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New York Times
04-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Casper Ruud beats Jack Draper to win Madrid Open, his first ATP 1,000 title
After two hours and 28 minutes on the court in the Spanish capital, Casper Ruud smashed a forehand winner up the line to move within one point of the Madrid Open title and let out an extended roar of effort and delight. One point later, another forehand in the same direction cannoned off Jack Draper's racket, and Ruud had his first-ever ATP 1,000 title. Advertisement The Norwegian beat Draper 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 to crown a week in which the tennis fire he said he had been missing truly returned, as much as it ever does for one of the coolest players on the ATP Tour. Ruud turned the Madrid Open back into a clay-court tournament just as Draper looked set to win it by disregarding what was under foot entirely, absorbing the British player's barrage of incendiary groundstrokes and spreading him across every corner of the Caja Magica's red dirt. 'Jack had been playing unbelievable all year … I knew if I didn't bring my AA-plus game, I would be whooped around the court,' Ruud said when it was over. Draper served for the first set at 5-4, but played two two low-energy service games to first give Ruud a lifeline and then to concede the set. Draper fumed at himself during the set break, astounded by his flatness at a crucial time — as he had every right to be after sweeping all before him in previous rounds. The Brit won most of his matches at the event using intelligently destructive tennis. Madrid's elevation makes it more hospitable to aggression than other clay-court events on the circuit, and Draper used that — and the extra bounce the altitude gives his high-revolution forehand — to keep his opponents on their heels. Ruud, however, was able to minimize Draper's ability to play hard-court tennis on brick dust, except for the latter part of the second set. He picked his patterns, withstanding Draper's attempts to rush his backhand and profiting from attacking the Brit's forehand when he could take the initiative. Both men escaped tight service games at the top of the third set, before Ruud secured the decisive break for a 4-2 lead. He never looked troubled after that, easing through the last few games until he had his arms aloft in celebration of the biggest title of his career. Advertisement The result sees Ruud reenter the top 10, while Draper still achieves a career-high ranking of No. 5 in the world, moving ahead of Novak Djokovic. Next is Rome, with more clay and lower elevation. Don't expect Ruud to change his cruising altitude for anything.
New York Times
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
WTA rebrand: New logo and design pale in comparison to tennis in women's sports
The WTA announced a rebrand Thursday, and the initial discussion will likely centre on the merits of the new logo, color scheme and mission statement: to 'rally the world.' Away from the new design and the soundbites, the governing body of women's tennis is aiming to put itself at the forefront of women's sport and culture. Advertisement 'We are at an inflection point, where we have an opportunity to really strengthen and elevate our global identity,' Marina Storti, WTA Ventures chief executive, said in a phone interview Wednesday. 'And for me, it's about being at the forefront of culture.' As part of the launch, Grand Slam champions like Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka shared advertising spots declaring 'this is not a tennis court,' describing the court instead as a stage and a place to express their identity. According to Storti, the WTA wants to help its players 'tell stories in a very authentic way so they can build global fandoms and it can help us build global fandom. And really also help us to deepen our commercial partnerships. 'I see this as strategic and commercial. It isn't just about aesthetics. It's a fundamental part of the strategy, and it powers all of our commercial pillars,' she said. Storti cited the Zendaya tennis movie 'Challengers' and Netflix series 'Emily in Paris' using the French Open in its trailer as examples of women's tennis transcending culture, as well as cover shoots for its contemporary stars in Vogue, Time and Forbes. 'I think we saw last year already that we are at the forefront of culture … It isn't just about sport. This is about entertainment as well,' Storti said. A launch in Los Angeles Friday ahead of the WTA and ATP 1,000 tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., seeks to hammer this home, with world No. 1 Sabalenka and Ava DuVernay, the American filmmaker and screenwriter, hosting the event. In a statement announcing Thursday's rebrand, the organization referenced the fact that it is 'home to 11 of the world's 20 highest-earning female athletes,' according to Forbes' most recent list. Through the economic and cultural surge in women's sports, tennis' history at its forefront — on court and off — has at times overtaken its contemporary place in the landscape. Billie Jean King, a founding leader of the WTA Tour, also created the Women's Sports Foundation in 1974, two years after Title IX banned sex discrimination in schools in the United States. The WTA has had a longer period of combined professionalism and relevance than any other women's sporting body. GO DEEPER Billie Jean King never got comfortable 'The competitive landscape of sports and entertainment coupled with the ever-increasing momentum in women's sport, create the perfect time to stand tall and take our leadership position alongside our incredible athletes and tournaments,' current WTA Tour chief executive Portia Archer said in a statement. Advertisement The WTA has been in discussions with its male counterpart, the ATP Tour, about a commercial merger for some time, of which WTA Ventures would be a part. Established with private equity company CVC Capital Partners, it is designed to triple commercial revenue by 2029; the proposed ATP-WTA merger would not come with a 50-50 revenue split at present. The WTA, like the ATP, which recently announced a partnership with social media sports platform Overtime, is in a near-constant bid to capture younger fans, which requires tapping into people who know the likes of Gauff and Osaka as fashion icons, mental health advocates, TikTok stars before they know them as tennis players. Tennis dynasties and rivalries are also key to this kind of cut-through. Since the WTA's founding in 1973, the duels between the likes of Chris Evert and Martina Navaratilova and the Williams sisters have been crucial to a tour which can suffer from being cast as inconsistent or unpredictable, rather than its depth and range of winners being acknowledged as a positive. In recent history, world No. 1 and No. 2 Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek have dominated the court most consistently, but without as much cultural clout as Gauff and Osaka. Ultimately, having superstars on the tour is the quickest shortcut to having the kind of cultural relevance that the WTA wants; ensuring that they are discoverable to fans through off-court media and highlights as well as events is the challenge. In its announcement on Thursday, the WTA said it had sold 15 percent more tickets than in 2023, with social media followers rising by 25 percent, and a cumulative global audience growing by 10 percent to a record 1.1 billion on television and streaming platforms. It also spoke of the record $4.8 million (£3.8m) prize money awarded to Gauff for winning the WTA Tour Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in a signal of one of its key binds for the future. Human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have criticized Saudi Arabia's record on freedom of expression, including the criminalization of same-sex relationships and the 'Personal Status Law,' which requires women to obtain a male guardian's permission to marry. The country was ranked 126th out of 146 nations included in the 2024 Global Gender Gap index, and has two events remaining on its deal for the flagship, standalone women's tennis product in the world. These are the sorts of issues that promise to be defining for the WTA over the next few years, once debates over colors, fonts and logos subside. GO DEEPER 'The same people who allow women to play tennis are also torturing the activists' (Top photo of Aryna Sabalenka and Madison Keys: James D. Morgan / Getty Images)
