Djokovic announces Agassi will coach him at French Open

Associated PressMay 21, 2017, 2:22 PM EDT

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ROME — Novak Djokovic is joining forces with Andre Agassi in an effort to return to No. 1.

Djokovic announced Sunday that Agassi will coach him at the French Open, which starts next Sunday.

“I spoke to Andre the last couple weeks on the phone, and we decided to get together in Paris,” Djokovic said. “So he’s going to be there. We’ll see what (the) future brings.

“We are both excited to work together and see where it takes us. We don’t have any long-term commitment. It’s just us trying to get to know each other in Paris a little bit,” Djokovic added. “He will not stay the whole tournament. He’s going to stay only to a certain time, and then we’ll see after that what’s going to happen.”

The second-ranked Djokovic split with longtime coach Marian Vajda and two other team members – fitness coach Gebhard Phil Gritsch, and physiotherapist Miljan Amanovic – at the start of the month.

Agassi, who retired in 2006, won eight Grand Slam titles.

Djokovic has won 12 Grand Slams.

“Andre is someone that I have tremendous respect for as a person and as a player,” Djokovic said. “He has been through everything that I’m going through. On the court he understands the game amazingly well. I am enjoying every conversation that I have with him.

“But also, on the other hand, he’s someone that nurtures the family values, philanthropy work. He’s a very humble man, is very educated. He’s a person that can contribute to my life on and off the court a lot. I’m very excited to see what is ahead of us.”

The pairing is the latest in a series of top players working with former standouts, from Andy Murray and Ivan Lendl, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Moya, and Kei Nishikori and Michael Chang.

Djokovic was coached by Boris Becker the last three seasons, but they split last year.

Vajda started working with Djokovic in 2006.

Djokovic lost his No. 1 ranking to Andy Murray last year after a slump in form following his French Open triumph.

He lost in the third round at Wimbledon, his earliest defeat in a Grand Slam in seven years, lost in the first round at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, reached the final of the U.S. Open, and lost early again at the Australian Open.

Djokovic finished 2016 at No. 2, his current ranking. He’s won only one of his last 11 tournaments.

While Agassi has not coached a top player before, Djokovic said his record as a player and spokesman of the game was enough to convince him.

“He’s a legend of our sport,” Djokovic said. “He’s made a mark in this sport forever. He’s won everything there is to win in tennis.

“He was a revolutionary player because he had this charisma, he had this approach to tennis and to life that was quite different from others. That’s why he was so interesting.”

Agassi has already been offering advice on the phone.

“He’s been definitely following up closely all the matches, the big matches, especially on the TV,” Djokovic said. “So he knows players, he knows everyone that I was playing against in (the) last couple of weeks, so we talked before every match.

Djokovic added, “I already feel like we are very kind of close to each other and creating this nice vibe.”

Iga Swiatek out of Miami Open with rib injury

Associated PressMar 22, 2023, 12:29 PM EDT

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Defending champion Iga Swiatek withdrew from the Miami Open because of a rib injury that she is hoping will heal during a break from competition.

The No. 1-ranked Swiatek, a 21-year-old from Poland, also will sit out her country’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier matches against Kazakhstan on April 13-14.

“I wanted to wait ’til the last minute” to decide whether to play in Miami,” Swiatek said at a news conference at the site of the hard-court tournament. “We were kind of checking if this is the kind of injury you can still play with or this is kind when you can get things worse. So I think the smart move for me is to pull out of this tournament because I want to rest and take care of it properly.”

She was supposed to face Claire Liu in the second round.

As a seeded player, three-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek received a first-round bye at an event she won a year ago during a 37-match unbeaten run that was the longest in women’s tennis in a quarter of a century.

“I was also aware at the beginning of the season that it’s going to be hard for me to defend all these (ranking) points,” she said, “because … these streaks, winning all these tournaments – looking logically and statistically, it’s not like it’s going to happen every year.”

Swiatek said after a 6-2, 6-2 loss to eventual champion Elena Rybakina in the BNP Paribas Open semifinals that her rib was bothering her. She explained in Miami that the problem first surfaced late in her quarterfinal victory against Sorana Cirstea a day earlier in California.

“Basically, it’s not like it happened in one minute or one second. It’s not, like, a serious thing, because we caught it … pretty early. So I felt like it was a process,” Swiatek said. “At first with these minor things, your body doesn’t feel anything.”

She said the issue was a problem “in certain movements,” including a “little bit when I served,” but Swiatek also said she’s not too worried about how long she will be sidelined.

The next Grand Slam tournament is the French Open, which Swiatek won last year for the second time. Play begins in Paris on May 28.

Instead of playing Swiatek, Liu will go up against 94th-ranked Julia Grabher, who lost in qualifying but now gets to move into the draw.

Liu advanced Tuesday when her first-round opponent, Katerina Siniakova, stopped playing in the second set because of a hurt wrist. Siniakova also pulled out of the doubles event with Barbora Krejcikova; the Czech duo has won the past four Grand Slam tournaments they’ve entered together, and seven major doubles titles overall.

Giorgi hits 14 double-faults at Miami Open, hangs on to win

Associated PressMar 21, 2023, 11:38 PM EDT

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Camila Giorgi hit 14 double-faults, blew a 5-0 lead in the final set and needed four match points before finally pulling out a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) victory against Kaia Kanepi in the first round of the Miami Open.

The match lasted 3 hours, 32 minutes, tying for the longest on the WTA Tour this season. The players combined for 30 aces – 19 by Kanepi, who also had seven double-faults.

In the third set, Kanepi was not moving well, and Giorgi raced to a big edge. But after dropping just two of her initial 15 service games, the Italian got broken twice in a row while serving for the victory at 5-1 and 5-3 in the third set.

Kanepi saved one match point at 5-3, another at 5-4 and another in the concluding tiebreaker. Giorgi finally ended things on her next chance with a cross-court forehand winner. She’ll next face 14th-seeded Victoria Azarenka, a three-time champion in Miami and two-time winner at the Australian Open.

All seeded players at the hard-court tournament received first-round byes. Women’s matches in the main draw began Tuesday; the men start Wednesday.

It was a rough afternoon for the Czech teenage sisters Brenda and Linda Fruhvirtova. First Brenda, who turns 16 on April 2, lost the initial nine games of a 6-0, 7-5 loss to Wang Xiyu. And then Linda, 17, exited with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 loss against qualifier Katherine Sebov, who now meets No. 3 Jessica Pegula.

In other action, Rebecca Marino eliminated Yulia Putintseva 7-6 (4), 6-2 to set up a second-round match against 2022 French Open runner-up Coco Gauff; Irina-Camelia Begu trailed 2-0 in the first set and then 5-1 in the second before coming back in both to beat wild-card entry Alexandra Eala 6-2, 7-5; and Marta Kostyuk was a 6-3, 6-2 winner against Elisabetta Cocciaretto.

Claire Liu, an American who is ranked 59th, advanced to a second-round meeting against defending champion and No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek when Katerina Siniakova stopped playing in the second set Tuesday because of an injured wrist.