Tennis

Tennis icon Serena Williams and former Duke and Team USA men's basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski are among those announced as members of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame Class of 2025.

Williams won three Olympic gold medals in doubles play with her sister, Venus Williams, in 2000, 2008 and 2012. She also won the Olympic singles tournament in 2012. Williams is therefore the only tennis player to accomplish the Golden Slam in both singles and doubles.

Krzyzewski led Team USA men's hoops to gold medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016. His work with the 2008 team, known as the Redeem Team, was particularly noteworthy after the 2004 squad earned bronze, marking the first time the Americans failed to win gold since FIBA allowed NBA players to participate in the Olympics beginning in 1992.

The list of well-accomplished athletes knows no bounds in this class.

Gabby Douglas became the first Black woman to win the Olympic all-around gymnastics title thanks to her tremendous performance at the 2012 Olympics in London, where she finished first in two of the four events (vault and balance beam).

Allyson Felix made the list after winning a female track and field record 11 Olympic medals, including four golds in the 4x400 m relay in all four Olympic Games from 2008-2020. She also won two golds in the 4x100m relay and one more gold in the 200m in addition to three silvers and one bronze over her decorated career.

The list of Olympians also includes beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings (three golds, one bronze) and alpine skier Bode Miller (six medals, one gold).

Superstar Paralympians also made the list, including sled hockey goalie Steve Cash, who played 16 seasons for Team USA's team, winning three golds (2010, 2014 and 2018) and one bronze (2006).

Susan Hagel was a tremendous multi-sport star in her own right, competing in para archery, wheelchair basketball and para track and field over six Olympics from 1976-1996. She won four gold and two bronze medals.

Marla Runyan, a para track-and-field star, won five golds and one bronze. She won four gold medals in the 1992 Olympics alone in the 100m B3, the 200m B3, the 400m B3 and the long jump B3.

Two teams made the list: the 2010 four-man bobsled and 2004 women's wheelchair basketball.

Two others made the Hall of Fame in the legends category in Anita DeFrantz, who is only Black woman to earn an Olympic medal in rowing and also the first African American and first woman elected to the International Olympic Committee.

Volleyball star Flo Hyman, who helped Team USA to silver in 1984, also made the list. The beloved and popular Hyman tragically passed away in 1986 due to Marfan syndrome. She was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1988.

Krzyzewski obviously made the cut as the coach. Nike founder Phil Knight was inducted as a special contributor.

Serena Williams was among those who attended a pre-Met Gala dinner at the New York home of Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour on Sunday evening, per TMZ Sports.

A$AP Rocky, Serena Williams, Rihanna Attend Anna Wintour Pre-Met Gala Dinner | Click to read more 👇 https://t.co/DPQtm9Z9Es

— TMZ Sports (@TMZ_Sports) May 5, 2025

Other celebrities in attendance included Rihanna, A$AP Rocky, Cynthia Erivo and Colman Domingo.

Williams has routinely attended the Met Gala in the past and even co-chaired the event in 2019. Her 23 major women's singles titles stand first in Open Era history, and she's also the only player to complete the Golden Slam (four Grand Slams plus an Olympic gold medal) in both singles and doubles play.

The Met Gala (Costume Institute Benefit) is a fundraising event held to benefit the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. Celebrities come out en masse every May to the event also known as fashion's biggest night of the year.

Naomi Osaka is a WTA winner again.

The four-time Grand Slam winner captured the L'Open 35 de Saint-Malo tournament title on Sunday by defeating Kaja Juvan 6-1, 7-5 in the final of the WTA 125 tournament.

ESPN noted it was her first WTA championship since she gave birth in 2023 and her first title since she prevailed at the 2021 Australian Open.

"Kinda ironic to win my first trophy back on the surface that I thought was my worst," Osaka posted on social media. "That's one of my favorite things about life though, there's always room to grow and evolve. Thanks to everyone accompanying me on this journey, I know it's turbulent but it's also really fun and I'm grateful."

Kinda ironic to win my first trophy back on the surface that I thought was my worst. That’s one of my favorite things about life though, there’s always room to grow and evolve. Thanks to everyone accompanying me on this journey, I know it’s turbulent but it’s also really fun and… pic.twitter.com/oR5OY5pTJN

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) May 4, 2025

The tournament was played on a clay surface, which is the same one as the French Open in Roland Garros. 

Osaka has won the Australian Open twice and the U.S. Open twice but never advanced past the round of 32 at Roland Garros on clay. She will have the opportunity to change that this year when the tournament begins later this month and looked ready to compete on clay surface in her most recent showing.

Stephanie Livaudais of Tennis.com noted Osaka will return to the WTA's Top 50 rankings Monday following her victory.

That is true even though the WTA 125 is a level below the WTA Tour and a level above ITF events.

Livaudais called it "another milestone in her comeback" after previously taking time away from the sport for maternity leave and mental health reasons.

Thus far this year, Osaka retired in the final of the ASB Classic, lost in the round of 32 in the Australian Open, lost in the round of 128 in the BNP Paribas Open, reached the round of 16 in the Miami Open and won this tournament.

Andre Agassi is one of the greatest tennis players in the sport's history, but he hasn't conquered professional pickleball just yet.

As Amy Woodyatt of CNN reported Thursday, Agassi lost in his second match at the US Open Pickleball Championships. The tournament was his professional debut in the sport, and he partnered with 18-year-old Anna Leigh Waters in the tournament.

The pairing defeated Stevie Petropouleas and Tristan Dussault in their first match but fell short against Len Yang and Trang Huynh-McClain in their second.

Agassi and Waters pushed it to three sets before ultimately falling, 11-7, 4-11, 7-11.

Woodyatt noted Waters is ranked No. 1 in the world and drew nothing but praise from the tennis legend going into the tournament. "She's right up there with the greatest ever in what she does, and the idea of challenging myself to not screw things up for her is daunting," he said (h/t Reuters).

Agassi knows what it takes to be one of the best ever. He was an eight-time Grand Slam champion, Olympic gold medalist and 60-time ATP title winner during his 21-year pro tennis career that saw him reach No. 1 in the world rankings. 

That was good enough to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2011.

Tennis fans will also get to see plenty of Agassi in the coming weeks, as TNT Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery announced he will be part of their Roland-Garros coverage of the French Open as a studio analyst.

Andre Agassi's days as a tennis pro are long behind him, but the eight-time Grand Slam champion found another avenue to potentially become a U.S. Open winner.

A day after celebrating his 55th birthday, Agassi teamed up with Anna Leigh Waters to prevail in the second round of the mixed pro doubles tournament at the U.S. Open Pickleball Championships. They took down Stevie Petropouleas and Tristan Dussault in three sets, 11-8, 9-11, 11-7.

✅ make pro Pickleball debut
✅ WIN pro Pickleball debut

Andre Agassi and Anna Leigh Waters take home the W! pic.twitter.com/ONUqDLaxWc

— CBS Sports Network (@CBSSportsNet) April 30, 2025

Agassi is one of the most decorated American players in men's tennis history. He won Wimbledon in 1992 at the age of 22 and added two more Grand Slam titles by the time he was 25.

Having hit a nadir professionally in 1997, Agassi enjoyed an improbable comeback that returned him to the top of the sport. When he won the 2003 Australian Open at 32, he was the oldest Grand Slam champion since Ken Rosewall in 1972.

Agassi retired from tennis in 2006.

With the rapid growth of pickleball, the Las Vegas native was presented with a golden opportunity to rediscover his competitiveness on the court.

"I have this conflict, like I can't tell. Is this fun? Is this anxiety?" he said ahead of his pro debut, per Dan DeLuca of the Naples Daily News. "There's probably a lot of tennis players, peers of mine, that are looking forward to seeing a slow motion train wreck on my side of the court."

Given his lack of experience, Agassi set a modest goal for himself before the U.S. Open got underway.

"A win for me will be when this is over that Anna Leigh looks at me and says, 'Do you want to play again,'" he said. "That would be cool."

Agassi and Waters will face off with Trang Huynh-McClain and Len Fang in the third round.

Officials for the Madrid Open cancelled Monday's play amid a blackout in Spain that impacted the tournament's facilities.

🚨 Official press release from the Madrid Open: pic.twitter.com/g5QxbFeMTp

— The First Serve (@TheFirstServeAU) April 28, 2025

The blackout caused a number of logistical problems at Caja Mágica with the scoreboards going dark and the loss of lighting to help fans navigate the venue:

The fans at the Madrid Open are left in darkness amid the power outage.

Crazy scenes.

pic.twitter.com/dAqhUoByhF

— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) April 28, 2025

Fans leaving the Caja Magica after the nationwide power outage led to cancellation of all further play at the #MadridOpen #tennis tournament

📸 Chema Moya pic.twitter.com/MxGp74j4K3

— Christopher Clarey 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 🇪🇸 (@christophclarey) April 28, 2025

According to the Associated Press' Renata Brito and Barry Hatton, the blackout also impacted portions of neighboring Portugal.

"Offices closed and traffic was snarled as traffic lights stopped working," Brito and Hatton said. "It was not possible to make calls on some mobile phone networks, though some apps were working. In Barcelona, residents walked into stores searching for battery-powered radios and civilians directed traffic at junctions along the Gran Via avenue that cuts through the city."

The cause of the blackout has yet to be determined. An early examination pointed to possible trouble with the distribution of electricity in the Spanish grid.

In Madrid, No. 15 seed Grigor Dimitrov and Jacob Fearnley were in the second set of their men's singles clash when the match was delayed. Dimitrov leads 6-4, 5-4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGeKS6iWQ7Y

Matteo Arnaldi beat Damir Dzumhur in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, in the only men's match that was completed Monday.

In the women's singles draw, No. 7 Mirra Andreeva and No. 4 Coco Gauff managed to advance to set up a quarterfinal matchup.

Gauff prevailed in their first two head-to-head meetings. When the third is staged is anybody's guess.

The Athletic's Charlie Eccleshare noted the Madrid Open "has the capacity to reschedule matches provided the suspension of play lasts just one day." Should Tuesday's schedule be in jeopardy, it will cause serious headaches thanks to the quick turnaround between this event and the Italian Open, which gets underway May 6 in Rome.

Serena Williams is pointing out what she believes is a double-standard when it comes to the way performance-enhancing drugs are treated in men's and women's sports.

Speaking to Sean Gregory of TIME as part of its annual 100 Most Influential People list, Williams explained she would have been banned for 20 years if she had failed a PED test like Jannik Sinner did.

"If I did that, I would have gotten 20 years. Let's be honest," she said. "I would have gotten Grand Slams taken away from me."

Sinner received a three-month ban in February from the World Anti-Doping Agency as part of a settlement after he had two positive doping tests in early 2024.

In his statement after the ban was announced, the 23-year-old said his tests came back positive for trace amounts of clostebol that was transferred into his system from a massage by his trainer who was using it to treat a cut on his finger.

Williams did emphasize that she is a fan of Sinner's, the No. 1 player on the ATP Tour, calling him "great for the sport." But she also noted what the discussion would have been like if she had been popped for PEDs.

"You would have heard about it in another multiverse," she said.

Williams was subjected to some of the most vile public ridicule of any superstar athlete in recent memory. After her controversial loss to Naomi Osaka at the 2018 U.S. Open, in which she got into a heated argument with the umpire, a cartoon drawing in an Australian newspaper received backlash for using racist stereotypes to depict Williams.

As Williams was recovering from an injury earlier in the 2018 season, Deadspin's Laura Wagner reported a doping control officer from the United States Anti-Doping Agency camped out at her house in Florida until she returned home to take a drug test.

Williams never failed a drug test in her storied tennis career. She played her final match at the 2022 U.S. Open, losing to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round.

Tennis legend Serena Williams appears to have some mixed emotions about her involvement in Kendrick Lamar's halftime show at Super Bowl LIX.

"I don't know if I regret it or not," she told Time's Sean Gregory after her small role in the performance sparked plenty of conversation. "I don't know the answer to that."

The 23-time Grand Slam champion was an unexpected guest at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. She said Lamar's representatives had reached to her saying they "loved your crip walk at the Olympics after you won the gold medal."

That laid the foundation for Williams' viral moment as the broadcast panned to her as Lamar was singing "Not Like Us."

From Compton to NOLA. @SerenaWilliams @KendrickLamar #AppleMusicHalftime pic.twitter.com/mnzuP7fJ1N

— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025

As Williams and Lamar are both natives of Compton, California, that alone was enough to explain why the Grammy winner wanted her to take part.

Given Lamar's longstanding beef with Drake, though, many wondered whether it was a coincidence he picked a woman who was one of his rival's ex-girlfriends.

Williams was unequivocal in her interview with Gregory, saying she was "absolutely not" trying to take any veiled shot at Drake.

"I would never do that. And that was sad, that anyone would ever think that," she said. "I respect how they could. Obviously I can see how someone would think that. But absolutely not. I have never had negative feelings towards him. We've known him for so many years."

Having an entire stadium sing along to the diss track written about him was certainly embarrassment enough for Drake.

Some of the top tennis stars are seeking more money for Grand Slam wins.

Per Howard Fendrich of the Associated Press, Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff are among the 20 players who signed a letter to the heads of the four Grand Slam tournaments asking for more prize money.

The group also asked for more of a say in "decisions that directly impact us."

According to Fendrich, the letter is dated March 21 and starts by requesting an in-person meeting with the heads of the four Grand Slam tournaments at the Madrid Open, which starts April 22. The letter is addressed to Craig Tiley of the Australian Open, Stephane Morel of the French Open, Sally Bolton of Wimbledon, and Lew Sherr of the U.S. Open.

The letter is signed by 10 of the top 11 women in the rankings from the week of March 3 and all 10 of the top-ranked men. Elena Rybakina, who was ranked No. 7 that week, is the only name in the top 10 absent from the list.

The letter points to three areas for improvement.

First, the athletes have asked for Grand Slam tournaments to make financial contributions to player welfare programs funded by pro tours. The letter also asks that prize money increase "to a more appropriate percentage of tournament revenues, reflective of the players' contribution to tournament value." Additionally, the players want to have a voice in decisions "directly impacting competition, as well as player health and welfare."

The letter comes just two weeks after the players' association co-founded by Djokovic filed an antitrust lawsuit against the women's and men's professional tours, the International Tennis Federation and the sport's integrity agency in federal court in New York seeking more money for players.

The filing suggests that athletes do not see enough of the revenue earned from tennis events.

Fendrich noted that the U.S. Tennis Association recorded a record total of $75 million in total compensation in 2024, about a 15 percent increase from the previous year's U.S. Open. Wimbledon had around $64 million in prize money in 2024, while the French and Australian Opens each had about $58 million.

The French Open, the second of four Grand Slam tournaments this year, will begin in Paris on May 25.

Tennis royalty will be part of the inaugural Roland-Garros coverage for TNT Sports this year.

TNT Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery announced Wednesday that Andre Agassi will be part of its coverage of the French Open this May. Agassi will be a studio analyst for the semifinal and championship rounds of the year's second major championship.

"Andre is one of the most accomplished tennis players of all time and we're excited to add his distinct voice to our inaugural Roland-Garros coverage," Craig Barry, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer of TNT Sports, said. "His very unique lens will elevate our presentation and appeal to both passionate fans and casual audiences."

Agassi is certainly better equipped than most to lend an element of expertise when it comes to Roland-Garros and tennis in general given his illustrious resume.

He was an eight-time Grand Slam champion, Olympic gold medalist and 60-time ATP title winner during his 21-year pro tennis career. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2011 and is widely considered one of the best players of his or any era.

What's more, Agassi enjoyed plenty of success at Roland-Garros.

He won the title in 1999 and remains the most recent American man to win the French Open. He also completed the career Grand Slam with that victory after previously winning the Australian Open, U.S. Open and Wimbledon.

While Agassi's 1999 win over Andrei Medvedev marked his only championship at Roland-Garros, he reached the quarterfinals nine times, semifinals five times and final three times.

Now he will be on the broadcast as other tennis players look to follow in his footsteps and become Grand Slam champions.

And he is joining TNT Sports for its inaugural coverage of Roland-Garros after it came to terms on a 10-year agreement with the French Tennis Federation in June 2024. The agreement meant adding the major to TNT Sports' portfolio that also includes the NBA, MLB, NCAA men's basketball tournament, NHL, United States Soccer, NASCAR, Unrivaled, the Big East, the Big 12 and the Mountain West.

Warner Bros. Discovery will be the largest global broadcast partner to Roland-Garros this year with live matches on TNT, TBS, truTV and Max.

There will also be all-day studio coverage on truTV, as well as highlights and other coverage on Bleacher Report and House of Highlights.