Rafael Nadal was close to perfect during his BNP Paribas Open debut on Sunday evening. The second-seeded Spaniard pushed Jared Donaldson all around Stadium 1 en route to his 6-1, 6-1 win that took only 72 minutes.
Nothing personal, Ryan Bader, but Matt Mitrione isn’t a fan of the “champ-champ” concept. Nor was he super into the idea of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix in the first place.
In his first match since claiming his 100th tour-level title in Dubai, fourth seed Roger Federer defeated German Peter Gojowczyk 6-1, 7-5 on Sunday to reach the third round of the BNP Paribas Open.
Since breaking into the UFC in February 2018, Israel Adesanya’s accession up the UFC middleweight rankings has been one of the hottest stories in mixed martial arts.
Kei Nishikori failed to move past the second round of the BNP Paribas Open the first four times he competed at the ATP Masters 1000 event. But the Japanese star advanced to the third round for his sixth consecutive appearance on Sunday, battling past Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4).
Novak Djokovic passed former World No. 1 Pete Sampras at the Australian Open by winning his 15th Grand Slam title, breaking a tie with the American to move into third on the major championships list in the Open Era.