Andy Murray will be the No. 3 seed at Roland Garros if he plays. (Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images)

ROME — British media are reporting that Andy Murray has undergone a back scan in London and will make a decision on whether he will play the French Open on Wednesday, two days before the draw is to be made.

After undergoing scan in London, Andy Murray just announced he's resting & will make French Open decision on Wednesday.—
Barry Flatman (@Barry_FlatmanST) May 18, 2013

Andy Murray talking to specialists, French Open decision around Weds – sounds like nothing immediately conclusive with his scan.—
Mike Dickson (@Mike_Dickson_DM) May 18, 2013

That’s a slight step down from Murray’s ominous comments earlier in the week after he retired from his opening-round match in Rome with a back injury.

Murray, who made the French Open semifinals in 2011, revealed he had been struggling with the injury since the end of 2011 and reaggravated it on the clay, saying he would be “surprised” if he was able to get fit enough to play the French Open.

If the back scan revealed a more serious injury, it stands to reason that he would have announced his withdrawal sooner.

Roger Federer in action at the Italian Open. (Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images)

ROME – Random thoughts, observations, links and other goodies from the tennis world this week …

• I said it on Twitter and I’ll say it again: Roger Federer’s new haircut makes him look old. That said, the above photo is great.

Photos: The evolution of Federer’s hair

• It sounds like the toughest competition in Rome isn’t happening on the court, but at the gelato shops around town. “Yesterday I realized that I’m really glad I have a job because if I didn’t I’d be obese and I’d be in debt,” Maria Sharapova joked before the Italian Open. “It’s just really good that I have something to do when I wake up in the morning. Because this city is really dangerous for the diet and the wallet and yesterday was not a good day for both.”

• Serena Williams was, not surprisingly, much more colorful. I asked after her quarterfinal win whether she’d be taking a souvenir home. Her response? “Usually it ends up on my ass,” she said with a cackle, referring to her penchant for gelato.

Read More…

Novak Djokovic has lost before the semifinals in back-to-back tournaments. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

ROME — Tomas Berdych upset Novak Djokovic 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open on Friday, snapping an 11-match losing streak against the world No. 1. Here are three thoughts on the two-hour, 22-minute match:

• Letdowns plague Djokovic: For all the questions surrounding Djokovic’s health after he sprained his ankle in Davis Cup in April and looked on the verge of withdrawing last month from Monte Carlo (where he went on to topple eight-time defending champion Rafael Nadal in the final), it’s been the Serb’s mental lapses in his last two matches that have raised questions for his French Open campaign.

Last week, he lost to Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (6), 6-7 (8), 6-3 in his opening match at the Madrid Open. Djokovic stormed back from a 2-4 deficit in the second set, but he was broken immediately in the third set and Dimitrov held on for the biggest victory of his career.

Read More…

Screengrab from TennisTV

The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.

• Photo: Maria Sharapova wishes boyfriend Grigor Dimitrov a happy 22nd birthday after beating Sloane Stephens in Rome on Thursday night. Sharapova has withdrawn from the tournament with a viral illness.

• Awful Announcing summarizes ESPN’s reported 11-year, $770 million deal for exclusive rights to the U.S. Open beginning in 2015. When CBS ends its run with the U.S. Open in 2014, the only Grand Slam tournament on broadcast television will be the French Open on NBC.

In a conference call with tennis and media reporters, officials from the United States Tennis Association were asked if they felt moving to ESPN and a potentially smaller audience would hurt the Open. However, the USTA and ESPN President John Skipper noted how the audiences for cable are matching and in some cases surpassing the broadcast networks. And while it wasn’t stated, ESPN is hoping that obtaining more championship events will prevent cable subscribers from cutting the cord.

Read More…

Maria Sharapova says she was sick last week and fell ill again on Thursday night. (Clive Mason/Getty Images)

ROME — Maria Sharapova withdrew from the Italian Open on Friday because of a viral illness, giving Sara Errani a walkover into the semifinals.

The two-time defending champion says she was sick at the Madrid Open last week and began to run a temperature Thursday night after beating Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-1 in the third round. This is the first time Sharapova has withdrawn between matches at a tournament since the 2008 Rogers Cup in Montreal.

“I’m not the one to withdraw from tournaments,” Sharapova said on a conference call with reporters from her hotel. “I don’t have a lot of tournaments on my schedule and the ones that I’m playing mean a lot to me and I want to do the best I can in each one of them. With the French Open coming up, it’s quite important to make the smart decisions and I feel this is just one of them.”

Read More…

Rafael Nadal overcame a big-hitting display from Ernests Gulbis. (Clive Mason/Getty Images)

ROME — Ernests Gulbis had a simple approach to his third-round match against Rafael Nadal at the Italian Open on Thursday.

“I have to bring my A-game or I’m going to get three games,” Gulbis said a day earlier. “So I’m going to bring my A-game.”

Gulbis delivered on that promise during the type of early onslaught that Nadal seldom faces on clay. But Gulbis, despite believing that he was the superior player Thursday, wasn’t able to finish off his first victory over Nadal in six attempts. Nadal overcame the big-hitting Gulbis 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals, where the six-time champion will meet David Ferrer on Friday.

Read More…

David Beckham watches Rafael Nadal during a 2006 ATP match in Madrid. (Bernat Armangue/AP)

ROME — Rafael Nadal was battling it out with Ernests Gulbis on Thursday when news broke that David Beckham is retiring from soccer. Beckham played for Nadal’s favorite team, Real Madrid, from 2003-07. Nadal looked surprised when told of Beckman’s announcement and wished the 38-year-old international star all the best.

“The only thing I can say about him is he’s amazing,” Nadal said after beating Gulbis 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the third round of the Italian Open. “His attitude, every time when I saw him play it was impossible to be better. Always fighting for everything even if he is the big star. Even if he’s the biggest star outside of the football stadium, he’s a big inspiration, no?”

Nadal admired the way Beckham was able to handle his fame while remaining approachable — “to always have a smile for everybody and always be very respectful and very nice for everybody,” the Spaniard said.

“So I just congratulate him for his fantastic career,” Nadal said. “Apart of all of this, he was a fantastic football player. So it’s a big [loss] for the sport in general. He deserves to do whatever he wants to do and he did a lot for the sport.”

The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.

• Video: Martina Hingis talks about her new coaching role with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

• Grigor Dimitrov, Ryan and Christian Harrison, Bernard Tomic, Ricardas Berankis and David Goffin get fashionable for a photo shoot in Men’s Journal.

• Andy Murray, who said he’s doubtful for Roland Garros, will prioritize Wimbledon over the French Open, according to his mother, Judy.

Read More…

Can the pope’s touch heal Juan Martin del Potro’s troublesome right wrist? (EPA)

Juan Martin del Potro met newly elected Pope Francis on Wednesday after attending mass at the Vatican. The 24-year-old presented the fellow Argentine with a Wilson racket that Del Potro used during his victory against Roger Federer in the 2009 U.S. Open final.

“It was an incredible experience with Pope Francis, something that I’ll never forget,” Del Potro told ATPWorldTour.com. “It was a dream come true for a guy like me. It was an unforgettable moment. I was very nervous before meeting him, to be able to congratulate him and talk with him. He was nice. Everybody knows he is very humble. Today was a day that I’ll remember forever.”

Read More…

Ernests Gulbis has raised his ranking nearly 100 spots this year, to No. 46. (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

ROME — Ernests Gulbis isn’t one to mince words.

So when the 2008 French Open quarterfinalist was asked to sum up his clay season so far on the heels of his Delray Beach title as a qualifier and his fourth-round appearance at Indian Wells as a qualifier, what started out as a confident defense of his performance quickly devolved into a fit of laughter.

“My losses on clay were against good players,” Gulbis told SI.com. “I lost against Tommy Haas [in three sets in Munich], and he won the tournament not losing a set. I was the only one getting a set from him. I lost to [Milos] Raonic in Barcelona. That maybe wasn’t a good match because I didn’t play good.

Watch: Haas hits wild winner against Gulbis

“I lost to Juan Monaco [in Monte Carlo], but I went a little bit nuts. I got a game penalty,” he said with a laugh, recalling his racket-throwing tantrum. “That was my, mentally, worst match of the season.”

Read More…