Despite a crushing loss yesterday in the Rome quarterfinals to Stan Warwrinka, who he led 62 in the first set tiebreaker, Rafael Nadal is still trying to remain positive ahead of the biggest event of the year for the Spaniard.

“The only thing that I am sure of is I’m going to try,” said Nadal. “The goal in Paris will always be the same one. I feel I’m playing well. I …

Brazilian Teliana Pereira was immediately defaulted after throwing her racquet in the crowd earlier today at an ITF event. Pereira had just lost the first set of her quarterfinal match to Jana Cepelova 76(5) at the Saint Gaudens, France ITF 50,000 when the incident took place.

Jana Cepelova d. Teliana Pereira 7-5 def. Pereira was defaulted for throwing racquet into crowd after losing set.

— Eggy (@TheBoiledEgg) …

What. A. Collapse.

Rafael Nadal had full control of Stan Wawrinka leading 6-2 in the first set tiebreaker. Wawrinka, in fact, had appeared to have even cracked his racquet on that 8th point, won by Nadal. It was all over. But Nadal inexplicably couldn’t finish the job, losing four straight points and eventually the tiebreaker 9-7.

A head scratcher.

Wawrinka then got on top early in the second and hung on for a …

Top 5 seeds Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep moved one step away from a blockbuster final with quarterfinal wins on Friday at the Italian Open in Rome.

The red-hot No. 2-seeded Halep rolled through Romanian qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru 6-1, 6-0, while the No. 3-seeded Sharapova was likewise impressive in a 6-3, 6-2 win over former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka.

“Today it was a pretty good match, I was very solid,” said Halep, …

With a minimum of five matches, Argentina’s Maximo Gonzalez is a perfect 0-5 on the year to lead all players in the 2015 Worst Player race, but of special note is Ernests Gulbis and his stellar 1-11 win-loss record in 2015 while maintaining a No. 22 ranking.

Gulbis is the defending champion next week in Nice.

Australian men are well represented with former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt at 1-4 in his …

After a dominant start to the clay season with his Monte Carlo title, Novak Djokovic has looked more human this week in Rome, dropping sets in wins over Nicolas Almagro and yesterday against Tomaz Bellucci. But there may be more to Djokovic’s dip in play this week. He is dealing with an arm issue.

Djokovic confirming some right arm discomfort. "It has been bothering me last couple

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Following his win yesterday over Kevin Anderson in Rome, Roger Federer looked back on his greatest years.

“I consider I had one of my best years from 2005-2007 so of course I was confident going on court,” Federer said to the Rome website. More confident than today because I was winning over 90 percent of my matches. I was in a zone and it is really important to be there …

According to tennis.com, Juan Martin del Potro is seeking further advice regarding his injury left wrist.

Del Potro had surgery on the wrist 14 months ago. He tried to return earlier this year but still wasn’t comfortable, so a second surgery was performed after Australia. But it still didn’t feel right when he came back in Miami, his last event.

The report via La Nacion says that the 26-year-old …

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic was stretched to three sets for the second time this week at the Italian Open on Thursday, rallying to defeat Thomaz Bellucci 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 in the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

It was the 19th consecutive match win for the Serb, who will next meet Kei Nishikori in the quarterfinals after Japan’s No. 1 player defeated Djokovic’s Serb countryman and friend Viktor Troicki …

Andy Murray’s a perfect 10-0 in his first 10 matches as a married man. So how does that stack up with how his fellow mates like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic and others did when they returned post-wedding? Turns out, very well. He’s enjoying the best start for a married tennis pro among this recent group of Hall of Famers (or soon to be).

He’s the only one who was perfect …

Citing a bad right elbow, 2-time defending Rome champion Serena Williams has decided to withdraw from Rome ahead of her third round match with fellow American Christina McHale.

“It was not an easy decision, I talked to my coach who said it would not be a smart thing to play,” Serena said. “I hate quitting. But this is not quitting, it’s just making a better decision.

“My elbow injury started in Madrid, …

Andy Murray has officially withdrawn from the Rome even, he said today. Murray was scheduled to play David Goffin later this afternoon, but after a “flat” pratice the Scot felt it best if he pull out from the event rather than risk injury.

“I’m tired, I felt OK yesterday but I was pretty exhausted when I got up,” Murray said. “I had a 40 minute warm-up and felt extremely flat and …

B-level clay guys Roger Federer and Andy Murray cruised in their 2015 Rome openers on Wednesday. Murray extended his current win streak to 10 after taking care of Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-2. A year ago, Chardy stunned Federer, but the Frenchman posed no risk to Murray who’s played a lot of tennis the last few weeks.

“My legs were a bit tired at the beginning,” said Murray. “But then I started …

In a battle of former No. 1s, Victoria Azarenka again got the better of Caroline Wozniacki, beating the Dane like she did in Australia in straight sets 6-2, 7-6(2) in the second round at the Rome Masters.

“There are never too many surprises out there, for either of us,” said Azarenka who served for the match at 6-5. “We’ve played so many times now, and this year too, and she’s …

Novak Djokovic opened his Rome title defense with a hard-fought 3-set win over Spanish veteran Nicolas Almagro 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-3.

“At the end of the day it’s a win after three weeks with no official match,” said Djokovic. “In the important moments today, I did feel a little bit uncomfortable. Maybe that’s due to a lack of competitive play in the past couple of weeks. But I won against a quality …