Latest news with #JakubMenšík
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Why tennis defaults and disqualifications for racket smashes need a change of perspective
Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court. This week, the tennis default rule reared its head, two players took very different approaches to playing on a deadline, and the French Open champions had mixed fortunes. Why is an outcome-based approach to bad behavior insufficient? The past week suggests that potential disqualifications will continue to be judged on the consequences of a player's actions, rather than the actions themselves. Advertisement A fortnight ago, world No. 7 Lorenzo Musetti escaped a default at the French Open. Musetti struck a ball out of frustration and accidentally hit a line judge near her shoulder. The line judge was unhurt and Musetti was allowed to continue with his quarterfinal against Frances Tiafoe, which he went on to win in four sets. The incident was reminiscent of when Novak Djokovic inadvertently struck a line judge and was defaulted from the 2020 U.S. Open — other than the fact that the person involved in the Musetti incident showed no signs of distress. Then, at last week's HSBC Championships at the Queen's Club in London, Jakub Menšík and Corentin Moutet escaped serious punishment for potentially disqualification-worthy offences. According to the ATP rule book, 'Players shall not violently, dangerously or with anger hit, kick or throw a tennis ball while on the grounds of the tournament site except in the reasonable pursuit of a point during a match (including warm-up). 'For purposes of this rule, abuse of balls is defined as intentionally or recklessly hitting a ball out of the enclosure of the court, hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with disregard of the consequences.' Menšík, the 19-year-old world No. 17 from the Czech Republic, chucked his racket to the floor during the second set of his defeat to Roberto Bautista Agut. He threw it with little force, but it slipped out of his hand and spun off the grass, into the stands. There were no spectators in the first few rows, so nobody was hurt. The chair umpire gave Menšík a code violation warning, the lightest punishment available. Two warnings lead to a point penalty. Advertisement The following day, Moutet received the same punishment for whacking a ball into the stands during his defeat to Great Britain's Jacob Fearnley. Moutet, the world No 80, was defaulted at the Adelaide International three years ago for swearing at the umpire, but escaped the ultimate punishment on Thursday. Then on Saturday, Jack Draper received a warning for smashing an advertising board with his racket after being broken by Jiří Lehečka, but he had escaped one when he hit a ball in frustration. Whether or not a small yellow ball hit in anger hits a wall or someone's eye comes down to chance. At Wimbledon three years ago, Stefanos Tsitsipas leathered a ball into the crowd and missed a spectator by inches. Deciding whether or not to default players based on outcomes they cannot fully control leaves tennis in a situation where it will face legitimate accusations of inconsistency the next time an umpire's decision means that someone is defaulted for a similar or even lesser offence because someone has been hurt. At Roland Garros two years ago, doubles player Miyu Kato and her partner Aldila Sutjiadi were defaulted after Kato accidentally hit a ball kid in the neck when returning a ball to her — not even swatting it in frustration — because the ball kid was in tears. The best-worst handshake of the year? There have been a few spicy tennis handshakes this year, but Sunday's between Maria Sakkari and Yulia Putintseva was the most heated of all. After Sakkari had won their first-round encounter at the Bad Homburg Open in Germany 7-5, 7-6(6), she was put out by Putintseva's curt, no-look handshake at the net. Advertisement Putintseva, the world No. 34 from Kazakhstan who is no stranger to on-court confrontations, gave Sakkari a mock bow in response, prompting Sakkari to say 'just be like a human being'. Things quickly escalated and when Sakkari came over to Putintseva's side of the net, the Kazakh told her to 'go f—' herself. 'F—-ing hell, I'm what?' Sakkari said in response, before adding: 'Nobody likes you. When you shake hands, look at the other person in the eye.' This brought back memories of Andy Murray saying 'no one likes you on the tour, everyone hates you,' to the Czech player Lukáš Rosol in 2015, after he felt he had been barged by Rosol at a change of ends. Advertisement Sakkari was asked about the incident in her on-court interview and said: 'Let me leave it here and say that I have a respect (for) her as a player but that's it.' Putintseva, who was booed at last year's U.S. Open when she contemptuously ignored a ball girl who was passing her tennis balls, then posted a photo showing Sakkari avoiding eye contact during handshakes on her social media. Quick handshakes are not uncommon on the WTA Tour, but this level of aggravation between players most certainly is. How did Marketa Vondrousova make this comeback? There's one player no woman wants to see next to her name in the Wimbledon draw this week: Markéta Vondroušová. Advertisement One year ago, Vondroušová was preparing to defend her title at the All England Club, playing through pain in her left shoulder. She lost in the first round and had surgery shortly after, missing the rest of the 2024 season. A fortnight ago, Vondroušová shocked herself at Roland Garros in Paris, and not just by winning two matches and coming within a couple of games of beating the world No. 3, Jessica Pegula, in the third round. Most importantly, she played free of pain. Rarely has a player looked as high-spirited after a loss as the 25-year-old Czech after falling to Pegula in three sets. She was thrilled to have completed her matches and raring to get to the grass. She showed why in Berlin last week, beating Madison Keys, Diana Shnaider, Ons Jabeur, Aryna Sabalenka and finally Wang Xinyu to win the title. It's a run that tells everyone else on the WTA Tour to watch out — even though any analyst who hadn't already circled Vondroušová's entry in red would be skating on thin ice. She is a marvel on the organic surfaces, a finalist at Roland Garros as well as a champion at Wimbledon. She can spin the ball every which way. She's a lefty. She has a mean drop shot and a nasty, low, curling cross-court forehand that can break the sideline from virtually anywhere on the court. Advertisement She's also the world No. 72. She's got a decent chance of drawing a seed in the first round, and all 32 of them will be praying that she doesn't. When Vondroušová won it all in west London two years ago, she was the quirky unseeded player with the tattoos and the sphynx cat. She's got a dog now, too, and a game ready to do some damage at a place where she has done it before. How the French Open finalists fared on grass The four players who reached singles finals at Roland Garros had a mixed reacquaintance with grass. Sabalenka saved four match points against Elena Rybakina in the match before she fell to Vondroušová. Carlos Alcaraz went to Ibiza, toughed his way through a couple of rounds at Queen's and then found the extra gear to win the title, becoming the first man since Rafael Nadal in 2008 to win the French Open and the Wimbledon warmup in the same year. So, how to regard last week's losses for Coco Gauff and Jannik Sinner? One a French Open champion, the other a runner-up who came within a point of winning, and neither with a terrific Wimbledon resume. Advertisement Gauff spent a week on a media tour and hanging out with friends following her Paris win. Then she showed up in Germany and played like it, losing in straight sets to eventual Berlin finalist Wang on a day when her head and heart didn't seem to be there. It was reminiscent of Alcaraz's performance at Queen's last year, when he lost to Jack Draper in the second round. Grass is probably Gauff's worst surface, unless her serve is firing and can get her out of trouble. She's not playing a tournament this week, which means she will head into Wimbledon with just one match as preparation. Sinner lost in Halle to the eventual champion, Alexander Bublik. Sinner handled Bublik in Paris a couple of weeks ago, but the Kazakh is a nightmare on grass when he is on. Bublik occupies the Vondroušová role in the men's draw at Wimbledon — or would have done, had he not won the Halle title and earned himself a seeding. Sinner is a little more naturally suited to grass than Gauff, and he has made a semifinal at Wimbledon. But his first serve — key to his rise to the top of the sport and doubly so on grass — has lost some of its reliability in the past couple of weeks. Getting some reps in on that may be more helpful than a few extra competitive matches. Alcaraz spent most of the week at Queen's practicing his first delivery after almost going out of the tournament. That worked out pretty well. Shot of the week Jack Pinnington Jones will be looking to do some more of this with his Wimbledon wild card. Recommended reading: How tennis wild cards became Grand Slam golden tickets powered by national favoritism Advertisement Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová will retire from tennis after the U.S. Open Man who displayed 'fixated behavior' toward Emma Raducanu applied for Wimbledon tickets Alexander Bublik beats Jannik Sinner to end 49-match streak 🏆 The winners of the week 🎾 ATP: 🏆 Carlos Alcaraz (1) def. Jiří Lehečka 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-2 to win Queen's (500) in London. It is his second Queen's title in three years. 🏆 Alexander Bublik def. Daniil Medvedev (3) 6-3, 7-6(4) to win the Halle Open (500) in Halle, Germany. It is Bublik's second Halle title in three years. 🎾 WTA: 🏆 Markéta Vondroušová def. Wang Xinyu (Q) 7-6(10), 4-6, 6-2 to win the Berlin Open (500) in Berlin. It is her first title since Wimbledon in 2023. 🏆 McCartney Kessler def. Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 7-5 to win the Nottingham Open (250) in Nottingham, UK. It is the American's third WTA Tour title. 📈📉 On the rise / Down the line 📈 Markéta Vondroušová moves up 92 places from No. 164 to No. 72 after winning the title in Berlin. Beaten finalist Wang Xinyu moves up 17 places from No. 49 to a career high of No. 32. 📈 Alexander Bublik ascends 15 spots from No. 45 to No. 30 after winning the title in Halle, securing a Wimbledon seeding. 📈 McCartney Kessler rises 12 spots from No. 42 to No. 30, securing a Wimbledon seeding. Advertisement 📉 Tommy Paul falls five places from No. 8 to No. 13 after an abdominal injury kept him out of Queen's, where he was defending champion. 📉 Anna Kalinskaya drops 11 places from No. 28 to No. 39, putting her outside the top-32 cut for Wimbledon seeding. 📉 Hubert Hurkacz tumbles 10 spots from No. 29 to No. 39, leaving him with the same problem as Kalinskaya. 📅 Coming up 🎾 ATP 📍Mallorca, Spain: Mallorca Championships (250) featuring Ben Shelton, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Gabriel Diallo, Alex Michelsen. 📍Eastbourne, UK: Eastbourne Open (250) featuring Taylor Fritz, Jakub Menšík, Tommy Paul, Jacob Fearnley. Advertisement 📺 UK: Sky Sports, BBC (Eastbourne); U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV 🎾 WTA 📍Bad Homburg, Germany: Bad Homburg Open (500) featuring Jessica Pegula, Iga Świątek, Mirra Andreeva, Naomi Osaka. 📍Eastbourne, UK: Eastbourne Open (250) featuring Barbora Krejčíková, Jelena Ostapenko, Jabeur, Emma Raducanu. 📺 UK: Sky Sports, BBC (Eastbourne); U.S.: Tennis Channel Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men's and women's tours continue. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Tennis, Women's Tennis 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
8 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Why tennis defaults and disqualifications for racket smashes need a change of perspective
Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court. This week, the tennis default rule reared its head, two players took very different approaches to playing on a deadline, and the French Open champions had mixed fortunes. If you'd like to follow our fantastic tennis coverage, click here. The past week suggests that potential disqualifications will continue to be judged on the consequences of a player's actions, rather than the actions themselves. A fortnight ago, world No. 7 Lorenzo Musetti escaped a default at the French Open. Musetti struck a ball out of frustration and accidentally hit a line judge near her shoulder. The line judge was unhurt and Musetti was allowed to continue with his quarterfinal against Frances Tiafoe, which he went on to win in four sets. The incident was reminiscent of when Novak Djokovic inadvertently struck a line judge and was defaulted from the 2020 U.S. Open — other than the fact that the person involved in the Musetti incident showed no signs of distress. Advertisement Then, at last week's HSBC Championships at the Queen's Club in London, Jakub Menšík and Corentin Moutet escaped serious punishment for potentially disqualification-worthy offences. According to the ATP rule book, 'Players shall not violently, dangerously or with anger hit, kick or throw a tennis ball while on the grounds of the tournament site except in the reasonable pursuit of a point during a match (including warm-up). 'For purposes of this rule, abuse of balls is defined as intentionally or recklessly hitting a ball out of the enclosure of the court, hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with disregard of the consequences.' Menšík, the 19-year-old world No. 17 from the Czech Republic, chucked his racket to the floor during the second set of his defeat to Roberto Bautista Agut. He threw it with little force, but it slipped out of his hand and spun off the grass, into the stands. There were no spectators in the first few rows, so nobody was hurt. The chair umpire gave Menšík a code violation warning, the lightest punishment available. Two warnings lead to a point penalty. The following day, Moutet received the same punishment for whacking a ball into the stands during his defeat to Great Britain's Jacob Fearnley. Moutet, the world No 80, was defaulted at the Adelaide International three years ago for swearing at the umpire, but escaped the ultimate punishment on Thursday. Then on Saturday, Jack Draper received a warning for smashing an advertising board with his racket after being broken by Jiří Lehečka, but he had escaped one when he hit a ball in frustration. Whether or not a small yellow ball hit in anger hits a wall or someone's eye comes down to chance. At Wimbledon three years ago, Stefanos Tsitsipas leathered a ball into the crowd and missed a spectator by inches. Advertisement Deciding whether or not to default players based on outcomes they cannot fully control leaves tennis in a situation where it will face legitimate accusations of inconsistency the next time an umpire's decision means that someone is defaulted for a similar or even lesser offence because someone has been hurt. At Roland Garros two years ago, doubles player Miyu Kato and her partner Aldila Sutjiadi were defaulted after Kato accidentally hit a ball kid in the neck when returning a ball to her — not even swatting it in frustration — because the ball kid was in tears. Charlie Eccleshare There have been a few spicy tennis handshakes this year, but Sunday's between Maria Sakkari and Yulia Putintseva was the most heated of all. After Sakkari had won their first-round encounter at the Bad Homburg Open in Germany 7-5, 7-6(6), she was put out by Putintseva's curt, no-look handshake at the net. Putintseva, the world No. 34 from Kazakhstan who is no stranger to on-court confrontations, gave Sakkari a mock bow in response, prompting Sakkari to say 'just be like a human being'. Things quickly escalated and when Sakkari came over to Putintseva's side of the net, the Kazakh told her to 'go f—' herself. 'F—-ing hell, I'm what?' Sakkari said in response, before adding: 'Nobody likes you. When you shake hands, look at the other person in the eye.' Maria Sakkari and Yulia Putintseva got heated during their handshake in Bad Homburg 😳 Watch the full clip here and read more from @Tennis below 👇 — Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) June 22, 2025 This brought back memories of Andy Murray saying 'no one likes you on the tour, everyone hates you,' to the Czech player Lukáš Rosol in 2015, after he felt he had been barged by Rosol at a change of ends. Sakkari was asked about the incident in her on-court interview and said: 'Let me leave it here and say that I have a respect (for) her as a player but that's it.' Advertisement Putintseva, who was booed at last year's U.S. Open when she contemptuously ignored a ball girl who was passing her tennis balls, then posted a photo showing Sakkari avoiding eye contact during handshakes on her social media. Quick handshakes are not uncommon on the WTA Tour, but this level of aggravation between players most certainly is. Charlie Eccleshare There's one player no woman wants to see next to her name in the Wimbledon draw this week: Markéta Vondroušová. One year ago, Vondroušová was preparing to defend her title at the All England Club, playing through pain in her left shoulder. She lost in the first round and had surgery shortly after, missing the rest of the 2024 season. A fortnight ago, Vondroušová shocked herself at Roland Garros in Paris, and not just by winning two matches and coming within a couple of games of beating the world No. 3, Jessica Pegula, in the third round. Most importantly, she played free of pain. Rarely has a player looked as high-spirited after a loss as the 25-year-old Czech after falling to Pegula in three sets. She was thrilled to have completed her matches and raring to get to the grass. She showed why in Berlin last week, beating Madison Keys, Diana Shnaider, Ons Jabeur, Aryna Sabalenka and finally Wang Xinyu to win the title. It's a run that tells everyone else on the WTA Tour to watch out — even though any analyst who hadn't already circled Vondroušová's entry in red would be skating on thin ice. She is a marvel on the organic surfaces, a finalist at Roland Garros as well as a champion at Wimbledon. She can spin the ball every which way. She's a lefty. She has a mean drop shot and a nasty, low, curling cross-court forehand that can break the sideline from virtually anywhere on the court. She's also the world No. 72. She's got a decent chance of drawing a seed in the first round, and all 32 of them will be praying that she doesn't. When Vondroušová won it all in west London two years ago, she was the quirky unseeded player with the tattoos and the sphynx cat. She's got a dog now, too, and a game ready to do some damage at a place where she has done it before. Matt Futterman The four players who reached singles finals at Roland Garros had a mixed reacquaintance with grass. Sabalenka saved four match points against Elena Rybakina in the match before she fell to Vondroušová. Carlos Alcaraz went to Ibiza, toughed his way through a couple of rounds at Queen's and then found the extra gear to win the title, becoming the first man since Rafael Nadal in 2008 to win the French Open and the Wimbledon warmup in the same year. Advertisement So, how to regard last week's losses for Coco Gauff and Jannik Sinner? One a French Open champion, the other a runner-up who came within a point of winning, and neither with a terrific Wimbledon resume. Gauff spent a week on a media tour and hanging out with friends following her Paris win. Then she showed up in Germany and played like it, losing in straight sets to eventual Berlin finalist Wang on a day when her head and heart didn't seem to be there. It was reminiscent of Alcaraz's performance at Queen's last year, when he lost to Jack Draper in the second round. Grass is probably Gauff's worst surface, unless her serve is firing and can get her out of trouble. She's not playing a tournament this week, which means she will head into Wimbledon with just one match as preparation. Sinner lost in Halle to the eventual champion, Alexander Bublik. Sinner handled Bublik in Paris a couple of weeks ago, but the Kazakh is a nightmare on grass when he is on. Bublik occupies the Vondroušová role in the men's draw at Wimbledon — or would have done, had he not won the Halle title and earned himself a seeding. Sinner is a little more naturally suited to grass than Gauff, and he has made a semifinal at Wimbledon. But his first serve — key to his rise to the top of the sport and doubly so on grass — has lost some of its reliability in the past couple of weeks. Getting some reps in on that may be more helpful than a few extra competitive matches. Alcaraz spent most of the week at Queen's practicing his first delivery after almost going out of the tournament. That worked out pretty well. Matt Futterman Jack Pinnington Jones will be looking to do some more of this with his Wimbledon wild card. 👏 JACK 👏 PINNINGTON 👏 JONES 👏#ATPChallenger | @the_LTA — ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) June 17, 2025 🎾 ATP: 🏆 Carlos Alcaraz (1) def. Jiří Lehečka 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-2 to win Queen's (500) in London. It is his second Queen's title in three years. 🏆 Alexander Bublik def. Daniil Medvedev (3) 6-3, 7-6(4) to win the Halle Open (500) in Halle, Germany. It is Bublik's second Halle title in three years. 🎾 WTA: 🏆 Markéta Vondroušová def. Wang Xinyu (Q) 7-6(10), 4-6, 6-2 to win the Berlin Open (500) in Berlin. It is her first title since Wimbledon in 2023. 🏆 McCartney Kessler def. Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 7-5 to win the Nottingham Open (250) in Nottingham, UK. It is the American's third WTA Tour title. 📈 Markéta Vondroušová moves up 92 places from No. 164 to No. 72 after winning the title in Berlin. Beaten finalist Wang Xinyu moves up 17 places from No. 49 to a career high of No. 32. 📈 Alexander Bublik ascends 15 spots from No. 45 to No. 30 after winning the title in Halle, securing a Wimbledon seeding. 📈 McCartney Kessler rises 12 spots from No. 42 to No. 30, securing a Wimbledon seeding. Advertisement 📉 Tommy Paul falls five places from No. 8 to No. 13 after an abdominal injury kept him out of Queen's, where he was defending champion. 📉 Anna Kalinskaya drops 11 places from No. 28 to No. 39, putting her outside the top-32 cut for Wimbledon seeding. 📉 Hubert Hurkacz tumbles 10 spots from No. 29 to No. 39, leaving him with the same problem as Kalinskaya. 🎾 ATP 📍Mallorca, Spain: Mallorca Championships (250) featuring Ben Shelton, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Gabriel Diallo, Alex Michelsen. 📍Eastbourne, UK: Eastbourne Open (250) featuring Taylor Fritz, Jakub Menšík, Tommy Paul, Jacob Fearnley. 📺 UK: Sky Sports, BBC (Eastbourne); U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV 🎾 WTA 📍Bad Homburg, Germany: Bad Homburg Open (500) featuring Jessica Pegula, Iga Świątek, Mirra Andreeva, Naomi Osaka. 📍Eastbourne, UK: Eastbourne Open (250) featuring Barbora Krejčíková, Jelena Ostapenko, Jabeur, Emma Raducanu. 📺 UK: Sky Sports, BBC (Eastbourne); U.S.: Tennis Channel Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men's and women's tours continue.
New York Times
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
French Open recap: Chaos, comebacks, crowds and curious scheduling at Roland Garros
Follow The Athletic's French Open coverage Welcome to the French Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament. On day five, chaos reigned at Roland Garros with comebacks, crowds and curious scheduling under the sunniest day of the tournament so far — while Coco Gauff got past a name for the future from a tennis nation with a proud history. At Roland Garros, we have already seen eight comebacks from two sets down in the men's singles draw, ranging from collapses to heroic fightbacks. For Jakub Menšík, Thursday's second-round loss against Portuguese qualifier Henrique Rocha continued an unwanted trend. Of his last four Grand Slam defeats, three have been after he led by two sets to love; the other came from two sets to one up. While Menšík has more Grand Slam experience than Rocha, he is also two years younger; still only 19, Menšík appears not yet attuned to the mental and physical rhythm of five-set matches. Advertisement He smashed his racket after a bad forehand miss in the fifth set against Rocha, which put his opponent 3-1 up. In need of a whole comeback category of his own is Alexander Bublik, the mercurial Kazakh who came back from two sets down to win on Thursday for the third time in his career. The No. 9 seed, Alex de Minaur, was his latest victim, and Bublik, who delights in his unpredictability, explained that he had already started thinking about logistics for getting home when he went down 0-2. 'I was checking the tickets already in my head,' he said in a news conference. 'I didn't really care, in a way. I have won, what, 12 or 13 matches on clay this year. Being second round here, it's always like an achievement because I have never won as many matches on clay as I did. So I was a bit tired. 'I told my team, they know it, so it was not like if I lose, I would be upset. No, I would be happy and I would be home today in Monaco at 9pm.' Bublik then started playing with the carefree attitude of someone whose mind was wandering — but with devastating effect. On set point to win the fourth set, he hit a tweener from the baseline and then nailed a backhand pass up the line. De Minaur, one of the toughest competitors on the tour, admitted afterwards that he started to get the sense that this wasn't going to be his day. Menšík, who went through a similar experience at Wimbledon last year, can identify with what happened to the Aussie: De Minaur found himself well and truly Bubliked. Charlie Eccleshare Remember the name Tereza Valentová of the Czech Republic. She won the girls' tournament here last year. This year, she won three matches in qualifying and then beat French veteran, Chloe Paquet, coming back from a set down in her first Grand Slam main draw.. That's no easy feat when playing against a home crowd, especially at Roland Garros. Advertisement She ran into the world No. 2, Coco Gauff, on Thursday. That was too tall an order for an 18-year-old who is still lugging textbooks around to tennis tournaments. She was balancing her matches with studying. She's got finals coming up, and another year of school — regular school, not online school (but with this success, that could change). Valentová is yet another uber-promising Czech player from a country that produces promising prospects on the women's side like no other. She said last week that she didn't think she had the goods to qualify. Her coach thought otherwise. Gauff wore down Valentová on Thursday, as she so often does to younger players who don't yet have her levels of endurance, beating her 6-3, 6-4. 'It's tennis, you have to run,' Valentova said when it was over. Walking onto the court, she said she thought Gauff would be '10-times better' than her, but she wasn't, as anyone following the Czech's nascent career might have understood. She has not let being one of the top talents from the country rush her into playing too many matches after a series of injury setbacks. When she does play, she tends to win. She played 14 matches in 2022 and 2023, before playing 43 in 2024, winning 38 of them on the ITF World Tennis Tour. Gauff at a Grand Slam was a proposition from another galaxy in some ways, but like Victoria Mboko — who has reached the third round on her first Grand Slam appearance this week — Valentová's high, sustained win-rate at ITF level (she is 18-6 in 2025) suggests this breakthrough will be sustainable rather than fleeting. 'I can play with her normally and if I improve some things, I can maybe win,' she said of Gauff. 'It's a motivation for me to get better and hopefully I'll play against her many times. I hope as soon as possible.' Matt Futterman With the febrile atmosphere on most of the smaller show courts, the sunny weather and the unexpected results all over the grounds, day five was the most engrossing, entertaining and enthralling of the tournament so far. Except for its most prestigious court. The comfortable wins for Jessica Pegula, Jannik Sinner and Madison Keys over Ann Li, Richard Gasquet and Katie Boulter were hardly matches to set the pulse racing. Gasquet was at least afforded an emotional farewell to the sport, but even that had a downside. Most spectators felt in need of a rest afterwards, leading to the stadium being all but empty for a match involving the most recent women's Grand Slam champion. Advertisement This couldn't have been in starker contrast to Court Suzanne-Lenglen and Court 14, which were rocking all day thanks to the razzmatazz provided by Arthur Fils, João Fonseca and others. The Chatrier schedule for Friday doesn't promise a great deal more excitement, but it feels as if that scenario was avoidable. The way the women's draw has fallen, the top half is more loaded than the other, with Iga Świątek, Aryna Sabalenka, Jasmine Paolini, Elena Rybakina and Jeļena Ostapenko all playing on the same day. But organizers have selected Paolini's match with lucky loser Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine as the third match on Chatrier, ahead of four-time champion Świątek and the indisputable popcorn match of the day, which is Rybakina vs. Ostapenko. Sabalenka will play the other against Marie Bouzková of the Czech Republic, with Holger Rune vs. Quentin Halys and Carlos Alcaraz vs. Damir Džumhur the men's matches. The scheduling this week has left Chatrier feeling a little bit like the library at a university campus, while everyone else is enjoying themselves at the bar. Charlie Eccleshare Let's start with an idea: Portugal should have more elite tennis players. It has great weather. It produces elite athletes in other sports, notably soccer. There are some lovely clay courts throughout the country. It has about 11 million people. Not nearly as many as Spain or France or Italy, but nearly double the population of Serbia and triple that of Croatia. Those countries don't exactly lack for top-100 competition. People in Portugal like tennis. The ATP Tour stop in Estoril packs its stadium, even since it was downgraded to a Challenger Tour event. The country's president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, is a tennis fan who makes a point of backing the tournament. Advertisement It still took until May 29, 2025, for Portugal to get two men's players into the third round of the same Grand Slam. Nuno Borges beat top-10 player Casper Ruud on Wednesday, then Rocha beat Menšík. It was the second time in a week that they had made history. Portugal had never had two players in the second round of a Grand Slam, either. We're not suggesting Portugal should be creating the next Jannik Sinner. These days, it takes a unicorn to rise to the top of the men's game. But two players winning one match in the same Grand Slam doesn't seem like too tall an order for a country with Portugal's demographics. Rocha said Thursday it's not a coincidence that it's happening now. He said he began getting support from the country's tennis federation about six years ago. Borges started working with the federation a couple years back, too. 'We have a great team,' Rocha said. 'We have a fitness coach, psychologist, nutritionists, of course coaches, physios. We have everything we need to be very good players,' he said. 'The three of us were practicing together. It's also very good to always improve with each other.' Matt Futterman Tell us what you noticed on the fifth day… (Top photo of TK: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic)
CNN
21-05-2025
- Sport
- CNN
Teenager Jakub Mensik recounts incredible Miami triumph
One of the best tennis stories of 2025 saw teenager Jakub Menšík deny boyhood idol Novak Djokovic of his 100th career title, stunning the 24-time grand slam singles champion in the Miami Open final in March. The 19-year-old exhibited an impressively confident display of power and guile in what was by far the biggest moment of his young career. In claiming his first career ATP title, Menšík became the second-youngest winner of the Miami Open after Carlos Alcaraz in 2022. But incredibly, Menšík very nearly didn't play at all in Miami. Ahead of his first-round match against Jack Draper, Menšík was suffering with knee pain and went to the tournament referee's office with the intention of withdrawing from the Miami Open. Instead, Menšík received treatment from the physiotherapist and took some pain killers, relieving his knee pain enough to take the court. He's been looking back on his breakthrough and ahead to the French Open with Don Riddell.
The Guardian
31-03-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Novak Djokovic falls short of 100th title as Jakub Menšík wins Miami Masters final
The 19-year-old Czech Jakub Menšík beat his childhood idol Novak Djokovic 7-6(4), 7-6(4) in an upset for the ages on Sunday, claiming his first ATP title at the Miami Open as he denied the former number one in his bid for a milestone 100th. The 54th-ranked Menšík faced tough odds in only his second ATP final but harnessed his best weapon to subdue the 24-times major winner with 14 aces. The 37-year-old Djokovic had hoped to join Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103) as the only men in the Open era with 100 or more career titles but could not match the teenager's speed and creative play. The match started hours after it was scheduled to after repeated rain delays forced a lengthy suspension of the women's doubles championship match earlier in the day. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion More to follow.
