ATP 
Jannik Sinner, case closed (like it or not)

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Jannik Sinner x WADA, deal with it. So the wait is finally over, and we won’t have to wait until spring to find out Jannik Sinner’s fate. It also means we won’t have to go through months of “all the takes” until the CAS hearing. Call me selfish, but I’m quite fine with it. Even more because, contrary to the weird belief that ran through parts of the tennis world, I never doubted that if Sinner were to get banned, it’d be for months and not years. It seems, from all the takes I’ve been reading since the announcement of the deal the Italian made with WADA to accept a 3-month ban and be done with it all, that people have forgotten an essential point: Jannik Sinner was fighting a contamination case. A contamination case. WADA, in its appeal, said right away they weren’t contesting it was a contamination case, which, if you ask me, was the basis for wondering why they’d even go through that appeal at all. We weren’t talking about a high-profile player being caught with EPO in his blood. But with a high-profile player with all the top lawyers money can buy fighting a contamination case.

Sinner was never going to be banned for 2 years, people…

In which world anyone thought it’d end with the World No.1 banned for 1 to 2 years is beyond my understanding. Surely, someone at WADA quickly understood they were now running a real risk of being dragged through the mud and a potentially damaging loss in the spring. Had Sinner won in front of the CAS, it’d have meant that any player testing positive could have hoped to walk away by saying it wasn’t their fault but their entourage’s fault. A valid argument for all we know in Sinner’s case but an absolute Pandora’s box. Surely, WADA appealed to avoid that, but maybe along the way, they realized that they should have left it contained to tennis and the ITIA instead of risking their entire jurisprudence. Sinner’s lawyers clearly got some convincing message and cut that deal. Well that’s why very rich people don’t hesitate to pay top money for top lawyers. Again, where is the surprise? Every player with pockets as deep as Sinner’s would have done the same.

WADA seems to base its ability to cut that deal with Sinner on Article 10.8.2, the Case Resolution Agreement that refers to Articles 10.1 - 10.7, and a specific rule for flexible sanction in contaminated supplement cases. It doesn’t look like it fits Sinner’s case 100%, but it’s loose enough to get the case in. WADA told The Athletic it wasn’t a rare thing to happen at all. So, you know what? It happened. WADA left a case that started stinking and saved its regulation system. Sinner gets done with the whole thing without losing any Grand Slam event this year, without dragging his reputation on the line (and so his sponsors’ deals) until spring, and without playing with that longer ban risk. He gets 3 months at the moment of the season when it’s the least damaging for him. I’d say it’s a win.

Sinner not totally out of the woods, actually

Now, let’s look at a couple of things that could still cause some damage to Jannik Sinner. First of all, three months without competing isn’t a walk in the park for an athlete's body, especially as he’ll have to get back on clay, which isn’t the easiest for him, before going straight to grass. Also, players’ reactions have been pretty strong against him since the announcement, with a few exceptions, which means he might find himself very alone at the top for a while and might still have to justify himself for a while. And, more importantly, in my opinion, it’s a sign that most of the players don’t fear him at all off the court. The social media carnage from the locker room right now shows that Sinner’s leverage off the court is non-existent. Imagine Nadal or Federer in the same case, and I’m sure you wouldn’t have heard 10% of what we’re currently witnessing. Oh, they would have been thinking the same things but would have never put it out there. Sinner doesn’t own the lockers yet, and for a World No.1 with on and off-court ambitions, it’s a problem that must be solved.

Sinner isn’t built to walk around being The Villain. Even if he’s been dealing with the whole thing in a kind of insane calm, I’m not sure it’ll last if he starts losing some big matches here and there. The only reason he might have for now survived the whole thing is because he kept winning. I wonder how his team will work on that image issue now. Again, it’s a contamination case, so it’s making it way easier to deal with, but I’ve been surprised at how quickly the sport lashed on him, so… Maybe they don’t believe in the contamination explanation, which is entirely another story. Maybe if Sinner had won less, the reactions would have been less violent. Who knows.

A bad deal for the sport?

Finally, is the settlement of the Sinner’s case bad for tennis? Fair question. Let’s take a step back: a player testing positive for a contamination he couldn’t do a lot about got banned for it nonetheless. One would say, the system worked in the end, no? Now, a player with less money to spend on lawyers wouldn’t have been able to avoid a long provisional suspension or a risky hearing by the CAS. Obviously. But again, what else is new? Like, great lawyers are good to have… What is the sport supposed to do about that? I’m not sure…

I don’t believe that we should stop banning players for what would look like contaminations and suddenly decide that depending on the levels found in the system, it should lead to a negative test. Because, please, 1) don’t take us for fools: who’s to say what’s been found isn’t just what was left from a whole cycle of I don’t know what? 2) Players being responsible for what gets into their bodies is the biggest tool to fight doping efficiently. They need to know there will be no walking away by throwing a team member under the bus.

Those who are mad at Sinner are often saying, ‘Oh, but look what happened to Halep.’ First, this sport has too much love for comparing apples and oranges, and I’m sure very few people being mad right now have even read the reports. Also, are you saying that because Simona Halep’s case was maybe badly dealt with (which I honestly don’t know), Sinner should have been dealt the same bad cards? Why would we insist that the Italian gets a potentially career-damaging ban for contamination? That is what makes no sense to me. Unless, again, these people don’t believe in Sinner’s explanations and feel a cheater got away because he had enough money to game the system.

What is bad for tennis is honestly WADA coming into this to lodge an appeal they clearly didn’t weigh long enough, and so dragging the case for more months before coming to terms with the fact that they were running a high risk of losing a super high-profile case. A case they said right away was a contamination case for them. They made the ITIA decision look good, actually. They showed again that sports anti-doping couldn’t work together. They put the doubt on the whole process, and now tennis and Sinner will have to live with it. So thank you for nothing, WADA, really. It would anyway be very nice for tennis if we could now avoid having the faces of the sport dragged through positive drug tests and bans. Because the suspense of disbelief has its limits. No more buying over-the-counter stuff and no more getting gloves-less massages or whatever could come next.

Nobody wins, indeed, when an athlete walks away after cheating the system with barely a slap on the hand. I just don’t think that it was what we were dealing with here with Jannik Sinner. The future could prove me wrong, obviously, but in the meantime, I’m ready to move on from that damn case…until May.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
So what do you make of that Sinner and WADA deal?

You were 66,67% to think that tennis coaches were undervalued.

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
The WTA gets some serious $$$ wins

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• These rights are sold. WTA Ventures, the commercial arm of the WTA, announced it secured a deal for the rights of the Chinese events: Tencent is buying them all for 2025. “The agreement means that Tencent’s digital platforms will offer coverage from every tournament on the Hologic WTA Tour through to the season-ending WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF in November, including all WTA 250s, 500s and 1000s, except events played in Chinese mainland. (…) Matches from the 2025 Hologic WTA Tour season will be available for streaming on all Tencent digital platforms, including Tencent Video, Tencent Sports, Tencent News, and WeChat. The deal covers both live and delayed matches, as well as match clips, for audiences in China (excluding Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Chinese Taipei),” a statement says. I’m wondering if Qinwen Zheng should get a cut of that deal!

• The record is broken, thanks to the 1,1 billion cumulative global audience from the WTA Tour. The 1 billion mark had been passed for the first time in 2023. Two-thirds of the global audience aged are under 45. “The first edition of the WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF attracted the biggest audience of any year-end finals in WTA history, with a global audience of 78 million, up 160% against the audience for the previous year’s event. The surge in viewing reflects the positive impact of the return of WTA coverage to audiences in China, including through a one-year deal for live coverage of the tournament on China’s leading sports broadcaster, CCTV-5, and other services operated by China Media Group. Even when China is excluded from the audience figures, viewing of the WTA Finals across the rest of the world jumped by a substantial 23%, including strong increases in Italy, Spain, and Latin America,” adds a statement.
  

• Can you see it now? Someone on the ATP Tour right now. Why? Because the Tour has secured a new Official Eyewear Partner through 2027. Who? Polaroid Eyewear. One player has already been announced has a brand ambassador for 2025: the Italian Lorenzo Musetti. “The partnership will see the brand activate at the Mutua Madrid Open, the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, and the Swedish Open, unlocking exclusive experiences for fans. Benefits include prominent brand visibility, dedicated activation space in Fan Zones and a notable presence at kids’ activities on-site. ATP Chair Umpires will also style Polaroid eyewear on court. In addition, Polaroid will reach the global tennis community through year-round exposure on ATP Tour’s social and digital channels,” announced the ATP.

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The GOOD: Belinda Bencic. It took the Swiss only four months after her return from maternity leave to clinch a first title. Bencic claimed the trophy in Abu Dhabi and it actually feels logical as she’s been playing already very well since basically the moment she came back on Tour. She was already in the second week at the Australian Open, let’s not forget. It’s the first time since Elina Svitolina in Strasbourg in 2023 that a mother has won a title on the WTA Tour. Ranked No. 157 when she won, Bencic was the third-lowest-ranked player to win a WTA 500 title since the tournament tier was created. Only Alexandra Dulgheru (Warsaw 2009, ranked No. 201) and Serena Williams (Stanford 2011, ranked No. 169) are lower-ranked WTA 500 titlists.

There are no expectations to impose on any female player coming back from a pregnancy, there’s no blueprint, there’s no failure. And every body is different. Bencic winning yet proves again it can be done, especially for top players whose skills and margin on the rest of the field don’t disappear with the baby.

The BAD (who might turn into The Ugly): Stefano Vukov. Tennis is again left to wonder how many times female players are going to have to deal with an abusive entourage. And how many times will it prove very difficult to get rid of them? The Elena Rybakina situation has been problematic and in the spotlight for months. And not only because her coach Stefano Vukov has now been suspended and exposed for abusive behavior but also because it seems the WTA is trying to help Rybakina against her own will. The Atlantic has a report on the accusations of mental abuse leading to physical distress that has led the WTA to suspend Vukov.

Obviously, it’s unfortunately nothing new, and anyone can go and educate themselves about the hold this type of people can get on their targets. However, it means that the WTA has to go through a process of evicting one of their biggest players’ coaches with zero public support from the player. They also have to deal with a player who refuses to stop working with the coach and has arranged to keep him around off-sites. One has to wonder if, at some point, Rybakina isn’t going to get banned like her coach. Because this is a battle the WTA cannot lose unless they want to send a message we’ve seen too much in the past: sorry, can’t do anything. And so problematic coaches keep getting hired by unsuspecting players.

As often, Coco Gauff made a lot of sense when asked about it in Dubai: "From my understanding, I know she doesn't like the decision. I know WTA also has the right to protect her. Overall, I think it's nice that the WTA is making sure that they're out there to protect players," Coco Gauff said. "I definitely think that that's important in our sport because a lot of times if you look, sometimes victims don't even know they are a victim. In this sport it's happened so many times. A lot of times you see former players speaking out years after their career ended how they were treated," she added.”

It’s bigger than Rybakina; it’s for every other player who will need a WTA Tour with leverage to respond to their call for help or for everyone who will sound the alarm on a case like that next time. Get toxicity out of women’s tennis now. It’s been hanging around for too long. And no, female players don’t need to be talked to like sh.t to perform, just saying for the people in the back seeing no issue with the whole thing.

The UGLY: Lucas Pouille’s Achille. Professional sports ain’t fair, we all know that. But sometimes, it can really be especially cruel. Right when the French player was building his ranking back up, returning to the Top 100 after reaching four Finals (1 title) in Challngers, and this after already battling injuries régularly for years now, he tore his Achilles (right foot) after one set in Lille’s Challenger final. It’s a hell of an injury, and even more at 30. Pouille got surgery the day before, as one needs to get right in to have the best chance of recovery. All went well, and he now hopes to be back on Tour in 2026. The moment he got injured, he thought his career was over and told the crowd he might have played the last match of his career. But nowadays, with the progress made on the medical side, Pouille thinks there’s still a chance for him to return. One more time.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
It comes and goes…

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IN:

• Joao Fonseca claimed his spot in the title-winners circle. The 18-year-old got his hands on his first trophy on the clay of Buenos Aires on Sunday, and he became the youngest player to win in South America since 1990. Fonseca is the 10th youngest winner in ATP Tour history.

• In the team of players who needed a confidence boost for different reasons: Carlos Alcaraz won in Rotterdam, and Denis Shapovalov clinched the title in Dallas. In Delray Beach, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina had a 5-2 lead and two match points in the third set, but it’s still Miomir Kecmanovic who clinched the title.

• In Doha, Amanda Anisimova won the first WTA 1000 of her career and signaled to the Tour that she was back in business, which is very good news for tennis. A special shout out to Jelena Ostapenko, beaten in the final, who had quite the week with wins over Jasmine Paolini, Ons Jabeur, and Iga Swiatek again (5-0). Special mentions for Marta Kostyuk, who reached the quarters with a win on the way against Coco Gauff, and to Ekaterina Alexandrova, who won the title in Linz and then reached the semi-finals in Doha with a win over Aryna Sabalenka on the way.

• Raemon Sluiter has finally returned on the Tour after parting ways with Elina Svitolina. He’s now working with Maria Sakkari. I remain baffled that no top player ran to him the moment he was free. The state of the coaching on the WTA Tour has been very intriguing lately.

• It was announced last year and it’s confirmed: The ATP will use electric line calling on clay this year.

OUT:

• Simona Help retired from the game at home in Romania for the tournament in Cluj.

• Mixed double’s traditional format has been axed at the US Open. Grand Slam events are coming back to their bad habits of not caring about having the same rules. What now? Mixed double. The USO is basically turning the tournament into an exhibition, not hiding how they do not care about doubles specialists. And singles players aren’t coming to the rescue of their peers, more the opposite as they’re no doubt being lured by some bonus money. If anyone still wonders why there’s never been a collective action from professional tennis players in eons, here’s another example of why.

  
  Why would some singles players care about leaving a tiny bit of the pie so some doubles colleagues could keep making a living? One would think they wouldn’t care, right? Well, as it comes as no surprise for those who’ve been around for a while: If many of these singles players can secure the whole pie, they always take the shot. Why do you think it took ages to secure more money for lower-ranked players? Or why some are still fighting against equal prize money between the ATP and the WTA Tours? Yep…

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
Zhang Made A Stylish Move

Not a lot to say about it except that I am obsessed with this. Zhizhen Zhang, I wanna know the story behind that pink statement. Why? How? For how long? What’s the next color? It says everything about how deprived we’ve been of any real fashion statement on the ATP side of things, that pink hair broke my tennis fashion brain for a while. We take what we can, people. Thanks to my friend Reem Abulleil for the screenshots!

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything backstage* or professional sports*. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector, look at Above the Mantel. And if you’re a woman looking for better coverage of our lives, issues, and interests, I suggest you, Gloria. Looking at longevity tips? You should look at Livelong Newsletter*.

READ: Pickleball… But with Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi… I’m listening.

WATCH: Fernando Verdasco competing in his final ATP Tour event in Doha and starting in doubles with Novak Djokovic.

ATP/WTA - COACHING - INTERVIEW
“Imagine if no one talked about Mourinho!”

It’s no secret that coaches have been unhappy about their situation on Tour for a while. The distress has even grown stronger since the Covid-19 disaster hit. Weekly fees, pay that’s not moving, whereas prize money is on the rise, zero protection, huge turnover and the trend of the trial periods, barely any sponsoring opportunities, and the risk of going extinct as partners or parents more and more replace them.

In this context, Unbox Sports launched last year, sensing a business opportunity in an untapped market: representing coaches, dealing with their contracts, creating content for building their image and finding them deals. Also making sure only professional coaches go through and that these coaches know their responsibilities. I talked to co-founders Yannick Yoshizawa and Flavia Araujo (both on the right of the picture above) - who also had Belgian coach Wim Fissette (currently Iga Swiatek’s coach) trust the idea - about their reasoning, how they’ve been received on Tour by the players and the agents, and what they’re aiming for. They’re currently working with some of the most well-known coaching faces on Tour.

Why Now? The Three Light Bulbs that started all: Commercial, Content and Contracts.
Yannick Yoshizawa : “I think this could have been done a long time ago. But I would say we started because three light bulbs came out, which I saw as an opportunity. It's still early on because if it were obvious, other agencies would have already been doing that.

Before doing this, I was at a technology company, and we did a product and were doing VR training for performance. I was in charge of the tennis product, looking for ambassadors, and doing the marketing, so I noticed how expensive getting a player to do promotion is and that as much as those players might love the product, they're busy, focused on other things, especially when giving feedback comes. So organically, a lot of their coaches were like, ‘Hey, you should do this, you should do that.’ So that was a light bulb. I was like, well, I can get five coaches to be ambassadors for the price of one player. The product development also became much more authentic.

Then, it was about the consistency of talent. The coaches provide a much bigger perspective than the players, and they have their own stories to talk about. So here we have storytelling demanding to happen. That leads to the third light bulb: we would focus on the commercial and media sides. We launched in January 2024 as a soft launch, and then I went to Wim Fissette because I've known him for so long. And he's like, ‘I think it's a great idea. Let's start this. You can use me as a client to see what happens.’ So we got him some sponsorship, but of course, Wim is a different story because he’s been winning Grand Slam titles and so on. But it was a good traction to start.” 

Relieving coaches from the awkward contract talks with players and agents
“When we went to Indian Wells in Miami last year, we were still only with Wim, and I spoke to 30 or 40 coaches, who are like, ‘This is great. We would love this.’ But they said there is one bigger problem, and I would say 90% of these coaches were like, ‘I don't like to negotiate my contracts with the players, with their agents. I always feel that I'm undervalued. I always feel that I cannot ask for more money.’ There was this power structure where the coaches just didn't even want to ask because they didn't want to jeopardize that job. The demand was already there for us.

We started doing that, and we noticed that in every negotiation that we got into, the coaches started being paid 10, 15, and sometimes 20% more because the truth is that these agents and the players know that the coaches deserve to be paid more. They've been paying the coaches what they were paying 10 or 15 years ago, even though the prize money has sometimes doubled in some aspects.

Regarding the content, we thought that if the ATP and the WTA were not going to mandate coaches to go to the press conference, we would start doing our own content. We're going to start reaching out, make their stories known, then we started doing our podcast. We're still trying to figure it out, the brands, activations and whatnot. And then we have a lawyer on our team as well, who looks after contracts.”

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Terminating a bad habit: the bad contracts
Yannick Yoshizawa : ”The reason why there are so many emotional decisions is that there is no consequence to that emotional decision currently, and so much turnover is because there are no termination clauses. We've seen this so often: They have a great six months or three months or nine months, and then all of a sudden, like one week or two weeks are bad, and then they stop working together. But usually, it's because there's nothing in place for them to think twice about what’s going to happen. And then six months later, you get back to the same point because then you realize, ‘Oh actually, that was a great partnership,’ so that’s an emotional decision, and we're all emotional, we cannot do anything about that, so it's just a matter of how can we put safeguards to make this sport better, and it will help the coaches, but it will also help the players too finally by the end.

“Imagine if no one talked about Mourinho”
I hate to compare, but it's like football in Europe. Imagine Mourinho, and imagine if no one had talked about him. Imagine he didn't have any media time.

People know how many titles he's won, but no one talks about how many Grand Slam titles someone like Wim Fissette won, how many players he's coached in the top five, blah, blah, blah. The WTA has started doing that, and now, finally, the Grand Slams and the ATP have approved of (on-court) coaching. Truly, it's just a missing storyline, and we saw the opportunity to get early in this. Now, what the coaches, I do think they appreciate that someone is looking after them. Everyone likes support systems, right? That's what the coaches want initially, and then they hope it's an evolution to bring them more money.”

How to sell it to the players and their agents? Usually, they don’t like the middlemen…
Yannick Yoshizawa : “The first impression, you're nailed, is like, ‘oh my gosh, now I have to deal with this person.’ Not because they don't like the middlemen, but because they know they will have to pay so much more than what was used to for 10 years, 20 years. But now, after a few contracts, our experience was much more positive because even the agent always felt like, ‘I don't like to have that conversation.’ It's not appealing to the coach, and even on the other side, when Naomi and Wim decided to split, it's not an easy conversation for the agent to have with the coach. So, having that middle person to deal with that communication part reduces the conflicts.

In the end, if you have more professional contracts, and if you give more exposure to more coaches, then the coaches who are not there for the right reasons, they're going to start filtering out because when you interview them, and they don't know what to say, well then you're not going to have the boyfriends or whatever it is. Also, I wouldn't say the players are paying less and less, but the players do not want to increase the pay like prize money has. But once you negotiate, they understand. The elephant in the room is that no one wants to say, ‘You need to have this certification to sit in the box.’ When Zidane wanted to become a coach, he had to go to FIFA training because it was better for the sport in general.

Facilitating the workflow for everybody involved

Flavia Araujo: “I found that with that scenario in which we're facilitating things for coaches (as they did at this year’s Australian Open), the agents also saw an opportunity to load off some of the obligations of the player: Now we're actually a bigger team. I can sit down at the table with the coach and the player and not in a way that we're intruding. There's a fine line, but the agent knows that as soon as it's helpful, as soon as there's an opportunity, we can step in as their teammate whenever you need. We have the resources and the ways to do it. We'll talk to the coach and figure it out. 

They saw a lot of value, and we got many messages of thank yous and how appreciative they were. So maybe the players still may have some unknown feelings about this new experience, and we'll learn from that, but from what we have learned so far, especially from the agent's perspective, as the agent is making a lot of decisions for the player, we can really be a great teammate to that team. Everybody knows that the things that we do are in the best interest of the team because their images are interconnected, and their success is connected. 

We've all been in the tennis industry in some fashion for a long time, so those are connections and relationships that we care about, and that's what makes Unbox Sports stand out. We care, we're small, we're honest and transparent about where we are in our journey with ourselves, with our coaches, with the industry. We're putting in the time, we're trying to figure it out here, and we want to give this a chance. The coaches respect that, too.

What are the goals? Contracts and monthly salaries (instead of paying them weekly)
Yannick Yoshizawa: “These are not concrete numbers, but to give a sense of direction of where we think this is going: In two years, we truly believe that all coaches in the top 200 will have a contract with players. And it's gonna be us. We're not gonna do 400 contracts, but we're gonna do the majority of them. That's the market share. But you need to prove it, and then I think Flavia has done an incredible job in putting them out there.

My goal as a business is to have standards in the industry when it comes to contracts. I would set a goal that 60% of the coaches should have monthly salaries, 60 to 70 percent of coaches should have termination clauses, and hopefully, 80% should have at least a piece of paper signed by both sides, just a piece of paper or a napkin with both names saying hey we're gonna work together. A success from the commercial side would be to see 50% of these coaches having sponsors on their clothing, and a bigger success would be for it to be the same sponsors as the players so as a team, it looks clean. And then I also think that it should be mandatory for all coaches to be at press conferences.”

Flavia Araujo: “It would be really cool to have us be a part of the framework for the bigger tournaments as an engine that helps the coaches. It's something to introduce as a partnership moving forward as long as it continues to bring value for both sides and actually amplify the impact and the benefits of bringing the coaches to the light.

You're also going to see that with us putting more exposure on the coaches, it’ll come with more responsibility, so if the coaches feel more eyes and more materials on them, they also have a different sense of responsibility. They have a different sense of behavior and how to go about things. They're going to be professional. Now, there’s a voice behind them, which is us telling them, ‘That wasn't cool. Let's talk about it and remove the emotional conversation, but let's talk business, let’s talk fairness, and from someone coming from the business world into the tennis world, you wonder why those things are not in place, things that would absolutely not be accepted in the business world.”

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QUESTION OF THE DAY
Should They Get More Respect?

You were 94,74% to think that Madison Keys winning the Australian Open this year was good for the sport.

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
More Money All Around

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Who gets a bigger bag?

• The Laver Cup welcomes Genesys, “the global leader in cloud customer experience and contact center solutions,” as an official sponsor. The brand will be a global supplier for the event in 2025 (San Francisco, Sept. 19-21).

• The French Tennis Federation signed a new sponsoring deal with SVR dermatological laboratory that aims to put sustainability at the heart of its business. The company has been involved with the FFT since September 2024 and signed until August 2027. The brand will be activated during many FFT invents and will also appear on the outfits of the French players during the Davis Cup.

• Irish sports tech company Output has secured $4,8 million in funding. “Output Sports' technology enables strength and conditioning coaches, sports scientists, and rehab professionals to capture and analyse athletic data using a single wearable sensor system. It is currently used by more than 800 sports organisations, including over half of all English Premier League clubs,” reports RTE.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
The US Open and the Australian Open are shaking the scheduling

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And it all started in Paris. When Roland-Garros moved its start to the Sunday instead of the traditional Monday (to make more money), nobody would have thought that years later, it’d spread. And yet! The Australian Open ended up moving to the Sunday, and now the US Open has announced it will do the same. Guess what? Melbourne - which had record crowd numbers - was like, hold my vegemite, and is now thinking about moving to…the Saturday. Wimbledon? I’m sure you guessed it: Wimbledon is apparently shrugging all of this and will, for now, remain a Monday start. “I think the appetite to go to 15 days is zero, first and foremost because of the courts… From Wimbledon’s point of view, 14 days for the championships is enough,” said Tim Henman. Will it change once they get the new setup with qualifications happening on the main site? Time will tell.

Why this frenzy? Well, the week of qualifications has been turned into a real event now, seeing tons of fans coming in to watch the matches but also have fun through the various activities, catch a glimpse of the stars at training, and even get to attend exhibition matches on the ground. Grand Slams are now a full three-week event.

Do I have an issue with this? Not really, as it was great last year in Paris to see so much activity on the ground during the quallies. I’d only say, though, that it’s not ideal for the sport to have the four biggest events suddenly deciding to go on their own regarding the scheduling. It’s like when they decided to change the rules for the tie-breaks of the third set and fifth set: it took them a year to get that it should be the same rule everywhere. So here it’s going to have to follow suit at some point: same start of the tournament for everybody, please. Also, good luck to Craig Tiley for trying to convince main draw players to start on the Saturday, and also good luck to the Tour for avoiding being at war with the ATP and WTA events happening on that week.

• Felix Auger-Aliassime clinched his second title of the season, on Sunday in Montpellier. The Canadian, already a winner in Adelaide, ended the dream run of Aleksandar Kovacevic in a final that provided all the thrills of a blockbuster.

• Ekaterina Alexandrova won in Linz against Dayana Yastremska in the final.

• Belgian Elise Mertens got her hands on the title for the return of Singapore onto the tennis scene.

• The PTPA is launching an initiative to financially help players facing doping accusations.

• Daniil Medvedev has terminated its collaboration with former French player Gilles Simon after a year. Gilles Cervara will now be his only coach.

• Davide Sanguinetti decided it was a good choice to enter the Elena Rybakina drama-filled team, duetting with Stefano Vukov.

EDITOR’S PICKS

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector, look at Above the Mantel. And if you’re a woman looking for better coverage of our lives, issues, and interests, I suggest you, Gloria. Looking at longevity tips? You should look at Livelong Newsletter*.

READ: Davis Cup shenanigans in full force: French arguing with Brazilians, and Belgians landing on Chileans followed by a disqualification of the Chilean. A mess.

WATCH: Did you know Jannik Sinner was a YouTuber now? Here you go! Have a look.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN (F)
Tennis Sometimes Is A Fairytale

Were there really people picking Madison Keys to win this Australian Open? Especially after the draw was made? I mean, that was a pretty bold bet to make. If you had checked that box: massive props to you. It’s been a while since a Grand Slam delivered a fairytale-like ending for a long-time outsider like that, and I discovered that I had missed it. We could, of course, mention Marketa Vondrousova at Wimbledon 2023, but she wasn’t an outsider at the start at all, and she was facing Ons Jabeur, who was the target of that fairytale-ending so… Still, Vondrousova winning Wimbledon shone like a miracle in the tennis books, and that’s a huge thing. I’m also taking Barbora Krejcikova’s Roland-Garros out of this because she wasn’t an outsider when she clinched it (same as Jelena Ostapenko at Roland-Garros in 2017: what a ride she had!), but her run to the title last year at Wimbledon may be the closest thing to tennis fairytale we had. Minus? Well, she hadn’t seen the door closing on her as many times as the players who, for me, qualify for the fairytale script.

Madison Keys qualifies like wow! She’s a player who was destined from the start to clinch these big titles and yet could never find a way to. She came so close a few times, when she played for the title at the US Open in 2017 obviously, lost a semi-final 7-6 in the third against Aryna Sabalenka in NYC in 2023, also when she reached the semi-finals at Roland-Garros in 2018 but also already in Melbourne three times actually (2015 semi-finals, 2018 quarter-finals, 2022 semi-finals).

Keys was there and around, so why wouldn’t we naturally pick her name up as a title contender? (I plead guilty, by the way) I guess it’s because between these achievements, there were a lot of injuries and rough patches results-wise and because she would give this kind of vibe that she was not going over the last hurdle. After years of thinking she would make it, the tennis world has stopped believing. So, of course, that’s when she proved everybody wrong! Maybe even herself. It was very interesting to hear her say she had surely won in Melbourne because she had finally stopped tormenting herself over not having won a Grand Slam title already. If it were to happen, great, but if not, no big deal. And so she was finally swinging (that crazy good forehand) freely.

Some players that fit that career path came close in the recent past to get their well-deserved happy ending. Names coming to mind in no particular order: Nadia Petrova, Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic, Elina Svitolina, Jelena Dokic (that insane AO 2009!), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Karolina Muchova. I’m surely forgetting others. Keys winning in Melbourne is going to be such an inspiration for players who may feel their best years are behind them and so their biggest chances, too. Surely, someone like Svitolina could look at Keys and feel a new layer of belief growing. The Ukrainian was so close to her fairytale ending at Wimbledon in 2023, and that’s surely the closest comparison to what Keys did in Australia.

We’re not talking about young and on-the-rise players but players who got beat up by that sport a lot, physically and emotionally. Players who’d have had all the reasons to stop believing they could make it into Grand Slam glory. But who kept and keep fighting. It’s overall a great lesson: champions like that - because you can be a champion and be Slamless - can always find a way, and they keep going because they know it. There are few to be rewarded for this resilience, and the overall joy in the sport after Keys won that final can be explained by the relief: sometimes, the “forever outsider” gets rewarded.

You need the biggest names to win the biggest titles to grow the game, but you also need the formidable outsiders to get their fair share along the way, to keep the hope alive through the ranks, and to get the suspense going through the fans. Yes, tennis can still be crazy despite the overall margin that the top players like Swiatek, Sabalenka, Gauff, or Rybakina have on the rest of the field. And, yes, there’s a version of tennis history where Madison Keys saved a match point against Iga Swiatek and went on to beat Aryna Sabalenka for the title, having already beaten Rybakina in the fourth round and Svitolina in the quarters. Talk about torching that draw, by the way! A good reminder for the sports and business worlds too: Tennis Always Delivers On The Inspirational Drama, so join the fun.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN (H)
The Never-Ending Wrong Side Of The Djokovic’s Show

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Jannik Sinner’s game is absolutely the legacy of Novak Djokovic. And he might put the Tour in the same chokehold this year unless, of course, he gets banned. Sinner is Djokovic, but Djokovic without the drama. Some people would surely say he’d gain by being a bit less polished, but others will remember that it was Roger Federer’s only way to succeed. To each their own trick. Also, Sinner is still very young, so we might see him opening up at some point. Anyway, the Italian won his second Australian Open in a row, his third Grand Slam title, and showed everybody who was the boss. Yet, somehow, Djokovic stole the show again. And I’m not sure, for once, that he wouldn’t have preferred not to.

Talking about fairytale-ending, Djokovic had something like that at the Olympics in Paris. But, this golden triumph excepted, his path lately has been filled with too much drama. And while I watched the new episode of “Djokovic against the rest of the world or something,” this time again in Melbourne, I was left wondering how long he would cope with it emotionally. He has to be exhausted by all of this. I mean, it’s exhausting from outside already. Where’s the fun at this stage of his career to go through that?

Djokovic never played that sport to somehow land the role of the villain. I don’t believe, either that he rejoices in being put in the mindset that he’s alone out there fighting the whole world. It’s, by the way, not true, but the issue seems to be that an untrue prophecy that was manufactured to give him the party-crasher party in the “Fedal” era is being kind of set up to become a reality at a time where it doesn’t make any sense. For the past five years especially, it seems that whatever road he takes, he lands on the wrong side of the narratives. Sometimes, he asked for it; sometimes, he clearly got caught up in something that had nothing to do with him.

But each time it happens, I keep wondering why it’s being fed. Like, who cares about that Channel 9 guy? Was it worth it the days-long news cycle and the walking out on Jim Courrier? The booing? Who cares about the people doubting his injury? Like, as if anyone following the sport even casually would believe he’d walk away from a Grand Slam semi-finals if he could crawl to the win. The guy who won a match at Roland-Garros with a broken meniscus. Why are you out there giving this attention, putting the IRM for all to see? I’m not saying “who cares?” because of his personal branding, his business, or whatever, but “who cares"?” regarding how Djokovic is to go through this last stretch of his career.

If it keeps going on like that, Djokovic is going to spend his last years somehow fighting to prove himself worthy. This is insane. The guy won 24 Grand Slam titles and literally owns nearly every mattering record of that sport. He should be out there enjoying the fact that at 37, he remains the worst tennis nightmare of twenty-something champions, with legit shots to pile more Grand Slam titles. He should be out there being celebrated for the game that is now giving us Jannik Sinner. Why is he out there fighting with TV hosts, social media haters, and the like? I think it’s high time he takes a step back from always reacting. He beat Alcaraz in Melbourne while injured: that should have been what he walked away with. Heroic tennis stuff, wall-to-wall coverage. And that’s it.

His legacy doesn’t deserve nor need to be dragged into whatever drama comes his way. He cannot control whatever mess people are going to throw in his path, but he can control how he reacts to it. It doesn’t look healthy to me to keep going in whatever has been happening for the past five years: it’s too much pressure, too much negativity, too much anger, and too many piling grudges. Sure, Djokovic has always found a way to feed off adversity and even anger, but right now, it’s too much. Right now, it’s nearly all that’s left. So Novak, put that phone down and put the walls back up.

Novak Djokovic battling it out with the rest of the Big 4 was a golden ride. His quite complicated relationship with Federer was exactly what the sport needed because we cannot only have buddies (it’s boring). Djokovic being Gandalf on the bridge while Alcaraz and Sinner try to take over? Please, give us more. But this new BS cycle that happened again, this time in Melbourne, needs to stop: it has nothing to do with what will be, at some point, the story of his career. It’s not worth it.

Djokovic had somehow found a way through the defaulting at that US Open, the rejection of the Covid-19 vaccine decision, and the “crazy detention in Melbourne” era, which was no small fit. The cycle was over. It’s high time to stop trying to be dragged back into it. He got wronged many times, he was also wrong many times and now he needs to take the highest road and move on. Detox, cleanse, reboot. Or, at some point, it will take over all the incredible things he has achieved in that sport and all he did for that sport. And it will turn his last rodeo in that sport into a personal struggle.

What’s next after this Australian Open? Here are the questions that would need to be answered from now on through the sunshine double: Is Andy Murray here to stay with Djokovic (I hope he does because he might be the one voice to get through)? How long will Novak need to recover because he cannot do like last year and barely play if he wanna with n°25? Is Alcaraz going to get that he needs a serious reset and not only a change of racquet weight? What about Learner Tien? I enjoyed that kid’s lefty game a lot, and he makes for some show!

QUESTION OF THE DAY
Did tennis win?

You were 54,55% to say you liked these pods the Australian Open put for the coaches on the court. “I'm actually in-between. If there is going to be on-court coaching, better to have the coaches nearer the players than each having to shout at one another as it used to be because of how high the boxes are in the stands. It's also interesting to see which players use those pods and which do not (Coco Gauff did not, for instance). I'd say the on-court seating has to go, but the bottom rows at Wimbledon's Centre Court are not much better so far as distance from player goes (think of how many times players have crashed into that first row),” said Cheryl.

“I’m not for the on court coaching full stop,” objected Hajar, joined by “Chutes”: “Family separate to coach, not good ! And it's ugly with this poor chair !”

BUSINESS/MEDIA
Status? Funded

Gif by GrowthX_Club on Giphy

• The more the merrier! Three more sponsors are joining the BNP Paribas Open for this 2025 edition (March 2-16). Who? La Roche-Posay (a Jannik Sinner sponsor) has joined as the Official Sunscreen Partner, Kim Crawford as the Official Wine Partner, and Laykold has been named the Official Court Surface Provider. Other brands have renewed their deals with the tournament: BMW and Motorola remain the Official Luxury Car and Official Smartphone Partner respectively, while Veroni will also continue as the Official Italian Charcuterie of the event.

• Tennis Australia’s first venture capital fund, named AO Ventures, has completed its first close. How much is the fund worth now, then? US$30 million. What’s that fund for already? To provide early backing to high-growth technology-led startups that are innovating in the worlds of sport, entertainment, media, and health.

• Talking about funding, Daniil Medvedev’s heavy fine at the Australian Open could come in handy for whatever activity it is used for now. Medvedev, who destroyed a net camera during his first round, then got a point penalty in his second round, and then added a no-show at his mandatory press conference, got fined a total of US$76,000.

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Naomi Osaka’s missed opportunity

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Melbourne could have marked Naomi Osaka’s comeback to the center of the tennis stage. And for sure, she knew it. She was hitting the ball extremely well and moving the best we’ve seen in a while. But the abdominal injury that ruined her final in Auckland also ruined her Australian Open in the third round. A recurring injury for the Japanese, who explained it regularly happened to her for years. So here we’re left with the biggest “What If” of that first Grand Slam event of the year.

Actually, Osaka is the biggest “What If” situation of this 2025 season. The sport needs her star power, and she’s clearly very motivated to get back on top, but somehow, the tennis stars are still refusing to align. Osaka escaped injuries until the very end of 2024 (back injury), but she now starts 2025 with a tricky one. As she stated, she won’t stay around just for the sake of it, so every missed opportunity to win is a much bigger deal. Osaka and her team also obviously want to get back as close as possible to the top before the clay season hits, and so somehow, we’re only in January, but her clock is already ticking.

SOME BREAK POINTS…
Women’s tennis back in Shenzhen

• Back in 2018, Shenzhen was supposed to be the home of the WTA’s Finals for ten years, starting in 2019. But in the end, the Chinese city just got that 2019 edition: COVID-19 came to play, then the Peng Shuai scandal came to play, and then it all went South. So this is not a small news to read that Shenzhen is now going to be the BJK Cup Finals for 2025 - 2027. ITF President David Haggerty said he was able to talk to Peng Shuai, reports The Athletic. This move could also mean that the event would move from November to an earlier spot in order to be added to the Asian swing.

• In other ITF news, Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner have been named ITF’s World Champions. Sinner became the first Italian man or woman to win that title, and Swiatek clinched it for the second time after 2022.

• Also, just for the comedy of it all, Arina Rodionova made the biggest buzz of her career for sure by announcing both her divorce and her new OnlyFans venture. Yes, you read that right.

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART
Nike, Please, Wake Up

Jannik Sinner in Melbourne (Sinner on IG)

Nike, we cannot start 2025 in the same dire state as 2024. I know your business ain’t doing great right now, but please, you’re gonna have to make a tennis effort. Or just plainly officially announce that you’re done investing in the sport.

This is not possible to keep putting bland after bland outfits on Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. There is also no way these kits are selling anything, especially not for a Gen that is all about (for good or bad) fashion statements. So why even bother signing these two champions? Have all the creatives and budgets gone after Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams retired? Was the only one left only there for Rafael Nadal, and so they’re gone too? What’s going on? The only wow Nike outfit in ages has come at the last US Open with this iconic bow-themed situation for Naomi Osaka. It is cruel even to show us that you can still do it, just to get back to this sad Australian Open 2025 situation. Do we need to talk about what Madison Keys was made to wear?…

As I’ve said multiple times last year, tennis fashion has historically been a key to the popularity and growth of the sport. And it’s about making those statements. So why single out Nike, especially? Because they’ve so far been the ones with deep enough pockets to invest in proper tennis fashion. (We lost Adidas and Reebok a while ago already.)The ones able to make it to pop culture, Zendaya style. Zendaya, who is now working with On, by the way. The only statement that came for this AO 2025 was Coco Gauff’s NB dress and the Frances Tiafoe all-pink from Lululemon. After being owned by Wilson - yes, they were - through the whole 2024 season thanks to these amazing dresses on Marta Kostyuk, Nike is about to be dropped to the end of the pile, taking Sinner and Alcaraz with them. Which is an issue for the sport as these two are becoming the faces of it. Could you imagine so little effort put on Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal back in the day? Please.

Telling you, Jannik and Carlos are landing on no young people’s social media feeds while dressed like that, and that should become a bit of a concern for them, too. You don’t sign with Gucci and Louis Vuitton (where are these collabs?!!) to then spend your whole on-court time looking like meh. Sounds like a personal branding wtf to me, and they might want to be reminded of how fashion sent someone like Maria Sharapova into global stardom. And surely they understand how much money Federer and Nadal have made by turning their logos into fashion assets? Funny enough, Sharapova had an op-ed for the Business of Fashion about how female athletes are shaping the future of business. Nike made this all happen, fashion-wise, for Sharapova. As they obviously did for Serena Williams. And I’m at a loss as to why they seem to have now totally given up on tennis stars. Smaller brands have now taken over the tennis fashion side, but can they build as big of an impact? Anyway, tennis fashion has always been a fun side of the sport, especially when the Grand Slams come around, and I’m at two years of Nike spoiling my fun. I’ll keep ranting.

By the way, a brand that I never heard about (sorry) has now signed Elise Mertens. And French player Clara Burel has joined the Lacoste family after years with Adidas.

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector, look at Above the Mantel. And if you’re a woman looking for better coverage of our lives, issues, and interests, I suggest you, Gloria. Looking at longevity tips? You should look at Livelong Newsletter*.

READ: I’ve asked my followers on Bluesky (@carolebouchard.bsky.social) to send me their book rec regarding my “Escapism-Only” era and people delivered! My TBR has grown significantly in the process: Love that journey for me. Do you have books rec? Send them my way! What I’m currently reading? The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods, The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (not liking it, but I will finish it), Carrie Sotho is Back, by Taylor Jenkins Reid (getting there), Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty, and The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune (loving it). I’ve also just finished The Thursday Murder Club series (really good).

READ More: If you want to know why the domestic abuse allegations are still sticking to Alexander Zverev.

WATCH: It’s so tough to deliver a second season that answers the hype of the first one, and yet the team behind The Night Agent did it. I have to pace myself so I don’t binge-watch this show in a couple of days. It is SO good. The cast is again a lesson on how to cast. The whole thing is nerve-wracking in a fabulous way. Highly recommend. By the way, don’t waste your time with the book that has been used as the foundation for season 1. It always pains me to say bad things about books, but this one is a miss, especially once you’ve watched the show.

WATCH more: Here’s Madison Keys praising the work she did in therapy.

*Affiliate link

AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Weird But Fun

TOP:

• Coach Andy. I told you from the start that these two would talk backhand a lot. Case in point just above. Anyway, how fun was it to watch Andy Murray coach Novak Djokovic through his first-round victory in Melbourne? Very. It was especially nice for Murray after Djokovic got back to one set all…

  
  But also, it still feels so weird to me! Like a pinch-me moment. How do you go from wanting to destroy an opponent to trying to make him win one of the biggest titles in the sport? Yet also, if there’s a tennis brain that can keep up with Novak’s tennis brain, it’s Murray’s. I’m still amazed that Sir Andy volunteered.

  
  Broadcasters worldwide might think they’ve hit the jackpot by now because that’s quite the blockbuster way to launch this coaching pod right on the court. Especially as Murray proved as expressive on the coaching side as he was on the court in his prime.
  

• Hady Habib. He became, at 26, the first Lebanese player to reach a Grand Slam main draw in the Open Era. “It’s a huge win, especially what we’ve been going through as a country,” he said. “I think to bring something positive, especially, we’ve been having a rough time with the war. We had our other issues in the past. It’s just nice to get this win for Lebanon and for the people,” he told The Guardian.
  

• Belinda Bencic confirmed her strong come-back following the birth of her daughter. A final in Angers in December, a fourth-round in Adelaide after going through the qualifications in January, and already a first-round win at the Australian Open against Jelena Ostapenko (6-3, 7-6(6)).
  

• Tennis is a journey at every professional level, and clearly Jodie Burrage’s one has been quite the ride the past year or so. Four surgeries later, the British player was among the feel-good stories of the first round in Melbourne when she got over Leolia Jeanjean (6-2, 6-4). “I fought so hard to get back to a position where I could even play the sport, and then I was winning matches, obviously those ITF events, making semis and stuff, but it’s not where I wanted to be and I wasn’t happy with how I was playing. I didn’t know how much more fight I had. It takes a lot,” she told The Guardian. Despite it all, Burrage hasn’t lost her British humor, by the way: “I still have PTSD every time I run for a dropshot,” said Burrage, laughing. “And I am not practising with Katie Boulter ever again. Every time I’m on the practice court with her, I hurt myself. Genuinely. I fractured my knee against her, done my ankle.”

YIKES: 

• Stefanos Tsitsipas surely needed a great start for his 2025 season after a very rough 2024. Well, it didn’t happen. The Greek lost in the first round of the Australian Open against the very promising Alex Michelsen (7-5, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4). It was a pretty bad draw, let’s be honest, but still, it confirmed that Tsitsipas has a long way to go before getting back to where he was. If he can. 2025 might see him at a crossroads. “I also felt like I didn’t have enough power in my shot today, so I ended up playing a bit more and kind of having to work twice or three times more every single point to try to win it. I just hope I’m able to retrieve that back and use that as a strength that I have within my game.”
  

• Victoria Azarenka also struggles to start this 2025 season. Beaten in the second round in Brisbane by Marie Bouzkova (6-4, 6-4), she went down in the first round in Melbourne against Lucia Bronzetti (6-2, 7-6(2)).

MTO: 

• Grigor Dimitrov has now retired from his last three Grand Slam events (2024 US Open quarter-finals, 2024 Wimbledon fourth-round, and so Melbourne 2025). Already out of Brisbane during the semi-finals because of a groin injury, Dimitrov gave up in the middle of his first round in Melbourne on Monday.
  

• Frances Tiafoe gave everything to get that first-round win in Melbourne, even if it meant throwing up on the court.

• Marketa Vondrousova withdrew from the Australian Open only a few hours before having to play against Jana Fett. Vondrousova had shoulder surgery after Wimbledon last year and made her return to the Tour in Adelaide, where she retired in her second match.

QUESTION OF THE DAY
Do you like this?

You were 72,73% to think Coco Gauff had figured things out against Iga Swiatek. “Yes, though that it doesn't necessarily mean Coco's going to beat Iga all the time now, but simply that in general the matches will probably be a lot more competitive than they were previously,” said Jo.

BUSINESS/MEDIA
Gauff Is Now Unrivaled

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• Well, Coco Gauff would surely love to be unrivaled in tennis, but for now, she’ll have to do with being an investor in Unrivaled, a 3×3 basketball league. A way to make up for not having followed what was her dad’s dream for her, becoming a basketball player. The company has now secured $28 million in funding.
  

• RIP Venu. Well, in the end, it was a lot of noise and buzz for… nothing. And so David nailed Goliath again, as Fubo TV’s lawsuits delayed the project enough for it to collapse altogether, despite being led by Walt Disney, ESPN, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Hulu. Yet, it also leaves a weird taste and could still see some legal actions getting going. Why? Because Disney struck a deal with Fubo TV a week earlier to merge its Hulu service with it to create a new entity held by 70% of Disney shareholders. “The deal also includes a $220 million payment to Fubo from the Venu Sports partners—Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery—as well as a $145 million loan from Disney to Fubo scheduled for January 2026,” says a report. And then Fubo withdrew its lawsuit.
  

• The Australian Open and Pirelli have signed a new multi-year partnership which will see Pirelli become the Official Tyre Partner of the Australian Open. “The multi-faceted deal includes virtual court signage, an interactive fan activation onsite at AO 2025, influencer and social content as well as premium experiences to delight Pirelli guests,” a statement said. 

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
April, It Is Then…

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• The CAS will hear Wada’s appeal against Jannik Sinner’s doping case on April 16th and 17th. At least now we have a date. But gosh, it’s a long way to go for Siner and tennis with a doping cloud about one’s head. Should he be suspended, the World No.1 could miss at least both Roland-Garros and Wimbledon. He could also miss the Masters 1000 in Rome for the second year in a row. Does someone say high stakes?
  

• Andy Murray had obviously thought about landing on the wrong side of Novak Djokovic’s rants.
  

• Gaël Monfils (38) became the oldest ATP tour champion when he beat Zizou Bergs (6-3, 6-4) in the Auckland final. It was his 13th title, and it will leave a special mark as the tournament’s director in Auckland is his long-time agent, Nicolas Lamperin. Felix Auger-Aliassime couldn’t have had a better start for 2025 after he clinched the title in Adelaide.
  

• Ons Jabeur is opening up in this interview with The Guardian about wanting to use her voice and platform. “Kids are dying everywhere, in Ukraine or Gaza. I have to speak out,” says Jabeur, who is working with the World Food Programme.

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
Lululemon > Nike? Tiafoe says yes

Instagram post

Well, we already have a winner in Melbourne! Lululemon. The brand made quite the buzz when Frances Tiafoe unveiled his new apparel sponsor. Bye-bye, Nike, hello, Lululemon? That’s quite the move! I have David Rose’s voice in my head saying, “Are we married to that color, though?” The way these smaller brands were starting to do some damage to legacy brands like Nike was all the talk last year, and it seems 2025 will only confirm that. Lululeman was already in tennis thanks to its collaboration with Leylah Fernandez.

Tennis fashion has been front and center in Melbourne as Grigor Dimitrov decided to give his feet to Adidas and as Alex Popyrin signed with Psycho Bunny (quite the name!). You can find a recap of some of the most significant brand changes here.

Side note: should tennis start to worry that Nike doesn’t seem to be fighting to keep or get its biggest names anymore?

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, look at Above the Mantel. And if you’re a woman looking for better coverage of our lives, issues, and interests, I suggest you, Gloria. And if you’re looking at longevity tips, you should look at Livelong Newsletter*.

READ: I really liked this interview of Jack Draper for The Times. He seems to have a strong head on his shoulders and makes a point not to live in a bubble. One has to hope he remains this way (despite being already followed by Anna Wintour). “I didn’t have anything outside tennis. I didn’t know how to cook, to wash up, didn’t know how to do anything pretty much. I felt like I hadn’t taken responsibility for my life and it was bugging me a lot.”

READ More: If you like technical chat about serves and forehands, you’re going to love this piece about Coco Gauff’s new serve and forehands for 2025.

WATCH: Andy Roddick keeping it real about Nick Kyrgios and his influencer era.

*Affiliate link

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
2025 starts with more injuries than blockbusters

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It’s already a mess, and we’ve barely started. First week of January, and injuries are already piling. I’m sorry, aren’t we just out of the winter break? It actually should be called the “winter-break-joke,” if you ask me, and we might already be seeing the consequences of an off-season that doesn’t qualify for “off” at all nowadays.

In Brisbane, Jiri Lehecka got into the final after Grigor Dimitrov retired and then clinched the title after Reilly Opelka retired after five games (wrist). In Auckland, Clara Tauson lost the first set but won the title after Naomi Osaka retired in tears. In Hong Kong, Juncheng Shang retired in his semi-final against Kei Nishikori after seven games due to illness. In the United Cup, Tomas Machac retired in the semi-final match against Taylor Fritz. In the final, Iga Swiatek took a long off-court MTO for an undisclosed injury that she just summed up as being caused by fatigue. Other players on the injury list already: Alexander Zverev (out of the United Cup), Nick Kyrgios, and Emma Raducanu (back, out of Auckland). I’m sure I’m missing more, as I saw some players, like Luca Van Assche regarding Melbourne, had retired in qualifications here and there.

So, again, I’m sorry, but what is this sport doing? People had paid tickets for these semi-finals and finals that disappeared. Broadcasters had paid rights. Players are a week away from the first Grand Slam of the season. Sponsors are paying said players to be out there playing. I’m a broken record about it, I know, but tennis is now breaking bodies on the regular at a way too high pace. Let’s see if this whole debacle was a case of start-of-the-season rust or if, by turning these players' winter break into dust, the sport is shooting itself in the foot again.

The tennis world has been shocked and moved by Gabriela Dabrowski opening up about her breast cancer journey. Massive props to be given here, too, to the WTA doctor who encouraged her to get checked again, despite Dabrowski being told months ago not to worry by her doctor. That she played and won so much despite it all is quite the performance.

“Over time, I began to recognize I was a part of something much bigger than myself. (…) Currently I’m in a place where I have a better grasp of my treatment, side effects and how to manage them. Please know I am fully aware of how lucky I am as well, because many do not get the luxury of being able to tell their story at all. (…) If you saw me smiling more on court in the past 6 months, it was genuine. That wasn’t always the case. While I have been actively working on improving my attitude for many years through therapy and other guidance, my cancer diagnosis was the catalyst for more sustained change. When the threat of losing everything I’d worked for my entire life became a real possibility, only then did I begin to authentically appreciate what I had,” she said.

A blood test to track muscle recovery? It’s happening! In what could be a huge change in how athletes train and how their staffs monitor their progress, a biotechnology company claims to have created “a groundbreaking, easy-to-use diagnostic tool to detect and monitor muscle damage and recovery in athletes.” The fingerpick blood test could become “a valuable step in transforming sports medicine, helping to minimize muscle injury, better manage recovery, and optimize performance in athletes.”

ATP/WTA  
Some started by winning big

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2025 started really well for a few players, starting with Coco Gauff, who clinched the United Cup title with Taylor Fritz for Team USA by beating Poland. Gauff got her second victory in a row against Iga Swiatek, and that could start to matter, even if the H2H is still 11-3 for Swiatek. It’s the second title in two years for the USA and the second consecutive defeat in the final for Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz. Swiztek will still head to Melbourne with more confidence than doubts, thanks to a run that included a win over her nemesis Elena Rybakina.

Aryna Sabalenka perfectly launched her year and her road to a potential third title at the Australian Open by winning in Brisbane. Polina Kudermetova, coming from the qualifications, gave her way more trouble than I thought she would in the final. We might have to keep an eye on Veronika’s younger sister, as she’s been improving a lot since last year.

Jiri Lehecka won the second title of his career in Brisbane after the one he clinched in Adelaide last year. I hope he can stay healthy the whole season because I feel he has some serious damage to make in these draws now. Alexandre Müller, 27, fought like crazy the whole week in Hong Kong and got rewarded with the first ATP title of his career after another three sets against Kei Nishikori, who was playing his first final since the Brisbane 2019 title.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
What do you think?

You were 62,50% to say you were watching the United Cup.

BUSINESS/MEDIA
ATP guarantees minimum earning, Netflix to make us pay for its sports content

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We all know these days that we can’t have it all. But could we at least stop to have it less? More sports on Netflix and other streamers: yayyyy! But, wait, why would you then raise my bill for it? Apparently, we’re getting there. #EwDavid

Investors.com seems to think that by ramping up sports content, Netflix will have no other choice than to ask subscribers for more money. And there’s no reason to think this model wouldn’t spread. "At the recent UBS Media and Communications conference, Co-CEO Ted Sarandos tied future price increases to increased engagement and improved overall value to members, including through marquee live events. With the recent focus on paid sharing, Netflix has not raised the price of the Standard U.S. plan since early 2022. A price increase in line with historical changes across the ad-free plans would drive an estimated $1 billion in incremental annual revenue for Netflix," the report says. Could people who don’t care about the NFL be spared, please?

The ATP is distributing money to players like never before, they say. In a press release, the Tour announced that their Baseline programme had distributed $1,3 million to players in 2024, also guaranteeing minimum earnings for the Top 250 players “for the first time in history.” And it’s just a start: “ATP will raise the guaranteed minimum thresholds in 2025: to $200,000 (up from $150,000) for singles players ranked 101-175, and $100,000 (up from $75,000) for players ranked 176-250. The threshold for Top 100 will remain at $300,000. The new thresholds mean that all players who finished 2024 in the Top 250 will earn a minimum of $100,000 in 2025, provided they play a minimum of 15 events.”

Aryna Sabalenka is joining forces with Naomi Osaka. Wut? Well, not on the court, but the World N°1 has signed with the Japanese’s representation and management company Evolve, leaving IMG. I guess that Sabalenka didn’t see enough deals for her liking coming her way, so she hopes Evolve will change that. She also seems to want to become a big name outside of tennis and might be interested in how Osaka is tied to the entertainment industry. Evolve’s statement calls Sabalenka “a multi-faceted icon with limitless potential.”

SOME BREAK POINTS…  
The WTA faces a serious test with Rybakina

Elena Rybakina in Miami 2024 (© Miami Open/Hard Rock Stadium)

The WTA’s safeguarding procedures are already facing a make-or-break challenge. And the season has barely started. Why? Because of the now infamous coach turned ex-coach turned coach again of Elena Rybakina, Stefano Vukov. And it’s not enough that the WTA is investigating him for a breach of the code of conduct and has suspended him; the Tour has to do all of this without the support of Rybakina, who keeps swearing Vukov is Mister Perfect and who’s now threatening to boycott the Australian Open.

More about this mess? Goran Ivanisevic thought he was the only coach on board until he discovered Vukov would come back despite that ban to basically take his job when they’re not on-site for tournaments. In which world is it supposed to work? In which world did Rybakina even try to pull this on Ivanisevic? What is going on?

Unfortunately, this sport has a long story of female players being in unsafe environments, so let’s hope that the Tour will keep showing a spine here. Pam Shriver, one of the first tennis insiders to call Vukov’s behavior out, had this to add on social media: “It’s time for our entire sport to finally stand up to known abuse and cult-like manipulations of players. This is a very sad situation, and my prayers are with ER.”

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Carlos Alcaraz has decided to make some changes this year. No, haven’t heard about an arm tattoo yet. The Spaniard has worked on a new configuration for his racquet, which is now heavier, in order to gain some power and control. Five grams more and a new service, will it push Alcaraz above Jannik Sinner? Nice to see Alcaraz was up to making some big decisions to get better despite being basically already extremely great. That’s how it works at the top. I’m also curious to see how it will do for his right arm because I haven’t forgotten he nearly missed the clay season last year due to a forearm injury. And now you’re telling me his racquet is heavier.

The other big decision taken by Alcaraz to start this new season? He’s dropping out of the Davis Cup squad for the February tie against Switzerland. Good luck to Captain David Ferrer in dealing with that.

Novak Djokovic is also plotting his way back to the top and has disclosed some of his 2025 approach. Chasing the Grand Slam n°25, he has decided to take on the new wave with an all-or-nothing attitude. 

“I definitely am looking to improve, even if it’s the slightest percentage, every single shot that I have in my game, and maybe something that people don’t necessarily see is this court positioning, the transition play, the tactics. Physically, mentally, as well and ready to compete, whatever it takes, however many hours it takes with the youngsters. (…) The week before Australian Open (we will) do a lot of video analysis of my main opponents, top guys, trying to understand how my game matches up,” he explained. I hope coach Andy Murray enjoyed his time on the slopes because his charge has a strong work plan for his start on the bench.

In an interview, Djokovic discussed why he still finds it traumatic to come to Australia after being detained there.

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART  
Hurkacz 2025 is a whole new man, kinda

The start of the season is also usually when you see who got divorced in the winter and left who for who. No, I don’t mean I’m opening a gossip column here… Sorry to disappoint you all. I mean, we get to see who switched brands. Less sexy, I know. Right now, the biggest name in that game seems to be Hubert Hurkacz. He came back for the United Cup with a whole new look! Goodbye, Yonex, and welcome Wilson for the racquets and Adidas for his apparel. Switching racquets is always a big deal, so let’s see how it goes here!

Lorenzo Musetti also made some headlines in the department…because he cut his hair. Tennis gossip is struggling, let me tell you this, when a Musetti haircut is on the news cycle. But hey, don’t you think he’s looking a bit like Borna Coric here?

EDITOR’S PICKS  

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, look at Above the Mantel. And if you’re a woman looking for better coverage of our lives, issues, and interests, I suggest you, Gloria. And if you’re looking at longevity tips, you should have a look at Livelong Newsletter*.

READ: The WTA Insider talked to Mirra Andreeva about how the young phenom intends to keep rising in 2025.

WATCH: Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud in a mixed double battle at the United Cup was very popcorn-worthy!

LISTEN TO: I talked to you about it recently, and it’s now up: Iga Swiatek on Caroline Garcia's podcast.

*This is an affiliate link

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Swiatek keeps head high, Draper struggles

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Iga Swiatek is facing all the doping questions as she comes back to competition at the United Cup, and she, for now, seems to have a firm hand on it all. A change of coach, a change of communication team, a change of number in the ranking, a change of media coverage: it’s a lot of changes for someone who’s a well-known routine master. But Swiatek is holding the fort, not shying away from the scrutiny.

She acknowledged she was anxious about how people would look at her now, cut herself from the internet, yet was relieved to receive support from her country. "After the information about my case was released, I was scared that most of the people are going to turn their back on me. But I felt the support, and it's great. Obviously there are going to be some negative comments and you're not going to avoid that. I just have to accept that, and I don't really care about those, honestly,” she said in Sydney.

As the Polish agency declined to appeal the decision made in Swiatek’s case, the last trouble for the player could come from an appeal from WADA. It’s what happened to Jannik Sinner, but Iga Swiatek doesn’t think she’ll face the same hurdle. “Swiatek doesn’t “think there is any reason” for an appeal, adding that she has “no influence on what’s going to happen,” reports The Athletic. What else did we learn from Swiatek in her first week of the new season? That she found out she had Covid-19 when she played in Dubai last year.

If you’d ask me which ATP player I have on my “Gonna Make Some Damage” list for 2025, I’ll tell you Jack Draper. So, of course, because I tend to be a jinx, Draper’s start of the year seems to be in a rough spot due to a hip injury. The British player had already given up in the off-season on a training block with Carlos Alcaraz, then had to withdraw from the United Cup, and is now said to be in a race against time to be fit for the Australian Open.

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“For me, at this stage of my career, what’s most important is that I can have a long career. There’s many young athletes who I’ve seen over the years, and I’ve heard stories about, who have these little niggles at a younger age. They don’t do much about it, they don’t explore it, and then it becomes a big problem when they get older. If they’d have managed that area better – a specific area, like the hip, like a knee or an ankle – then it would have saved a lot of time off [for] a lot of different things. So that’s where I’m at right now,” he told the Guardian. Draper also told The Times that the reason why he was sick on the court during his semi-final at the US Open was the amount of painkillers he took through the event to manage an ankle injury.

Talking about ambitious British players for 2025, it seems Emma Raducanu has already made her vows to be fitter and manage her activities better for 2025 even before the 31st of December.

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Finally, have you ever thought about what happens to tennis material when it’s discarded? The Conversation has a feature about the amount of high-tech waste produced by sport and how to recycle it. “In the United Kingdom, for instance, about 90% of all composite waste goes to landfill. Only 2% is reused for carbon fibre. (…) Globally, about 7,000 tonnes of composite sporting equipment reaches its end of life and could be recycled every year. Demand for recycling is increasing. This stream of waste now accounts for almost 9% of the total composite market.”

UNITED CUP 
Rybakina: What Do We Expect?

Elena Rybakina (© Miami Open/Hard Rock Stadium)

Elena Rybakina is going to be one of the biggest mysteries at the top of the game for the Australian Open. Can she already be back to her best? Is her association with Goran Ivanisevic already efficient? And more generally, is she okay? So it’s been nice to see her play well to launch her season at the United Cup as Kazakhstan beat Greece to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals. Rybakina also looked happy to be out there, so for now, it’s boding well.

I will admit that it has demanded a lot of convincing for my brain to get back into tennis 2025, even before the year 2024 has come to an end. It feels very weird to watch players do their things in the middle of the holiday season. I still feel that the winter break has turned into a joke, and I still fear more and more bodies will pay the price for it. I love Australia and its summer of tennis (I loved the Hopman Cup in Perth!!), but when the last season has barely ended, it’s honestly giving “let’s all try to get a burnout!”.

Also, many might feel that way because we’ve spent the short off-season deep into doping scandals. Where was our break?? Side note for tennis: you’re gonna have to get your sh.. together for 2025 because you used all your “benefit of the doubt” cards already. Stop trying to make pickleball happen on your lawn, please.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Are you watching?

You were 80% to think Iga Swiatek’s case had been handled fairly.

“Case was handled rapidly and scientifically. I actually think it shouldn't have even gotten as far as it did. Given the amount of TMZ in her body and the date of the last test it was impossible she could have been doping. It shouldn't have been a 'fail' and the player should have only been told about the presence of it to allow them to be more careful in the future,” said Andrew. “Overall, yes. But they need to change the procedure for announcing a ban. Iga was put into the untenable situation of having to lie about why she was not playing in some tourneys. Announcing the ban earlier would have been much better,” commented Shirley, while Margaret said, “Personally speaking, I am not a fan of these 'silent bans'. It just adds more suspicion, full stop.”

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
Women’s sports get bars and angels

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Will you be able to watch the next Wimbledon women’s final at The Bra? Who knows! CNN has a profile of Jenny Nguyen, who, in 2022, opened The Sports Bra: a bar that only airs women’s sports. Why? She had enough of having to watch the NCAA women's basketball matches with no sound in the bar she was going to. Why no sound? Because all the screens with sound were for men’s sports.

She said F. This, and here she is now, with $1 million made in sales in eight months and the first-ever women’s sports only bar in the world. The Sports Bra will soon be a national franchise, and it’s another proof of the momentum that women’s sports are having. “So many folks who come into the Bra, they will tell me that it never occurred to them that this was needed,” Nguyen said. “When guys come in here, they say things like, ‘Wow, it never occurred to me that when I walk into a sports bar, it’s always men’s sports.’” Oh, and guess who the investor in the soon-to-be franchise is? Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit co-founder and Serena Williams’ husband.

Talking about the rise of women’s sports, it’s also happening in the venture capital world, as Worth Magazine illustrates with a feature about Lorine Pendleton, founder of 125 Ventures. Pendleton encourages women angel investors to invest in underrepresented founders. “125 Ventures is investing in sports, focusing on women’s sports, media, and entertainment at the intersection of tech. Women’s sports are projected to grow 300% by 2030, yet only 1% of investment goes there. We’re seeing major viewership growth—300% during the Olympics, largely thanks to U.S. women athletes. Events like gymnastics, soccer, and basketball drew huge audiences,” Pendleton said.

YouTube and CAA tackle AI Deepfakes

This is the world we live in, so it’s time to get organized. Athletes represented by CAA will now be able to join forces with YouTube in order to find and take down AI Deppefakes of themselves. “Under the partnership, CAA clients, “many of whom have been impacted by recent AI innovations,” will have access to YouTube’s early-stage likeness management technology, which is designed to identify and manage AI-generated content featuring faces on YouTube “at scale,” according to the companies,” reports Variety.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Osaka won’t hang around tennis if she doesn’t start winning again

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Naomi Osaka loves to win way more than she loves the game. It’s never been a secret. The Japanese, who has struggled her whole career with keeping the motivation and fire from the start to the end of a season, has again been honest about it all. She came back in 2024 and didn’t get the results she was expecting, and so for 2025, she’s already warning that the stakes will be high. "I don't think I'm the type of player that would hang around," Osaka told reporters. "I have a lot of respect for all the players on tour, but the point of my life that I'm at right now, if I'm not above a certain ranking, I don't see myself playing for a while. I'd rather spend time with my daughter if I'm not where I think I should be and where I feel like I can be."

Osaka doesn’t play tennis just because she loves it: she plays tennis to be the best and win big. "I think 2024 humbled me, but I also feel like I grew a lot. I worked way harder than I've ever worked before. So I guess it was very painful to not get the results I wanted, but I feel like I'm growing and learning and I am really excited for this year [2025]. I played really good matches. People still talk to me about my match at the French Open [lost 7-6, 1-6, 7-5 against Iga Swiatek]. So, I'm glad that I was able to give people memories as well.”

It’s either she’s the boss, or she gets out of here. She’s not the first player who has said this through the years, and many times, you’d still find these players on Tour a decade later, still chasing the biggest trophies, still unable to close the chapter because what if… Yet, when it comes to Naomi Osaka, I tend to fully believe that she’ll prefer to walk away and turn into a businesswoman or a Hollywood fixture than keep playing tennis as a regular player. If she can’t be a tennis star anymore, Osaka will find another path to be one in something else. Her new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, has some experience with a top female player who was in it only to win, win, win…

Masarova gets back with her ex

You would think the sun would always win! And you’d also think people knew it was rarely a good idea to get back with an ex. Yet, seven years after leaving Swiss Tennis for the Spanish federation, Rebeka Masarova ditched Spain and returned to her native country. Masarova, who lives in Barcelona, was born and raised in Switzerland (Basel) with a dad from Slovakia and a mother from Spain. Masarova, a finalist in Auckland in 2023, is ranked #145. The unusual situation of a player with three passports!

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
Is 2025 going to bring Tennis Fashion back? #Please

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You all know by now how much I found 2024 Fashion boring. If you take out Naomi Osaka’s US Open outfits, nothing happened. Nothing except bad taste (Alcaraz’s outfit at Roland-Garros, please again tell me why?!). So, do we think 2025 is going to be the redeem team for tennis brands? I’m crossing fingers and toes.

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, look at Above the Mantel. And if you’re a woman looking for better coverage of our lives, issues, and interests, I suggest you, Gloria.

WATCH: Novak Djokovic is discovering that being coached by one of your greatest rivals isn’t as easy as he might have thought. “It’s strange to share secrets…”. Watch Djokovic talking about it here.

READ: Rafael Nadal was in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) for the ATP Next Gen Finals due to his role as ambassador for the Saudi federation. He talked about it and also about his new life away from the competition to Reem Abulleil for The National.

READ More: A former professional tennis player is now a writing sensation in the UK. Conor Niland won the Sports Book of the Year for his autobiography The Racket - On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation and the other 99%. He talked about it all to the Guardian.

LISTEN TO: On January 6th, Caroline Garcia’s podcast will come back for a second season and will have Iga Swiatek as the first guest. If you want to have a chance to listen to it earlier, you can try your luck here.

WTA 
Iga Swiatek banned, the whole sport gapes at itself

Iga Swiatek, screenshot from her video statement

When we all discovered the Jannik Sinner positive tests, I said that tennis really didn’t need that. Well, did tennis now need to see another World No.1 testing positive? Absolutely not. Barely back from the Djokovic x Murray breaking news, I found myself gaping again at my screen when the Iga Swiatek news reached me. I mean, what the hell is going on?! We’re not even out of the woods with Sinner, and you’re telling me now Swiatek - Swiatek! - is joining that bad news cycle?

The ITIA indeed announced (and attached the detailed decision in the announcement) that Iga Swiatek, who was World No.1 at the time, had tested positive for the prohibited substance trimetazidine (TMZ) back in August and accepted a one-month ban, meaning she would not appeal. It explained that, due to winning an appeal, she was allowed to play at the WTA Finals and the BJK Cup Finals. She will now be allowed to be back on Tour from December 4.

Watch Iga Swiatek’s full video statement here and read the transcript below. I’m also joining the full statement her team communicated with the case details.

Let’s make something clear here: I would never put my hand in a fire, swearing that this player or that player would never use banned substances. Nobody should. It’s professional sport, we should know better than being naïve. This said, Sinner and Swiatek failing doping tests??!! No, I didn’t see that coming. Yes, due to what I know and have experienced while covering both players on Tour, I’m personally willing to believe their contamination argument. And I’m feeling for Iga Swiatek because it must be quite a nightmare for someone who’s that sensitive. I’m also feeling for Sinner, who had his biggest year and his biggest scandal at the same time while also going through some rough time off the court. Hopefully, the future won’t make me feel like a fool about that, but again, don’t put that hand in the fire. Yet, how far can that sport push the collective’s suspense of disbelief? Accidents happen, and that’s why the ITIA is here and why there’s a whole process to follow before a player gets banned for doping.

For me, and the optics, the issue in both cases here is the delay between the positive test and its public announcement. Yes, I know, and now everybody not talking in bad faith knows that the process demands it. There is no choice. But it’s not possible to keep going like that because it erodes the trust people put in the sport. It pushes players to lie about why they’re not playing. It pushes media to, for months, be made to cover an alternate reality. When two of the best players in the world are getting caught, the whole rule turns into a circus that is impossible to defend.

Silent bans and silent processes need to go

It puts Swiatek, after Sinner, in a lose-lose situation as it makes them look like they are hiding shady stuff in the dark. They weren’t; they just abided by the rules. And yet, it’s now a stain they’re going to have to live with for a little while (unless anything else gets out). Not forever: it happened to Marin Cilic, and you can barely hear anyone talking about it nowadays. Wim Fissette, one of the most experienced and successful coaches on Tour, agreed to still sign with Iga Swiatek despite knowing about the whole situation. “Iga told me about the case and left me the decision about our cooperation. I have been observing her for a long time, her values, her work ethic, her standards. I was confident that she is innocent from the start, so it did not influence my decision about joining the team,” he told The National.

I’m not even gonna get into the reactions from the tennis world about the Swiatek situation because, as often, I’m left baffled by the lack of reading abilities of some people, the amount of bad faith and/or impatience to use anything for clout, and more importantly the absolute laziness into getting to understand a case before mixing apples and oranges. But hey, that’s the era we’re living in. And it’s another reason why tennis needs to get rid of the silent ban and the overall silence following a positive test. It helps nobody. And this year, it’s coming to overshadow an entire season at a time when the sport is losing some of its biggest icons and needs to rebuild. No sport can just shrug and keep going when two of its active World No.1 get tested positive. Players say it all the time: you learn more in defeats than in victories. Tennis needs to learn like wow from this because, depending also on what’s going to happen to Sinner, it is some pretty atrocious plot twist.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Was It Fair?

You were 83,33% to think Andy Murray would be a good fit as the new Novak Djokovic’s coach. “I don't see it being a particularly long relationship. It is hard to know how much longer Novak will even play. But I think that overall it will work. (Now that we all are over the shock of the initial announcement),” commented Shirley.

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
“Djoker That?”

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• Yes, it seems Novak Djokovic has received the message—or, more so, that the deal has been signed. Qatar Airways announced that Djokovic had signed a multi-year deal as their Global Brand Ambassador and Wellness Advisor. A 2024 trend for Djokovic, who has recently signed the same kind of deal with Aman. It makes total sense for a worldwide brand to want to be associated with one of the most successful and known professional athletes in history. I’m just wondering why Ons Jabeur hasn’t been offered these deals, as she’d seem an ideal fit for the whole region. Maybe it’s on the way!
  

• Maybe these brands haven’t read the numerous studies about how women’s sports are about to make billions rain on investors. A recent one swears that these billions are about to be unlocked. 
  

• The Australian Open has announced Haier as the Official TV and Appliance Partner of the Australian Open and Summer of Tennis events. “Over the next three years, Haier will collaborate with the Australian Open to highlight its cutting-edge smart home innovations. The partnership aims to deliver immersive fan experiences by integrating advanced technologies in home appliances, including kitchen, laundry, and climate control systems, with the excitement of world-class tennis. (…) Haier also looks forward to supporting grass-roots tennis clubs across Australia as part of the push to get more people playing tennis,” a statement said.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
If Del Po’s Happy, We’re Happy

• And so they keep leaving… Time doesn’t stop, even for the greatest ones so here’s one more incredible player who is parting ways with the game. Juan Martin Del Potro, who was basically already retired for a while, if not officially, has found a way to play one last match to close that tennis chapter. I told you last week why “Del Po” was breaking my heart, and now I’m relieved that he could find some on-court solace.
  
  Novak Djokovic came all the way to Buenos Aires to play that exhibition match, confirming the strong ties between the two champions. That was quite the send-off when you saw the amount of people who showed up! Roger Federer had a video message for Del Potro displayed on the court. Now, I am hoping Del Potro finds a way to get his health back and also his joy for life. There is no way that tennis can’t find him a spot, even if the gentle giant is surely too shy to ask for one.
  

• Sinner will defend his Australian Open title. The CAS won't hear the appeal against his doping sanction by the time the first Grand Slam of the season starts in January. “CAS published its latest list of hearings on Thursday with Sinner’s not listed to be heard between now and February 11,” reports The Athletic.
  

• Obviously, the Australian Open already knew about it because it announced that Sinner would be on the line-up playing charity matches right before the Australian Open. He will be joined by Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Zheng Qinwen, Alex de Minaur, and Alexei Popyrin from Tuesday 7 to Friday 10 January.
  

• After the Novak Djokovic coached by Andy Murray breaking news, another player went big on the coaching department. Hubert Hurkacza announced he had hired not one but two coaches and that he was leaning toward the super coach trend. He indeed named Ivan Lendl and Nicolas Massu to be his coaching team next year.
  

• Carlos Alcaraz joins arts and a good action. “The Carlos Alcaraz Foundation announced on Tuesday the launch of the exhibition ‘Los pies en la tierra,’ aimed at highlighting the importance of equal opportunities for children. The exhibit reflects on Alcaraz’s journey as an ordinary child whose upbringing allowed him to follow his path and pursue his dreams. (…) With the support of the Murcia City Council, the exhibition will be open free of charge at the Cárcel Vieja de Murcia (Avenida General Primo de Rivera, 2) from December 14 to February 15,” announced the foundation. And here’s what Alcaraz said about it: “I consider myself very fortunate for the childhood I had, and ‘Los pies en la tierra’ offers a chance to reflect on how this stage shapes each of our lives. I encourage everyone to come and discover what we’ve prepared for you.”
  

• Talking about Alcaraz, he’s just been announced as a member of Team Europe for next year’s Laver Cup in San Francisco (Sept. 19-21, 2025). Taylor Fritz has already been confirmed for Team World.

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, look at Above the Mantel. And if you’re a woman looking for better coverage of our lives, issues, and interests, I suggest you, Gloria.

READ: The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore. If you’re like me, you have targeted this winter to get going with your to-be-read pile finally. And that’s the book I’m starting with.

READ MORE: If you’re looking for a tennis book to read or gift through that holiday season, I suggest you give a chance to Paul Fein’s well-documented and original book, “Game Changers: How the Greatest Players, Matches, and Controversies Transformed Tennis.” 

WATCH: I have no idea why I didn’t watch this when it came out in 2018, but it somehow got on my radar this week, and omg it hits. Generation Wealth, from Lauren Greenfield, on Amazon Prime, is unfortunately still a necessary watch in 2024.

ATP 
The Collab To Rule Them All?

Gif by tennistv on Giphy

It’s the collab that the fashion world envies us right now. Djokovic x Murray. It also confirms that with Novak Djokovic, you should always expect the unexpected. I didn’t see that one coming, and I actually know only one person from the Tour who had this as an option. Props to that coach! So yeah, I kinda fell from my chair while reading the news: NolAndy? The Tennis Twins? Working together? I actually laughed out loud. Others had to check we weren’t on April 1st. Nope, it wasn’t a joke. It’s a gem of an idea to have Murray coach Djokovic, with such a high potential for drama: what’s not to love?

But once the initial shock faded, it kind of made sense. Djokovic has always liked to spice it up in the coaching department, pairing Marian Vajda with Todd Martin, Boris Becker, or Goran Ivanisevic, hiring Radek Stepanek too, for example. He and Andy go way back: they shared the same journey, practiced together so much they could have asked for sparring partners' fees, and they have more or less the same game style. Andy knows Novak’s game inside out, as it’s the game he tried to break down for ages. They also had the same rivals throughout their career until recently. And everybody knows that Murray is a fantastic tennis analyst. I’ll add that they’re both extroverted personalities to the max, with a strong sense of humor.

I have so much hope for that collab

They won’t need to go through the “let’s get to know each other and how we work” phase of a coach-and-player relationship: they already know. Novak won’t have to explain the pressure he’s under to Andy because Andy has lived through the same one. The only mandate you have when you’re in Djokovic’s team is to win Grand Slam titles. Anything but a trophy is a failure. It’s obviously not, but that’s unfortunately the price to pay. So it makes sense to pick someone who had this as his only mandate too. Murray understands the assignment at his player’s DNA level. I’m also wondering about Novak’s underlying motivations here: Is it a signal that the fire is back and that he intends to dominate the Tour again? Or is it the signal that he has entered his very last stretch and intends to turn the last lap into fireworks?

Murray and Djokovic may not even need to talk that much: they know. I’m sure they’re going to spend hours talking about backhands, though. Hours. And drop shots, too. Bless their hearts in advance. Also, you need some serious confidence and résumé to go and tell Novak Djokovic that this or that in his game needs fixing. Not a lot of people can be put on that “allowed to point at flaws” list.

Ultimately, Djokovic picked the only coach he’d trust right away and wouldn’t need any onboarding: his tennis twin. Now, not all former great players make great coaches. One needs to put their ego below the player they’re coaching, and it’s not easy. For someone like Murray, who has been the center of attention his entire career? Well, that’s a challenge. Are we talking about their respective on-court tempers? I mean, you know - and Andy has to know - that there’s gonna be some yelling at some point in the direction of that box. You know that it might also start flying at practice.

That’s just how Novak goes (and how Andy used to go) when things don’t go how he wants them to, and he needs to rant to free his brain. Ivanisevic never talked back. Becker did, but on chosen moments. Vajda was the father figure, but he still got his moments. What will be Andy’s answer? Murray has always been on the shouting side, never on the being yelled at side. But maybe Andy will be the only one Novak won’t yell at or the first one to yell back. Who knows!

If I feel it makes a lot of sense for Novak to pick Andy, I think Murray saying yes might be the most surprising. Sir Andrew is said to have declined other offers from top men and women players, but maybe it was for a full-time coaching position, which he surely doesn’t want to go into right away as he seems to be enjoying his new life (the golf, the show on stage that’s coming, the family time). Working on, for now, a short time with Djokovic is a way to dip his toes into coaching at the highest level without committing too long. “I’d probably be more comfortable sitting up there in a coaching box than somewhere else,” Murray said this year at Wimbledon. Well…

What could possibly go wrong?

What has to be the most fascinating side of this association is how the tempers will match. But Murray being there only for an Australian Open assignment may ensure a honeymoon period. I have such high hopes for these interactions and the coverage of it all. Give us all the popcorn, thank you very much. I just hope it won’t somehow go sour for whatever reason. They have a lot of respect for each other’s careers and have spent so much tennis time together, but at the same time, because they were such rivals and also didn’t share the same opinions on many things, they haven’t shared each other’s off-tennis time that much. There might be a list of topics to avoid and/or buttons not to push. A way to schedule it all so they don’t have to spend 24/7 with each other.

Anyone who knows how these players lead their tennis life and their teams knows that it’s a demanding job from when one wakes up to when one goes to sleep. Very rewarding on so many levels but also very challenging. Both Novak and Andy have extremely strong personalities, are the utmost professionals and the utmost perfectionist type of people. They have zero room in how they see tennis for what they consider mistakes. It’s a relentless way of seeing your job, and it runs through their lives the same way because the job never stops. Can this energy be doubled without imploding? I’m so curious about it.

The Big 4 still runs the show

It’s also never heard of seeing two former rivals deciding to work together right away after one retires like that. So, let’s hope for the best because it’d be amazing for tennis. I’m going to have to say it: Break Point has nothing on what could go down with these two guys. Nothing. The Big 4 will never leave tennis, sports in general, business, or the entertainment industry. They’re the biggest names in the game. They’re the ones able to move mountains and make the money rain. They know they still call the shots when they decide they want to. And they don’t intend to lose that edge. Nobody has retired them except their own bodies.

Now, Murray is joining forces with Djokovic to make sure the last one standing keeps calling the shots. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have surely received the message. All the tennis world has: look at the commotion the announcement made! Similarly, what about the endless debate on how Rafael Nadal retired in Malaga?The eternal hoopla around whatever brand Roger Federer gives his face and money to (see again in the business section below)? I mean, he got Zendaya to sign with On… Not even talking again about how he still carries the Laver Cup?

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? We know, They Know, Everybody knows.

DAVIS CUP / BJK CUP
Sinner And Italy Don’t Like To Share

Sinner and company, winners of the Davis Cup 2024 (@ITF)

Has nobody ever told them that sharing was caring? Apparently not. Italy confirmed at the end of this 2024 season that the country was the one to beat everywhere now. They got the BJK Cup, the Davis Cup, and obviously Jannik Sinner. French tennis right now is in a corner, staring. Their leaders did something right with all the small tournaments they created nationwide for their young players. They also had Riccardo Piatti, who had been leading the coaching way for years. And there’s also the luck of a generation to see a player like Jannik Sinner landing and get Jasmine Paolini seemingly out of nowhere to revive women’s tennis.

As far as the BJK Cup and the Davis Cup went, here are the things that I will remember, in no particular order:

• Thanasi Kokkinakis is a hell of a player, and his win over Ben Shelton was one of the most entertaining matches of the year.

• We need to start talking way more about Rebecca Sramkova, who pushed Slovakia to the final and a breakthrough season, overcoming impaired eyesight and injuries.

• Iga Swiatek showed lots of grit in Malaga and showed early signs that her fire was back. I loved the mental effort she put out there. She had a strong line on Instagram about her year: “It was the season of not being a superhero and accepting it.” She also confirmed that Linda Noskova was really not a player she liked to face.

• Emma Raducanu made a strong comeback from injuries. Watching her play with such enthusiasm at the BJK Cup was, in any case, a sign that she totally missed the plot by declining to go to the Olympics. She needs to stop whatever planning she was making to peak here or there and just play tennis when she’s fit to play.

• Lleyton Hewitt is another example of a former champion turned great coach: he’s doing an amazing job with Australia’s men’s players and again showed what a great Davis Cup captain he was in Malaga. His choice to send Kokkinakis in singles was key. Hewitt also left his mark in Malaga by going after the ITF for not considering giving the Finals to Australia.

• Bob Bryan made one of the most baffling Davis Cup decisions in history when he benched his doubles specialists to send Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul instead. He thought that the firepower of singles players would take Australia by surprise. And it was a last-minute decision. I’m sorry, what? So, very logically, the USA lost against Ebden and Thompson, and the tennis world was left facepalming at Bryan’s choice.
  I take it as the last sign that the 2024 trend of diminishing doubles players' achievements and skills has peaked. It got to the head of one of the greatest doubles players ever. Bob Bryan, you bring a pair of doubles specialists all the way to Malaga: use it. If you don’t trust them, don’t bring them. How do you bench Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek?? Sorry, makes no sense. Bryan saying he has no regret and that he decided that in 15 minutes between matches also sounds like a massive amount of disrespect toward Ram and Kajicek. Instant red card all around. Very disappointing coming from, I repeat, Bob freaking Bryan.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Will He Or Won’t He

You were 100% to say you weren’t surprised to see Jannik Sinner taking over Carlos Alcaraz at the end of the year.

“I think that Alcaraz has more weapons to use than Jannik and has a higher ceiling to go to if needed, but Jannik is a steadier player and doesn’t have the dips in his matches like Alcaraz tends to do. Jannik has had a remarkable season, winning the ATP final without dropping a set! Well done,” said Margaret.

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
Wilson is back to a double-digit era thanks to… Federer and Zheng

Gif by assoAIDES on Giphy

Wilson Sports Business is having a great Q3, thank you very much. And it’s a lot due to…a retired tennis player. The revenue increased 11% to $300 million. It’s a massive jump from Q2 where the sales were only up 1 or 2%. “Our Tennis 360 strategy continues to be a key driver for the Wilson franchise, led by footwear and apparel growth, performance racquets, acceleration and expansion of Wilson Tennis 360 shops in China, as well as paddle and pickleball growth,” said Amer Sports CFO Andrew Page.

Amer Sports CEO James Zheng explained that “Wilson’s Roger Federer racquet line and the growing popularity of tennis in China following Zheng Qinwen’s Olympic gold medal” were at the chore of the brand’s growth. “We saw record sales at our U.S. Open shop earlier this fall, and our new line of Roger Federer premium performance racquets, bags and accessories, launched in August, has been extremely successful in the first months, driving the strong growth in our key performance racquet segment with potential growth in Q3 as retail inventories normalize and the retail begins accelerating replacement orders.”

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Sometimes, it’s the coach…

Gif by pudgypenguins on Giphy

Zheng Qinwen will experience what happened to Carlos Alcaraz last year in Australia. In 2024, Juan Carlos Ferrero couldn’t be with his player in Australia as he was recovering from knee surgery. And in 2025, it’s Pera Riba who withdraws from the Australian summer of tennis with Zheng Qinwen because of hip surgery, as Marca reported. Dante Bottini, best known for coaching Kei Nishikori, will replace Riba.

Instagram post

It’s awfully sad to read that Juan Martin Del Potro’s life is still mostly pain 24/7. He opened up about it on social media as he prepares for next month's exhibition match against Novak Djokovic in Buenos Aires. “It’s very tough. There are moments where I have no more strength. I’m not indestructible. I have good things, bad things but most of the times I have to fake it and put a good face, but many times I feel terrible. (…) It’s been a never-ending nightmare.” I’m worried about “Del Po,” and I’ve been worried about him for a long time. Maybe the fact that he's speaking up now is a good thing, and I hope it’s the first step in his fight to get his life back. Not his tennis career back, his life. It’s the most important. We know how many former champions have been left broken in various ways by this sport, and I would hate for Del Potro, one of the nicest guys on that Tour, to be added to the list.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Robson Gets The Crown

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• The Queen’s gets its Queen. Easy, I know. Former player (retired in 2022) turned broadcaster turned Wimbledon’s international players’ team member has now landed the coveted job of tournament director of the women’s event at the Queen’s next year (June 9th) as a WTA 500 will be staged in London. Robson was already a tournament director, as she’s been in charge of the WTA event in Nottingham for the past two years. Her rise has been impressive, and something tells me she’s just starting. “I’m delighted to be taking up this role next summer. It’s very exciting that women’s tennis is returning to the Queen’s Club for the first time in over 50 years. It’s an iconic venue and has been voted Tournament of the Year by the men many times. I’m confident that the women’s event will be just as thrilling, and I can’t wait to get started,” Robson said. Jamie Murray remains the director of the ATP event at the Queen’s, which will start the week after the WTA one.
  

• Rafa is already at football. Obviously. Wherever they are, he will follow. A few days ago, I read Toni Nadal explaining his struggles with Rafa when they were in Australia in New York, and the only thing his nephew was thinking about after winning the title was how he would watch Real Madrid. Bless. Anyway, Nadal quickly bounced back from his retirement from Malaga to travel to England to support his favorite football team. Marca has the details here. There is no way that now that he’s free from professional tennis, Nadal won’t be involved with Real Madrid, right?

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, look at Above the Mantel. And if you’re a woman looking for better coverage of our lives, issues, and interests, I suggest you, Gloria.

READ: Stuart Fraser sums up, for The Times, the hopeful state of British tennis as Jack Draper rises and Emma Raducanu returns, all in the follow-up of Andy Murray’s retirement.

READ more: There aren’t many books about professional tennis, so when a good one comes along, it needs support. I suggest you give a chance to Paul Fein’s well-documented and original book, “Game Changers: How the Greatest Players, Matches, and Controversies Transformed Tennis.”

WATCH: The holiday season is approaching, and it’s usually my “let’s rewatch the fav” era. In my playlist, one can find The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Little Miss Sunshine, The Hangover or The Wolf of Wall Street. I started early this year because… Nov 5th… They just don’t make these movies anymore these days, I’m sorry. Little Miss Sunshine?! If you’ve never watched it, please do it for your mental health now. If you’ve already watched it 20 times, go for 21. In this day and age, we need it all.

DAVIS CUP
It was always going to be impossible to let him go

Rafael Nadal leaves the game (@ITF)

For a long time, I thought it was best for players to announce in advance that it was their last season on Tour. So people get a chance to make an extra effort to see them play, and so the players can be properly celebrated. Well, I changed my mind. I would now love for the players to give us no warning, à la Pete Sampras. Just play that last match and say, “Oh, by the way, I’m out.” Or give us a maximum two-week notice, Serena style. Or a Vanity Fair send-off, Sharapova style. Just, rip the band-aid quickly.

The Rafael Nadal case cemented that change of heart for me. Rafa retiring in that Davis Cup tie in Malaga didn’t hit me in the feels the way it should have. It didn’t hit the sport in its chore the way it should have. Why? Because it’s been a year of this. And a year of knowing it’s coming but not where and then not being sure it’s coming at all. Also, a year of pressure put on Nadal to find the best way to exit the sport. It dragged, and it half-killed the vibe.

It also killed the overall inspiration for the coverage of that King’s departure: nothing will linger in my mind from whatever has been written or aired. Out of all the big-name retirements we’ve recently had, I’ll say that Andy Murray’s video made by Wimbledon was the one to rule them all. Another reason is that, in my opinion, the Nadal legacy is too big, and the career has been too long to be suddenly magnified even more by whatever reporting. Seriously, what hasn’t been said or written about Nadal? About Federer? About Serena? They’re now even too big for the usual champion’s retirement coverage. That’s also why it falls flat.

Rafa leaving is a gigantic hole dug into tennis. That’s all. He changed the game with that forehand, the way a champion is supposed to behave, and the way a champion is supposed to fight on the court. He even changed the English language (if you know, you know). Nadal put a generation or two into tennis, boys and girls alike. You’ll hear them yell Vamos, just to be like him. So I didn’t find a way to care as much as I wanted to about Malaga: I had retired Rafa already at Roland-Garros even if my denial wanted to believe he’d try for another clay rodeo in 2025 as his 2024 parade had been destroyed by his body (again). And I had retired Rafa’s game even before that because he and we all could see the game had been gone for a while. Malaga? Well, it had to be somewhere, and it’s nice that there was a reason for it to be in Spain. And it was very moving to hear him say what closing the tennis chapter meant for him. But that’s all.

So we’re back at the underlying question: Is there a perfect ending for these Legends? Is there an ideal send-off? I’ve reached my answer after that whole year of losing Nadal: No. So don’t bother hoping or planning. And, Legends, don’t bother telling us. Just keep swinging until it’s time to tell the world it’s the last swing. I’m now convinced it’ll be more enjoyable for everyone involved and also that the moment of the ending will hit the fullest. We don’t need to drag that ending. Rip that band-aid.

Side note n°1: It seems to be the thing to do when such a player leaves to share some personal moments you’ve shared with them. I tried, but it’s the same issue: which one do I pick out of nearly two decades?? When I went to his academy for an interview with Caroline Garcia and he crossed the whole room after seeing me just to say hi and chat? All the times he would throw a smile if he’d see me in the crowd at practice? The number of times I asked something during interviews that he misunderstood for something else, got it all the way wrong, then figured out he had and course-corrected after apologizing? The many paragraphs long answers he’d give to make sure he’d cover all I could need? The time he accepted to do a scheduled-for-that-day interview at freaking midnight in Beijing (can’t remember what deadline issue it was, but it had to be done that day)? Or when he nearly obliterated my phone by accident during a round table in Monte-Carlo?

I could go on and on and on. We kinda started our careers at the same time, and he always looked genuinely happy to cross me around. I’d get a “Bonjour” (hello in French), a smile, or a wink anywhere. He never eye-rolled or sulked at a question I’d ask, even when he wasn’t liking it. He never cut - or let cut - our solo interviews when I’d go over the allotted time. Would I have loved for him to be on time once in a while? Obviously. But as he kept saying: “I know, but I’m slow. I’m slow. Sorry”. It’s not even enough to say he’ll be missed out there. He’s taking a huge chunk of the sport with him that won’t regrow after him. There was no player like Roger, nobody like Andy, and there will be nobody like Rafa either.

Side note n°2: Nadal said he was at peace with retirement, which was nice to hear because, like Andy Murray, he struggled to get to that point. And, as I retired him months ago, I’m already curious about what he’ll do next. I’ve said it in the past, and I’ll say it again: the Big 4 will never leave. Roger hasn’t left, Andy is already showing signs he’s not leaving either, Novak has been telling everybody he would not leave. So I don’t believe Rafa is gonna disappear and spend his days golfing or fishing. Maybe that’s also why his retirement doesn’t fully hit for me because I’m like: yeah sure, see you around, Rafa!

Side note n°3: I hope Roland-Garros is already working on a Nadal ceremony for the 2025 edition. Don’t disappoint us.
Side note n°4: You can watch some of the WTA players sending a message to Nadal here, and you can also read Federer's great tribute.

ATP
Sinner, what else?

“There Can Be Only One.” Well, it’s fitting even if there was more suspense watching Highlander. With Carlos Alcaraz out of sorts, it was always going to be Jannik Sinner with the trophy at the end of these ATP Finals. And it’s actually the most impressive thing about Sinner’s new triumph: he was picked to win it from the start, and he delivered. He even added a bonus by becoming the only ATP player since Ivan Lendl in 1986, who won every match in the ATP Finals in straight sets. Beaten for the title last year by Novak Djokovic, the new Italian sports hero finished the job this time as he dominated Taylor Fritz for the second time in the week.

Sinner is the best player of this year, and it’s again a pity that it comes at the worst time with this doping case above his head. I’ve already said what I was thinking about the overall vibe in Turin due to this. I feel like Sinner is just starting to enjoy the effect of the fear factor on his rivals. Most of the Tour was going through it already with Carlos Alcaraz but wasn’t really terrified by Sinner until the US Open. But since NYC, you can feel it in the air: the mental edge. He will partake in what the Big 4 has been enjoying its whole era and what Alcaraz was enjoying until this US swing (until he started to give distress signals in a sport where you can’t afford that): winning a good half, at least, of your matches, in the locker room. When he says he couldn’t have played better in Turin, but also says that there is room for improvement, it’s another warning to the field: he’s at his best now, but his peak is yet to come.

What Sinner may have that Alcaraz lacks - except on clay - is the fact that his game and personality seem to be iron-made for any kind of outside disturbance. I mean, he’s been investigated for doping for months, and he keeps winning. His poker face is strong and his game is easier in a way to control than Alcaraz’s one because it’s more straightforward. I feel he improved a lot this year at avoiding being too predictable, getting better at game plans, and being even more aggressive. He’s lethal from both wings, and he’s relentless. He will not start trying new patterns for the sake of it. He will not risk losing points just to be funky for the crowd. He’s here to win, all else be damn. Long gone are the days when his nerves could fry, and his body could break. He’s writing another page of the Novak Djokovic’s book, in my opinion, regarding the level of domination he can go for. Alcaraz has his work cut out for him for the next decade. It could end fascinating! Even more, if Djokovic comes back roaring in 2025. But again, a judging panel might have another opinion…

Oh, and you know who else might be overjoyed with Sinner’s victory at home? Gucci. They banked on the right Italian, as Sinner is not only turning heads in his country in the sports fans crowd but through every street in the nation, as the NYT reports.

[Side note: who had Taylor Fritz achieving this type of season before the start of 2024?! It’s showing again that each player goes at their own speed on their own path. Fritz, now #4 in the ranking, always looked like a player who could be big (these striking skills?!), and we had started to forget about it. And then he turned into a Grand Slam and ATP Finals finalist, as much as an Alexander Zverev nemesis. Lethal under pressure. Finally going through more winners than unforced errors. Finally looking like he knows why he’s out there and like he enjoys being out there. He impressed me again in Turin as he had at the US Open. No idea if he can keep this up, but I’m here for this intriguing ride.]

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Are you?

Well, all of you who answered the last poll said you weren’t enjoying watching the ATP Finals so far. 100%. That hurts.

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
Italy is here to stay in tennis

• The ATP has extended its deal with Italy until 2030 regarding the Finals, as the contract with Turin was coming to an end next year. Now the question is: will the ATP Finals stay in Turin? It seems Milan is building a case with an arena that could host 4000 more people.

• The WTA has expanded its partnership with Rolex. “The Swiss watchmaker will become Official Timekeeper and Timepiece of the Hologic WTA Tour and will renew its support of the WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF, which was recently held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and won by Rolex Testimonee Coco Gauff. (…) Rolex and the WTA will collaborate to create custom social media content to bring tennis fans closer than ever to the heart and heroes of the sport,” a statement said.

• In the saga of IMG being sold by Endeavor, while somehow everything is more or less sold to another part of the same group, here’s a new episode led by Ari Emmanuel for $450 million. Now, it’s on its way to being sold to management with the participation of a betting company? Apparently. The context remains the same: it’s all about Endeavor getting ready to be taken private by its largest investor, private equity firm Silver Lake.

• Food for thought? Now that Rafael Nadal has officially retired, I’m wondering if Nike will let him go the same way they lost Roger Federer. I kind of think they won’t, as seeing Roger walk away from Uniqlo was a wow moment for them, but not in a good way. But let’s see when Rafa’s deal comes to the negotiation table.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Swiatek is ready to “try out new things”

Iga Swiatek in Malaga (@BJK Cup)

• Iga Swiatek showed great signs for 2025 despite her country losing in the BJK Cup. She fought hard in singles, got some clutch wins and showed some impressive fitness, and, more importantly, seemed to have found some fire back compared to the second part of the season. Obviously very disappointed with the loss but also upbeat about what’s coming next. 
  
  “I definitely played some nice matches this week, although today I just tried to survive physically, but I’m happy that I kept my concentration in the two matches today even though in the previous round my game wasn’t as perfect. (…) They were very close matches; it was nice to win the singles in crucial moments, that’s when I took advantage of my chances. (…) “Now I will start 2025 with new goals, I’m looking forward to it, as I didn’t have much time to train with Wim [Fissette], so it will be good to try out new things,” she said in Malaga.
  

• Billie Jean King shared some of her ideas on how to grow the game in this day and age. I don’t really share any of them, but I’m still throwing them out there in case they might interest you. I agree with what she says about players complaining about the schedule while adding exhibitions to their calendars.
  

• I am just discovering this and… I mean… Where to even start? I will just put it out there: Inside the life of influencers at the ATP Finals 2024. So that’s where we are now.

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
Forever The Pirate

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, look at Above the Mantel.

READ: The ATP penned a long-form tribute to Rafael Nadal for his retirement.

READ MORE: TOGETHXR, the sports media company whose founders include Sue Bird and Alex Morgan, is releasing a book called “Play It Forward. How women are changing sports to change the world,” featuring 25 inspirational stories. And look who’s on the cover? Yes, it’s Daria Kasatkina. “For sports fans of all ages, Play it Forward celebrates and elevates the gutsy true stories of activists and dreamers who are changing the game, and the world of sports, for the better,” it says. Sounds like a plan!

WATCH: Players and others are paying tribute to Rafael Nadal in a video made by the ATP.

WATCH AGAIN: I mean, if you haven’t been thinking a lot about Sauron and Mordor since Nov 5th… I personally felt the urge to rewatch The Lord of the Rings right away, and that really hit differently those days. “Ride now! Ride! To ruin and the world’s ending”: that freaking Theoden speech (where in the book the line is from Eomer) is coming back to hit again. And what about his other line, “What can men do against such reckless hate?” Maybe that should be made a mandatory watch now…

ATP FINALS 
Entertaining but also weird

Gif by bbc on Giphy

How is the vibe for you in Turin? Well, it fits the vibe out there since Jannik Sinner’s positive tests have been revealed. It also gets another layer of it all with the recent struggles of Carlos Alcaraz and the complaining about the balls or the schedule. What saves it is that these ATP Finals are held in Turin, which makes sure to bring the passion of the host country for Sinner. Still, it’s like there’s a neon pink elephant in the room or even several, and we’re all trying to still play business as usual in some pretty impressive display of our collective denial skills. It’s the ATP Finals, the meeting of The Masters, rejoice everyone! Well... trying… It could also be that there’s been SO much tennis this year that it’s just tough to care about that last stretch as much as we should.

We’ve logically been impressed by Sinner since the US Open. He’s being logically celebrated in Turin as year-end World No.1. His game is as lethal as one can be. A whole nation is pushing for him. And he’s being his usual very polite and quiet self (there’s no coming for that guy’s character: he’s a doll). But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s still being investigated for doping and that he might get suspended in a few months. How is tennis supposed to reconcile with that? By doing what this sport does best, really: avoidance. It’ll be dealt with when there will be no other choice. Unless the sport (and Sinner) is lucky, and he escapes a suspension. So that’s weird for everybody involved, and there’s nothing to do about it.

Are we really into it right now? I RSVP as pending

What wasn’t planned was Carlos Alcaraz struggling to finish the year. If you take his title in Beijing out of the way, he’s been on the struggle bus since losing that final at the Olympics. I’d say his mind is way more tired than his body right now, even if he caught some bug before Turin. If you ask me the name of a player who’d be well inspired to give a hard look at his schedule (exhibitions included)… Tennis cannot afford Alcaraz-In-The-Struggle-bus. He’s as much the electricity that completes Sinner’s cold blood as the Italian is the always-on-the-rise bar to elevate his own game. Post Big 4, the Tour cannot turn into a one-man show because, sorry, none of the current cast has what it takes to carry the sport on his own. He still has a shot in Turin, so let’s see.

In the “the vibe is off” feeling, I’ll add Daniil Medvedev’s endless complaints about the balls (whether he’s right or wrong), Alcaraz complaining about his lack of days off while he’s been adding all the exhibitions he could to his calendar, and having to wonder before every Andrey Rublev match if he’s going to snap or not. Also, Alexander Zverev. Overall, are we really into it right now? I will “RSVP as pending for now” (yes, Schitt’s Creek forever, thank you very much).

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QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Having a good time?

You were 60% not believing Coco Gauff would dominate the next season.
“I don't know about "take over" because players like Sabalenka and Swiatek will provide strong opposition. But I think Gauff will have a very successful season, perhaps winning another Slam,” said Shirley.

ATP 
Zizou Bergs: “Luckily, this year, it clicked”

Instagram post

Out of the Top 400 in 2021 and still out of the Top 100 in 2023, Belgian player Zizou Bergs was turning into quite a mystery. The potential was obvious, and the skills were all there (power, pace, great hands). As a bonus, he also had charisma and a good brain. And yet, he wasn’t landing in that Top 100 or that Top 50. There were shots of brilliance, but there were too few. There were also too many injuries. And at 25, you might start doubting on that Tour. But Bergs did not, kept working instead, and so it all came together finally in 2024.

Every player’s path is different, and the Belgian is another good proof of it. Zizou Bergs will end his 2024 season at a career-high (61), with a third round at Roland-Garros, coming all the way from the qualifications. The puzzle is taking shape. I chatted with him in Paris for the last 1000 of the year, where he got into the main draw as a lucky loser and beat Richard Gasquet on the center court before losing in the next round (he will go on to play the quarter-finals in Metz). “It was a good average level, which is something I’ve always been trying to achieve: being more consistent. Of course, I still have things to improve,” he told me in Paris (in French).

Has he been relieved that the work was finally paying off this year?
“I felt it was coming for a while, and luckily, this year, it clicked. Physically, I’m doing much better; I don’t cramp anymore, and I don’t get injured so often, even if it was a pity in Antwerp to pick up that abdominal issue. It’s everything coming together that explains why it clicked. I’m still at the start of my career, so I can really improve and get better. It’s all about being smart about the daily work and being serious about reaching another step each day, each week, and at each tournament. That’s how I’m going to get better. The goal for next year will be much higher in terms of ranking and I believe I can do it if I keep showing up every day at training and in matches.”

How would he explain that it clicked this year and not earlier?
“It’s surely tied to experience. When you play at the Challengers level, you need to keep a certain level, but then you have to do a bit more when you get to the Tour, so I needed to go after it step by step. The goal was to be physically ready because I knew that if I got there, I’d go through that Challengers stage, and then while playing on Tour, I felt I wasn’t aggressive enough, not dangerous enough. After the US Open, we really took the right decision and worked very hard to become more aggressive. I also feel we did a great job regarding the mental side of it this year, so yeah, I really reached a higher level there, also in my tennis and physically, so it all explains my results this year.”

What are the keys for 2025?
“Being even more aggressive. I know I can get much better. We’re going to work hard this winter for the preseason. It’s also very important at this stage of my career to understand that I also need to play matches to improve and not only to get the wins.”

Side note: there might be a new coach with Bergs next season, replacing former (lefty paw) player Ruben Bemelmans. Bergs is indeed said to have started a coaching trial with another former Belgian player, Kristof Vliegen. Vliegen, who was the successful coach of Tallon Griekspoor until now, has confirmed he was in talks with Bergs about collaborating.

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
Federer’s ON keeps thriving

Iga Swiatek (@On)

It’s the brand on the rise, and it keeps going. ON’s results for Q3 are surely making lots of luxury brands jealous right now as the Roger Federer-backed brand sees net sales rising 32,3%. The growth is particularly impressive in Asia-Pacific (+79,3%), and so, logically, ON is planning to open flagship stores in China. And I’m still here waiting for that first collaboration between Iga Swiatek and Zendaya for On.

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Can you guess it right?

Giphy

Can you guess the future? Well, athletes kind of can. And athletes should actually implement that in their training? No, I haven’t totally lost it, and I’m not advising you to hire a medium as long as your next coach. But what is anticipation if not guessing the future? Wasn’t it a funnier entry into the topic than talking to you about the fascinating realm of “the brain’s predictive processes in anticipating outcomes in sports?” I think it was!

Sure, you need to work on your tennis skills and fitness, but don’t forget to work on that brain, too! Tennis is so much about anticipation and deciphering patterns that I have to share this piece by The Conversation, inspired by this study named “An Active Inference Account of Skilled Anticipation in Sport: Using Computational Models to Formalise Theory and Generate New Hypotheses.” Download the study here if:

“Athletes continuously make and refine predictions about what is likely to occur. They do this by integrating what they see, hear, and feel with their knowledge about the sporting environment and how they operate within it. (…) While anticipation in sports is often seen as an attribute only some athletes possess, research suggests almost all athletes have the skill and use it every day. So attaining a greater grasp of the predictive processes of the brain provides unique opportunities to support athletes in becoming skilled anticipators,” reports The Conversation, among other very interesting things.

Raducanu made it to Malaga

Emma Raducanu will play again this season. It was a close call, but the British player found a way to heal that foot injury in time to join the team at the BJK Cup Finals in Malaga, where they’ll face Germany to start their campaign. Raducanu hasn’t played since September, when she retired in the quarter-finals of the Korean Open.

Side note: Are you here for the pink nasal band? I remember Maria Sharapova wearing a beige one back in her day, but Carlos Alcaraz went all pink in Turin. It seems it worked.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
The BJK Cup Finals, Delayed

Malaga under water on Wednesday (via @thetennisclubhouse.bsky.social‬)

• Tennis can wait. As Spain keeps battling heavy rainfall, the start of the BJK Cup Finals was delayed on Wednesday due to the city being placed on high alert. The tie between Spain and Poland was then postponed to Friday, starting at 10 am. On Thursday, the competition should resume as an inspection deemed the setup fit to purpose. A reminder that 1) professional sports ain’t a priority when lives are at stake (you’d think it’d be obvious, but we’ve been around long enough…) and 2) climate change is real and will keep impacting every area of your daily life. The ITF announced before the start of the event that they were joining the efforts to support Spain during these rough times.
  

• Andy Murray is never where you expect him. And we love that journey for him. Sir Andrew retired from tennis to go golfing like a pro, and now? Now, he’s taking on the stage. The Stage. In, like, who are you watching at the theatre today? Andy Murray. No, he’s not gunning for their acting jobs yet but he will be having his own (era) tour next year. Here’s what he posted on LinkedIn: “Pleased to announce my first venture since retirement - Centre Stage. A four-date theatre tour of the UK starting in Glasgow on 18 June and finishing at the New Wimbledon Theatre on Sunday 29 June. I’ll, thankfully, be joined on stage by the brilliant Andrew Cotter and some special guests. Looking forward to a big challenge, learning some new skills and appearing in a different setting next Summer.” What will he talk about? “The interactive live shows, which will feature Murray on stage with a screen with video footage behind, will see Murray look back over his tennis career, sharing new anecdotes and details of his life on tour.” Come on, Andy: Share That Tea.

  

  (@Andy Murray on Facebook)

  
  

• The jury is still out on this one. A VIP club for World No.1s? The ATP is saying yes to the launch. The idea is to reward and celebrate the players who have reached the top of the game, and I fully agree with the celebrating side of it, but I’m wondering about the reward… Like, do these already privileged players need more privileges? How is it helping the game? And do they need help with access as, nowadays, they all have agents and managers that do just that 24/7? Surely, I’m missing something.
  
  “In 2025, the Club will debut a dedicated brand identity, with each No.1 player receiving exclusive benefits, including invitations to signature events, promotional opportunities, and more. As a landmark celebration of the new No. 1 Club, all 29 players will be officially honoured at a showpiece event at the 2025 Nitto ATP Finals in Turin. To mark the occasion, each player will be presented with a bespoke gift to commemorate their membership,” said the ATP. And again, I’m like: aren’t you already celebrating these World No.1s all the time? I would have been more impressed, I guess, if it had included some kind of mentoring, some kind of feeling they’re saying “formation!” to help the sport. Yet, I kinda like the dedicated brand identity thing because that’s the side that seems a good marketing idea for the sport as a whole.
  
  I also feel that it enters the chat that I’ve named “they’re never leaving that game” because you know who fits the criteria for that club? The entire Big 4. I’m just saying… Maybe the ATP is planning for a way to keep them around forever, as there’s no doubt the sport needs to keep their aura and bankability in the tennis news somehow. So let’s wait and see. Maybe that’s just the only way they found to have a shot at reuniting the Big 4 in the same room regularly!
  

• The (Australian) nominations are out! Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin, Jordan Thompson, Matt Ebden, John Peers, Max Purcell, and Olivia Gadecki are nominated for the Newcombe Medal, announced Tennis Australia. The medal rewards the “most outstanding elite player for 2024.” The winner will be presented in Melbourne on December 9. Who you got?

EDITOR’S PICKS 

READ: The Athletic gives some space to the game’s favorite Norwegian, Casper Ruud, in a feature called “Casper Ruud interview: Tennis, golf and a quiet man with a lot to say.” That’s also where I’ve learned about Ruud’s getting some heat back home for coming after these taxes.

READ More: The ATP has this feature about how Daniil Medvedev’s team is using wearables. “You’re able to say, ‘Okay, this practice we made this amount of shots, this amount of serves. We made this intensity or this number of sprints or this distance every day’,” coach Gilles Cervara said. “It just gave me a clear vision of what we do every day, a clear vision of what Daniil can experience on court during matches. It gives you a clear vision, is more objective and it helps a lot. That’s the main thing. It helps a lot to create good practices to prepare the player for the reality of matches.”

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, look at Above the Mantel.

WTA FINALS 
Gauff’s Perfect Ending

Coco Gauff, WTA Finals winner (@WTA)

Coco Gauff cried so much for all the wrong reasons this year on the court that it surely felt extra special for her to end 2024 on such a high. Here she went to win her first WTA Finals title, becoming, at 20, the youngest champion at the event since Maria Sharapova (17) in 2004. Gauff is also the first US player to win the WTA Finals since Serena Williams in 2014.

She had a very good year but didn’t find a way to put her hands on the trophies she wanted the most, and it feels like in Riyadh this week, she just started to play freely. In a “come and get me if you can” way. With some impressive mental strength along the way. Not burdened by her serve, that’s what Coco Gauff looks like. And that was a fun ride!

Zheng Qinwen (@WTA)

Let’s be honest, Zheng Qinwen nearly had that final many times throughout that match (including a 5-3 lead in the third). Watch the highlights of the final. The Chinese player also had an impressive week and, overall, a very impressive 2024. She has stepped up like wow and could really be coming for Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, and Elena Rybakina next year. She’s so determined, this one. One has to praise how driven she is, even if, on the way, she’s ruffling some feathers.

In the end, if one looks at the bigger picture, it’s kind of ideal to have Coco Gauff as the first winner of these WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia. She’s the only one who spoke out regularly about her doubts and hopes regarding playing in Riyadh. Who took a stand for women’s rights and the LGBTQ+ community rights. The same way she did for the US election and gun control. It’s fitting that one of the rare activists of the WTA lifted the trophy in Riyadh. It surely helps everyone involved in the Tour. Side note: why was this trophy SO small? We were missing on the shiny department here, people.

In the doubles event, Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe, who came into the tournament as the second seed, defeated Taylor Townsend and Katarina Siniakova in straight sets (7-5, 6-3) to lift their first WTA Finals crown as a duo. They were undefeated throughout the whole tournament.

ATP 
Shapovalov finally rewarded

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From the qualifications to the title! Denis Shapovalov, who’s been going through it the past couple of years due to a knee injury, finally got rewarded for his efforts by winning the second title of his career.

The Canadian beat Hamad Medjedovic (watch out for this one because he’s so good) in straight sets (6-4, 6-4) to clinch the trophy in Belgrade, his first one since Stockholm 2019. I’m personally very glad to see his lefty paw doing some damage again. The Tour needs that guy, really. Also, Novak Djokovic, who was seen chatting with former coach Marian Vajda, was on duty to hand him the trophy.

In Metz, Benjamin Bonzi won his first ATP title after beating Cameron Norrie (7-6(6), 6-4). The French also came from the qualifications and was 0-6 on the Tour this year until this week.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Can She Keep It Up?

You were 75% to think that the ATP Finals weren’t holding the same prestige as they used to.

“It doesn't. Especially in a year with the Olympics, where we see how much a medal means to all the players. The ATP Finals do not hold a candle to that,” said Cheryl.

“Not in the years when the Olympic Games are staged. Then winning an Olympic gold medal holds more prestige -- and by a wide margin -- than winning the ATP Finals. When the Olympics are not staged, the ATP Finals is the fifth most prestigious event on the men's calendar -- despite Indian Wells's bogus claim that it's the "fifth major,” added Paul.

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
Gauff’s purse, ATP’s digital gifts, and a WTA’s partner under investigation

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• It’s not only that Coco Gauff won her first WTA Finals title. It’s also that she earned the biggest paycheck in the WTA’s history by doing so: $4,8 million. Boom. Sure, we’re still not at Sinner’s $6 million earned for winning that exhibition in Riyadh, but it’s already way more than what the ATP Finals champion will get ($2,237,200) unless he finishes undefeated ($4,801,500).
  
  Gauff was defeated on the way to the title by Barbora Krejcikova (7-5, 6-4), missing on an ever bigger paycheck of $5,155,000. The overall prize money for the event was already setting a record with over $15 million. Gauff, who has made huge business leaps since her US Open title, is no doubt going to get another boost with that title.
  

• The Players Fund, an investor in Naomi Osaka’s media company Hana Kuma, has invested in a health optimization startup. The Players Fund is a UK-based athlete-let venture capital firm whose investors include “cricket star Ben Stokes, Olympic champion Jess Ennis-Hill, England rugby player Courtney Lawes, and Arsenal footballer Ben White among its 60 professional athlete backers,” reports Vetted. The start-up they’ve now invested in is named OptimallyMe, and it “utilizes wearable tech, AI, and blood testing to analyze health biomarkers and provide personalized fitness, nutrition, mood, and sleep advice.”
  

• The ATP is launching a limited-edition collection of NFTs in collaboration with Trace (a UK-based tech startup). What collection? One about the memorabilia, based on the ATP Finals in Turin. Its name? Momentum. “An eight-day experience where fans claim Traces: digital memorabilia, crafted from match data, that retell the story of tennis. As the tournament progresses, fans will be welcomed to claim a Trace from each of the 15 singles matches – a personal keepsake to relive showdowns between the world’s greatest players. (…) Each Trace is time-limited, claimable exclusively during a 24-hour window on match day,” said a statement from the ATP.

• CVC Capital Partners, which bought 20% into WTA’s commercial entity, WTA Venture, for $150 million, is under investigation in France regarding its involvement with the LFP professional soccer league, and searches at offices are currently happening. "The searches are part of an investigation that was opened on July 16, 2024, and handed over to the Paris Research Unit, on charges of embezzlement of public funds, active and passive bribery of a public official and illegal taking of interest,” reports Reuters, as “In 2022, CVC Capital acquired a 13% stake worth 1.5 billion euros in the LFP's newly created media rights business company.”

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Give Krejcikova her damn respect (iykyk)

Gif by wta on Giphy

As if Barbora Krejcikova or Iga Swiatek haven’t already heard enough through their public lives about their foreheads. Like, let’s be real. What accidentally landed on air is what the mean-spirited people of that Tour have been snarking on for a while. You would be shocked… And it’s 99% of the time about the women. And when you don’t laugh, they roll their eyes because really you’re so not fun. Answer? Insert an Oprah stare here.

Somehow, what happened with Krejcikova was a good thing in the end, as it gave the Wimbledon champion the space to fight back and showed the snarkers what was going to happen to them if they didn’t stay real quiet.

Leave these women's bodies alone. Many women all around the world are done with this BS and aren’t ready to play nice about it anymore to avoid making scenes and being seen as the-always-angry-ones. That’s not the winter arc, that’s the only arc. If the only jokes you can throw about women's tennis are on women’s bodies, get outta here. Should we again say that there’s a need for more women in sports media? Diversity ain’t a bad word, it’s a great check and balances tool.

In the category of “players being done with it all,” I present you, Daniil Medvedev. Beaten for his first match at the ATP Finals, he just lost a part of his mind. Winner in this event in 2020 and finalist in 2021, Medvedev has been complaining for a while about the balls used on Tour. He says they’re too slow and that it levels it all down: it makes players who couldn’t stay with him in the rallies thrive, it hinders the impact of strategy, it raises the risk of injuries, and it pisses him off.

That summarizes what he said in his press conference after the match. Adding that it was killing his joy of being on the court gave him only the desire to be done with the year, but he will try to find a solution this winter. Good luck to his coaches because that’s not gonna be an easy task to get Medvedev’s brain back on that track.

It’s been months of him ranting about these balls, and even if he might be right, what good does it do to him to marinate in this issue? He’s just making the disadvantage he feels he now gets worse because it’s frying his nerves at the worst moments in his matches. Tennis players keep saying, “Control what you can control.” Daniil, you can’t control the choice of these balls. And if Alex De Minaur can have his best year so far with these balls, you shouldn’t be stuck in the struggle bus.

Iga Swiatek is moving on. After losing her crown and her WTA Finals title, she has already landed in Malaga for the BJK Cup. Conchita Martinez was there to welcome her. No doubt that the event is more than happy that she changed her mind and decided to play as other WTA stars like Naomi Osaka and Jessica Pegula could not make the trip.

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
ATP, What Happened?

Was there a strike on good cuts for suits? Was someone in their beige era? Why the painting above them? Why that ladder? Why is Jannik Sinner, a Gucci ambassador, swimming in his suit? How did Medvedev land in his jeans here? Why do none of their colors match? Like, none of them. Overall question: Has someone sabotaged the assignment of what is supposed to be the iconic pictures of the Finals? Budget cuts came into play, or? I mean, I need answers for that.

Only Norway gets the points here. All the points to Norway. We appreciate your service, Casper Ruud.

Again: The Ladder? They ain’t gonna paint nothing in these white shirts. No idea what the vision was, but that really didn’t translate well. What are these ones doing on that ground in various non-matching kinda chairs? I cannot.

You know what? That’s when Roger Federer is missed because he wouldn’t have tolerated being included in that and would have put all these suits in order. Federer on the ground near a ladder for the ATP Finals official picture? Nobody would have dared. And so I’m back at my previous rant: why is every sport getting a fashion editor, and tennis is left to…this? The Big 4 era would have never, and is having a laugh somewhere. Also laughing, the WTA people who were in charge of the WTA Finals official pictures because they won.

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, look at Above the Mantel.

READ: The NYT has a feature about the tough balancing act of the WTA in Saudi Arabia: “Saudi Arabia’s first WTA Tour Finals: Tennis spectacle collides with everyday reality in Riyadh.”

LISTEN TO: Coco Gauff’s champion’s corner, where she reflects on her season.

SUPPORT: What Rachel Maddow said. All of it. Valid worldwide.

WTA FINALS 
Half Of The Popcorn is Already Gone

Gif by wta on Giphy

Some of you might remember I asked you a few weeks ago if we’d get that Iga Swiatek - Aryna Sabalenka showdown for the throne through this end of season or if it would flop. Well, we now have the answer: it flopped. Aryna Sabalenka secured the throne real quick in Riyadh. The moment Swiatek opted out of the Asian swing, it was already over: Sabalenka had gained way too much confidence and way too many points to be denied. It’s a pity because it was the other main storyline (after who’s gonna win, obviously) of these Finals, and it didn’t even get out of the group stage.

Not only was the “throne popcorn” already gone, but as of right now on this Thursday, we’ve also lost the chance to see Sabalenka and Swiatek battle it out in Riyadh as Barbora Krejcikova did what she had to do to qualify for the semifinals: she beat Coco Gauff in two tight sets (7-5, 6-4). Swiatek, in the end, paid the price for losing against Gauff (6-3, 6-4) after beating Krejcikova (4-6, 7-5, 6-2), and her win this Thursday against Daria Kasatkina (6-1, 6-0) didn’t leave the defending champion with her fate in hands.

Gif by usopen on Giphy

Swiatek hadn’t played since the US Open, yet she nearly made it through to the semifinals at a more than decent level. I’m not sure she had a lot of hopes for this tournament, and I tend to think her head is already in preparation for 2025. But the pressure will soon be on her to bounce back and on her new coach, Wim Fissette, to show he’s part of the solution. Maybe it’s the silver lining with not being the World No.1 for now: she can have a lighter head without that crown to prepare for her next step. It’s been too heavy on her shoulders again by the time the Olympics came around this year, after keeping the noise at bay - with a cost on the nerves and fatigue - through the clay season.

As for Krejcikova, she’s been pretty impressive this week! When you think she’s here due to her Wimbledon title and a spot in the Top 20 at the Race. If she can keep going next year, she will be such a threat. I love her technique, the touch, and the variety of shots and game plans. When she keeps that head cold, she’s an absolute menace.

Someone who’s still on a hot streak? Zheng Qinwen, who secured her spot in the semi-finals for her first participation.
Someone who lost but still got some precious confidence out of the week? Elena Rybakina, who hadn’t played since the US Open, but found a way through Sabalenka in her last match.
A special mention? Daria Kasatkina, who came in to replace Jessica Pegula for the last match. An openly gay player on center stage in Riyadh.

ATP FINALS
How bad do they still want it?

Gif by tennistv on Giphy

As usual, it should be the question that makes the difference at these ATP Finals that start on Sunday. The race for World No.1 is already over, Novak Djokovic declined the invitation, Carlos Alcaraz is still struggling indoors, and Jannik Sinner, finalist here last year, is still asked to show how he can handle pressure. Oh, Alex de Minaur - playing his first Finals and being the first Australian to do so since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004 - is a tournament away from being able to put that hip to rest for a little while (he’s not on the team for the Davis Cup Finals) and Andrey Rublev to do the same for his mind.

There are a lot of points and a nice paycheck (still missing over $2 million to match what Riyadh’s exhibition offered to the winner) to earn in Turin, but that does not always compensate for mental or physical fatigue. The Finals aren’t always the best place to watch the best level of tennis, but there’s something unique in watching these players pushing themselves to their last limit to pass above the last hurdle. I’m honestly not sure the ATP Finals hold the same prestige as a few years ago, just because it feels there’s now been so much tennis before that tournament of the Masters. But this new edition won’t lack narratives, especially with Sinner and Alcaraz.

How did the groups play out? Talking about the groups, I did a U-turn when I saw the name Nastase attached to one of them. The man who got banned for three years for racial and sexual verbal abuse towards Serena Williams and Anne Keothavong back in 2017. Wow. Wow. Wow. On trend, one has to say. On trend.

So, the groups in singles: Sinner (1) inherited Daniil Medvedev (4), Taylor Fritz (5), and Alex De Minaur (7), while Alcaraz (3) got Alexander Zverev 2), Andrey Rublev (8), and Casper Ruud (6).
And the groups in doubles: Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic (1), Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori (4), Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden (6), Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz (8) on one side, and Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos (2), Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic (3), Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson (5), Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten (7)

It will be the first time in 23 years that no player named Federer, Nadal, or Djokovic is in the draw. 23 years. The last time it happened, in 2001, Juan Carlos Ferrero was in that draw. Now he coaches Carlos Alcaraz.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Does it feel the same to you?

You were 66.67% to think Stefanos Tsitsipas would bounce back in 2025. Yet some had advice at the ready for the Greet: “There are a few technical aspects in Stef's game that have never improved, his bhand and bhand slice, he needs a proper coach, quite frankly he is running out of time, as the youngsters like Alcaraz and Sinner have overtaken him,” said Margaret.

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Pegula’s knee. Osaka and Gauff’s hearts.

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Well, now we know why Jessica Pegula withdrew from the BJK Cup Final before the start of the WTA Finals. And why she didn’t seem able to play her best game during the first couple of matches in Riyadh. Pegula withdrew before her third match, against Iga Swiatek, due to a left knee injury.

"Just been kind of struggling with a little bit of an injury, and for whatever reason, it kind of really flared up this week. Not really sure why," Pegula said. "In the few days before practice, it felt really, really good, but it started creeping up right before my first match,” she explained. She had a pretty packed summer with a title in Toronto, a final in Cincinnati, and a final at the US Open, and she didn’t take a break as she went on to play in Beijing (3rd round) and Wuhan (2nd round).

November 6. That’s all.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Tennis tries to do its rescue part

• The ITF, the BJK Cup, and the Davis Cup announced they were joining forces to support severe flood relief in Spain. "Our hearts go out to the communities and families in Spain affected by the recent severe flooding. The BJK Cup and Davis Cup are coming together to support the relief and recovery efforts. Together with the International Tennis Federation, we are donating to the Cruz Roja, and we encourage all our fans and followers to contribute as well. Your donations will help provide essential aid and support on the ground to those most in need. Together, we can make a difference. Please donate today to the Cruz Roja and assist in the recovery efforts by visiting Cruzroja.es,” a statement said.
  

• The Juan Carlos Ferrero Academy and Carlos Alcaraz are also doing their part to help the community by setting up a charity auction.
  

• A couple of players who had a tough year for different reasons are showing signs of hope for 2025. Jiri Lehecka, who broke a part of his spine in Madrid, will play in the semi-finals in Belgrade and confirms how strong he keeps coming back (4th round in Cincinnati and at the US Open, quarter-final in Beijing, final in Anvers). Denis Shapovalov will also play in the semi-finals in Belgrade: the Canadian has been grinding all season long to find his best game and force some luck in these draws. The Tour needs “Shapo.”

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, look at Above the Mantel.

WATCH: Jelena Dokic has gone through hell, walking out of it head high and with a lifetime of lessons to share. The former World No.4 (gosh, she was such a great player!) should be front and center of any WTA campaign regarding physical and psychological abuse in the sport. She should be both the cautionary tale and the role model: she’s, unfortunately, the best example of a tennis player who survived a crazy tennis parent and walked away to tell the tale of the price one has to pay for it. She published two books about her journey and now releases a documentary, “Unbreakable, The Jelena Dokic Story.” It should be a mandatory watch.

READ: “A lot of people have asked me why the hell I was going through this!” I talked to Marin Cilic in Paris about his comeback from two knee surgeries, why he still wanted to play, and his thoughts on the Tour now that the Big 4 era was coming to an end. I liked his view on injuries and scheduling and how he explained why it wouldn’t have been true to him not to try to come back.

ATP 
Tsitsipas wants to be able to say “I’m proud of myself” in 2025

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It’s been a rough year on the courts for Stefanos Tsitsipas if you put aside his title in Monte-Carlo, his final in Barcelona, and the quarter-final at Roland-Garros. For such a player, it cannot be enough. Worst, 2024 also marked the breaking point in his coaching relationship with his father. On paper, it’s surely not a bad thing for him to get a new voice around, but the very public way it happened left traces.

As Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz keep rising, the clock seems to be starting to click faster for Tsitsipas. More worrying for the Greek, finalist at Roland-Garros in 2021 and in Melbourne in 2023: he seems to have lost that spark in the eyes, that fire in the belly. Next season could be crucial to see how much he can still matter for the biggest titles, which shouldn’t even be a question when one sees his game but will remain one as long as his head stops to be fully in the game.

After he lost in the last Masters 1000 in Paris, which meant he had no more chance to qualify for the ATP Finals, he shared his thoughts on what went wrong that day (serve) and how he will tackle 2025. You can listen to our chat here:

Alex De Minaur is another player who left Paris with a heavy heart. The Australian was so close to securing his spot in Turin and was visibly very stressed out about that chase. Battling a hip injury since Wimbledon, De Minaur has been showing a lot of grit but couldn’t go all the way in Paris. Listen here:

2024 was the last tango in Bercy for the Parisian Masters 1000, as it will move just outside of what we call “intra muros” Paris next year at La Défense Arena. It is impossible to know what we’re getting, but right now, we know what we’re losing: the atmosphere of a center court made for concerts, with a unique auditive experience when full, and so many memories of the nearly four decades of tennis played there. I went to my first “Bercy,” as we still call it, in 2004 as an intern for Tennis Magazine. Marat Safin won here for the third time. I escaped disaster earlier that week by removing my bag from the ground as it was about to clutch at one of Andy Roddick’s feet. I had overall a ball.

It also remains to be seen how long this Masters 1000 will remain in this spot in the calendar. Or in the calendar at all. We all know that Masters 1000 licenses are coveted items and that this end-of-season could look very different in the years to come as other interests come into play. The NYT has an interesting feature about what it calls the chaos of this Parisian event - where results are tough to read between exhausted players, those who chase a spot into the ATP Finals, and those who might already have their heads at the Finals - and why it should stay that way.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Does he have it in him?

You were 88.89% to think that the WTA made the wrong choice by sending the Finals to Saudi Arabia.

“I have watched the women’s game for over 40 years, and I have no intention of watching the finals this year. The way they treat women is a disgrace. As far as I am concerned, the WTA have sold their souls to the devil, and of course, the money had a big impact on their decision,” said Margaret. “There is no getting around the fact that this is sportswashing. I hope the players learn something about the terrible human rights violations by Saudi Arabia. The WTA having a big tournament there may encourage young girls to take up tennis, which is a plus. But it is naive to think it will have any impact on society at large,” added Shirley.

WTA FINALS 
A Balancing Act

Jasmine Paolini, Coco Gauff, Zheng Qinwen, Barbora Krejcikova, Elena Rybakina, Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula (Photo: Jingyu Lin / WTA)

The WTA Finals started in Saudi Arabia, and so did the tough balancing act of the WTA. The Tour has to own its presence in this country despite the controversy and prove it made the right choice by showing what exactly bringing these women to Riyadh is doing to open doors for women. Players also have a tough path to negotiate as they’re asked about playing here despite the country’s record regarding women’s rights and the LGBTQ+ community's rights. Overall, the issue is whether the WTA, a trailblazer in the fight for equality, can remain true to itself while being hosted by Saudi Arabia. Or is the WTA risking losing its purpose and values through sportswashing? Only the future will tell.

Coco Gauff had the best answer when asked about it by colleagues on-site:

“I'm very aware of the situation here in Saudi. I mean, my view on it is I do think that sport can have a way to open doors to people. I think in order to kind of want change, you have to see it. Sports, for me, is the easiest way to kind of introduce that. I know they started bringing more male sports here. I know with the golf and the tennis, I think this is the first professional women's tennis event held here. Hopefully, with WTA coming here and pledging for the next three years to help the future Stars Program here in Saudi, we will have introduced more Saudi women, especially into the sport. Their goal is to have a million people playing tennis here by 2030. Hopefully, with that, people can see us, and what we represent, and hopefully, that will enact more equality. Right now, if you never come here, it can never end like that. To want to have change, you have to see it.

No, I would be lying to you if I said I had no reservations. Obviously you know who I am and the things I speak about. I was pretty much on every player call I could make with WTA. One of the things I said, if we come here, we can't just come here and play our tournament and leave. Like, we have to have a real program or real plan in place. We spoke with a lot of women here in Saudi. One of them was Princess Reema. Multiple calls with her, how the best approach would be to enter into this different place that women have never kind of, women from the U.S., have never kind of been in. I think for me, it was important, and it was one of the questions I brought up about LGBTQ issues, women's rights issues, and how we can help with that. I'm also very aware that we're not going to come here and just change everything. That would be very nuance to say. But it's a nuance kind of conversation. I think knowing from the past from my grandmother, integrating her school, people aren't going to like it, but obviously, in the long run, I think it could be better for everybody.

The LGBTQ+ community is always a community I'm going to fight for. I have family, and friends who are a part of this community. I hear your concerns. I really do feel like in order to ignite change, you have to start little by little. That's how I've been taught growing up black in America, knowing our history. Obviously, there were a lot of people opposed to it. Now we're all equally living together. If we shied away from it then, where would we be now? The same message goes out there for women. Obviously, I'm a woman. I was very concerned. My dad was very concerned with me coming here. It's one of those things where I want to see it for myself, see if the change is happening. If I felt uncomfortable or felt like nothing was happening, then maybe I probably wouldn't come back. As far as being here for a week, I really feel like it's in the progress of going forward. The people I've spoken to, they say it's in that way. I can only trust what I'm being told. Obviously, I don't live here, so I can only trust what people are telling me that live here.”

As far as the results are concerned, Iga Swiatek made a winning return to the competition against Barbora Krejcikova with Wim Fissette as a coach. As a complete side note, that came to my brain while reading one more piece about the growth of the female fandom around sports in the US and how they’re pushing the merch market and the ticket sales to new heights: where is this fandom in tennis? What do the WNBA, the NFL, or soccer now have that the Tour doesn’t? That should be a major focus (and worry) for both Tours right now because it seems we’re among the few sports missing that train. Is this fandom able to understand and accept the WTA’s involvement with Saudi Arabia, or is it a roadblock? I don’t have these answers, but I’m curious to see if, at some point, we find out.

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
China helps to boost the WTA Finals audience

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• Xièxiè Zheng Qinwen. No doubt that the qualification of the Chinese player for the WTA Finals has a lot to do with that new deal landing in the WTA’s lap. The Tour indeed announced on Saturday that “Live tennis from the WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF will be shown by CCTV-5, China’s leading sports broadcaster, following a new deal announced by WTA Ventures and China Media Group (CMG).” Let’s be real, it’s mostly a Zheng Qinwen deal as the main thing it covers are…her matches. But the rest of the field will get some kind of exposure too which can’t hurt.
  
  “As part of the deal with CMG, all of Zheng’s matches at the 2024 WTA Finals will be broadcast on the CCTV-5 linear channel. Other matches and clips will be made available on CMG’s digital services, including the CMG Mobile app, the CCTV Sports app, CCTV websites and mobile apps. The deal continues CMG’s support for the Hologic WTA Tour, following its role as official broadcaster for the recent China Open in Beijing and the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open.” Did we tell you already how big Zheng Qinwen was in Asia right now? Yes, we did. 
  

• Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka join Angel Reese and LeBron James, among other big names, for a Beats By Dre “The Athletes Get It” campaign.
  

• Going all in for women’s sports, again. This time, the Athena Pledge is in the news as it emerges with four big brands as founders. What is it? A platform dedicated to investment into women’s sports but also research, funding, and creating more opportunities. Someone said “formation!” and these brands answered the potential to make money call. Who’s in? AT&T, Capital One, Cisco, and Deloitte. “We want to find twenty like-minded brands who want to band together to make a pledge to support women's sports,” said Pete Giorgio, the Global and US Sports Practice Leader at Deloitte, to Forbes. “We're looking for companies that want a seat at that table as we push this forward because [women’s sports] is going to grow, and we want it to grow in the right way.”

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Khachanov didn’t fake it

It was the useless controversy of the week in Paris during the last Masters 1000 event of the year. Was Karen Khachanov really that injured by the end of his semi-final against Ugo Humbert? The French player didn’t seem to think it was that bad as he kept pumping his fist through the end of the match, getting some heat from his rival for it. “Against Grigor (Dimitrov), he was exhausted: did you see me jumping and screaming ‘Allez’ after every point? (…) Jumping and screaming ‘Come on, Allez!’ every point? You think it’s OK? You can celebrate after, no problem…but to hit once one guy is on the ground? OK, see you next time,” Khachanov said, adding that the French had “no idea how to behave.” 

Well, Khachanov put all the debate to rest on social media by announcing that a grade 2 sprain was found in two parts of his right leg. One of the issues in tennis in recent years has been the trend of deciding, by default, that players are faking injuries. Another sign of the post-truth era we’re living in, obviously. Of course, it happens, but it remains the exception and not the rule. It was obvious to anyone watching the match that Khachanov was struggling in the end. Yet, Humbert, who was very nervous and said he thought Khachanov was cramping, knows too well that you can start losing against an injured player if you start thinking about it. Could he have toned it down on the celebration? Obviously. Did he really realize he was going over the line? Nope. End of the season, everybody is on their last nerve.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Didn’t see that one coming!

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• Elena Rybakina returned on Tour for the first time since the US Open and did it with a bang. Not really with her racquet as she lost her first match at the WTA Finals, but she won the announcement of the tennis week as she revealed she hired Goran Ivanisevic as her new coach. They will start their collaboration this winter to prepare for the 2025 season. Ivanisevic has already famously worked with Novak Djokovic, Marin Cilic, or Milos Raonic with great results. What will he do with a WTA player? Things could get fun here, and Andy Roddick seems to agree as he commented, “What does Rybakina need? Maybe a little levity in her box with someone that actually has a sense of humor once in a while, so this looks like an unbelievable fit.”
  

• Are the Italians happy to see Jannik Sinner arriving in Turin for the ATP Finals? I think we can totally say they are. Like, a lot.
  

• Croatia and Argentina are officially in for the United Cup from 27 December to 5 January. The announcement came this Monday that both countries had qualified for the event, and we also got the names of the players involved: Donna Vekic, Borna Coric, and Ivan Dodig for Croatia (playing Canada to start in Perth), and Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Nadia Podoroska for Argentina (playing Australia to start in Sydney).

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
After the NFL, here comes Formula One. Tennis?!

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I was already left outraged when the NFL got one before tennis. And now, a new layer is added to my outrage as Formula 1 is also getting one before tennis. This Is So Wrong. What do they get that tennis doesn’t? A Fashion Editor. “The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team is hiring a marketing operations driver clothing executive,” announced this report from WWD.

What will the new hire have to do? “The new hire’s chief responsibility is to serve as the project manager for drivers on the Mercedes F1 team’s styling planning and process. The new executive will coordinate with the drivers’ stylists and the team’s apparel partners to decide on looks for collateral shoots, marketing appearances, trackside walk-in attire, and marketing appearances. (…) Knowing how integral image is to fans, Mercedes is looking for an executive who will manage drivers’ nontechnical apparel and footwear such as personal, fitness, formal, and travel clothing, as well as their walk-in attire for the F1 paddock and trackside.”

Lewis Hamilton really did the job by signing with Dior and being announced as co-chair of the next Met Gala! And obviously, LVMH just signed a 10-year deal with Formula One for brands like Louis Vuitton and Tag Heuer. Tennis is missing out on the glam right now, and that makes my French heart sad! We were always in the lead on that front; what happened??… The Sigh.

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, look at Above the Mantel.

READ: Is it still spooky season? I’d say yes. Anyway, this one seems like it would be a seasonal fit in your to-be-read slash: We Used To Live Here,” from Markus Kliewer.

WATCH: Iga Swiatek commenting on her first win after not playing since the US Open.

ATP - ROLEX PARIS MASTERS 
“The money they put on the table is disruptive,” says Paris Masters 1000 director Cédric Pioline

Six Kings Slam

Jannik Sinner being fit to earn $6 million in Saudi Arabia but unable to play the last Masters 1000 of the season was always going to be a tough one for the optics. Bad luck came into play with the bug he caught before he came to Paris, but again, are top players now ready to let bad luck wreck their Tour’s schedule if they can bag millions in unofficial matches? Exhibitions have always been there, and it’s an old debate, yet the amount of money thrown at these six players by Riyadh - in the context of a sport more and more dependent on any billionaire, really - is raising a few eyebrows. And so the Sinner situation couldn’t have had a worse timing. No, correction: if it had made him unable to play in the ATP Finals in Italy, it’d have been worse. Close call.

The Rolex Paris Masters director, former French player Cédric Pioline, was, of course, asked to weigh in on that. He made a point of insisting on how Sinner really wanted to play in Paris: the World No.1 arrived the Friday before the main draw, did media day on Saturday, and came to see him explain his disappointment. “We can’t control these types of things. He caught that bug before arriving in Paris and was very sad about the situation when he came to see me. It has to be said that he tried his best. I was aware of his stomach issue for a few days, and I was very pessimistic because we all know that after a GI illness, you’re exhausted. It was too quick of a turnaround for him to gain some energy back in order to be efficient on the court. He’s World No.1, and he comes here to try to win the tournament.”

Pioline added that athletes know the risks for the body at the end of the year but that each of them needs to make their own choices. “It’s not up to me to judge. Every player can schedule his season the way he wants to. Jannik has a rather logical scheduling; he doesn’t overload it with too many exhibitions, and so that’s why he was pretty confident here. But we know athletes are a bit more fragile regarding their immune systems at the end of the year and that you have more bugs around, too. So, is it all bad luck? Probably. But we don’t know.”

I asked Pioline if the Tour should still start to worry about top players switching their priorities. They value Grand Slam titles above it all, and then Masters 1000 and the ranking usually right after, but what happens if they can now count on a high seven-figure to play exhibitions? How is the Tour playing catch up with that? He didn’t hide that a problem could be looming: “It’s a topic tied to the geopolitics of the Tour, and with all the talks that are happening around the Grand Slam events, the ATP and the WTA in terms of creating a new setup. Today, nothing is decided. But, in my opinion, it’s obvious that we must be vigilant to keep it all consistent. As you’re mentioning this exhibition in Saudi Arabia, the money they put on the table is disruptive and is damaging to the ecosystem existing today, and that is not very healthy.”

The future will tell if these types of events, like the Netflix one between Nadal and Alcaraz and now the Saudi Arabia one, can find a spot inside or outside the system, help grow the game, or risk breaking the system. Oh, and what do we think of the Laver Cup in this debate?

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Hubert Hurkacz: “It’s not bad luck”

Catching up with Hubert Hurkacz, who scared us all at Wimbledon, came back strong, but he cannot wait for a chance to prepare for 2025.

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You came back strong after that knee injury at Wimbledon, but it’s been tougher since then: is it related? How are you doing?
Obviously, it’s surgery, so it’s a big thing, but right now, the knee is not hurting, which is good. There’s been some swelling in the past, and we needed to take care of that issue, but apart from that, everything is great. I love competing, I love playing, and it’s always so much fun to play in front of the fans, but obviously, you want to produce your best level, so when you’re not there, it’s disappointing. Now, it will be a fantastic time to prepare for the coming season.

Is it easy to think about next season instead of being frustrated about the results of the past few weeks?
Yes, it’s very easy. It’s about always looking forward to the future but at the same time staying in the present. There are things to take back from this period; it was a lot of experiences, and I’m really pumped for the next season.

It seems that so many players are getting seriously injured. Do you think it’s all bad luck or that things need to change?
It’s not bad luck. There are definitely improvements to be made with the scheduling and the balls. There are things to improve.

WTA - FINALS
May the odds be ever in their favor

Iga Swiatek at the WTA Finals 2024 draw (@Jimmie48/WTA)

It’s the WTA Finals countdown! The stage is set in Riyadh, and the eight best players of the year are about to fight for the last crown of the season. Players are working on the last details as the competition will start on Saturday, a high-pressure event for the WTA, which chose to send its players to Saudi Arabia.

Reem Abulleil chatted with tournament director Garbine Muguruza for The National about her journey from top player to being the managing face of the WTA Finals.

THE DRAW:
Singles:
Purple Group: (1) Aryna Sabalenka, (4) Jasmine Paolini, (5) Elena Rybakina, (7) Zheng Qinwen
Orange Group: (2) Iga Swiatek, (3) Coco Gauff, (6) Jessica Pegula, (8) Barbora Krejcikova. The alternates are Daria Kasatkina and Danielle Collins.

Doubles:
Green Group: (1) Lyudmyla Kichenok/Jelena Ostapenko, (3) Hsieh Su-wei/Elise Mertens, (6) Nicole Melichar-Martinez/Ellen Perez, (8) Katerina Siniakova/Taylor Townsend
White Group: (2) Gabriela Dabrowski/Erin Routliffe, (4) Sara Errani/Jasmine Paolini, (5) Caroline Dolehide/Desirae Krawczyk, (7) Chan Hao-ching/Veronika Kudermetova

THE STAKES:
Everything is at play in Riyadh: the prize money, the title, and the throne. Perfect for the drama! Aryna Sabalenka has taken over Iga Swiatek as the World No.1 after a strong showing in China, but Swiatek can still get the throne back. How? Here’s a piece detailing the situation. It’s a fine-margin mission, but if someone can do it, it’s defending champion Swiatek.

The other storylines to follow, in my opinion, are the return of Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff’s serve, and Zheng Qinwen’s rising star.

How much money is at play, by the way? $15,250,000. The winner's paycheck? $2,500,000. The undefeated champion paycheck? $5,155,000. 👀 

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Was it right?

You were 85,71% to think Zheng Qinwen will have more impact in China than Li Na. “Li Na became successful later in her career than Qinwen. She also did not have the tournaments in China to play that Qinwen now has. Plus Qinwen enjoys the spotlight more so will be more public-facing in her career, it seems,” said Cheryl.

“Li Na had an amazing impact, but at this time Zheng Qinwen could have even more. Winning Olympic gold was huge, and if she continues to win big titles, especially a Major, her impact will be even greater than it is now,” commented Shirley.

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
Sportfive bets on Becker

• Sportfive said, “I volunteer!” for Boris Becker. It’s been announced that Sportfive is partnering with Boris Becker “to expand his global media and brand presence.” The company has huge hope for this collaboration, judging by their post on LinkedIn: “Together with SPORTFIVE, Boris Becker will embark on new ventures in media, broadcasting and beyond, bringing his legendary career to new audiences worldwide.”
  

• Grup Mediapro is launching a $1,1 billion sports rights fund. Who doesn’t have a sports fund? Seems to be the thing-to-do for very rich companies lately.
  

• Nike names a new marketing boss. Ann Miller is the new Executive Vice President, Global Sports Marketing at Nike as her predecessor John Slusher retired. Miller, who’s been at Nike for 18 years, was previously the Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer. “Ann possesses a unique blend of athlete mindset, deep legal expertise, and exceptional leadership. Her appointment is a testament to the value she brings to NIKE,” said Elliott Hill, President & CEO, NIKE, Inc.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Shocking scenes in Spain

Images of the devastation caused by flooding in Spain have left us all heartbroken and powerless. So many people lost their lives. So many people lost their houses. So many villages were wrecked. Climate change is real and needs to be tackled with everything we have. Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz have taken to social media to express support and pledge to help as much as possible.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s absolutely not the worst that has happened in Spain these days, but the view of the Rafael Nadal Academy being underwater was a very sad one.

Belinda Bencic made a winning return to competition after giving birth to her first child in April. The Swiss is playing the 75k in Hamburg this week and won in straight sets (6-3, 6-1) against Julia Avdeeva.

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
The end-of-season curse struck again

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• They dropped like flies in Paris, and nobody was surprised. The last Masters 1000 of the year is unfortunately used to see a big chunk of its entry list giving up even before coming and then another chunk of draw not dropping on the way, too. It’s the end of the season, minds have had enough, bodies are at their limits, and it’s the season of cold and damp, aka here come the germs. So this year was no exception, and the list of withdrawals and retirement was noticeably long: Novak Djokovic (said thanks but no thanks), Jannik Sinner (illness), Felix Auger-Aliassime (lower back), Pablo Carreno Busta (right ankle), Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (lower back), Tomas Machac (right Achilles), Daniel Altmaier. Hopefully, nobody to add to that list until the end of the event!
  
  The Parisian event had it worse in the past and has been saved by Carlos Alcaraz and the French showing up to wow the crowd. Yet, that last Masters 1000 before the ATP Finals will always be a bit of a gamble regarding its casting. I’m curious to see what the relocation to La Défense Arena will look like next year and also if the French tournament will find a way to stay alive in the years to come, as we all know its license might interest many deep pockets.
  

• Talking about an event suffering some blows with its casting: the BJK Cup has to be happy it gained Iga Swiatek as Jessica Pegula has joined Naomi Osaka on the sideline. The US player withdrew from the event and was replaced by Ashlyn Krueger. The USTA didn’t communicate the reason. Pegula is competing this week at the WTA Finals. The tournament will have a tough time existing in the coverage as it’s been moved way too close (13-20 Nov) for comfort from the Davis Cup Finals (19-24), where Rafael Nadal is to play his last professional match.
  

• Naomi Osaka opened up about the struggles she went through regarding her body image post-pregnancy. Contrary to (ignorant) popular belief, women athletes don’t go from pregnant to lifting trophies in the blink of an eye. It’s a journey. “There were moments this year where I felt really ashamed of my body,” she explained on social media. A quick note to some sponsors: maybe check with your athlete about the size she feels comfy to wear…

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
Air Jordan sides with the Ladies

(@Nike)

I love the intention way more than the execution here, though. Except maybe for the green version. And so, obviously, I’m wondering when / if tennis could get the same treatment. Anyway, here’s the Jordan brand following the sports trend of the year: women’s sports. The brand announced the launching of this new lineup in the Jordan Air Series ($110): a line aimed at WNBA players. It arrives on the heels of the Nike x Serena Williams capsule collection. This Jordan Heir Series (the lowest shoe in Jordan Brand’s basketball lineup) “builds on Jordan Brand’s legacy of innovating with the female basketball player at the forefront, beginning with the 1998 release of the women’s Air Jordan OG — the first model creative exclusively for women,” says Nike.

(@Prudential Hong Kong Open)

Somehow, the vibe is matching here. Li Na and Naomi Osaka were reunited in Hing Kong to tour the M+ museum and its exhibition of fashion designer Guo Pei, showcasing the pieces that made her famous. Aren’t you intrigued? I am. Also, to be a fly on the wall to hear the one-liners between these two. The red piece behind them? Worn by Rihanna at the Met Gala in 2015. Icons only.

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, look at Above the Mantel.

READ: In the “I really need to get going with my to-be-read pile” category, here comes “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore.

WATCH: The WTA staff has put a series of season highlights from the Top 8 in singles and doubles here, in a TikTok or IG reel-like format.

WTA 
The “QueenWen” phenom

Zheng Qinwen has been, on the WTA Tour, the other blockbuster of the end of the year with Aryna Sabalenka. But off the court, the Zheng Qinwen mania in China is unmatched. “QueenWen,” as her fans tend to call her, demonstrated the impact that her triumph at the Olympics, and also her final at the Australian Open, had back home when she came to play in Beijing for the China Open and at the Wuhan Open.

Semi-finalist in Beijing, she brought the house down in Wuhan through her journey to the final, selling out the main stadium and sending fans and sponsors into a frenzy at each appearance. There was no commercial spot left on the Chinese broadcast the day before the final, and you could see her face all over the city. I saw it first hand when in Wuhan: Zheng Qinwen was an absolute phenom, treated like a rockstar from the moment someone caught any glimpse of her anywhere. She had the crowd, which also sold out the day of the final, wrapped around her racquet during matches. Li Na would have deserved the same treatment back in the day, but she retired from the sport just when the first Wuhan Open was about to be played. And Li Na wasn’t exactly someone enjoying all this attention. Zheng Qinwen, on the other hand, wants nothing else but to be under the spotlight. That court is her stage.

The landing of “QueenWen” is actually at the heart of the perfect storm: she’s the greatest player China has had since Li Na, in the era of social media, from a generation chronically online and at a time where women’s sports are the new investment trend. In Wuhan, a city with an incredibly young demographic, she came at the perfect time for an event that hadn’t come back since Covid and since the Peng Shuai scandal.

Zheng Qinwen’s rise is the best thing that has happened to Chinese tennis since Li Na decided to hang her racquet. And she’s for sure already making the money coming with this status (she recently signed with Lancôme). What is she saying about it all? Here are her answers through the week in Wuhan.

THE PRESSURE
« It's totally different pressure. I would say the Olympic Games are much more than that because I start to have pressure two days before the Olympic Games start. Every day was so intense. I remember in the quarterfinal and semifinal, my hands were shaking during the match. I mean, after the Olympic Games, I never had those feelings anymore. My hand is not shaking during the match, at least. It's funny. I still have some pressure here, but I will consider much less pressure. It's more under control (smiling). »

« After the Olympics, I've had a really busy schedule. Many big tournaments I have to play. Because I'm making deep runs, I have such concerns. Mentally, I'm tired after each match. I face a lot of stress. I need to deal with this stress. But as of now, I'm feeling okay. It's like when you don't want to go to the office, you still have to go to work. Something like this. I'm playing in Wuhan. This is my hometown. If it's another place, I may not want to go to work (smiling). »

«Because of the busy schedule, I have matches every day, I don't have any other activities to relax. Anything relaxing, I have to wait until after the tournament because I'm in the match. I do not think I need to resolve that fatigue, I need to fight till the end.»

« Of course, there is pressure. I also feel the responsibility as a leader of the new generation, meaning what you are saying is under public scrutiny. I will pay attention to my performance on the court as well as my words off the court. I need to be cautious. It's not like I can say whatever I want to say. I will be cautious. It's a good thing that people are watching me, watching me to improve. Of course, this is pressure. You cannot live under the eyes of other people, so there's a balance you need to strike. While you are improving, you need to know what you should do, what you should not do. »

HOME CROWD
« I think the Wuhan Open is really good and has a great atmosphere. I like playing in front of a big crowd. I think I can perform better with more people. When there are fewer people, I enjoy less playing on the court. (…) When they were cheering for me, of course, it was good. Whether it was pressure or motivation really depends on how I treat it. At this stage, I treat it as motivation. With more people in front of me, I get more excited. »

“Wuhan is more or less a foundation of my tennis. It is where I had my dream of tennis started. I think the tennis culture has been really good in Wuhan. From the age of eight till the age of 13, I spent this period in Wuhan, my formative years in Wuhan. »

« Well, since I arrived, I got a lot of attention. I've always been very busy here in Wuhan. I met a lot of different people. Yes, I love the people here. Of course, there is lot of activity for me, but I enjoy it. Especially I saw there were pictures of me everywhere. I mean, yes, that's insane (smiling). »

«People have big expectations of me here. They want me to play as much as I can. I know the people in Wuhan; they all want to see me because I can feel the passion when I walk on the street. Once they recognize me, everybody starts to come around, asking for my signature and for the photos. Yeah, I mean, I love this atmosphere. At the same time, I need to keep more calm outside of the tennis court. »

BEING A ROLE MODEL FOR THE YOUTH IN CHINA
“I was a teenager not too long before. I cannot believe I'm no longer a teenager. Any messages to them? I've been through many puzzling moments and many doubts as a teenager. I was not at this level of confidence as a teenager. I hope that you can find your direction and be committed to your decisions, and enjoy every day of your life. This is something I repeat to myself every day. »

HER GAME NOWADAYS
« Now, at the age of 22, being a finalist at the 1000 level, especially in Wuhan, this is a really big surprise. With this achievement, I'm really happy. It means I finally have the stability to reach a high level in the big tournament. I do not have too many ups and downs in my game, even in difficult moments. »

A WORD ON RAFA? (Nadal announced retirement during the Wuhan Open)
« Wow, that's a shock news for me. I thought he would continue to play one more year. I mean, yes, he's the leader of one generation. I have watched his match since I was a kid. There are lots of memories. Even now, sometimes I will search for Rafael Nadal and watch his old matches from when he was 19 years old, 20 when he was at primetime. Of course, he inspires a lot to me. Even right now, sometimes when I'm at a difficult moment, I think about how strong Rafael Nadal's tennis mentality is. I think that's sad to hear because I really want to watch him more on the Tour. But every legend, there’s a time for them to retire. I wish he can continue to enjoy life, and that's it. »

Last week, Zheng Qinwen, who has already qualified for the WTA Finals (11 years after Li Na), kept her momentum by clinching the title in Tokyo—her third title of the year.

WTA - WUHAN OPEN
Brenda Perry: “Qinwen is absolutely like a rockstar”

Brenda Perry is the very passionate and committed tournament director of the Wuhan Open. She took some time to talk about the Zheng Qinwen effect in Wuhan this year.

It really feels like Zheng Qinwen is a rockstar here…
She’s absolutely like a rockstar. The first night match she played was sold out. She connects with people, and she seems to enjoy it. She thrives in this, and she’s almost like the people’s queen. Five years ago, she was in the quallies as a newcomer wild card, and so she had to do the rookie hours for the WTA with me. I enjoyed chatting with her; she was delightful to talk to. I asked her what she would like to achieve, and one of the big things was a gold medal. I saw her the other day, and I reminded her of it, saying: “What a long way in five years! From rookie hours qualifying to Top 10 gold medal and now seeded here. Amazing.”

The Wuhan Open is coming back, and Zheng Qinwen is rising: was it the perfect timing?
I think it is. It’s like a moment. Young girls and boys screaming, older people screaming… She really connects across a wide age group, and you can feel her pride in being the hometown girl and being from China.

Were you expecting the effect to be at this level?
No. I thought that’d be big, but I maybe had a clue when I was told that during her gold medal quest, she had 4 billion hits on social media. Just by watching, you can feel the energy, with the roar of the crowd: that connection and the timing of that gold medal, which is recent. She was the perfect queen to welcome Wuhan back.

Have you seen the consequences on the business?
Yes, absolutely. When we announced the return of Wuhan, it was just around the time of the Olympics, and many press wanted to come, and potential sponsors were asking how they could be a part of it; all of this was interesting. And the ticket sales, too, for sure. In 2019, we had a full house on three different occasions, but not that level of electricity.

How can you best use the Qinwen mania now for tennis here?
She seems to have that Chinese following in various places. It’s been a long time spoken about with Li Na. When covid hits, any direction where it was going hit a roadblock, and then Shenzhen not being there, and then Wuhan not being here last year, the WTA Elite Trophy going away… Now, this is lifting it back up.

There was a lot of pressure this year to get the tournament back, so I guess Qinwen helped in that sense, too…
We’re hoping she says healthy! It was definitely a very compressed five months, whereas normally, it would be eleven to twelve. But that’s been a massive breath of fresh air after five years. And who would have guessed that we’d have a Li Na and a Zheng Qinwen from here? That’s an amazing connection.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Will she?

You were 90,91% to think Novak Djokovic won't play a full schedule in 2025. Why? Sam thinks it’s because “he has lost motivation.”

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
Masters 1000 for sale?

Caja Magica in Madrid (@esmadrid)

It’s bigger than tennis. Wait, I thought nothing in that sport was bigger than the game? Not even Roger Federer? We’ve been lied to (again). So, what could currently be bigger than the Masters 1000 in Miami and Madrid? Their owner. It actually all started last April when Silver Lake announced it would take Endeavor (who owns IMG, who owns these two events) private. And? And to take it private, the deal with Silver Lake “included provisions related to the potential sale of certain businesses.” 

Now, a review is happening to see which asset should or should not be sold, and it seems tennis could be at the heart of it with the sale of the two Masters 1000. Why is it getting complicated for tennis? Because Endeavor has just sold IMG to TKO (after that deal, Endeavor would own 59% of TKO, so it all stays in the family), but tennis isn’t included in the deal. So tennis remains here to be potentially sold by Endeavor. So you see, it’s way bigger than tennis. Is it a good sign for tennis? If the product was that attractive, would it be getting sold? Or is the product so attractive that it’s the prettiest dress to sell?

Give all the money to Australia and New Zealand, they said! Kinda. It’s not all the money, but it’s still $1,5 billion that will be injected into both countries via the Avenue Sports Opportunities Fund launched by Avenue Capital Group and GAM. An initiative that comes with some sports VIP names in the package: Stephen Curry, Harry Kane, and Candace Parker.

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
An old debate and a game-changer

Gif by tennistv on Giphy

• Felix Auger-Aliassime’s injury came at the right time to highlight what Dominic Thiem was just denouncing. And what’s been an old debate in tennis is coming back to light this year again after the list of injured players - of all ages - seemed to be getting longer by the day. The Canadian injured his back in Basel and so withdrew from the last Masters 1000 event of the year in Paris. Around the same time, newly retired Dominic Thiem blasted tennis for damaging players’ bodies: “I think the way we do the sport, it’s not healthy, and at one point, one part or more parts of the body break down,” he said, also admitting that he had been a victim of it all. “That’s the way I grew up, this training style with a lot of intensity and really giving it 100% every single shot,” he says. “That was physically very demanding. And also, from a very early age, I got used to high-volume practice, practising like three four hours straight, or three hours twice [a day].” In Paris this Monday for the first day of the main draw of the last Masters 1000 of the year, Tomas Machac retired in the first match of the day (Achille) and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina withdrew before his match (back injury).
  

• Again, someone telling you AI has been and will continue to be a game-changer. Well, we’ll see! But in sports, AI definitely already had a pretty big impact, and this piece explains how AI has enhanced the athlete. “One significant contribution of AI in sports is its ability to enhance athletes’ performance through data-driven insights and personalised training regimes. Machine learning algorithms analyse vast amounts of data, including player statistics, biomechanical measurements, and performance metrics to identify patterns and trends that can inform training strategies and optimise athletic potential. For example, AI-powered wearable devices and sensor technology enable real-time monitoring of athletes’ physical effort, movement, patterns, and biomechanical efficiency. This data can be examined to strategically offer athletes performance insights and personalise training plans to improve specific metrics. After all, the smallest improvement can make all the difference.”

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Remember The Name

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard wins Basel(@TennisTV)

• New French wonder Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard adds a new layer to the theory that he might be the real deal. He struggled after his fourth round in Wimbledon but made a wow impression last week in Basel. With wins over Felix-Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov, Holger Rune, or Ben Shelton in the final, the 21-year-old, coached by experienced Emmanuel Planque, became the lowest-ranked champion (50) in Basel’s tournament history. That serve, indoor, is the source of all his rivals’s nightmares. He’s now 31 in the ranking after this first ATP 500 title, after clinching his first ATP 250 in Lyon this year.

• It was the week of the young and hopeful as Jack Draper (22) left Vienna with the trophy for the biggest win of his career. Like the French, it’s his second title in career, after Stuttgart this year, and he’s now ranked 16.

• On the WTA, Olga Danilovic (23) won the second title of her career by beating Caroline Dolehide in Guangzhou. It had been six years since her first title.

• Matteo Berretini and Francisco Roig, who used to be on Rafael Nadal’s team, are no longer working together after ten months of collaboration.

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, have a look at Above the Mantel.

READ: I’m putting that on top of my To Be Read list pile. “Didion and Babitz,” by Lili Anolik. A book about these glorious nemeses? Take My Money.

WATCH: I’ve finally finished the last season of the Umbrella Academy, and that was definitely a great ride! I didn’t expect that ending, and I’ll admit I shed a tear. I’ve started Midnight Mass on Netflix, and I am slightly terrified but greatly entertained.

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Djokovic to tennis in 2024: thanks, but no thanks

Gif by theoffice on Giphy

Will he or won’t he? Win? No, play. That’s been the whole mood around Novak Djokovic this year. He, of course, knows all the things we don’t know regarding why he played so little this year. When he damaged that meniscus at Roland-Garros, he hinted at previous knee pain being managed, so we could guess that there have been pain-related reasons.

But why not come to Paris for this year’s last Masters 1000 when you’ve just played the final in Shanghai and an exhibition in Saudi Arabia? Especially when you can still qualify for the ATP Finals? Well, I'm not sure he even wants to play the Finals right now, and he repeated the past few weeks that the event was not on his to-do list anyway. We know that he said he would attend the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga to be courtside for Rafael Nadal’s last match and that he will play an exhibition match with Juan Martin Del Potro in December.

What seems to be a pattern, though, is that Djokovic has entered an era of his career where he’s only going to play the events he really wants to play. He might spice the calendar up here and there if he finds himself lacking matches to win what he wants to win, aka the Grand Slam titles, but that’s it. Could his body do more right now? Good question. Could his mind do more right now? The answer is no because if it could, then Novak would. With him, it’s always been the willpower in the driving seat.

Gif by tennistv on Giphy

Nobody was surprised when Roger Federer and Serena Williams seriously reduced their schedule in the last stage of their careers. I guess people are more taken aback by Novak’s 2024 because it came very suddenly. He won the ATP Finals in 2023, lost in the semi-finals in Melbourne to start 2024…and then disappeared until Indian Wells and started to pick and choose his schedule. No warning, no hints. He went full-time to part-time in the blink of an eye.

Did he even see it coming? It’s been decades of him giving nearly 100% of his life to tennis. Being unable to conceive that sport at anything else than a 200% commitment. It must be quite the change for him, too, but also, it has to be the sign that he’s been hitting a wall, whatever that wall is. I do not expect him to leave the sport in the short term, and he confirmed he had no intention of following Federer, Nadal, and Murray. But being the last of the Big 4 standing has to be meaningful to him. “I still enjoy competing, but a part of me left with them,” he said in Shanghai. Finally clinching that gold at the Olympics might have triggered other things, too. And there’s no way fighting with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner can replicate the rivalries that made him the player he is today. “Tennis is still my biggest platform for sharing the messages that I care about, whether it's related to tennis, society, or business. I still feel that I enjoy the process, and it brings me all these benefits, so why not?” he told La Nacion. How long can we expect tennis to keep Djokovic? Let me answer with two other questions that will, in my opinion, be the key: How long can Djokovic hope to keep winning Majors? How long will his personal brand need to be playing?

Dimitrov: “I had severe moments of anxiety”, “Three times, I was about to retire”

In Stockholm, where he reached the final, Grigor Dimitrov opened up about his struggles to keep his head in the game. In an interview, he showed a lot of honesty about the toll the sport has sometimes taken on his mental health and encouraged more male players to be open about that side of the job.

"I had severe moments of anxiety, panic attacks, even throughout the tennis match. Of course, I think it always helps when you can talk to people and share, even if it's another tennis player. I always say we all should be more open to each other. I know it's difficult. I know it's a very individual sport. I know it's brutal, but at the end of the day, we're all human and no different than anyone else. It just happens that we play good tennis, that's all. (…) We don’t speak enough about it. I totally understand I’m talking from my side, like men in general. We don’t speak about it often, but I think we should. It's not a weakness. I think it’s totally the opposite. I think showing vulnerability is an absolutely huge strength. You sit on your own ground. As a man, I’m very proud of that."

"We all want to look good from the outside, but the most important work is from inside out. And I think I’ve been trying to focus on that a lot, but I’m still struggling with it. Even where I’m at in my career, through the experiences I’ve had off the court, the heartbreaks, and the moments where I felt like the whole world was crumbling in front of me. The matches I’ve lost, judging myself for losing a match, playing the victim—those things are inevitable. But it’s how you harness them, how you address them. You have to walk with them, and that’s what I’ve done in very big moments in my life. (…) Take 2019, when I entered the US Open being ranked 82 in the world. That same year, I ended up being third in the world. Three times, I was about to retire from tennis. You may wake up feeling like crap. What do you do? You try, you go on with it, you put one foot in front of the other. If you win, great. If you lose, you take it on the chin and move on. There’s no other way."

Serena’s health scare

Serena Williams revealed that she had surgery to remove “a cyst the size of a small grapefruit” on her neck that a biopsy deemed noncancerous. She found it in May and ended up having to get that surgery when the cyst kept growing. In true Serena fashion, she’s been counting all the nice events that things made her miss. She has a tight schedule to maintain, places to go and people to see, and no time for the hospital. In the end, health came obviously first, and she’s on the road to recovery.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Do you believe it?

You were 75% to feel you were consuming more women’s sports content than before.

FEATURE 2 
Siniakova: “Doubles really suits me, and I also like that I’m not alone out there.”

Katerina Siniakova (@TopFiveManagement)

Say her name more. Katerina Siniakova (28) is doubles World No.1 and one of the most successful doubles players in history (27 titles, including 9 Grand Slam titles, made the career Grand Slam and won the Olympics in Tokyo with Barbora Krejcikova in 2021). She’s also a Top 20 to 40 singles player in singles, having won five titles throughout her singles career. The Czech went through a crazy stretch this summer by winning the titles at Roland-Garros, Wimbledon, and the Olympics (mixed doubles with Tomas Machac ). We sat down to chat in Wuhan, where she would reach the semi-finals with Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Tennis never stops, but did you have time to reflect on what this crazy summer meant?
Definitely, it’s really tough in tennis, and sometimes you cannot even remember what you did after the season because you have one day, or maybe not even one day, after winning a title to think about it. So far, it’s definitely amazing, but I will surely realize more after I’m done with tennis.

What’s been the impact back home or in the locker room?
I would say the Olympics made the biggest difference as you could see that people who don’t even like sports and don’t usually watch sports know what’s happening. Whereas to care about Grand Slams, you need to know about tennis and really be in it. The biggest change was the Olympics, but I have amazing friends and an amazing family who are supporting me, so it was really nice.

In Juniors in 2023, you won RG, Wimbledon, and the US Open: a natural doubles player from the start…
I guess! I don’t know… Doubles has never been my priority, but it all kind of went my way there. Singles was and is priority, and I don’t even practice for doubles so I’m just really happy that it’s going so well. The way you play doubles is different, but I was lucky to have some talent! Everywhere when I was young, I played singles and doubles. I started when I was 10, playing doubles. I didn’t focus on it; I just wanted to be good at singles and doubles. It was really nice, but then when I turned pro, it got more separated, and yet I never thought I wanted to play just one and not the other. It all went along, and I did really well (she laughs).

Fewer and fewer top singles players are also doubles players. Have you always known you would play both?
I didn’t think about it, actually. When I started playing both in juniors, I knew I was physically ready, so I wanted to play both. Then, when I turned professional, it was the same. I got lucky to be able to stay healthy and ready for both. Definitely, it’s challenging for the schedule; it can be difficult, but not for the physical side because I would practice anyway. At the beginning of my career, I used doubles for practice because it’s much better to get matches than practice matches. Doubles really helped me at the beginning of my career by giving me more match experience and getting used to the nerves. Sometimes you can also be more relaxed because you are not alone there. And I’ve always felt very good physically, so it’s never been a problem.

Is your journey inspiring for younger players? Being Top 40 in singles and World No.1 in doubles… To show them that it’s possible…
I would love to. It’s really nice to be able to do both but it’s really tough because now everyone is being pushed to think that if you play singles you need to rest, you need to be just so focused on everything you’re doing so for the young players it’s really tough. A lot of top players are now just playing singles, so doubles is on the side. But I’d say many singles players on the WTA Tour are playing doubles, so it depends on the person and how they feel. But the new generation is told, and so say, that you need to focus on singles if you want to be better. It really needs to be a feeling about what you prefer to do if you’re healthy, and of course, it’s tough to know at the beginning of your career. But above all, you need to like it. And then you work hard.

Singles was your priority when you started: Have you ever been tempted to drop the doubles?
Singles was and is still my priority. My schedule is all for singles and I never practice just doubles, I know it sounds crazy. I was changing my schedule at some point, not playing as many doubles tournaments as I did in the past, but I definitely wasn’t thinking about dropping it. Because when I was in the part of my career when I was thinking, ‘maybe I should start trying what people say and focus more on singles,’ I decided not to do it because it’s very hard to stay in the Top 20 and even if I think about money, doubles gave me the feeling it was making it easier for me to pay my team for example. And I have fun in doubles! So, I didn’t want to give it up.

Why would you say you’re so good at doubles?
I would say the way I play at the net, for sure. Also, the reflexes, the fact that I’m fast. I am, I guess, talented because you can learn the reflexes and all that, but I never practiced this, so I have to be lucky. Also, sometimes, as a great athlete, you just have it in you, but then you still have to work, and everything needs to click together. In this case, doubles really suits me, and I also like that I’m not alone out there.

Do you think there’s a lack of recognition for doubles?
Definitely, it’s different than singles. I feel a lot that even when I’m number 1, I don’t get the same advantages, the same practices situations, I don’t get to do any media, so it’s a really big difference.

Has your crazy summer changed that?
No! (She laughs). Unfortunatley no. And it’s really sad about doubles. I can just speak for myself, and I think I’ve achieved a lot in doubles, but no one cares. But that’s how it is; I don’t care anymore, and I don’t think it’s gonna change. Sometimes, you need to save this energy for something else. I know I did great stuff. But sometimes I’m in the main draw in singles, being Top 30 or Top 50, and I get better chances to practice than when being here as a World n°1 doubles player, and that’s how it is.

Has playing doubles made you a better singles player?
Good question! At the beginning of my career, yes, it definitely helped me with the serve and the return because, in doubles, you need to be more solid there as you have the player at the net. I think, yes, it’s helping me. Even when I had some big singles matches on big stages, it helped me to go and play because I had already been there.

How do you deal with the wait list as, for sure, everybody wants to play with you?
I need them to play on the deuce side! (She laughs) Usually, it’s a little bit about the game style and then about having a nice feeling. I’m ready to try with anyone, but maybe now I prefer someone who’s playing more aggressively, as it’s what I need so I can do more stuff at the net. It’s a little bit tricky with me because I don’t play the small tournaments.

After you won the Olympics, you were all over the gossip sites because of your personal life: was it weird?
Actually, it was so funny with all these stories. I never thought it could happen. If we hadn’t broken up, nothing would have happened, but here, anything got turned into a whole story. It really helped me because I found out that I could keep my personal life more secret because it doesn’t matter what happens next: it taught me I would keep it more for myself. You don’t have to say it, even when people ask and are waiting to learn something more. They’re waiting for the story. It was a very emotional and tough journey, but I wouldn’t change it: it’s life, tough and good.

There are so many great tennis players in your country: how is life when you’re home?
When I go back, I feel free, and I like it. I can go into the city without feeling they really recognize me. I really like it because it’s tough when you cannot do anything. There are so many players so people in Czech Republic really need to watch tennis, but when you’re in public you can still feel many people still don’t know about tennis! (She laughs)

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Thiem leaves tennis and goes to fight for Earth

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Dominic Thiem is another layer to the belief that there’s something as “too nice to crush it” when professional sports is concerned. The Austrian was surely one of the nicest players I’ve had the chance to work around. And also surely one of the most talented ones to leave the sport with a stellar résumé that still feels fitting in a “yet, could have been even better” file. Unfair? Of course. Welcome to professional sports: oh sure, you’ve won this and this and been ranked this and that, but you had so much more potential!

Thiem played his last official match in Vienna this week, gave a lengthy interview about what went right and wrong in his career, and another one about his career highlights and best shots. Then, he left the scene with a smile. He gave everything he had (he for sure played an insane schedule for too long) but damaged that right wrist and never came back from it. He’ll be missed: for that backhand, for that work ethic, for being the guy-next-door-that-everybody-likes in a sport filled with ego. He also should be a sort of cautionary tale for every young player thinking - or be made to think - there will be no consequences in not giving proper rest to one’s body, whatever the natural abilities of said body.

What I absolutely love about Thiem is that he has always been making sense. It is not the norm out there. He never thought he was someone else and never acted like someone else, either. The Austrian has been vocal throughout his whole career about the need to protect the environment, and so he goes after his career to fight for Mother Nature. Nowadays, someone would praise how aligned he is with his beliefs. Aligned is so on-brand right now, you know. But yeah, Thiem makes sense. As reported by The Times, he will now dedicate part of his time to combine business and fight for the environment: “Already he has used some of his £23million prize money to create two companies in his name: Thiem Energy, which aims to develop community-based solar power, and Thiem View, which creates sunglasses from sustainable materials.”

In his long list of tennis achievements, I still think one should always be mentioned before his US Open title: Thiem is one of only two players to beat Rafael Nadal more than four times on clay.

Tennis, assisted

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Let’s be honest: I am not a fan of that unlimited off-court coaching and so of the fact that it’s now here to stay. I will tend to side with the likes of Denis Shapovalov, Taylor Fritz, and others who don’t get why we’re removing one of the specific traits of the sport. Tennis is about problem-solving on your own on that court. And seeing players looking at their box after each point to be told what to do is always getting on my nerves. Figure it out yourself! I understand that some might feel they’re paying for a coach who can’t help them at the crucial moments of a match but: tennis is 1-1, and you chose that sport, and you have already used that coach to prepare for that match (and you’re anyway going to find ways to receive some advice here and there during said match, please). Also, I’m gonna say it: if your players are still unable to figure it out for themselves on that court, I think it’s a sign that the coaching fails.

I also fully disagree with the saying that allowing off-court coaching will make things fairer. How is it going to do that when it is actually giving an edge to players able to afford a coaching team? And maybe even a data science team, as now players will also be able to consult data sets on the court: Do you think the average player who’s not been taught how to use data can take advantage of that? All I see is the letters gate-keeping shining bigger.

I would prefer everybody to be honest about it: off-court coaching is now here to legally stay without any real kind of limits because 1) it has happened forever anyway, 2) the Tour doesn’t want to lose time and temper in policing it, 3) the Tour hopes it’ll be so good for the show, aka for the drama, aka for television, streaming and social media. Like, please, let’s tell it like it is. The only thing that is going to limit the whole off-court coaching era from taking fully over the actual play is that players are having less and less time between the points. But just wait for them to spend most of it still arguing with the coach, parent, partner, physio, or whoever would have told them the serve would come this way when it actually went that way.

I was honestly fine with the on-court coaching trial as it opened a real window into what was going on in a player’s mind and on the player-coach dynamic. You were learning stuff. But having coaches - and in worst cases, Apostolos Tsitsipas-style people - talking, yelling, arguing with players from the first to last point of a match? Oh no, thank you very much. Nobody needs that, starting with the players. And even the coaches: gosh, they’re going through it…

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
It Is Not ideal…

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• Well, if tennis thought it had found new deep pockets with Kering - via Gucci’s love for Jannik Sinner), it might want to reconsider. And remain in the good graces of Louis Vuitton. Why? Because it’s been yikes after yikes for Kering lately, and it’s getting worse: sales fell 16% in third-quarter revenue. “The French group forecast full-year operating profits would drop more than 45 percent year-on-year to €2.5 billion, citing “major uncertainties likely to weigh on demand among luxury consumers in the coming months,” reports the Business Of Fashion, adding that Gucci’s sales are down 25%. Maybe Kering and Nike should start their own support group…
  

• In other fashion and sports news, here’s for a birth: WWD reports that a new magazine is coming to try to merge these two powerhouses. Carine Roitfeld, former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris and founder of CR Fashion Book, is launching - with her son Vladimir - “a biannual magazine for men and women and what CR describes as an “interdisciplinary platform” encompassing e-commerce, exclusive brand collaborations, capsule collections and merchandise drops from athletes and designers.” Dwyane Wade will be their first guest editor. The new venture should launch in the first half of 2025, and we’re still waiting on the name. I’m curious about it, especially because it sounds very ambitious: “Content is expected to include exclusive interviews, essays that highlight the synergy between fashion icons and athletic legends, activewear trends, in-depth features on fashion-forward athletes, style tips from industry experts and insights into how sport continues to influence the world of high fashion.”
  

• Last minute news! Maria Sharapova, Mike, and Bob Bryan have been inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. When is the party? August 21-23, 2025, in Newport.

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
Tennis, tell me when…

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I’m sorry, but the NFL getting a fashion editor and not tennis or the NBA? Something’s not adding up. Granted, I hadn’t even thought about it before falling on this NFL news. But now that it’s in my brain, I cannot stop from being offended on tennis's behalf. Also, for real, when are we bringing these tunnel walks? Tennis, give me something (Venus tried at least!).

As reported many times in this space, luxury fashion brands are all over tennis right now and all over sports in general, so maybe for once, tennis could try not to miss the potential of the bag and the train to the mainstream station. Do I need to remind anyone that we already missed the streaming train by bombing Break Point on Netflix? No, I don’t think I need to. So, anyway, a fashion editor? Gosh, for the first (and surely) last time in my life, I’m jealous of the NFL coverage beat.

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, have a look at Above the Mantel.

READ: The Athletic about the “it could go south” side of video review in tennis. “Tennis, welcome to VAR: the source of existential angst, frustration, and rage across the English Premier League.”

WATCH: “Dominic Thiem: Reliving a memorable journey,” an interview made by the ATP

LISTEN TO: Allyson Felix about the launch of her women’s sports management firm on “The Business Case for Women’s Sports” podcast.

INTERVIEW - WOMEN’S SPORTS 
Sarah Spain: “In the past, we have always pointed to tennis as a way to see what we want”

Sarah Spain has been on the “let’s raise women’s sports profile” for some time already. She’s been working at ESPNW for 15 years and is now also the host of the daily podcast “Good Game, with Sarah Spain” for iHeartPodcasts about women’s sports. She recently had Taylor Townsend as a guest. I wanted her opinion on the growing interest in women’s sports, how tennis was or was not staying ahead, and what could be on the way.

You’ve been a women’s sports fighter for a while. Do you feel times are changing fast or not fast enough?
The space that I’m in very much dictates how I feel about it. If I’m surrounded by other people who have done the research and know the economic opportunity and are up to date on the statistics and arguments and the research, the investments, and all that, then I’m very optimistic, and it feels like it’s moving fast. There are multiple new outlets, companies, podcasts, shows, networks. And then it’s interesting when I go into spaces that are not traditionally familiar with women’s sports and how antiquated that can still seem. I started working in sports two decades ago and with ESPNW fifteen years ago, and the difference, just people willing to talk about it, is so massive. It started to pick up in the last couple of years.

Women’s sports are projected to be a 1,4 billion industry this year… So it’s quite a crazy dissonance with people saying nobody is watching or caring…
There’s the groundswell of fans and supporters and watchers that can get you to a certain place, and after that, what you really need is for the decision makers to be the ones ready to take that next step that means regular women’s sports shows, more investment, investing in pre and post-game instead of just running the game itself. That’s the step to take to get the same kind of coverage and respect that the men do, which is really what gets people to want to show up and care.

You’re now hosting a daily podcast covering women’s sports…
That’s what really was missing: somewhere you can go every day and keep up to date with what’s going on. It’s about knowing regularly enough and keeping up regularly, so when you turn the game on, you know it’s a big deal when this person scores 40 points, or it’s a big deal when this person isn’t in the game. We do that so well with men’s sports, but with women’s sports, because there are such massive gaps in the coverage, it’s really hard for people to find the information they need to care the same way they do about the men’s.

I would like for my show to be a place where people are informed enough that they understand the context of the games and put all their ideas and thoughts through that prism first before making ridiculous claims, before saying damaging things, before feeding into racism and misogyny. There’s just a lot of that coming from people who haven’t made any of the work but just showed up and then feel extremely confident speaking anyway, and what they’re doing is dangerous.

Women's tennis has had some of the biggest names in women’s sports, and its players are making way more money than most of the other female athletes, and yet it still feels niche in the US…
In the past, we have always pointed to tennis as a way to see what we want for other sports, like equal pay and respect for the players. Also, the players are very traditionally attractive in that girl-next-door kind of way, in a way that the WNBA struggled with in the past because of misogyny and homophobia, and also because it’s a lot of primarily women of color that people have their racist issues about. So tennis has always been elevated in the sense of watching, supporting, sponsorships, and dollars. And thanks to Billie Jean King. But it has only really cracked the surface of the biggest stories when there’s a name and a person that has so much success that is repeated and consistent. In WNBA or other sports, if you have a star, they’re gonna play every game. You know that person is gonna be there. Whereas in tennis, unless someone goes on a run or is at least making the quarters on a regular basis, it’s hard to get attached to that. Iga Swiatek is amazing, but most Americans don’t know how to say her name, so part of that is jingoism and patriotism of wanting to root for Americans, and so if they’re not in it, being like, « I don’t know that person .» Then they really have to elevate like a Federer, a Steffi Graf, Venus and Serena, Nadal, Djokovic, or Sharapova. I feel you haven’t had enough personalities that have established themselves outside of being good tennis players.

How do you see women’s sports coverage and business evolve?
I don’t really want competition, but hopefully, we’ll see more people doing the same as my show. The real key is how to get the information people need to wanna show up to games and watch more games. 15% of media coverage in the United States goes to women’s sports. It’s not a lot. Also, there’s less inventory, particularly when you think about American baseball, where every team has 162 games, so that’s a lot of coverage. But a lot of it is just breaking through the mainstream places that don’t look beyond men’s sports to think about what they might want to cover. 

But then I think investment is the big one. There’s been this disingenuous argument from people saying even women don’t wanna watch women’s sports. That is partly because women aren’t raised being told sports are for them. They’re not being told where and how to watch, and “you should care about this.” More are being told that sports aren’t for them, that it’s not ladylike, that they shouldn’t play, they shouldn’t watch. But also, for such a long time, the investment wasn’t there, so the product wasn’t that good. It wasn’t the players, it was the game experience. The comparison wasn’t there. It’s now going to make a huge difference going forward. There’s also a massive societal change and expectations for women in allowing them to be gay, straight, masculine, feminine, ladylike, competitive, mean, nice, etc. We used to make women so one-dimensional that it was boring, and so society allowing for that also affects how people react to female athletes as well. There’s a lot more of an embrace around whatever makes them interesting, and it’s just gonna keep opening doors for them to become more mainstream as opposed to needing to be a certain type of person who gets into women’s sports.

Women in sports media: is it the same trend as with women’s sports?
Yes, for sure, there are more women in general and so fewer people asking what you’re doing here. The beginning still sucks, not as much as it used to but it still sucks, but there are a lot bigger opportunities. And there are way more women in decision-making places at the highest levels, so you have more people, hopefully at the top, making the environment better.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Do you feel that way?

You were 78,57% to say you understood why WADA had appealed in the Jannik Sinner case.

WTA 
Dubrov: “More about discipline than emotions” for Sabalenka

Aryna Sabalenka and her coach Anton Dubrov in New York (@USOpen).

Anton Dubrov has turned into a rare species on Tour: a coach who’s still not afraid to get fired after now four years of employment with his current player. He shared some words about Aryna Sabalenka’s journey to the top of the game after she clinched the Wuhan Open title.

His thoughts on her week in Wuhan:
“It was a really exhausting week. She was sometimes fighting with herself and the tiredness of the season because it’s really hard to keep going all the time. But she found a way to do it, especially when you’re at the end of the season just thinking about finishing. But, Aryna, if you want to be the best one, you always have to find a way: that’s the approach constantly pushing her to find a way to keep winning.

The pressure to chase the end-of-season World No.1:
“It’s tough. You are always thinking about it, but at the same time, it’s more about: if you want to finish World No.1, you have to keep winning the next match and the next match. So, it comes back to the focus on how you should play. We’re trying to build it in simple steps: the small ones are the preparation, the practice, and what we can control. Everything else is the outcome, showing if you’ve been preparing well or not.

How did you turn her once-upon-a-time wild game into a consistent winning machine?
She definitely got more mature, has more experience, and has found purpose. Also, when she doesn’t play the way she wants to play, she still knows she has a lot of options to keep winning. She has more trust in herself that she can do it in other ways, not just one.

Has she impressed you through this end-of-season with how focused she’s staying?
The focus, yes. But that’s also why we try to break it all into simple steps. That fire at the US Open, we try to make it as simple as possible so there’s more control and less need to maintain the energy because she knows what to do. Right now, it’s more about discipline than emotions. Try keeping a solid discipline, do what you can do, and think about nothing else.

Discipline and Aryna Sabalenka, it’s not always been a match…
(He laughs) You have to do it if you want to be the best one. She’s doing her best, and she’s doing great.

If you had to pick one area, she has greatly improved this year…
I’d say the shift in the focus. When she makes what we’ll call easy mistakes: before, she’d be stuck into the “why did I do it?” and lose a few games, but now she’s like, “whatever, it’s just one ball, one decision, and there are many more coming so just keep going.”

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
Women’s sports are indeed making more moves

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We just heard it from Sarah Spain, and the trend keeps being confirmed. Women’s sports are coming for that business pie.

• Yahoo Sports and the Athletic are partnering to launch a new digital hub for women’s sports coverage.

• There’s a boom in sports podcasts by, for, and about women.

• The International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Billie Jean King Cup Ltd have confirmed the total player prize money purse on offer to national teams competing in the 2024 Billie Jean King Cup Finals (13-20 November) will be $9.6 million (USD). The champions will receive $2,400,000 (USD) to be shared amongst the team members. “At the heart of the ITF Advantage All programme is a drive towards gender parity and we are pleased to be offering equivalent prize money across Billie Jean King Cup Finals and Davis Cup Finals for the third year in a row. As ever, we are grateful to Billie Jean King Cup title sponsor Gainbridge for their support in helping to make this possible,” David Haggerty, ITF President, in a statement.

• Allyson Felix launched Always Alpha, a women’s sports management firm. “Young athletes often ask me how I’ve diversified and consistently grown my business across marketing, media, entrepreneurship, venture, entertainment and impact,” said Allyson Felix. “Wes (Felix, her brother) and I did it ourselves piece by piece, out of necessity — because there wasn’t another option for transforming our vision into reality. With Always Alpha, we’re taking everything we learned and creating the modern management firm I used to dream of existing to help the next generation of talent do the same and build the future they in turn dream of too.”

• Naomi Osaka-produced movie gets a US distributor after also being picked for the Oscar nomination by Belgium. Film movement has bought North American rights to “Julie Keeps Quiet”, directed by Leonardo Van Dijl. The theatrical release is to be expected in early 2025.

CHOICES WERE MADE

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CHOOSING TO GET IN: Deloitte joins the United Cup in a multi-year deal as the Official Business and Technology Transformation Consulting Partner.

CHOOSING TO GET OUT: Sales are still flying away from Nike. SBJ says the brand “saw a sharp drop in revenue over the three months ended Aug. 31, according to a quarterly earnings report published Tuesday evening. The athleticwear giant had $11.6 billion in quarterly revenue, down 10% from the same period in 2023. (…) Nike first forecast the significant revenue decline in June, leading to a 20% drop in share price.”

WHY NOT CHOOSING TENNIS AT ALL? Good question! The Arnault family is buying a football club in France, the Paris FC. And my tennis heart goes: LVMH, why not also build us a nice and shiny WTA event?

CHOOSING THE BAG: Jannik Sinner didn’t take that week of rest after winning the Masters 1000 in Shanghai to clinch a paycheck record instead, as he won $6 million by winning the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia. The Italian, who already made $1,5 million for just being in that event, is already sure to finish the season on the throne, so he clearly sees no reason not to add a bonus to it all. And, well, he’s still facing a 1 to 2 years of suspension in that doping case, so maybe his math are mathing.

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Rafa…

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Well, so long for our collective denial. Rafael Nadal will retire this year, as his body can no longer be convinced to endure the Tour. His last match should be at the Davis Cup Final (but it’s not even 100% sure), or it might have already happened during that Six Kings Slams exhibition. Let’s hope he can be on the court one last time in an official manner in Spain.

Where to even start? Rafa leaving is already a massive hole left in tennis. But Rafa leaving after Roger and Andy? Well, end of an era doesn’t even start to cut it. A whole block of tennis history detached from the Earth like a giant golden iceberg. When will Novak Djokovic scream “formation”? That’s now the last question remaining about the end of the Big 4 (And their reformation at some point? I still believe these guys will never really leave). I can barely remember men's tennis before these four guys (except for Agassi), and a whole generation has never known tennis without these four guys. We’re entering uncharted territories (even more with a current World No.1 starting his reign with a doping scandal).

As for Nadal’s legacy, he put the R in resilience, the S in sportsmanship, and the W in warrior. His tennis touch and flair were always way underestimated: these hands and tennis IQ were golden. A gentle slayer, with too much intensity for his own body. He created a next wave of players who will forever try to “bend it like Rafa.” One shot? That FHDTL on the run. Boom, they’re gone.

Naomi Osaka’s start of collaboration with Patrick Mouratoglou has been cut short. The Japanese has ended her season following the back injury sustained at the China Open in Beijing. An injury that, in the end, is proving way more serious than thought: “I thought I strained my back, but I did an MRI in Beijing, and they said that I bulged a disc in my back and I also ruptured abdominal muscles," Japan's Kyodo News agency reported Osaka saying.”

Andrey Rublev, in the end, saved his ball. Yes, you read that right. We’re unfortunately used to seeing him lose his mind on the court, but Andrey Rublev, this time, nearly lost a body part after that defeat in the fourth round of the US Open against Grigor Dimitrov. "I almost lost my ball,” he revealed in Stockholm in true Rublev fashion. What saved that ball in the end was him being smart enough to go directly to the hospital when the pain started.

"Now I feel perfect, everything went well. I don't know how to call it in a smart way but I can call it in a funny way. I almost lost my ball. I was super lucky because they say you have only five or six hours if the blood stops going there and then it's amputation. I was lucky. I don't know why I said, 'let's go to hospital just to check why I feel a weird feeling'. They checked straight away and they took me as an emergency to do the surgery and then they were able to do the surgery in three or four hours after the first feeling I felt. So they were able to do everything good and in the end everything is great." "The last thing before they made me sleep, I signed the paper saying they were allowed to amputate my ball," Rublev recalled. "That was the last thing before the surgery that I saw."

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
IT CAN BE CONFUSING OUT THERE

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• Players are tired… But not that tired of everything: It’s an old story and debate. Players complain the season is getting way too long with a way too hectic schedule that is putting their health and longevity in jeopardy. And then they add all the exhibitions they can into that schedule anyway. The thing is, for the majority of players, there’s an obvious and accelerating schedule issue. But it’s, as usual, very tough to hear complaints when their VIP club, which gets the most coverage and air time for the complaints, travels the world between official events to play exhibitions.
  
  Carlos Alcaraz, for example, ruined his argument against the ATP schedule - “they will kill us someday” - when reminded he played unofficial events all year, from the Netflix exhibition to the Laver Cup and the more recent Six Kings Slam exhibition. Again, it’s as old as this sport. Yes, the calendar is getting rough, but the stars can’t resist a fat paycheck and will give up on their weeks of rest for it. We know it. So… Sorry for the rest of the pack: your schedule will remain hectic. Both the BBC and The Times are looking at the situation, wondering if these exhibitions pose more risks nowadays on the Tour. And they seem to reach the same conclusions: players are independent contractors and can make the schedule they want to play, and the good old obvious professional sports principle: money rules.
  

• Coaches come and go and come and go again: Tracking the coaches’ changes on Tour has nearly become a full-time job. But also, at the same time, it seems we’re going in circles with the same names repeatedly. And I’m not sure it’s a good sign, by the way. So, here we go again: Wim Fissette, who was no longer Naomi Osaka’s coach (it’s now Patrick Mouratoglou), got recruited real quick by Iga Swiatek, who shocked the Tour by announcing a split with long-time coach Tomasz Wiktorowski. Fissette’s mission will be to get Iga to win more Grand Slam titles outside of Roland-Garros and to keep her ahead of Aryna Sabalenka in the battle for the throne. In other coaching news, Holger Rune came back to his mentor, Lars Christensen, after appearing honestly totally lost without him for over a year now. Elena Rybakina is in a funk at the moment, but it seems she found some help to at least go through the WTA Finals.

• She’s not leaving anymore, but he is. Danielle Collins spent 2024 talking about how she was retiring. And then she canceled the retirement? Yes, she did. “Dealing with endometriosis and fertility is a massive challenge for many women and something that I am actively traversing, but I am fully confident in the team I am working with. It is just going to take longer than I thought,” she said on social media. “So, the DANIMAL story has not reached its conclusion. I will be back on tour in 2025.” Dominic Thiem announced his retirement at the end of this 2024 season… and he will indeed keep his word. The Austrian got a special ceremony at the Vienna Open to celebrate his career.

• We’re in October, but we already know about a draw for a 2025 event. Absolutely. The draw for the United Cup happened this Monday, so if your brain is barely able to keep going with the 2024 end-of-season, well, sorry for that brain, but Tennis Australia is already jumping up and down in excitement about their summer of tennis next year. The whole schedule (here’s the players’ list) will be up this Tuesday, the same day the tickets will be available.

• Trophies were won: Tommy Paul won in Stockholm, Karen Khachanov won the Astana Open, Roberto Bautista Agut won in Anvers, and Daria Kasatkina clinched the title in Ningbo from 0-3 down in the third (and saving two match points in her quarter-final).

• Iga Swiatek is no longer the World No.1, but she could be again before the end of the year? Maybe. For now, Aryna Sabalenka has taken over this Monday and reached the throne for the second time in her career (after Sept. 2023). That’s what Swiatek got for skipping the Asian swing and so the battle for the throne. Now, everything will be decided at the WTA Finals.

• The BJK Cup will go from a 12 to 8-team competition in 2025, “to mirror the existing Davis Cup 8 format - as part of a long-term strategy to bring the World Cup of Tennis events closer together,” announced the ITF.

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys. If you are a collector of anything sports-related, have a look at Above the Mantel.

READ: Apparently, there’s a showdown brewing between tennis and pickleball. In a manner Padel has never known (for now?). So, if you’re interested in knowing more about The Feud, you can read these two features from the WSJ and The Times: The Turf War Between Tennis And Pickleball Is Escalating and Pickleball fans fear ‘hostile takeover’ by tennis chiefs. I admit I do not care about pickleball right now, but if you say “drama,” then my French soul might start running there.

WATCH: The Fall. I’m a massive Lee Pace fan, but even if you’re not, there’s no way you’ll regret watching The Fall. It’s just so beautifully shot. The movie was first released in 2006 and is returning to life thanks to MUBI. It’s a gem.

ATP
WADA reopens Tennis’s Sinner Wound

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WHAT HAPPENED? In a move few were expecting after Jannik Sinner was cleared by the ITIA, WADA wasn’t happy with the process and appealed the decision. The antidoping agency is requesting the CAS judge the case and will demand a one-to-two-year ban against the World No.1. “It is WADA’s view that the finding of “no fault or negligence” was not correct under the applicable rules. “WADA is seeking a period of ineligibility of between one and two years. WADA is not seeking a disqualification of any results, save that which has already been imposed by the tribunal of first instance,” it said in a statement.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR SINNER? The Italian will have to face another panel of three independent arbitrators chosen by the CAS. His lawyer, Jamie Singer, told the Gazzetta that this appeal was “useless.” There is no timeline given right now for when this appeal will be happening, and so Sinner can keep playing in the meantime. With a Sword of Damocles above his head. He’s at least sure not to lose his US Open title, as WADA stated they weren’t seeking any disqualification. Sinner, who said in New York that he had been going through a rough time during the whole investigation, is in for another round. Having also recently lost his aunt, it remains to be seen how long he can handle the situation with the same poise he has shown so far. One can also imagine the business pressure for Sinner, 23, who’s the face of many big brands, including Nike and Gucci. The WADA decision is the absolute worst-case scenario for him.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR TENNIS? Well, it’s pretty bad news as the WADA decision comes as a full rebuttal of the process leading to the ITIA clearing Sinner. It cannot be good news for the sport to be told it didn’t manage a doping case of that magnitude in the right way. Having your World No.1 testing positive is already an absolute disaster. Having your entire process be told it got it wrong is adding another layer to an already explosive situation. It also fuels the claims of the players and tennis followers, saying Sinner got preferential treatment when he won his appeals to be allowed to compete after the positive tests. The ITIA decision was thought to have closed the door on all these doubts, whatever, but WADA just reopened the wound and the box of all-the-takes.

WHAT DID THE ITIA SAY? “Having reached an agreed set of facts following a thorough investigative process, the case was referred to a tribunal entirely independent of the ITIA to determine level of fault and therefore sanction because of the unique set of circumstances, and lack of comparable precedent. The process was run according to World Anti-Doping Code guidelines; however, the ITIA acknowledges and respects WADA’s right to appeal the independent tribunal’s decision in the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” it said in a statement.

WHAT DID SINNER SAY? “Obviously I’m very disappointed and also surprised of this appeal, to be honest, because we had three hearings. All three hearings came out very positively for me. We always talk about the same thing. Maybe they just want to make sure that everything is in the right position,” he said in Beijing. Before publishing a statement, adding: “I am disappointed to hear that WADA have chosen to appeal the result of my ITIA hearing after the independent judges had exonerated me and deemed me to be innocent. Over the past few months and throughout this process there have been three separate hearings in each case confirming my innocence.“Several months of interviews and investigations culminated in three senior judges scrutinizing every detail through a formal hearing.

They issued an in-depth judgement explaining why they determined me not at fault, with clear evidence provided and my cooperation throughout. On the back of such a robust process, both the ITIA and the Italian anti-doping authority accepted it and waived their rights to appeal. I understand these things need to be thoroughly investigated to maintain the integrity of the sport we all love. However, it is difficult to see what will be gained by asking a different set of three judges to look at the same facts and documentation all over again. This being said, I have nothing to hide, and as I have done throughout the summer, I will cooperate fully with the appeal process and provide whatever may be needed to prove my innocence once again.”

WHAT DID ALCARAZ SAY? Asked about the situation in Bejing, here’s what he had to say: “It’s really sensitive things to Jannik and tennis in general. I mean, after everything was decided, before Cincinnati, that the ITIA (International Tennis Integrity Agency) saying he didn’t do anything wrong, and now came again, it is open again. I think for tennis is not really good, not really good sign for tennis in general. I thought it was closed. This month I didn’t know what happen exactly. I just saw the news and it surprised me a little bit. Okay, what’s going on that the case is open again? I don’t know how it’s going to be the next months. For sure to tennis, not a good sign.

It is difficult for him. I know everyone talking about it, the news, talking about it. Probably, as he said before New York, people started to look at him in different way. I don’t know how it can be. But for sure I understand the position. I feel him. The game and the level that he’s playing with everything he’s been through right now, it’s insane. He’s able to put all the things aside when he step on the court, playing a good tennis, is unbelievable. I hope that this thing, this term will be aside soon and he’s able to stay focused on what he loves, and that is playing tennis, trying to keep going. All I can say, I hope that with his people around, his close people and him, not going to feel bad these next months.”

ATP/WTA ASIAN SWING
Alcaraz passes the #200 mark, Sinner keeps winning

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• Carlos Alcaraz is having a great week for his stats in Beijing. He got his Tour-level win n°200 by qualifying for the quarterfinals and then clinched the World No.2 back after reaching the semi-finals. Only John McEnroe has gone to 200 wins faster than Alcaraz, who took over Rafael Nadal, among the players who reached World No.1. "It was a great achievement, getting my 200th win on the ATP Tour. I always try and want to win every match that I play. Just two years and a half, more or less, being on the Tour, playing the Tour, having my 200th win is great for me. I just want to keep going, to keep getting more and more wins,” he said. Even his argument with the umpire and anger at the new clock system didn’t get the best of his game.
  

• For now, he’s still going strong. Jannik Sinner, despite all his WADA worries, has qualified for the semi-finals of the ATP 500 in Beijing, beating Jiri Lehecka (6-2, 7-6(6), and saving two set points on the way (3-5, 4-6, 8-6) The Italian is now on a 14-match winning streak with this 10th semi-final of the season.
  

• French players are having a crazy good week in Tokyo, especially Arthur Fils! For the first time since Vienna 2017 (Lucas Pouille - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga), two French players will meet in a final on the ATP Tour. Arthur Fils took down nearly all the big names out of the draw this week with wins against Taylor Fritz (n°1), (6-4, 3-6, 6-3), Matteo Berrettini (6-7 [5], 0-0 ret.), and defending champion Ben Shelton, tête de série n°8 (7-5, 6-7 [5], 7-6 [2]). He beat Holger Rune in 2h23 (7-6(8), 7-6(10)) at his sixth match point to get to the final.
  

• Zhang Shuai broke the curse and just kept going. She was on a 23-match lost streak when she arrived in Beijing, but Zhang Shuai picked that win at home to find her best game back. She has now made history by becoming the lowest-ranked player (#595) to make Beijing round of 16. “At China Open, this court I think is like Philippe Chatrier for Rafa," Zhang told the press. "When I'm on this court, I have everything. This court, because I grew up from Tianjin, Beijing, I played this hard court more than 20 years every day. I think my tennis is so natural on this court, I can play my best tennis on this court."
  

• The WTA 1000 in Beijing is having ALL the popcorn for its last stretch. The round of 16 is absolutely packed, just the way we like it. Just judge: Coco Gauff - Naomi Osaka, Aryna Sabalenka - Madison Keys, Qinwen Zheng - Amanda Anisimova! The striking skills?! Through the roof.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Do you get it?

You were 53,85% to think Rafael Nadal wouldn’t retire during the Davis Cup Finals. Yet, as Paul said, the end is still coming for Rafa’s career, even if he surely doesn’t want to (and us too…): “Chronic injuries and declining results will force Rafa to retire despite his love of tennis and competition.”

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
Wimbledon’s expansion gets the green light

Well, it’s happening! What? Wimbledon, The Extended Edition. And so, now, we’ll if people are really going to tie themselves to the grounds in protest. In what has been - and may still keep being - a proper drama-made-in-Wimbledon, the AELTC received the green light to get going with that expansion. 39 courts should be added to Wimbledon Park, helping the Grand Slam event to stage its qualification on-site instead of staging them in Roehampton. On Friday, after a three-hour public hearing, “the deputy mayor of London ruled that the “very significant benefits” of the scheme outweighed any potential harm to the environment.”

Jules Pipe detailed his reasoning: “The proposed development would facilitate very significant benefits, including those to public open space and recreation, community, cultural heritage, ecology and biodiversity, economic, employment and transport. These would clearly outweigh the harm caused by the proposal and represent very special circumstances. For these reasons, I agree with the GLA [Greater London Authority] planning officer’s recommendation and grant planning permission.” Opponents of the projects remind the ALETC that back in 1993, they had signed on not touching the space they now intend to… touch. Opponents have six weeks to decide to bring the case to the judicial system and even to the Supreme Court.

"We are delighted that the Greater London Authority has resolved to approve our applications to transform the former Wimbledon Park Golf Course," said Debbie Jevans, Chair of the All England Club, in a statement. "Our proposals will deliver 27 acres of newly accessible parkland for the community and enable us to bring the Qualifying Competition for The Championships onsite, with all of the substantial economic and employment opportunities this presents. Every stage of this project will be delivered with a meticulous attention to detail and the utmost respect for both our neighbors and the environment.”

In Wimbledon-related matters, the price for a ticket to the finals has reached over 300£ for the first time. The All England Club, following last year's incredible success, has decided to raise the price by £40 to £315. “Spectators paid £63 to attend the men’s singles final in 2000, £100 in 2009, and £210 in 2018,” reports The Times, also quoting a spokesperson for the All England Club: “Very careful consideration is given when setting ticket prices for the Championships, with the greatest price increase applied to premium seats on Centre Court and No 1 Court. Twenty percent of all tickets have had prices frozen at 2024 levels, including grounds passes.”

There’s a new sponsor for the Australian Open. Its name? EZZ Life Science Holdings Limited. For how long? 3 years. What is the company about? It’s an “Australian health and wellness company, specializes in high-quality nutraceutical products. With a strong focus on improving health outcomes through innovative supplements.”

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
In and Out

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• OUT: Caroline Garcia is saying no to the tennis dress. Until Australia next year. The French player announced on social media that she was terminating her season, deciding to pass on the China Open and the Wuhan Open. Why? She explained she has been fighting anxiety and lack of motivation all season long and needs to take a break. The good news is that she seemed to have found her love for tennis again in recent weeks and will try to go back to it next year. But right now, her mind needs to switch off from professional sports. And her right shoulder needs it, too.
  
  A very sensitive person, Garcia has always struggled with the pressure of being one of the best players in the world. She’s been trying all year to switch her routines and mindset to cope with a rough stretch on the court, but it just left her exhausted. Let’s see if that short break, where she intends to intensify the work started with a psychologist, will be enough for her to solve it all.
  

• IN: Simona Halep gets back on court. Out of the Tour since May due to a knee injury, Halep has announced her comeback: she accepted a wild card into the WTA 125 of Hong Kong.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Gauff adds a new coach, thieves take on Roland-Garros

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• Coco Gauff has found a new buddy for Jean-Christophe Faurel. After parting ways with Brad Gilbert, she announced that Matt Daly would now join the team. Daly previously worked with Denis Shapovalov, and Gauff hopes the partnership will last.
  
  "I think this is probably what it will look like next year too. I'm super excited for a new change and hopefully to improve other parts of my game. Working with Brad was really great, and obviously, we had a great partnership. I think it was just time to do a reset, a refresh, and add some things in my game that I felt like I need to do to have a better season next year,” she told the WTA Insider in Beijing.
  
  Gauff also confirmed the obvious: Daly’s main priority for now is to fix her serve. "There are other parts of my game that I want to work on, too, but the focus right now is the serve," Gauff also said. "When I serve well, I play pretty well. For me, that's the basis for my game. Already, the little bit we've done has made a drastic improvement to where I was three weeks ago. At this point, there's not a crazy amount, like going through a whole technique change or resetting everything. It's just subtle things that, doing it for a week now, will help me."
  

• Thieves at Roland-Garros? Yes. They broke into the stadium last Thursday night and came out of raiding offices with €11000 in cash and €20000 in jewelry. And nobody cared about racquets and balls? Surely they ain’t no tennis fans… The French Federation has put police on the case. An inspiration for another reboot of Arsène Lupin?
  

• He will not appear as Arsène Lupin but actor Ben Stiller is still trying something new as he joins Andy Roddick in a, wait for it, pickleball movie. Roddick on the screen wasn’t something I’d have expected, but I kinda feel it can suit him. But in a pickleball movie? Surely, not as steamy as Challengers… Yet, confirming that (will some say, “sadly”?) pickleball is coming for tennis’s spot in the entertainment industry. The movie is said to be a comedy, will start filming in November, and be released on Hulu. It will be called “The Dink.”
  
  What will it be about? “The comedy will focus on a washed-up tennis professional attempting to save his club by reluctantly playing pickleball to earn his father's respect.” No, Roddick doesn’t play the tennis player here, as the role has been awarded to Jake Johnson. It’s not the first time that Roddick has gone all Hollywood, as he already appeared in a movie (“Just Go With It” in 2011 and a TV show (“Sabrina the Teenage Witch” in 2002) and hosted SNL in 2003.
  

• Acapulco is underwater again. The city has been struck hard by another hurricane, and so, for a second time, the site of the ATP 500 Abierto Mexicano Telcel has been wrecked. The tournament is supposed to be played early next year (24 Feb - 1 March). Of course, tennis facilities are the least of people’s worries at this time when people’s houses and safety are in jeopardy.

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
Do you wanna shop the look?

Qinwen Zheng in Beijing (@China Open)

I love the “shop the look” options, even when I know I’m absolutely not forking that amount of money for it. It satisfies my curiosity, and that’s enough. So, do you wanna shop that great Qinwen Zheng look? Then head over here to this account has all the details.

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys.

READ: If you want to stay up to date with the most popular supplements in sports (beetroot shots, baking soda, etc.) and get reviews about their efficiency (or not): The Guardian has a great feature going in-depth into the topic.

WATCH: The match point between Arthur Fils and Holger Rune in Tokyo. So Good.

LISTEN TO: If you don’t know where tennis balls go when they die and are curious about it, listen to The Hustle podcast for the answer.

THE VIP CORNER
Nadal comes back, Osaka pushes through

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This time, we have a date. Rafael Nadal was announced in Spain’s squad for the Davis Cup Final 8 in November (19-24) in Malaga. Nadal, who hasn’t played since the Olympics, joins Carlos Alcaraz, Roberto Bautista Agut, Pablo Carreno Busta and Marcel Granollers. Spain will open the Final 8 against the Netherlands on November 19.

After Rafa pulled out of the Laver Cup, it was starting to look like we may not see him play again this season or ever. Now, the question on everyone’s lips is going to be whether he’ll use the Davis Cup as a farewell event.

Carlos Alcaraz already gave his thoughts about the situation: "It's always great having Rafa around. I miss him. I'm not going to lie, I missed him in the Laver Cup. Obviously, as much time as I can spend with him, it's a privilege for me. I don't want to think that it's a potential last dance for him in Malaga. I just want to enjoy seeing him on court as much as I can. It's great support having him in the team. He can bring a lot of experience to the Davis Cup."

Naomi Osaka hired Patrick Mouratoglou because of FOMO. The Japanese, who won her first match in Beijing with the French coach, explained why she made that drastic coaching change after the US Open. “Wim is one of my favorite people and coaches. It wasn't anything personal. Like nothing crazy happened. I just felt like I needed a change. It sucks because I wanted to lift trophies with him. I know we went into that relationship wanting to do that together. I'm at a stage in my life where I don't want to have regrets. I'd rather pull the trigger on something and I don't want to say 'fail', but I feel like I really need to learn as much as possible in this stage of my career. Patrick seemed like the guy with I guess the information that I wanted to learn from.”

Curiously, the fact that Serena Williams worked with Mouratoglou was, for Osaka, a reason not to want to work with him at first. “The fact that he was Serena's coach for me made me want to avoid him just because his persona is so big. This isn't rude because I found out it's not true, but I didn't know - this sounds so bad - I didn't know if he was a good coach or if he coached Serena. Does that make sense? I'm like, I'm just going to do my own thing. Then I met him, talked to him, worked with him on the court. He absolutely is a really good coach. I'm really glad that he's, I guess, taking this project on, as well. I would say I'm still a little nervous around him. I kind of look to the floor when he looks at me. I think I do need a lot more time to spend together with him. I'm getting a little more comfortable day by day.”

Osaka confirmed that this association is a long-term one, as she doesn’t want to "get into relationships with people for short-term. I try to think of it as a long-term commitment. I like the way he coaches. I think it's going to be really interesting.” As far as her goals for the end of the year, there’s actually just one: “I would love to avoid Caroline Garcia,” she said. How? By being seeded at the next Australian Open, she says. “For me, the Asian Swing is full of possibilities. I've always done really well at the end of the year. I always look forward to it. Especially with the two tournaments in Japan, for me, it's kind of the time to dig deep and try to get really good results. My goal now, I think to be seeded in Australia. I would really love that. I would love to avoid Caroline Garcia (smiling). Yeah, just being seeded. But not putting too much pressure on myself. I'm just trying to take it day by day.” Please, nobody tells her that Garcia’s ranking has dropped to #36.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Will he stop there?

You were 85,71% to think that Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka would have a showdown for the year-end World No.1.

Now:

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
The Rybakina Mystery Gets Darker

Elena Rybakina in Miami this year (© Miami Open/Hard Rock Stadium)

It’s been obvious to everyone this year that something was wrong with Elena Rybakina. She’s been sick more than anyone else on the Tour combined, withdrawing from events with little transparency about what was happening. Yet, officially, everything was still fine: she kept winning big or going deep in tournaments, so there was surely nothing to worry about. Well, maybe there was something after all… Maybe we weren’t all making things up…

Now that Rybakina abruptly terminated her coaching relationship with Stefano Vukov and opted out of the entire Asian swing (back injury), echoes of what Pam Shriver denounced last year (“I hope she finds a coach who speaks and treats her with respect at ALL times and does not ever accept anything less,” said Pam Shriver) are coming back through a report from Russian journalist Sofya Tartakova. “All these difficulties that she [currently] faces, she faces because of a lot of very heavy pressure associated with her former coach Vukov,” she reported.

“They say that Stefano actually came to the US Open, that he was in New York, was ready to continue working with her, but Lena decided that they would break up because of a very difficult… I don’t want to say big words, not quite the correct attitude of her mentor towards her. That is, he “ate” her all the time, as people who surrounded Lena say. Rybakina’s parents stood up for her, because she could not break this vicious circle. On one hand, this is the coach who worked with her since (a young age), and she herself, together with her family, chose him. It is clear that they were very close, she won the main achievements of her career thanks to their joint work, [but] her parents insisted that Lena change something in her tennis life, because there was pressure, and insults, and bad words said to her. They were constantly from Vukov’s lips. And now Elena Rybakina is suffering and trying to get rid of psychological problems. So the situation is, of course, very difficult for her, but we’ll see.”

One can imagine the WTA has been on the case to see exactly what’s been happening, as the Tour has options to help players who might be going through these situations and ban coaches if needed. If Rybakina comes back for the WTA Finals, let’s hope she’ll be in a safe place to do so.

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
Women’s sports take over podcasting too

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• They’re all over your screen and more and more in your ears. What? Women’s sports. 2024 is proving to be a watershed moment for women’s sports, finally getting their dough due, and it shows on the media side, too. The boom also includes podcasts hosted by women that cover men's and women’s sports. In a report, Marketing Brew says that “there’s been a recent explosion of sports podcasts by, for, and about women, and interest from media companies, listeners, and advertisers only continues to push the category forward.” 
  

• Tennis Channel has a new boss in town. After firing Ken Solomon, its longtime CEO, Sinclair, Inc. has named an interim president. So who’s the winner? Bill Simon, who has been an executive at the network since 2005.
  

• We talked about how Roku was thinking about getting into the sports rights battle, and now here we go with Netflix saying they might now be ready to go for some major sports streaming rights. Amazon, you have some competition coming for you. Of course, it seems the NFL and the NBA will be the first choices, but who’s to say that tennis will be left aside? After all, Netflix has already started to put a foot in the sport with several documentaries (and more to come).
  
  Co-CEO Greg Peters told Deadline that “having Thursday Night Football or the NBA or things like that, we’d love to do those things. It would be amazing. We also want to do it in a way that works for the business and those have been typically challenging deals to go and do and make it work for the business. (…) Certainly we’re poking at the edges of a full-scale live sports component. Maybe we’ll figure out a way but we haven’t figured out a way yet.” (With most major rights locked up for several more years), “there’s not really the opportunity for quite some time,” he noted. “Nevertheless, I’ve learned from advertising and all these other things that you should not rule out these things categorically. There may come a time, but no plans at this point.”
  

• Post Laver Cup blues. Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev haven’t really reassured tournaments being scheduled after the Laver Cup. The Greek lost in his first match in Tokyo, while the German has withdrawn from the China Open after being diagnosed with pneumonia. The rest of the Laver Cup field? Not much better: Frances Tiafoe lost in the first round in Tokyo against Brandon Nakashima, Taylor Fritz did the same but against Arthur Fils, Alejandro Tabilo was also sent packing right away in Tokyo, by Holger Rune, Jan-Lennard Struff and Grigor Dimitrov withdrew from the China Open. ATP Tour, what do you say?

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Bend It Like A Cilic Comeback

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• Marin Cilic, as if he never left. In just his third tournament since last February, Marin Cilic was already the second lowest-ranked player (#373) to reach an ATP final. And he pushed it one more step by clinching the title for his 37th final, beating Zhang Zhizhen in straight sets (7-6(5), 7-6(5)), and so becoming the lowest-ranked player to ever win a Tour title. Winning this title n°21 was for sure feeling different for Cilic after so many struggles with that knee injury. "It has been a difficult period for me in the past few months. I lost my ranking, and I didn't play too much," Cilic said. "So a big thank you to the organising team for giving me the opportunity [with the wild card],” Cilic said.
  

• Zhang Shuai breaks the curse. The Chinese player hadn’t won a single match on the WTA Tour since January 2023 (!!), but she put an end to that 24 losses in a row streak at home at the China Open. "I think that this is the perfect timing," Zhang told WTA Insider after the win. "My first win at a WTA tournament was 15 years ago at China Open, and then the next day I beat the No.1 player [Dinara Safina in 2009]. (…) Nobody cared how many matches I lost because everybody said you play so well. (…) When I came back, I played Daria Saville in Miami. After the match, she said you're still at the top, even better than before when you were ranked in the Top 30. So keep playing, the win will come. I have a lot of motivational feelings from my friends because I feel everybody is my friend. I don't feel they are my opponents. If you play good, I am happy for you. But you also show me how much I can improve. We inspire each other. That is the big family in the WTA Tour. I like it. That's why I continue to keep playing," she told the WTA Insider.
  
  For this, she beat McCartney Kessler in a first-round thriller (7-6(5), 7-6(1)). “In the Open Era, only one player has ever lost more than 24 matches in a row on the tour, excluding the Billie Jean King Cup,” the WTA said. “That came in the early days of the tour, when Madeleine Pegel lost her first 29 WTA matches from 1968 to 1972.”
  

• They’re done. We keep telling you that this is split season… Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram will no longer play doubles together. Through their six-year association, they’ve won four Grand Slam titles (Australian Open 2020 and three consecutive titles at the US Open in 2021, 2022, and 2023). Salisbury hasn’t been left standing for too long, as it’s already been announced that he’ll now play with Neal Skupski.
  

• A 99-year-old threatens to chain herself to Wimbledon grounds in protest. Well, we told you things would get tense again around that Wimbledon expansion… The Guardian reports that actor Thelma Ruby (99) is vowing to chain herself to the grounds if the plan to build 39 courts in Wimbledon Park is approved this Friday.
  
  “Thelma Ruby, who has appeared in Coronation Street and on stage alongside Orson Welles and Judi Dench, and lives in a flat overlooking the club, said she was determined to take a stand on environmental grounds. Asked whether she was worried about being arrested, Ruby replied: ‘No, I’m 99. Let them arrest me.’” I mean… Are we sure she’s not French?
  
  Christopher Coombe, of Save Wimbledon Park, also vowed to keep fighting the project. “The GLA stage was always the third set, with Merton the first and Wandsworth the second,” he told the Guardian. “It’s not a done deal. We are just entering the third set tiebreak, and have plenty of aces to serve. The fourth set is the secretary of state and the fifth the courts. We are in it for the long haul.” Well, hold the Pimm’s…

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
Winning Points For Cuteness

Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz at the Forbidden City in Beijing (@ATP)

Surely, they wouldn’t be able to play like that, but these outfits still kinda slay. And not even their sponsors tried to put a logo on that. Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz took a stroll inside the Forbidden City in Beijing before the start of the China Open.

Carlos Alcaraz at the Forbidden City in Beijing (@ATP)

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way. I also have a sweet spot for The Creator Spotlight*, which provides examples of other creators’ journeys.

READ: Does spraining your ankle hurt your brain, too? This is an interesting question that relates to neuroscience and how it helps athletes, astronauts, and regular people.

WATCH: If you wonder how generative AI is used for commentary play-by-play in sports, just have a look at this.