New York Times: Maria Sharapova on leadership, fashion and future plans. Read...

A man is caught on video snatching a match-worn cap from a young fan at the US Open. Read...

Naomi Osaka says Jelena Ostapenko`s comments to Taylor Townsend about her having `no class` and `no education` was `one of the worst things you could say to a black tennis player`. Read...

Tennis superstar Iga Swiatek was left frustrated and perplexed as her press conference went off the rails at the US Open. Read...

Taylor Townsend is being applauded for her composed response to Jelena Ostapenko’s heated remarks during their US Open match. Read...

A hip injury threatened to end Priscilla Hon’s tennis dreams five years ago, but now she is in uncharted grand slam territory in New York. Read...

Lulu Sun had a confidence-boosting first round win in New York, but couldn’t back it up against the world No 21. Read...

Taylor Townsend and Jelena Ostapenko got into a face-to-face argument on the Court 11 sideline right after their second-round match ended. Read...

Venus Williams battled bravely before suffering a first-round defeat on her return to the US Open on Tuesday, losing in three sets to 11th seed Karolina Muchova. Williams, 45, only returned to competitive tennis in July following a 16-month absence from the sport, and had been granted a wild card into the main draw at Flushing Meadows. But the American tennis icon was unable to prolong her stay in the championship past the first hurdle, falling to a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 defeat against her 29-year-old Czech opponent, who had not even been born when Williams turned professional in 1994. Williams had not played a Grand Slam singles event since exiting in the first round of the US Open in 2023, and had not won a match at Grand Slam level since reaching the second round at Wimbledon in 2021. Yet over the course of an entertaining battle on the Arthur Ashe Stadium, Williams offered glimpses of the formidable talent that earned her seven career Grand Slam singles titles, including five Wimbledon championships. After starting slowly, suffering a break of serve in the opening game, Williams came storming back to level the first set at 2-2. But Muchova pounced once more in the seventh game, Williams again struggling on serve to fall 4-3 behind. Muchova held for 5-3 and then broke Williams again to take the set, the American veteran double-faulting on set point to groans from the crowd. Yet any sense of a momentum shift in Muchova’s favour evaporated in the second set, Williams hitting back to break in the opening game before breaking Muchova again in the seventh game to open up a 5-2 lead and holding to force a deciding set. Williams visibly ran out of steam in the third set, though, with Muchova securing an early break before holding for a 3-0 lead, and maintaining her advantage as she closed out victory. Earlier in the day, Daniil Medvedev had a dramatic on-court meltdown after a photographer accidentally wandered into the playing area. The Russian went on to be defeated by France’s Benjamin Bonzi, losing in five sets in a game that descended into chaos during the third set. German tennis legend Boris Becker said Medvedev should seek “professional help” following the incident. – AFP Read...

Streaming TV operators are always dreaming up new packages and bundles, and admittedly, I snooze through most of them. But Sling’s Day Pass subscription, which gives you a day’s access to Sling Orange—a package that includes ESPN and two-dozen other channels—for just five bucks sure got my attention.   Turns out it got Disney’s attention, too.  Disney, as you may know, owns ESPN, and Disney doesn’t want to sell you just a day’s worth of ESPN. It wants you to pay for at least a month—ideally though its new ESPN streaming service—or even more.   Now Disney is claiming it never got a heads-up from Sling about its paradigm-breaking Day Pass idea, and it’s suing to stop it.  As Deadline reports, Disney’s legal team filed a federal lawsuit late Tuesday that accuses Sling of rolling out its Day Passes “without our knowledge or consent,” adding that the short-term subscriptions “violate the terms of our existing license agreement.”  From a business perspective, Disney is right to be concerned. Sling’s Day Passes (there are Weekend and Week Passes, too) have the potential to upend the pay TV business, which (as Deadline notes) have long relied on lengthy commitments from subscribers. Back in the cable era, TV viewers would sign up for a year or even longer. In today’s streaming world, a minimum of a month is the norm. But just a week, or even only a day’s commitment? For the likes of Disney, that’s dangerous precedent.  What Disney’s afraid of, of course, are commitment-phobe streamers like me. I love the idea of being able to buy a $5 Day Pass for, say, a single Monday Night Football game on ESPN, or maybe just one night of U.S. Open Tennis. That’s way better than forking over $40 for a month-long subscription that I only need for 24 hours. And once that Day Pass expires, boom, I’m out—and no, a Day Pass doesn’t auto-renew in the hopes you’ll forget to cancel.  Now, Disney’s case against Sling will hinge not on what’s fair or desireable for consumers, but on the specifics of its deal with Sling. If the contract says Sling must offer ESPN and other Disney-owned channels for such-and-such a term and at XYZ rate, and Sling violated that agreement, then Sling might have a problem. A deal’s a deal.  Big picture, though, Sling’s Day Pass idea is a terrific idea—and quite possibly the future. Or at least, I certainly hope so. Read...