Dan Evans drops 1st match after COVID-19

Associated PressAug 4, 2021, 7:33 PM EDT

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WASHINGTON — British tennis player Dan Evans lost his first match on tour since testing positive for COVID-19 last month and missing the Tokyo Olympics.

Evans, who is ranked 27th and was seeded No. 6 at the Citi Open, was beaten 7-6 (1), 6-0 by Brandon Nakashima at the hard-court tournament.

“It was very strange to be back playing. Probably a week, two weeks, a little too early. But I decided to come out to practice and get out here to get used to the conditions,” said Evans, who hadn’t played since a third-round loss at Wimbledon in July.

“It was difficult to know how I’d feel. It’s been difficult to get back into some sort of shape. I had pretty bad symptoms,” he said. “I was sort of out of the game, I guess, for … 14 to 20 days. Not the best thing in the world, but that’s what it is.”

Evans, who received a first-round bye in Washington, said he had received one vaccination shot before getting the virus; he said his second shot has been delayed because he got sick.

Nakashima, a Californian who just turned 20, has won 10 of his past 12 matches, all on hard courts, including runs to the finals at Los Cabos and Atlanta. That helped him climb to a career-best ranking of 89th.

Next for Nakashima at the tuneup for the U.S. Open will be an all-American matchup in the third round against Denis Kudla, who beat No. 10 seed Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-2. Yet another U.S. player defeated a seed when Steve Johnson came back to top No. 3 Alex de Minaur 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-2.

Like Evans, de Minaur sat out the Olympics after testing positive for COVID-19.

In another afternoon match, 11th-seeded John Millman beat qualifier Elias Ymer 6-2, 7-6 (8).

The most-anticipated match of the day was scheduled for the main stadium at night, with 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal making his Washington debut against Jack Sock.

It’s the top-seeded Nadal’s first competition since he lost to Novak Djokovic in the French Open semifinals on June 11.

Nadal then pulled out of Wimbledon and the Summer Games, saying his body needed rest and relaxation. He revealed this week he was dealing with an injured foot and didn’t pick up his racket for three weeks.

Raducanu, Stephens, Murray lose in first round at Miami Open

Associated PressMar 23, 2023, 12:00 AM EDT

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Former U.S. Open champions Emma Raducanu and Sloane Stephens were knocked out of the Miami Open on Wednesday, hours after No. 1-ranked and defending champion Iga Swiatek pulled out of the tournament because of a rib injury.

Bianca Andreescu – the 2019 U.S. Open champ – defeated Raducanu 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Andreescu improved to 2-0 lifetime against Raducanu, the 2021 winner at Flushing Meadows.

“Miami has a special place in my heart,” Andreescu said. “I’ve been coming here since I was I think 12 years old, whether it’s for vacation or training or, yeah, Orange Bowl. I love that tournament very much. Yeah, coming back here, I think it’s just good vibes overall.”

Andreescu moves on to face 10th-ranked Maria Sakkari, who had a first-round bye.

Shelby Rogers beat Stephens 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. Stephens has six hard-court titles, including the U.S. Open in 2017 and Miami in 2018.

Rogers will face Australian Open champion and world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, who beat Rogers in the second round at Melbourne Park. Sabalenka is coming off a loss in the final at Indian Wells, California, last week.

On the men’s side, Dusan Lajovic beat three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray 6-4, 7-5.

“I served pretty well, but the rest of the game was a bit of a problem today,” the 35-year-old Murray said. “Made a number of errors that obviously I wouldn’t expect to be making. I didn’t really feel like I moved particularly well, which is really important for me.”

Lajovic, a 32-year-old Serbian, will face Maxime Cressy, who had a first-round bye.

Swiatek withdrew because of a rib injury that she is hoping will heal during a break from competition. The 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 that began Tuesday. “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.”

In other action, 24-year-old American J.J. Wolf defeated Alexander Bublik 7-5, 6-3. He’ll face No. 7-ranked Andrey Rublev, who had a first-round bye.

Gael Monfils retired from his match against Ugo Humbert due to a persistent wrist injury.

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.