The New York Times - USA (2020-10-10)

THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTSSATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2020 Y B9

TENNISFRENCH OPEN HOCKEY

Just more than a week after the

Rangers bought out the last year

of his contract, goaltender Henrik

Lundqvist signed with the rival

Washington Capitals on Friday,

the first day of N.H.L. free agency.

Lundqvist, 38, had played his en-

tire 15-year career with the Rang-

ers, setting nearly every franchise

goaltending record, including 459

wins and 64 shutouts in 887

games.

Lundqvist signed a one-year,

$1.5 million contract with the Capi-

tals, whom he defeated in the play-

offs three times, including in a

seven-game series in 2015. He will

become teammates with Alex

Ovechkin, who has scored 706

goals over his 15 seasons with the

Capitals. Both players were rook-

ies — along with Pittsburgh’s Sid-

ney Crosby — in the 2005-06 sea-

son after the previous season was

canceled because of a labor dis-

pute.

“At this point in my career, I

want to have a chance to win,’’

Lundqvist said during a Zoom

news conference. “I have to say

the Capitals checked every box; a

team that understands winning, a

great coaching staff and an oppor-

tunity to play some games. Those

were the main factors for me.”

Lundqvist became an un-

restricted free agent after the

Rangers decided to buy out the fi-

nal year of his contract on Sept. 30.

He will share goaltending duties

in Washington with the 23-year-

old Russian Ilya Samsonov, who

won 16 games as a rookie in 2019-

20. Braden Holtby, who helped the
    Capitals win the Stanley Cup in
    2018, left for the Vancouver Ca-
    nucks via free agency.
    “Henrik is one of the greatest
    goaltenders in N.H.L. history, and
    we are pleased to have him join

our organization,” Capitals Gen-

eral Manager Brian MacLellan

said. “Henrik has the competitive

drive and the ability to help our

team compete for a champi-

onship. We feel he will be an excel-

lent fit for our team and provide

leadership to our organization and

our young goaltenders.”

Lundqvist said an abundance of

thankfulness for the Rangers

helped him through the process of

saying goodbye to the organiza-

tion, which he led to the Stanley

Cup finals in 2014.

“I reached a level of so much

gratitude towards the Rangers

and honestly I feel like gratitude is

the best feeling you can have

ever,” he said. “It was a long way

getting to last Wednesday, for me

to work on that. It was a very emo-

tional day for me and my wife but

it was a beautiful day. I could feel

the love and support coming in

from all over the place.”

Lundqvist provided much more

than glove saves and acrobatic

stops during a tenure with the

Rangers where his philanthropic

efforts were numerous and nota-

ble. Though soft-spoken off the ice

and at ease talking about music,

his favorite cars or fashion trends,

Lundqvist was a whirlwind of in-

tensity on the ice.

He played five seasons for the

Frölunda Hockey Club in Sweden

before joining the Rangers, who

had chosen him in the seventh

round of the 2000 draft after 21

other goaltenders were selected.

Lundqvist arrived in New York at

age 23 and quickly became the

starter, leading to one of his 11 sea-

sons of 30 or more victories.

Lundqvist could still reach 500

career wins and third place on the

career list. Only 12 other goalies in

the N.H.L. have reached the 400-

win threshold, a list led by Martin

Brodeur (691).

Lundqvist said he was looking

forward to being Ovechkin’s team-

mate instead of facing his laser

slap shot. Lundqvist will also have

fellow Swedes Nicklas Backstrom

and former Ranger Carl Hagelin

on his side under new coach Peter

Laviolette. Amid the swirl of emo-

tions and thoughts Lundqvist is

sure to be feeling as he changes

home cities, he said that hadn’t yet

thought about the first game he

would play at Madison Square

Garden for the opposition.

“It’s more preparing for chapter

two,” he said. “It’s been a long

chapter one in New York that I will

never forget.”

Lundqvist,

Free Agent

For a Day,

Joins the Caps

By ALLAN KREDA

A New York stalwart

becomes a D.C.

transplant.

China Central Television, the
state-run TV network, announced
Friday that it would televise an
N.B.A. game for the first time
since a dispute with the league be-
gan last fall after a team executive
expressed support for pro-democ-
racy protesters in Hong Kong.
The move suggested a soft-
ening of tensions between the
N.B.A. and China that the league
estimated had cost it hundreds of
millions of dollars in revenue and
that elicited criticism from fans
and politicians.
The change was to begin with
Game 5 of the N.B.A. finals be-
tween the Los Angeles Lakers and
the Miami Heat on Friday night.
“On the morning of October 10,
the channel of CCTV Sports will
broadcast the fifth game of the
N.B.A. finals,” the network said in
a post in Chinese on Weibo, a Chi-
nese social media platform. “Wel-
come everyone to watch at the
time!”
In a separate statement in Chi-
nese, a spokesperson for the
China Media Group, which over-
sees CCTV, said: “In the Chinese
National Day and Mid-Autumn
Festival that just passed, the
N.B.A. expressed holiday bless-
ings to Chinese fans. We have also
noticed the good will continuously
expressed by the N.B.A. for some
time. Especially since the begin-
ning of this year, the N.B.A. has
made active efforts in supporting
the Chinese people in fighting
against the novel coronavirus epi-
demic.”
It was unclear whether the net-
work would resume broadcasting
regular-season games next sea-
son.
A spokesman for the N.B.A. did
not respond to a request for com-
ment.

The N.B.A. had not been com-

pletely off the air in China, and

there had been signs that the icy

relationship was thawing. Ten-

cent, a streaming network in

China, had been airing up to three

games a night during the regular

season. After the death of Kobe

Bryant in January, the Chinese

ambassador to the United States,

Cui Tiankai, posted a Twitter trib-

ute to Bryant, who was one of the

most popular athletes in the coun-

try. In February, Huang Ping, the

Chinese consul general, publicly

thanked the N.B.A. at a news con-

ference in New York for donating

$1.4 million to help fight the

spread of the coronavirus in

China.

Even so, CCTV’s airing of a fi-

nals game indicated a formal nor-

malizing of relationships between

the two entities. Joe Tsai, the

owner of the Nets and co-founder

of Alibaba, the Chinese e-com-

merce giant, told Bloomberg Busi-

nessweek in January, “Once you

are on the air, everything will

come back.”

The conflict began on Oct. 4,

2019, when Daryl Morey, the gen-

eral manager of the Houston

Rockets, shared an image on Twit-

ter that said “FIGHT FOR FREE-

DOM STAND WITH HONG

KONG,” just days before the Nets

and Los Angeles Lakers were to

play preseason games in main-

land China.

The backlash was immediate.

N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Sil-

ver later said that he had rejected

a demand from the Chinese gov-

ernment to fire Morey. But criti-

cism came domestically as well,

after the league issued a state-

ment calling it “regrettable” that

Morey’s views “deeply offended

many of our friends and fans in

China.” Several prominent Ameri-

can politicians, like Senator Josh

Hawley, Republican of Missouri,

have criticized the N.B.A.’s contin-

ued business relationship with the

authoritarian country.

In September, Silver told CNN

during a live event: “At the end of

the day, I think those are decisions

for our government, in terms of

where American businesses

should operate. I continue to be-

lieve that the people-to-people ex-

changes we’re seeing by playing

in China are positive.”

Protesters began to appear at

N.B.A. games when the regular

season began. The league’s rela-

tionship with China came under

more scrutiny in July, when ESPN

reported about abuse at N.B.A.-

sponsored basketball academies

there, a partnership that the

league announced it would be “re-

evaluating.”

The N.B.A. has long made

global expansion — particularly

into China, where it now has more

fans than in the U.S. — a core part

of its mission. In 1979, the Wash-

ington Bullets became the first

N.B.A. team to travel there, play-

ing exhibition games against the

Chinese national team. The score-

board referred to the team as the

“American Bullets.”

In the late 1980s, David Stern,

the former league commissioner

who died in January, negotiated a

deal with CCTV to begin airing

games in China. In 1994, the

N.B.A. finals were broadcast there

live for the first time. A decade lat-

er, the league held a preseason

game in Beijing for the first time.

By then, Yao Ming had entered the

N.B.A. and become a dominant

figure both on the court and cul-

turally in the U.S. and China, his

home country.

Stern, in a 2006 interview with

Sports Illustrated, acknowledged

that China’s repressive human

rights record concerned him, but

he added: “At the end of the day I

have a responsibility to my own-

ers to make money. I can never

forget that, no matter what my

personal feelings might be.”

Chinese TV to Air N.B.A. for First Time Since Rift Over Hong Kong

By SOPAN DEB

David Chen and Claire Fu contrib-
uted reporting.

It should come as no surprise
that Rafael Nadal and Novak
Djokovic will meet in another
French Open final.
Djokovic is No. 1 and has not
lost a completed match in this dis-
jointed 2020 tennis season. Nadal
is No. 2 and the greatest clay-
court player in the game’s long
history.
Nadal will be aiming for his 13th
French Open title, Djokovic for his
second.
Both advanced on Friday with
victories over seeded opponents
who had reason to hope for better.
Nadal won, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (0),
against Diego Schwartzman, who
upset him on clay in the Italian
Open last month. Djokovic won,
6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 4-6, 6-1, against Ste-
fanos Tsitsipas, who had beaten
him twice in five previous
matches and who pushed him to
the limit this time.
But Sunday’s showdown — the
56th match in the rich rivalry be-
tween Nadal and Djokovic, and
their third meeting in the French
Open final — will be about more
than winning this unique October
edition of Roland Garros.
It will be about the historical
pecking order. If Nadal prevails,
he will equal Roger Federer’s
men’s record of 20 Grand Slam
singles titles. If Djokovic prevails,
he will narrow the gap with his
longtime rivals. The title would be
his 18th and would make him the
first of the so-called Big Three to
win each of the four majors twice.
Numbers, so many numbers. It
is part of their legacy, and at
times, their burden.
Djokovic has the overall edge
against Nadal, with a 29-26 advan-
tage, but Nadal leads by 17-7 on
clay and by 6-1 at Roland Garros.
Djokovic is one of only two men
to have defeated Nadal in this
tournament. Robin Soderling beat
Nadal in the fourth round in 2009,
and Djokovic beat him in the quar-
terfinals in 2015, a rare downbeat
year in Nadal’s career.
Nadal is bracing himself for
Sunday’s final against Djokovic.
“He is one of the toughest oppo-
nents possible, but I am here to
keep trying my best,” he said. “I
know I have to make a step for-
ward. I think I did one today, but
for Sunday, it’s not enough. I need
to make another one.”
Djokovic has certainly had the
harder road to the final. While
Nadal has not dropped a set in six
matches, Djokovic has dropped
three in his last two — going four
sets with Pablo Carreño Busta in
the quarterfinals and five with
Tsitsipas, the swashbuckling 22-
year-old Greek.
Djokovic was in control of the
match until he served for a
straight-set victory at 5-4 in the

third set and, on match point,

missed a backhand just wide go-

ing for a winner. Tsitsipas rallied

to win the next three games and

the set.

Tsitsipas defeated Federer to

reach his first Grand Slam semi-

final at the 2019 Australian Open

and also won last year’s ATP Fi-

nals, often considered the fifth

most prestigious event in men’s

tennis, after the majors.

But he has struggled to close

matches of late, blowing six match

points against Borna Coric in a

third-round loss at the U.S. Open.

Though he came close on Friday,

he could not cross the finish line

ahead of Djokovic, an elastic Ser-

bian who at age 33 was the fresher

player.

“My body was not ready,” Tsitsi-

pas said wearily.

Djokovic closed out the victory

with a string of return winners

and more of the drop shots that

were so effective throughout the

match.

“He has reached almost perfec-

tion, Novak, in his game style, the

way he plays, which is unbeliev-

able to see, honestly,” Tsitsipas

said. “That inspires me a lot to go

out and work and try to reach that

perfectionism, that ability to have

everything on the court.”

Against Schwartzman, Nadal

imposed his skill and his will, and

he had made clear adjustments

since their match at the Italian

Open that went the other way.

“The experience of Rome

helped me in some way because I

was able to take a look at the

match,” Nadal said after Friday’s

semifinal, which lasted three

hours and nine minutes. “To ana-

lyze the things that worked well

and things that, of course, didn’t

work.” He added, “We tried to go

on court with a plan, with the right

determination.”

Nadal, if he prevails in the final,

will have won 100 matches at the

French Open.

But for once, the focus will not

be on Nadal’s running total at Ro-

land Garros. It will be on his pur-

suit of Federer’s Grand Slam sin-

gles record.

Federer, 39, has not played

since February because of two

knee surgeries, and he does not

plan to return to competition until

2021. Federer won his 20th major
      title at the 2018 Australian Open,
      but Nadal has steadily narrowed
      the gap since then — winning the
      French Open twice more and the
      United States Open in 2019 to
      bring his total to 19.
      Nadal, true to character, has
      downplayed the chase.
      “I am happy with who I am,” he

said, tapping his chest with an in-

dex finger, in an interview with

The New York Times earlier this

year. “I was very happy with 16,

very happy with 17, very happy

with 18, very happy with 19, and if

one day I get to 20, I will be very

happy, too. But my level of happi-

ness is not going to change be-

cause of this. Do I make myself

clear?”

When pressed, he has acknowl-

edged that he is not immune to the

lure of the history books. But he

has always been more interested

in looking forward to the next

point, the next match, the next

challenge than looking back at all

the castles he has built on the clay

and elsewhere.

It is his not-so-secret weapon —

that deep focus on process over

destination.

“It’s important to go through all

the process,” he said Friday. “You

have to suffer. You can’t pretend to

be in a final of Roland Garros with-

out suffering.”

Though he was the reigning

champion at the U.S. Open, he de-

cided not to play in New York this

year and remained at home in Ma-

jorca, Spain, where he trained on

clay at his eponymous academy.

He believed that the trip to the

United States might wear him

down for the abbreviated clay-

court season, with the French

Open starting just two weeks after

the men’s U.S. Open final.

So far, so smart, but he is on new

ground here. He has never won

the French Open without winning

a clay-court tournament in the

lead-up, and no one has ever won

a French Open in October. His

forehand is not bouncing as high

in the cool conditions. His serve is

not traveling as quickly: It is

down, on average, four miles per

hour from 2019.

Despite all of the above, Nadal,

34, has yet to drop a set in the tour-

nament.

After fighting through a 14-

minute opening game on Friday to

hold serve against Schwartzman,

he worked his way through the

grinding first set, full of double-

digit rallies and all-court hustle.

He adjusted after losing to

Schwartzman in Rome, moving in

closer on first-serve returns and

much closer on second-serve re-

turns. That paid off Friday with

six breaks, and though Schwartz-

man tried drop shots, they were

not as consistently successful.

The match tightened in the

third set, however, as Nadal failed

twice to hold serve after going up

a break. At 5-5, he held serve after

saving three break points, saving

the last of those by serving and

volleying for the first time in the

match.

Greatness is in the details, and

Nadal is, contrary to popular im-

age, a great tactician as well as a

great athlete, ball striker and

competitor.

He went on to win the third-set

tiebreaker, too, and is now just one

victory away from ruling again at

Roland Garros.

It has been a reign no like other.

Nadal Could Tie a Record, but Djokovic Stands in the Way

Sunday’s match will be the 56th between Novak Djokovic, left, and Rafael Nadal, and their third meeting in the French Open final.

IAN LANGSDON/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK

Federer’s men’s mark

of 20 Grand Slam

singles titles could be

equaled.

By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY

JULIAN FINNEY/GETTY IMAGES

PRO BASKETBALLN.B.A. FINALS

KIM KLEMENT/USA TODAY SPORTS, VIA REUTERS

Anthony Davis, left, and the Lakers were a win away from a championship in the N.B.A. Fi-

nals against Jimmy Butler and the Heat on Friday night. Game coverage at nytimes.com.

Lakers Closing In on 17th Title

KEVIN C. COX/GETTY IMAGES

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