Federer, Serena retire; tennis moves on to Alcaraz, Swiatek
The timing of it all hardly could be more symbolic: All within a span of two weeks, Serena Williams plays what is believed to be her last match at age 40, Roger Federer announces he’ll be retiring at 41, Iga Swiatek wins her third Grand Slam title at 21, and Carlos Alcaraz gets his first at 19.
4 for 4: Osaka wins Australian, stays perfect in Slam finals
Japan's Naomi Osaka holds the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup aloft defeating United States Jennifer Brady in the women's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021. Osaka improved to 4-0 in Grand Slam finals by grabbing six consecutive games to pull away in what initially was a tight contest, beating Brady 6-4, 6-3 at Melbourne Park on Saturday. For me, I feel like every opportunity that I play a Slam is an opportunity to win a Slam,” said the 23-year-old Osaka, who will move up to No. I think if you’re not feeling OK, it’s OK to not feel OK,” Osaka said. And as much as Osaka makes plain that she wants to keep adding to her Grand Slam collection, there are larger goals, too.
AP Was There: Seles tops Graf in riveting French Open final
If you play 10-8 in the final set, it definitely is special, she said. Seles was up a service break at 3-1, 4-2 and 5-3 in the final set. The two continued on serve until Seles broke for an 8-7 lead as Graf missed on a short forehand. But Graf broke right back, hitting a perfect backhand drop shot on one point. One or two points really decided it.Seles won $372,896, putting her over the $5 million mark in career earnings.