the aftermath of his US Open defeat in New York, which led to the Italian losing the No 1 ranking he had held since June 2024, Sinner said he intended to make himself more unpredictable in his matches against his rivaleven though trying to make those changes could lead to more losses early on.

The 24-year-old has shown some of those adjustments throughout this week, particularly by implementing more drop shots. Although he was not as dominant as in many of his other recent tournament runs, dropping sets to Terence Atmane and Alex de Minaur, Sinner still overpowered all opponents in his path.

There is no rest for most of the best players in a gruelling season. The ATP tour moves on to the Shanghai Masters, the penultimate ATP Masters 1000 event, where Sinner will has a first-round bye. Alcaraz, however, will not be present in China after withdrawing shortly after his win in Tokyo in order to manage an ankle injury.

Meanwhile, Gael Monfils has announced that he will retire after the 2026 season. Monfils, who became the oldest ATP champion in history in January and turned 39 last month, has enjoyed an celebrated 21-year career as one of the most charismatic players in the sport. The Frenchman reached a career-high ranking of No 6 in 2016 and has won 13 titles.

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Tennis

Andy Murray racket from 2013 Wimbledon title auctioned for $73K

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    Dan HajduckySep 22, 2025, 10:33 PM ET

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      Dan Hajducky is a staff writer for ESPN. He has an MFA in creative writing from Fairfield University and played on the men’s soccer teams at Fordham and Southern Connecticut State universities.

A racket Andy Murray used during his historic 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 Wimbledon men’s singles final victory over Novak Djokovic in 2013 recently sold for $73,200 (including the buyer’s premium) with Goldin Auctions.

It is the most paid for an Andy Murray item at auction.

Murray’s 2013 victory was the first time in 76 years that a British man had won at Wimbledon. Since World War I, Murray, who won again in 2016, and Fred Perry, who won in 1934, 1935 and 1936, are the only British men to have won Wimbledon. On the women’s singles side, a British woman hasn’t won Wimbledon since Virginia Wade in 1977.

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The auction lot includes a letter of authenticity from Resolution Photomatching, which says it made a “conclusive” match to the racket’s use in the Wimbledon final, as well as Murray’s second-round and semifinals matches. (The LOA also states that the racket was used in a match June 26, before the tournament.)

The auction for Murray’s racket was hotly contested; there were 49 bids from when the lot opened Aug. 29 to its conclusion.

The record paid for a tennis racket belongs to a Babolat racket that Rafael Nadal used during his 2017 French Open-winning final. The racket sold for more than $157,000 in June.

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Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner: From drugs bans to Wimbledon …

In the wake of Swiatek’s punishment, Simona Halep was one of several players who questioned the differences in how doping cases were treated.

In 2023, the Romanian had received a four-year ban for two anti-doping violations, later reduced to nine months after an appeal.

Reflecting on both cases in December, Kyrgios said: “I think people are trying to sweep it under the rug. I just think that it’s been handled horrifically in our sport. Two world number ones both getting done for doping is disgusting for our sport. It’s a horrible look.”

In the wake of Sinner’s suspension, Spanish legend Rafael Nadal said he was “100%” sure that the Italian was innocent, but former British number one Tim Henman claimed the ban was “too convenient” and left tennis fans with a “pretty sour taste”.

“When you’re dealing with drugs in sport it very much has to be black and white, it’s binary, it’s positive or negative, you’re banned or you’re not banned” he told Sky Sports.

“When you start reading words like settlement or agreement, it feels like there’s been a negotiation and I don’t think that will sit well with the player cohort and the fans of the sport.”

Serena Williams said she would have been banned for 20 years and had some of her Grand Slam titles taken away if she had committed the same anti-doping offence as men’s world number one Sinner.

British player Tara Moore, who was provisionally banned for two years while challenging a doping charge of which she was eventually cleared after 19 months, also suggested top players were “treated differently”, with their image prioritised.

Accusations of preferential treatment and double standards were firmly disputed by the ITIA and Wada.

The ITIA has also highlighted a 26% increase in anti-doping tests in 2024 compared to the previous year, and says educating players about anti-doping rules is a priority.

But many believe both players have benefitted from being able to pay top lawyers to act quickly.

“A majority of the players don’t feel that it’s fair,” said 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic. “It appears that you can almost affect the outcome if you are a top player, if you have access to the top lawyers.”

The Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA) – an organisation co-founded by Djokovic which aims to increase player power – said there is a lack of “transparency”, “process” and “consistency” in the system.

Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, writing on social media, said he did not “believe in a clean sport any more”.

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