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Serena Williams seeded 17th at U.S. Open

By Nick ZaccardiAug 21, 2018, 12:00 PM EST

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Serena Williams has been seeded 17th at the U.S. Open, nine spots higher than her WTA ranking as she returns from childbirth.

The rest of the women’s and men’s singles seeds follow WTA and ATP rankings. Williams is seeded one spot below older sister Venus, a two-time U.S. Open winner.

Williams goes for her seventh U.S. Open title beginning next week. She eyes her 24th Grand Slam singles title overall, which would tie Margaret Court‘s record.

Williams returned to the WTA Tour in March after Sept. 1 childbirth followed by multiple surgeries. She made the fourth round of the French Open in May and June before withdrawing with a pectoral muscle injury.

She then reached the Wimbledon final, losing in straight sets to German Angelique Kerber.

Williams has lost two of her three matches since Wimbledon in U.S. hard-court tournaments.

The French Open did not give Williams a seed when she was ranked No. 453 due to the maternity leave. Wimbledon seeded Williams 25th when she was ranked No. 183.

The U.S. Open would “revise the seedings if pregnancy is a factor in the current rankings of a player,” USTA president and chairwoman Katrina Adams said in June, according to The New York Times.

2018 US Open Women’s Singles Seeds

1. Simona Halep, Romania

2. Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark

3. Sloane Stephens, United States

4. Angelique Kerber, Germany

5. Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic

6. Caroline Garcia, France

7. Elina Svitolina, Ukraine

8. Karolina Pliskova, Czech Republic

9. Julia Goerges, Germany

10. Jelena Ostapenko, Latvia

11. Daria Kasatkina, Russia

12. Garbiñe Muguruza, Spain

13. Kiki Bertens, Netherlands

14. Madison Keys, United States

15. Elise Mertens, Belgium

16. Venus Williams, United States

17. Serena Williams, United States

18. Ashleigh Barty, Australia

19. Anastasija Sevastova, Latvia

20. Naomi Osaka, Japan

21. Mihaela Buzarnescu, Romania

22. Maria Sharapova, Russia

23. Barbora Strycova, Czech Republic

24. CoCo Vandeweghe, United States

25. Daria Gavrilova, Australia

26. Aryna Sabalenka, Belarus

27. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Russia

28. Anett Kontaveit, Estonia

29. Dominika Cibulkova, Slovakia

30. Carla Suarez Navarro, Spain

31. Magdalena Rybarikova, Slovakia

32. Maria Sakkari, Greece

2018 US Open Men’s Singles Seeds

1. Rafael Nadal, Spain

2. Roger Federer, Switzerland

3. Juan Martin del Potro, Argentina

4. Alexander Zverev, Germany

5. Kevin Anderson, South Africa

6. Novak Djokovic, Serbia

7. Marin Cilic, Croatia

8. Grigor Dimitrov, Bulgaria

9. Dominic Thiem, Austria

10. David Goffin, Belgium

11. John Isner, United States

12. Pablo Carreno Busta, Spain

13. Diego Schwartzman, Argentina

14. Fabio Fognini, Italy

15. Stefanos Tsitsipas, Greece

16. Kyle Edmund, Great Britain

17. Lucas Pouille, France

18. Jack Sock, United States

19. Roberto Bautista Agut, Spain

20. Borna Coric, Croatia

21. Kei Nishikori, Japan

22. Marco Cecchinato, Italy

23. Hyeon Chung, South Korea

24. Damir Dzumhur, Bosnia and Herzegovina

25. Milos Raonic, Canada

26. Richard Gasquet, France

27. Karen Khachanov, Russia

28. Denis Shapovalov, Canada

29. Adrian Mannarino, France

30. Nick Kyrgios, Australia

31. Fernando Verdasco, Spain

32. Filip Krajinovic, Serbia

Tahiti chosen for Olympic surfing competition at 2024 Paris Games

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By OlympicTalkDec 12, 2019, 8:51 AM EST

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Paris 2024 Olympic organizers want the surfing competition to be held in Tahiti, an island in French Polynesia that is about 9,800 miles from Paris.

It would break the record for the farthest Olympic medal competition to be held outside the host. In 1956, equestrian events were moved out of Melbourne due to quarantine laws and held five months earlier in Stockholm, some 9,700 miles away.

The Paris 2024 executive board approved the site Thursday — specifically, the village of Teahupo’o — and will propose it to the IOC. It beat out other applicants Biarritz, Lacanau, Les Landes and La Torche, all part of mainland France.

Surfing will debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games but is not on the permanent Olympic program. Surfing was among sports added to the Paris 2024 program in June and could be added for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

MORE: U.S. athletes qualified for Tokyo Olympics

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Adam Jones, five-time MLB All-Star, becomes Olympic eligible

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By Nick ZaccardiDec 11, 2019, 11:33 AM EST

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Should the U.S. qualify for baseball’s Olympic return, a five-time MLB All-Star could be eligible for its roster in Tokyo. And he has interest.

Outfielder Adam Jones signed with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s domestic league, which, unlike MLB, will take an Olympic break next summer to allow players to take part in the first Olympic baseball tournament in 12 years.

Jones, 34, made no mention of Olympic eligibility in a social media post announcing the signing. His Instagram avatar is a photo of him in a Team USA jersey from the World Baseball Classic.

Jones’ agent later said that Jones does have interest in playing for the U.S. in Tokyo, should an American team qualify in the spring.

“To play over in Japan has always been a desire of Adam’s, and the timing worked out that the Olympics happens to be played in Tokyo the first year of his contract,” Jones’ agent wrote in an email. “It wasn’t one of the factors on his decision BUT more of a [sic] addition to the overall package to decide to go.”

Jones called being part of the U.S.’ 2017 WBC title, “probably the best experience of my life so far, especially with sports,” according to The Associated Press. He was one of five players to be on the U.S. team at each of the last two World Baseball Classics.

The U.S. still faces a difficult task to qualify for the Tokyo Games. It lost to Mexico last month in its first of up to three chances at qualifying tournaments, using a roster of mostly double-A and triple-A caliber players.

Major Leaguers are not expected to be made available for qualifying or for the Tokyo Games.

The next two qualifying tournaments will be in late March (an Americas qualifier in Arizona) and early April (a final, global qualifying event in Chinese Taipei). It remains to be seen how MLB clubs will go about releasing minor leaguers for a tournament that will take place during spring training.

Jones could become the third player with prior MLB All-Star experience to compete at the Olympics from any nation, joining Australian catcher Dave Nilsson and Canadian pitcher Jason Dickson.

Jones made five All-Star teams during an 11-year stint with the Baltimore Orioles from 2008-18 before playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks last season.

Many players competed at the Olympics before making an MLB All-Star team, including Stephen Strasburg and Jason Giambi.

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