ATP
Say hello to Esther, your new practise partner
LOOKING for a new practise partner?
Look no further than Matthew Gombolay.
Matthew who? We hear you say.
Actually it’s Professor Matthew Gombolay and he’s a professor of robotics at Georgia Tech University in the US.
Professor Gombolay has for the past couple of years, been building Esther, a tennis-playing robot that mimics the movements and strokes of a human.
Not just a ball machine, but a robot that goes a fair bit beyond that.
Esther is an acronym for Experimental Sport Tennis Wheelchair Robot, and a tribute to Dutch wheelchair player Esther Vergeer.
The robotic device has a racquet connected to a single arm, and is able to cover both ends of a tennis court on wheels. And Gombolay’s team at Georgia Tech have been able to program Esther to recognise when a ball is coming towards it, and hit a return.
Now they plan to program it to be able to play a rally.
“What really excites me is that it could be a partner for me one day,” Gombolay said recently.
“It can also be my opponent. It can help me train. I could have it pretend to be the one guy I always lose to because he can exploit this weakness in my game.”
We can see the ads now, for the US Open in 2030 … ‘Sponsored by AI’. Or maybe sooner?
AUSSIE Henry Young made history during the week, becoming the first competitor aged 100 to compete at the ITF Masters World Individual Championships.
Mr Young, from Adelaide, was a fighter pilot in World War II and celebrated his 100th birthday last month.
The 2023 ITF Masters World Individual Championships is for players aged 65 and over.
“It’s nice to be the first,” he said of his record-breaking achievement.
“It’s something that nobody can ever take away from me.”
Young proved he is not just making up numbers in the 90+ category either. He had a 6-2 6-3 victory over 95-year-old Spaniard Mateo Camps Simon in the opening round.
WIMBLEDON’S controversial expansion plans took a positive turn last week after planning officials gave local councillors the green light to grant planning permission.
The plan includes 38 grass courts and an 8,000-seater show court, but has been met with objections from residents, environmental groups and local MPs.
A 450-page planning report recommended that councillors give permission when they meet next week.
It is the first step in the process as the application also has to be approved by Wandsworth Council, whose borders also cover part of the proposed site.
The decision would then be referred to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the Greater London Authority.
The planning application, which was initially tabled in July 2021, is in two parts.
Part one is for 38 grass courts for Wimbledon qualifying, lake alterations, a new boardwalk and maintenance buildings and part two includes initial planning permission for the 8,000-seater show court.
The objections from several local resident groups continues though with a coalition of groups vowing to stop the development, which is given the green light, will not be completed until 2030 at the earliest.
Photo: Roger Parker International Sports Fotos Ltd
RAFA Nadal’s return to the court at the Australian Open in January is not as clear cut as many may think.
Nadal admitted last week the is still in pain and training is not as straight forward as he or his advisors may have planned.
“My first realistic option to be back on the professional court would be January in Australia,” Nadal said.
“But right now, I really can’t confirm something I don’t know. Nothing has changed in the last few weeks except for the fact that I’m training a bit more than before, which is an accomplishment for me and my mental health.
“I’m not training without pain. I’m in less pain than I used to be, but I’m still in pain.
“However, this pain allows me to do more and more things eventually. Things would be different if I had zero pain. I could give you a date for my return if I had zero pain because I would have time to prepare myself for that.”
FORMER World No. 1 Ash Barty shared a gorgeous picture of herself carrying her son Hayden last week, while again stating she had no time on her hands to look at a return to the court.
Barty joked that another Aussie great, Pat Rafter, stood a higher chance of picking up the racket than she does.
“I don’t have the time. I don’t have the time to train, I don’t have the time to prepare,” she said.
I’m certainly not coming out of retirement. Pat may be more likely, than me.”
CROATIAN news magazine Nacional has reported that Goran Ivanisevic is earning “between €6-10k” every week for coaching Novak Djokovic. ($6.5-11k US).
An annual earn of somewhere between €300-500k, or between $320 and about $550k.
Ivanisevic also, according to the magazine, has bonuses that earn him 10 per cent of Djokovic’s prize money whenever the Serb wins a Grand Slam.
In 2023, that equates to three Grand Slam wins and not dar short of half a million dollars!
SAUDI Arabia is closing in on hosting a new ATP Masters 1000 event, or a combined ATP and WTA 1000 event, in 2025. The country has never held an ATP or WTA 1000 event.
IF a Twitter or X comment is any indication, former World No.1 Naomi Osaka and rapper boyfriend Cordae, are no longer an item.
In July, Osaka and Cordae became parents when Osaka gave birth to a baby girl they named Shai.
But months later Osaka has sparked rumours of a split after her cryptic post on X. “I just want someone that will watch the sunset with me.”
Osaka and Cordae are no longer following each other on social media and Cordae didn’t make any posts about Osaka’s birthday on last week.
EMMA Raducanu has opened up on her merry-go-round of coaches saying the reason may be because she “asks too many questions”.
“I ask my coaches a lot of questions,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“On certain occasions they haven’t been able to keep up with the questions I’ve asked and maybe that’s why it ended.”
The 2021 US Open winner split with her fifth coach in two years in June when she parted ways with Sebastian Sachs.
The Brit has not played since losing to Jelena Ostapenko in Stuttgart in April.
Raducanu is hoping to get back into competitive action soon.
“I will be coming back with probably a lower ranking, but I’m actually looking forward to starting again, kind of resetting,” she said.
“I still have new goals, new things I want to achieve. But I’ve still got like 15 years left in my career, so there’s no rush.”
AND finally …
Talk of Boris Becker returning to Wimbledon next year seem to be way off the mark.
Becker will coach young Danish player Holger Rune, but he will be unable to attend Wimbledon because of his conviction for tax evasion.
Becker was deported from the UK after serving eight months of a 2½-year sentence and would not be able to return for some time.
Under UK law post-conviction travel bans can last for many years, with some predicting his deportation order could last for 10 years.
Alexander Zverev cooled the jets of a teenaged tearaway on Tuesday, schooling Spaniard Rafael Jodar 7-6 (3), 6-1, 6-3 to power to his fifth career semi-final at the French Open.
The world No. 3 German finished runner-up in Paris two years ago and is still seeking his first trophy at one of the majors.
Zverev has been a consistent presence at the business end of the event here, figuring iin five of the past six semis.
But the achievement doesn’t amount to much for the seed, who has his eye on the big prize.
“I want to keep going. I don’t really care so much about a semi-final,” he said. “I want to win all the matches in front of me.
“Today was a tough test against a good player – that’s it for now.”
The 29-year-old who becomes the ninth man to play five Paris semi-finals, got away slowly as the 19-year-old Jodar showed his intentions with an early break..
But the seed began turning the tables on his young opponent while trailing 5-2 in the opening set after dropping serve in the eight-minute opening game.
Jodar’s unravelling began as he served for the first set leading 5-4 but was unable to close it out.
From then on, Zverev was in control.
The German won the opener in a tiebreaker and dominated the second to claim that chapter also.
In the third, he broke the fading youngster in the first and last games of the set
before closing out the win with a running forehand down the line on match point.
“He had perfect rhythm in the first set and I didn’t,” the winner said. “I was playing too short and too defensive.
“The ball was also not bouncing as high as it did in (last week’s) heat, I had to flatten out my shots.
“He outplayed me at the beginning of the first, but I managed to come back.
he seemed a bit nervous when he served for (the set).
“I took my chances, it was a good match for me.”
Main photo:- Alexander Zverev in control at Roland Garros – by ATPTour.com
Matteo Berrettini took Italian revenge on Monday against the Argentine who knocked out Jannik Sinner with a 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6) fourth-round demolition of Juan Manuel Cerundolo at the French Open.
Former top 10 player Berrettini, now mended after several seasons of intermittent injury absences sent the South American packing in a solid clay display.
The Italian saved three Cerundolo set points in the third-set tiebreaker, with Berrettini claiming a match point on an inside-out forehand, and following up with a serve winner..
“I feel great,” Berrettini said. “I’m happy with the support in a full stadium.
“This is why we train and fight, I’m enjoying the atmosphere with my team and family.”
Fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime booked the last eight as he put out another South American in Canadian-born Chilean AlejandroTabilo 6-3, 7-5, 6-1.
FAA becomes the first Canadian man to complete the set of quarter-finals at all four Grand Slam tournaments.
The 30-year-old Berretini from Rome is competing at Roland Garros for the first time since 2021 when he also reached the last eight here.
The current No. 105 is the lowest-ranked men’s quarter-finalist in Paris since in 2007.
Cobolli lost his first set of the tournament as he ran up against an American with negligible experience on clay, defeating Zach Svajda 6-2, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5).
The 10th-seeded Italian’s victory put him into his second Grand Slam and his first in Paris.
“I was a little bit nervous to close the match today,” the winner said. “It means a lot, this tournament, for me.
“Sometimes it’s not easy when you have to close, especially when you are up in the score like I was today.
“But also Zachary played a really good match today after the second set… tennis is like this. At the end, I was happy, and that’s the important thing.”
Svajda came to the major with only one career match win on clay. He began correcting that in the third round by beating Francisco.Cerundolo.
Cobolli cruised through the first two sets but his perfect set record took a dent in the third as Svajda forced a tiebreaker and saved a match point after closing the Italian’s 5-1 lead and forcing a tiebreaker.
It took a tiebreak fourth set to settle the outcome after more than three and a quarter hours.
Alexander Zverev stayed on track for a possible fourth Grand Slam final as the highest seed remaining in the men’s draw at the French Open moved efficiently into the quarter-finals on Sunday.
The German who has finished runner-up at the Australian and US Open plus Roland Garros, defeated qualifying lucky loser Jesper de Jong 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-1.
With this week’s second-round losses by world No. 1 and top seed Jannik Sinner and 24-time Grand Slam singles champion Novak Djokovic, Zverev could have one of his best chances at lifting a major trophy.
The 29-year-old reached his eighth Roland Garros quarter-final as he beat his Dutch opponent on de Jong’s 26th birthday.
He needed a tiebreak to secure the opening set but picked up momentum before crushing it in the third set to get off court in a relatively quick two and a quarter hours.
“I had some early difficulties but he started well,” the winner said. “But once I found my rhythm I felt comfortable on the court.
“That is important for my game. It’s (his game) is there, I just have to show it on the match court.”
With the recent 10-day heatwave now gone, temperatures dropped into the mid-20s Celsius, which should make for more comfortable conditions.
But Zverev is not so sure: “To be honest, I like the heat, I prefer it. My ball flies a lot faster through the air and opponents struggle a bit more.
“I also spend a lot of time in Florida so I’m used to the heat. But we have to make the best of it, things can change within one day.”
Zverev will bid for the semi-finals in a matchup against Rafael Jodar, the prodigy who won an all-Spanish fourth-rounder 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 over Pablo Carreno Busta.
The fightback took nearly three and three-quarter hours and put the 19-year-old into his first last-eight spot in only his second Grand Slam appearance.
He has reached the last eight here for a sixth straight year.
Jodar, ranked No. 707 a year ago, is the fifth man this century to reach the quarters in his main draw debut at the event.
The youngster made a 4-1 start in the opening set but soon found himself in a five-set dogfight against a 34-year-old dealing with a shoulder injury.
The winner of a clay title in March has now taken victory in 19 of his last 22 matches.
“He’s young and incredibly talented,” Zverev said of his next opponent. “He came onto the clay scene in two months.
“He will be a difficult challenge but I’ll be ready for it.”
Main photo:- Favourite Alexander Zverev wins third round match – by ATPTour.com
Roland Garros 2026 Men’s Day 10
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