{"id":687098,"date":"2026-05-22T20:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/687098\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T20:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:39:09","slug":"nadal-gauff-and-pegula-pay-tribute-to-ap-tennis-writer-howard-fendrich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/687098\/","title":{"rendered":"Nadal, Gauff and Pegula pay tribute to AP Tennis Writer Howard Fendrich"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2013 Rafael Nadal, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula were among those paying tribute to Associated Press tennis writer Howard Fendrich<\/a> as players gathered at Roland Garros for a French Open that\u2019s now missing one of the sport\u2019s most-respected journalists.<\/p>\n

Fendrich, a regular at Roland Garros and all the tennis majors since 2002, died Thursday, less than three months after being diagnosed with cancer.<\/p>\n

The news elicited a social media outpouring that included a Friday morning post from Nadal, whose record 14 French Open victories were chronicled in rich and colorful detail by Fendrich. \u201cTennis loses one of its great journalists,\u201d Nadal said.<\/p>\n

Gauff, whose title last year at Roland Garros was her second major singles championship, opened her pre-tournament news conference with a shout-out to Fendrich, the award-winning writer who spent 24 of his 33 years with AP on the tennis beat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to start this off just recognizing a deep loss that I think we all have experienced as a community with Howard,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cHe was someone I always enjoyed having conversations with. One of my favorite faces to see in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fendrich died Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He was diagnosed with cancer in February shortly after returning from Milan, where he covered his 11th Olympics. He was 55.<\/p>\n

The Women\u2019s Tennis Association wrote a tribute to Fendrich, recalling that \u201cHis classic opening before a question, \u2018soooo, I\u2019m curious …\u2019 always set a comfortable tone of kindness in interviews.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fifth-ranked Pegula, a member of the WTA Players\u2019 Council, sent her condolences.<\/p>\n

\u201cHoward was one of the most respected journalists in our sport and someone players trusted because he always approached his work with honesty, professionalism and fairness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Roger Federer, Billie Jean King and Patrick McEnroe, a former player and the current president of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, were among those who honored Fendrich on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Other tributes streamed in from Fendrich\u2019s press box colleagues. Washington-based Adam Kilgore called him \u201cthe best person to see at a game, in a press room, at a dinner after an event.\u201d They also came from across Fendrich\u2019s home base, where, when not covering tennis, he was a regular in press boxes at Commanders, Nationals and Capitals games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis contributions to and impact on sports journalism extend far beyond that of the Nationals press box,\u201d the baseball team said<\/a>. \u201cHe will be dearly missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fendrich was based in Washington and the city\u2019s football and hockey teams \u2014 the Commanders<\/a> and Capitals<\/a> \u2014 also extended their condolences.<\/p>\n

Fendrich is survived by his wife, Rosanna Maietta; his mother, Ren\u00e9e; his brother, Alex; and two sons, Stefano and Jordan.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2013 Rafael Nadal, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula were among those paying tribute to Associated Press tennis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[251608,27611,49,48,4305,61825,35058,77584,7627,2189,82,593,2845],"class_list":["post-687098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-adam-kilgore","tag-billie-jean-king","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-coco-gauff","tag-howard-fendrich","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-patrick-mcenroe","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-roger-federer","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}