Truth & Rumors > Tennis

09:38 AM ET 05.22 | When the French Open begins on Sunday in Paris, the men's field will be without the No. 2 player in the world. England's Andy Murray withdrew from the field on Tuesday due to a back injury that forced him to pull out of the Italian Open in the middle of a match. The back condition is reportedly chronic for Murray, and he met with various doctors this week before coming to a decision to skip the second Grand Slam tournament of the year. Murray is the reigning U.S. Open champion after defeating Novak Djokovic in September to claim his first and only grand slam title, but the French Open remains the only tournament in which Murray has not reached the finals. In addition, clay is certainly regarded as his worst surface.

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07:05 PM ET 04.01 | The two top Indian doubles players, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, are reuniting for one final run. The two competed together during the 2012 season and have decided to join forces on the same side of the court beginning with the Monte Carlo Masters after spending the beginning of the season experimenting with other partners. Bhupati is preparing to call it quits on his career that included four Grand Slams and eight mixed doubles Grand Slams, and he couldn't think of a better way to go out than to compete with an old partner.

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02:24 PM ET 03.18 | Since returning from a seven-month layoff, Rafael Nadal has been virtually unstoppable. Nadal capped off his 17-1 run since his return over the weekend by capturing the BNP Paribas Open title. It was the 22nd Masters title of his career, which is a record. Nadal took down Juan Martin Del Potro, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, to win the tournament. Del Potro earned his spot in the final with wins over No. 3 ranked Andy Murray and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. The win in Indian Wells is the third since his return, with the previous two coming in Sao Paulo and Acapulco. With the win, Nadal will go from No. 5 to No. 4 in the world rankings.

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08:41 AM ET 03.16 | Two of the brightest starts in tennis, Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova, breezed through their matchups at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden to advance in the BNP Paribas Open. Djokovic, the top-ranked man in the world, easily disposed of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-3, 6-1, in under an hour as he advanced to the semifinals where he will meet Juan Martin del Potro who was able to take down No. 3 seed Andy Murray. Djokovic is continuing his impressive run that includes a win in 22 straight matches and a 17-0 record this year. He will be looking to earn his third title of 2013. On the women's side, Sharapova took down No. 13 Maria Kirilenko, 6-4, 6-3, in a semifinals match and will take on No. 8 Caroline Wozniacki in the tournament final which is set to take place on Sunday. Sharapova received some additional good news following the win. With her advancement to the finals, Sharapova is expected to move from the No. 3 to No. 2 ranked woman in the WTA Tour rankings, which are released on Monday.

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07:44 PM ET 01.04 | This is going to read like an extremely sexist ad-lib, but it's true: World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka had to cancel a scheduled tennis match in Brisbane against Serena Williams because she suffered an injury during a botched pedicure. My first reaction is, my god they can actually botch pedicures? Is nothing safe in this world anymore? Azarenka said that because of a bad pedicure, her toe became badly infected, and she couldn't risk further bodily harm by playing Williams in the Brisbane International semifinal. The top-ranked Azarenka said that she's been battling the injury for 10 days and would rather sit out this match than risk having to possibly miss the Australian Open. Her opponent, Serena Williams, fully supports Azarenka's decision to skip the match in an effort to be ready for the first leg of a potential Grand Slam year.

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