Christopher Clarey | |
|---|---|
 Clarey at the 2023 French Open | |
| Born | 1964 (age 59–60) [1] Newport, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Williams College (BA) |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1991–present |
Christopher Clarey (born 1964) is an American sports journalist and author who mostly writes about tennis. He reported for The New York Times from 1991 to 2023. His biography of Roger Federer, The Master, was published in 2021 and was a New York Times bestseller.
Clarey was born in Newport, Rhode Island, to Bonnie Clarey and US Navy Rear Admiral Stephen Clarey. [2] His grandfather was Admiral Bernard "Chick" Clarey. [3] Being in a military family, he moved often in his youth. [2] He attended Punahou School in Honolulu from seventh to ninth grade at the same time that Barack Obama went to the school. [4] He graduated from Coronado High School in California, where he played tennis and soccer and wrote for the student newspaper. [2] He went to Williams College in Massachusetts, where he played tennis, soccer, and volleyball, and received his Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English and history in 1986. [2] [4]
Clarey started his journalism career as an intern at The San Diego Union-Tribune , where he covered local sports, including the National Football League (NFL)'s Chargers. [2] [4] In 1991, he moved to Paris to work as a freelance reporter. [4] [5]
Later that year, he secured his first byline in The New York Times —a profile of the French ice dance siblings Paul and Isabelle Duchesnay—after his former editor at the Union-Tribune recommended him to the Times sports editor. [4] [lower-alpha 1] He continued to write for the Times and, in 1998, became the chief sports correspondent for its sister publication, the International Herald Tribune . [4] [7] The London Times said in 2021 that Clarey "has a claim to be the doyen of English-language tennis journalism". [8]
The Master, a biography of Roger Federer by Clarey, was published on August 24, 2021, as Federer's tennis career came to an end. [9] [10] Clarey had followed Federer closely for the entirety of his career and reportedly interviewed Federer more than any other journalist. [2] [11] Contemporary reviews in The London Times called The Master the best book on Federer written so far. [8] [12]
In May 2023, Clarey announced that he was leaving the Times to focus on writing books and to launch a Substack newsletter, Christopher Clarey's Tennis & Beyond. His upcoming book project is The Warrior, a biography of Rafael Nadal. [13] [14]
Clarey married his wife, Virginie, in Paris in 1991. [5]
Roger Federer is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 five times. He won 103 singles titles on the ATP Tour, the second most of all time, including 20 major men's singles titles and six year-end championships.
Marat Mubinovich Safin is a Russian former world No. 1 tennis player and former politician. Nicknamed 'Safinator', he achieved the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) top singles ranking on 20 November 2000. Safin began his professional tennis career in 1997, and held the No. 1 ranking for a total of nine weeks between November 2000 and April 2001. When Safin became the world's number one player in 2000, he became the youngest world number one in the ATP era of tennis. He won his first major title at the 2000 US Open, defeating Pete Sampras in the final, and his second at the 2005 Australian Open, defeating Lleyton Hewitt in the final. Safin helped lead Russia to Davis Cup victories in 2002 and 2006. Despite his dislike of grass courts, he became the first Russian man to reach the Wimbledon semifinals in 2008.
Rafael Nadal Parera is a Spanish professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 209 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 five times. Nadal has won 22 Grand Slam men's singles titles, including a record 14 French Open titles. He has won 92 ATP-level singles titles, including 36 Masters titles and an Olympic gold medal, with 63 of these on clay courts. Nadal is one of three men to complete the Career Golden Slam in singles. His 81 consecutive wins on clay constitute the longest single-surface win streak in the Open Era.
Wayne Richard Ferreira is a South African tennis coach and a former professional player. Ferreira won 15 ATP singles titles and 11 doubles titles. His career-high rankings were world No. 6 in singles and world No. 9 in doubles.
William Charles Renshaw was a British tennis player active during the late 19th century, who was ranked world No. 1. He won twelve Major titles during his career. A right-hander, he was known for his power and technical ability which put him ahead of competition at the time. Renshaw shared the all-time male record of seven Wimbledon singles titles with American Pete Sampras until 2017 when Roger Federer won his eighth singles title. His six consecutive singles titles (1881–86) is an all-time record. Additionally he won the doubles title five times together with his twin brother Ernest. William Renshaw was the first president of the British Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).
Stanislas Wawrinka is a Swiss professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking of world No. 3 on 27 January 2014. He is a three-time Grand Slam champion, at the 2014 Australian Open, the 2015 French Open and at the 2016 US Open, where he defeated the world No. 1 player in the final on all three occasions.Other achievements include reaching the final of the 2017 French Open, winning a Masters 1000 title at the 2014 Monte-Carlo Masters, and reaching three other Masters finals. Representing Switzerland, Wawrinka won gold in doubles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics partnering Roger Federer, and was also pivotal in the Swiss team's victory at the 2014 Davis Cup. Wawrinka considers clay his best and favorite surface, and his serve and backhand his best shots. John McEnroe once said that Wawrinka has one of the most powerful backhands ever, and in 2009 said he possessed "the best one-handed backhand in the game." He has been described by The Economist as "tennis's great latecomer", owing to finding his greatest success late in his career. Prior to the 2014 French Open, he requested and was granted a formal change in his name from "Stanislas Wawrinka" to "Stan Wawrinka", stating that he plans to use the abbreviated name in tournament draws and press conferences.
Novak Djokovic is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked No. 1 for a record total of 428 weeks in a record 13 different years by the ATP, and finished as the year-end No. 1 a record eight times. Djokovic has won a record 24 Grand Slam men's singles titles, including a record ten Australian Open titles. Overall, he has won 99 singles titles, including a record 72 Big Titles: 24 majors, a record 40 Masters, a record seven year-end championships, and an Olympic gold medal. Djokovic is the only man in tennis history to be the reigning champion of all four majors at once across three different surfaces. In singles, he is the only man to achieve a triple Career Grand Slam, and the only player to complete a Career Golden Masters, a feat he has accomplished twice. Djokovic is the only player in singles to have won all of the Big Titles over the course of his career, having completed the Career Super Slam as part of that accomplishment.
Roger Federer won one major in 2008, the US Open, defeating Briton Andy Murray, 6–2, 7–5, 6–2. Federer was defeated by Rafael Nadal in two Grand Slam finals: at the French Open, which he lost 1–6, 3–6, 0–6, and at Wimbledon in a famous five-setter, 4–6, 4–6, 7–6, 7–6, 7–9, when he was aiming for six straight wins to break Björn Borg's record. At the Australian Open, Federer lost in the semifinals to Novak Djokovic, ending his record streak of 10 consecutive Major finals. Roger Federer lost twice in Master Series 1000 Finals on clay to Nadal at Monte Carlo and Hamburg. However, Federer was able to capture three more victories in 250-level events at Estoril, Halle, and Basel.
Roger Federer's first ATP Tour-level tournament was the 1998 Gstaad Open, where he faced Lucas Arnold Ker in the round of 32 and lost, 4–6, 4–6. Federer's first final came at the 2000 Marseille Open, where he lost to fellow Swiss Marc Rosset, 6–2, 3–6, 6–7. Federer's first tournament win was at the 2001 Milan Indoor, where he defeated Julien Boutter, 6–4, 6–7, 6–4. The most prestigious finals he contested at this time included the 2002 Miami Masters, where he lost to Andre Agassi, 3–6, 3–6, 6–3, 4–6. Shortly thereafter, Federer won his first Masters Series event at the Hamburg Masters on clay, 6–1, 6–3, 6–4, over Marat Safin.
The tweener or between-the-legs shot is a difficult tennis shot where a player hits the ball between his or her legs. It is typically performed facing away from the opponent, when the player attempts to recover a lob and has no time to turn back around, and hits the ball backward between their legs. Forward-facing tweeners, sometimes called "front tweeners", are also occasionally employed. In competitive matches the tweener is a crowd-pleasing, seldom used last resort, but it is a common trick shot in exhibitions. Players who famously executed the backward shot include the pioneer Guillermo Vilas, Yannick Noah, Ilie Năstase, Gabriela Sabatini, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Juan Martín del Potro, Nick Kyrgios, Daria Kasatkina, Agnieszka Radwańska, Simona Halep, Ons Jabeur, and Novak Djokovic.
José Higueras is a tennis coach and former professional tennis player from Spain.
This is a list of the main career statistics of Austrian professional tennis player Dominic Thiem. To date, Thiem has won seventeen ATP singles titles, including at least one title on each surface. He won the 2020 US Open title, and has reached three other Grand Slam finals at the 2018 French Open, 2019 French Open and 2020 Australian Open. He has also been in two Grand Slam semifinals at the 2016 French Open and 2017 French Open. He won the 2019 Indian Wells Masters and was a finalist at the 2017 and 2018 Madrid Open, semifinalist at the 2017 Italian Open, 2018 Paris Masters and 2019 Madrid Open and a quarterfinalist at the US Open in 2018 and at the French Open in 2020. Thiem achieved a career high singles ranking of world No. 3 on 2 March 2020.
The Laver Cup is an international indoor hard court men's team tennis tournament between Team Europe and Team World, the latter of which is composed of players from all other continents except Europe. Usually held annually since 2017, the tournament is intended to be the Ryder Cup of the tennis world. It normally takes place two weeks after the US Open, with the location rotating between various host cities ; alternating yearly between European cities and cities in the rest of the world. In addition to the guaranteed participation fees which are based upon the players' ATP rankings, each member of the winning team gets $250,000 in prize money, but the tournament itself does not count towards the players' point totals in the ATP Tour for that year. In May 2019, the Laver Cup became an officially sanctioned ATP Tour event. Matches during the Laver Cup tournament differ from conventional 3-set matches played on the ATP Tour; in the event when the match is tied at one set all, a 10-point “match tiebreak” is played instead of a deciding final set. In addition, unlike conventional ATP tour matches, coaching of match participants is commonly applied courtside by teammates and team captains.
Matteo Berrettini is an Italian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in January 2022, and world No. 105 in doubles, attained in July 2019. Berrettini has won ten ATP Tour singles titles and two doubles titles, and produced his best major performance by reaching the singles final of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships. He also became the first man born in the 1990s and first Italian man to reach the quarterfinals or better at all four majors after earning his first Australian Open semifinal in 2022.
The 2009 French Open men's singles final was the championship tennis match of the men's singles tournament at the 2009 French Open. It was contested by three-time finalist Roger Federer and Robin Söderling. After years of heartbreak in Paris, Federer finally lifted the Coupe des Mousquetaires for the first and only time in his career.
Carlos Ramos is a retired Portuguese tennis umpire. Ramos, a gold badge chair umpire certified by the International Tennis Federation, is one of only two persons to have chair umpired a singles finals match in all four of the Grand Slam tournaments, the other being Alison Hughes. Ramos is also notable for umpiring many other high-profile matches and for penalizing several high-profile players during his decades-long career.
The 2019 Wimbledon Championships Men's Singles final was the championship tennis match of the men's singles tournament at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships. After 4 hours and 57 minutes, first seed Novak Djokovic defeated second seed Roger Federer in five sets to win the title in a repeat of the 2014 and the 2015 Wimbledon finals. It was the longest Wimbledon final in history, and the last major final of Federer's career. The match has been called the "War of 13–12".
Rafael Nadal defeated Casper Ruud in the final, 6–3, 6–3, 6–0 to win the men's singles tennis title at the 2022 French Open. It was his record-extending 14th French Open title and record-extending 22nd major title overall. It marked the first time in his career that he won the Australian Open and the French Open in the same calendar year. Nadal also became the third man to defeat four top 10 players en route to a major title since the introduction of ATP rankings in 1973. Ruud became the first Norwegian man to reach a major quarterfinal and beyond, and the first Scandinavian man to do so since Robin Söderling in 2010.