Welcome to the Monday tennis briefing, where Athleticism will explain the story behind last week’s stories on the ground.
This week saw the coveted Masters 1000 in Madrid in its first week and the stories on the court were accompanied by drama, as the Grand Slam and tennis tournaments continued their beauty contest for the future of the sport .
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Can “assurances” on player safety in Saudi Arabia be enough?
Daria Kasatkina, the highest-ranked openly gay player in women’s tennis, was asked on Sunday what she thought about the WTA’s choice to host its Tour finals for the next three years in Saudi Arabia, a country where Homosexuality is a crime that can be punished by criminal sanctions. the death.
Only the top eight players qualify for the Tour Finals. Kasatkina is currently world number 11.
“Look, if I qualify, that means I’m top eight in the world,” Kasatkina said after advancing to the round of 16 in Madrid. “This is great news for me.”
Then she took a deep breath. “We see that the Saudis are now very interested in this sport. They want to grow this sport, and as long as it gives the opportunity to the people there, the young kids and the women as well, you know, we see this sport and especially tennis, it’s actually so close that they can watch it. . They can play, they can participate in this, I think it’s great.
When asked what she thought the environment would be like for gay players and those in same-sex relationships like herself, and whether she received any assurances about sharing a room with a partner, Ksatkina said. new pauses, thoughtfully. “I was assured that everything would be OK,” she said.
Does it matter if Aryna Sabalenka wants to watch men’s tennis?
Sabalenka caused a stir last week when she told a Spanish media outlet that she doesn’t watch much women’s tennis and prefers men’s tennis, saying it is more interesting. It wasn’t the kind of buzz the women’s tour expects from its top players.
Sabalenka clarified those comments after winning her first match in Madrid, explaining that sitting back to watch her opponents was not how she preferred to spend her free time.
“I’m playing against all of them, and I just want to change the game, and because I watch a lot of women’s tennis before I go to the match, I watch my opponents, I watch a lot of women’s tennis,” she said . “It’s not like I don’t like it or that I’m trying to offend what I’m doing. I was trying to say that because I play there and it’s too much for me, I’m trying to watch men’s tennis. It’s probably more fun than watching my future opponents in the tournament.
A perfectly understandable explanation. Tennis, and watching it, is a job for the best players in the world, both men and women. Baseball players don’t watch baseball much in their free time.
(Full disclosure, this may also be true for tennis writers.)
It’s a sensitive subject around the circuit, especially since not so long ago, Amélie Mauresmo, director of the Roland-Garros tournament and former world number one, described men’s tennis as more attractive to justify his decision to let the men dominate the evenings of the tournament. match.
Women have enough problems with men degrading their sport. Fair or unfair – probably the latter – which requires them to be very careful when talking about their favorite versions of the sport. No one is picking on Daniil Medvedev or any other male player when he admits to not watching his sport unless he’s in the middle of a tournament.
GO FURTHER
Listening to women: the slow rise of female tennis coaches
Did an arm injury really help Carlos Alcaraz?
Few things worry the tennis world more than the health and well-being of Carlos Alcaraz. His magical game and dynamic style captivated tennis fans and the rest of the sports-loving public. He is one of those players who doesn’t come along that often and who transcends the game, giving tennis an opportunity to emerge from the quagmire.
He also gets injured a lot and missed some mid-sized stretches in his first seasons as a professional that cost him a chance to play in important tournaments – the ATP Tour Finals in 2022 and the Australian Open in 2023 at the top of the list.
GO FURTHER
Carlos Alcaraz makes magic again. Attention.
So it was a bit alarming that Alcaraz withdrew from Monte Carlo and Barcelona this month due to a forearm injury. The competition in Madrid was hit or miss until his final practice the day before his first match, which he played with one inning. His performance, a near-flawless 6-2, 6-1 victory over Kazakhstan’s Alexander Shevchenko, assuaged many concerns, but it also highlighted another Alcaraz team, which said it doesn’t had never made the slightest effort with his cannon forehand to protect his arm.
“I hit it softer than before, but it helped me stay relaxed,” he said. “I think more.”
The data (below) shows that Alcaraz hits softer (a difference of three miles per hour may not seem like much, but beyond 78 feet it’s a lot) and with “less quality,” but he still wins.
Far from the idea of criticizing the play of a double Grand Slam champion at 20, but if there was a weak point for Alcaraz, it was his tendency to sometimes play shots rather than points – especially when under pressure – and creating a highlight rather than simply winning by playing solid, unspectacular tennis. If there is a positive side to this latest injury, it could be that it forces Alcaraz to become a more restrained but more effective player, with still plenty of highlights to boot.
Two bagels for you Coco, go ahead Coco!
Coco Gauff has done a lot of impressive things during her tennis career, but so-called “double bagels” generally aren’t her thing. She has come close before, most recently last year in the WTA Final against a hobbled Ons Jabeur. With Gauff, however, there is usually a moment in every match where the forehand becomes wobbly or the serve slips.
Then came Madrid and a first round match against Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus. Fifty-one minutes and a 51-18 point differential later, and Gauff had his first double bagel. In her second match, against Dayana Yastremska, Gauff sprinted to a 4-0 lead and looked like she might score three in a row, but settled for a 6-4, 6-1. Breadsticks are also good fuel.
Gauff is as good an athlete as she is in the game and can play all night if she needs to, but every player likes to be as clinical as possible whenever possible. If Gauff can figure out how to do this, especially in the early rounds of tournaments, the rest of the field better watch out.
Is the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup crossover a good idea?
Sports legend Billie Jean King has long wanted a “Tennis World Cup” – and now she has it…sort of.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) this week announced changes to the schedule and format of the annual event, creating a crossover week between the BJK Cup and its men’s equivalent, the Davis Cup, with the second semi-final and the final of the women’s tournament overlapping the first two days of the men’s tournament in late November this year.
The women’s tournament also decided to emulate the knockout structure of its counterpart, replacing the round-robin finals with a straight shootout between eight of the final twelve teams. The four seeded nations – which in current form would be the Czech Republic and Australia, alongside 2023 winners and runners-up Canada and Italy – will receive a bye straight to the quarter-finals .
Rune and Navone have Madrid on the ropes
If Medvedev’s destiny is in his hands, then that of Holger Rune risks missing a thread.
During his unnecessarily eventful victory against Argentinian Mariano Navone, he appeared before the referee at 5-3 in his favor (even though, a few minutes earlier, it was 5-1).
“The tournament is trying to deceive me,” he said. “They missed a string on my racket.” He then pushed a camera away before repeating his complaint. It looked more like a poorly woven cross thread than an entire line missing.
Rune trailed 5-6, 15-30 on Navone’s serve in the second set, on the verge of exiting the tournament, before Navone tightened up to commit two resounding double faults and a backhand error that barely landed in the tram lines to abandon. a tie-break. Rune flew away with it, and the next six games were 5-1, but the racket incident completely unsettled him and he ended up needing five match points before winning 6-4 in a final service game that swung like a pendulum.
Chain Navone, perhaps.
Shots (taken) of the week
Alexander Bublik will do Alexander Bublik things whenever he wants. Roberto Carballes Baena is not a fan.
What Carballes Baena 🇪🇸 is doing here is so that they give him a good sanction and he can’t participate in a tournament for a long time.
He gets upset because Bublik is acting stupid (he always does) and then tries to hit him with his serve twice in a row.
Shameful is an understatement pic.twitter.com/B7VAFtMekW
– Miguel_cmm (@Miguelcmm1) April 28, 2024
Recommended reading:
📅 Coming soon
🎾 ATP:
📍Madrid, Mutua Madrid Open (1000) second week, ft. Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev.
📺 United Kingdom: Sky Sports; United States: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV
🎾 WTA:
📍Madrid, Mutua Madrid Open (1000) second week, ft. Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff.
📺 United Kingdom: Sky Sports; United States: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV
Let us know what you noticed this week in the comments as the tours continue.
(Top photos: Clive Brunskill/Julian Finney/Getty Images)