Kerri Walsh Jennings eyes ‘legend of legends’ partner for Olympic beach volleyball run

By OlympicTalkApr 19, 2022, 3:30 PM EDT

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Kerri Walsh Jennings wants to partner with 2000 Olympic indoor volleyball teammate Logan Tom for a beach volleyball bid for the 2024 Paris Games.

“I gave myself until June to figure out if I’m retired or not because I still have the fire in my heart,” the 43-year-old Walsh Jennings said on a podcast published last week. “If I come back, I want to play with the legend of all legends, who is Logan Tom.”

Tom, a 40-year-old, four-time Olympic indoor player now listed as a coach with Israel’s federation, has not replied to a message seeking comment last week to an email address associated with her in 2016.

“I’m trying to get her to come out to the beach and go win Paris with me, but we’ll see,” said Walsh Jennings, a three-time Olympic champion with former partner Misty May-Treanor. “It would be my dream come true. … I just have always loved Logan for her heart, discipline and love of the game. … I know we would be magic out there, so we’ll see.

Walsh Jennings has not played a tournament since missing qualification for the Tokyo Olympics last June with partner Brooke Sweat by one spot. She said on the podcast that she’s not playing so far this year “because I’m recovering from some issues.”

“I played really bad all of 2021. For the first time ever in my whole career I had a really bad season,” Walsh Jennings said.

Attempts to reach Walsh Jennings through her agent have been unsuccessful.

Tom was a U.S. indoor standout, playing her last Olympics in 2012 and continuing on the club level into at least 2019.

“She’s like Misty,” Walsh Jennings said. “She can show up after not playing for 20 years and still kill everybody.”

Tom played 27 beach volleyball tournaments between the domestic AVP and international FIVB tours in 2006 and 2007 in the middle of her indoor career. She had five different beach partners, playing the most with three-time Olympian Holly McPeak, and reaching one AVP semifinal, according to BVBInfo.com.

Tom and Walsh Jennings were indoor teammates for one year at Stanford in 1999 when Walsh Jennings was a senior and Tom was a freshman, then on the court together again at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

There is an opening in U.S. women’s beach volleyball for a new top team, at least in the short term. Tokyo gold medalist Alix Klineman has been out since undergoing surgery three months ago. Klineman’s partner, April Ross, started this season playing with veteran Emily Day.

The other Tokyo Olympic pair, Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil, split. Claes and new partner Betsi Flint took fourth in the biggest event so far this year, in Mexico last month.

Another new team, Kelley Kolinske and Sara Hughes, won an international tournament last week.

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2023 French Open men’s singles draw, scores

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 4:59 PM EDT

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The French Open men’s singles draw is missing injured 14-time champion Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, leaving the Coupe des Mousquetaires ripe for the taking.

The tournament airs live on NBC Sports, Peacock and Tennis Channel through championship points in Paris.

Novak Djokovic is not only bidding for a third crown at Roland Garros, but also to lift a 23rd Grand Slam singles trophy to break his tie with Nadal for the most in men’s history.

FRENCH OPEN: Broadcast Schedule | Women’s Draw

But the No. 1 seed is Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who won last year’s U.S. Open to become, at 19, the youngest man to win a major since Nadal’s first French Open title in 2005.

Now Alcaraz looks to become the second-youngest man to win at Roland Garros since 1989, after Nadal of course.

Alcaraz missed the Australian Open in January due to a right leg injury, but since went 30-3 with four titles. Notably, he has not faced Djokovic this year. They could meet in the semifinals.

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No. 2 seed, was upset in the first round by 172nd-ranked Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild. It marked the first time a men’s top-two seed lost in the first round of any major since 2003 Wimbledon (Ivo Karlovic d. Lleyton Hewitt).

All of the American men lost before the fourth round. The last U.S. man to make the French Open quarterfinals was Andre Agassi in 2003.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek set French Open rematch

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 3:25 PM EDT

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Coco Gauff swept into the French Open quarterfinals, where she plays Iga Swiatek in a rematch of last year’s final.

Gauff, the sixth seed, beat 100th-ranked Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 7-5, 6-2 in the fourth round. She next plays the top seed Swiatek, who later Monday advanced after 66th-ranked Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko retired down 5-1 after taking a medical timeout due to illness.

Gauff earned a 37th consecutive win over a player ranked outside the top 50, dating to February 2022. She hasn’t faced a player in the world top 60 in four matches at Roland Garros, but the degree of difficulty ratchets up in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

Swiatek won all 12 sets she’s played against Gauff, who at 19 is the only teenager in the top 49 in the world. Gauff said last week that there’s no point in revisiting last year’s final — a 6-1, 6-3 affair — but said Monday that she should rewatch that match because they haven’t met on clay since.

“I don’t want to make the final my biggest accomplishment,” she said. “Since last year I have been wanting to play her, especially at this tournament. I figured that it was going to happen, because I figured I was going to do well, and she was going to do well.

“The way my career has gone so far, if I see a level, and if I’m not quite there at that level, I know I have to improve, and I feel like you don’t really know what you have to improve on until you see that level.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Also Monday, No. 7 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia dispatched 36th-ranked American Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-1, breaking all eight of Pera’s service games.

Jabeur, runner-up at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year, has now reached the quarterfinals of all four majors.

Jabeur next faces 14th-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia, who won 6-7 (3), 6-3, 7-5 over Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo, who played on a protected ranking of 68. Haddad Maia became the second Brazilian woman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal in the Open Era (since 1968) after Maria Bueno, who won seven majors from 1959-1966.

Pera, a 28 year-old born in Croatia, was the oldest U.S. singles player to make the fourth round of a major for the first time since Jill Craybas at 2005 Wimbledon. Her defeat left Gauff as the lone American singles player remaining out of the 35 entered in the main draws.

The last American to win a major singles title was Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. The 11-major drought matches the longest in history (since 1877) for American men and women combined.

In the men’s draw, 2022 French Open runner-up Casper Ruud reached the quarterfinals by beating 35th-ranked Chilean Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (3), 7-5, 7-5. He’ll next play sixth seed Holger Rune of Denmark, a 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7) winner over 23rd seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina.

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

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