Christopher Clarey

New York

Bestselling Author at The New York Times

@NYTimes bestselling Author. New book: THE WARRIOR on #Nadal. THE MASTER on #Federer. TENNIS & BEYOND newsletter. 30+years @nytsports. 100+ Slams. 16 Olympics

Featured in: Favicon

nytimes.com Favicon

uol.com.br (+1) Favicon

msn.com

globo.com

estadao.com.br Favicon

huffpost.com Favicon

terra.com.br Favicon

indiatimes.com (+1) Favicon

washingtonpost.com Favicon

cnbc.com + 112 more

Articles

Sabalenka versus Gauff. French Open women's final 2025. Live Blog.

3 weeks ago | christopherclarey.substack.com | Christopher Clarey

Roland Garros has certainly added layers of ceremony and protocol to its finals in recent years, and the women’s finalists Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Guaff did not enter the Philippe Chatrier Court until twenty minutes after the official start time. The pre-game entertanment, long a fixture of North American sports events, is a big change but a welcome change.
Djokovic Marks the Moment

3 weeks ago | christopherclarey.substack.com | Christopher Clarey

PARIS – If Novak Djokovic is going to speculate about this being his last French Open, then I am certainly not going to hold back on speculating about this being his last French Open. If Friday night was indeed the end at Roland Garros, he went out with distinction in the semifinals: giving the newly entrenched No. 1 Jannik Sinner plenty of trouble and variety for three taut sets that could so easily have turned into four and maybe even extended to five.
Liftoff in Paris

3 weeks ago | christopherclarey.substack.com | Christopher Clarey

PARIS – I am no fan of parity in tennis. Bring on the consistent, long-running rivalries and the protagonists we have gotten to know over years and majors. That’s how the Golden Era shined so brightly. But I am all for big surprises, and we have certainly been well served at this year’s French Open. Nobody could reasonably (or unreasonably) have expected Loïs Boisson to reach the quarterfinals of her nation’s most important tennis tournament.
Wojownik bez kompromisów. Tajemnica sukcesów Rafaela Nadala

3 weeks ago | onet.pl | Christopher Clarey

Nadal na korcie w 2024 r. Fragment:Gdybyś wziął grę oraz styl Rafy i odjął intuicję, znajomość nawierzchni i zdolność przewidywania, a zostawił sam forhend i inne uderzenia, to nie wygrałby 14-krotnie w Paryżu. Musisz dodać jego serce i wolę walki, bo właśnie to napędziło go do wygrania większej liczby Wielkich Szlemów, niż powinien był wygrać. Gdyby nie ciągnęła go ta wola walki, to jak miałby wrócić z 02 przeciwko Miedwiediewowi w finale Australian Open?
Great Expectations

3 weeks ago | christopherclarey.substack.com | Christopher Clarey

PARIS – Richard Gasquet’s timing on his exquisite one-handed backhand was often perfection, but his timing in the bigger picture was not nearly so ideal. In a different era, he might have won a major or two and been the champion that some experts in France expected him to be after he dominated the junior ranks and then defeated world No. 1 Roger Federer in their first meeting at age 18 in Monte Carlo.
Nie złamała go ani wojna, ani pandemia. Niestrudzony wojownik Novak Djoković [FRAGMENT KSIĄŻKI]

1 month ago | onet.pl | Christopher Clarey

Fragment:Pierwsze punkty ATP zarobił na turnieju satelitarnym w Belgradzie. Jelena Genčić, postać w jego życiu kluczowa, jego pierwsza trenerka w Serbii, opowiedziała mi, że na początku ograniczał go brak zasobów finansowych, nawet po wyjeździe do monachijskiej akademii Nikiego Pilicia w wieku 12 lat. Genčić, która wzięła pod swoje skrzydła również młodych Monikę Seles i Gorana Ivaniševicia, prognozowała, że Novak przebije się do pierwszej piątki jako 17-latek.
Młokos pokonał mistrza Wimbledonu. Historia zwycięstwa Rafaela Nadala

1 month ago | onet.pl | Christopher Clarey

Rafael Nadal na korcie w 2024 r. Fragment:W okresie kluczowego rozwoju Nadal i Djoković minęli się o włos. Grali w tych samych turniejach i imprezach, tyle że Hiszpan pojawiał się w nich rok, dwa lata wcześniej. Również w prestiżowym Les Petits As w Tarbes. Nadal wygrał ten turniej do lat 14 w sezonie 2000, a Djoković rok później dotarł do ćwierćfinału, w którym odpadł z Murrayem. Hiszpan niedługo później przeszedł na zawodowstwo, kontrakt z Nike podpisał już jako 12-latek. W maju 2001 r.
Class Reunion

1 month ago | christopherclarey.substack.com | Christopher Clarey

PARIS – They did it right, and it needed to be done right. Rafael Nadal plus Roland Garros has been an equation like no other. It added up to 14 French Open singles titles yet still does not quite compute. It is one of the most extraordinary records not just in tennis but in sports, and that number may loom even larger as the years go by if new generations of players fail to match it or, more likely, even approach it.
How Nadal Dominated Tennis's Clay Courts, According to "The Warrior"'s Chris Clarey

1 month ago | airmail.news | Christopher Clarey

I did not choose the title to my new book, The Warrior, lightly. Rafael Nadal was a tennis warrior, to be sure: a competitive beast dripping with sweat and relentless in-the-moment ambition who could give the opposition a faraway gaze in a hurry. “It felt like the Sahara, and you just see the hills and there’s no ending,” said American Kevin Kim after losing to Nadal in straight sets at the 2006 French Open.
Christopher Clarey reads from The Warrior, his biography of Nadal

1 month ago | christopherclarey.substack.com | Christopher Clarey

PARIS — I enjoy reading aloud. It goes back to an early age when we used to take turns doing so in elementary school English (it was an unusually supportive group). When I wrote my biography The Master on Roger Federer, I explored the idea of doing the audio book. I was told by Hachette that I could give it a whirl but that it would likely take up to 10 full days and that, as a rookie, my voice might fail the endurance test.