11th Aug, 2025
It’s been a jam-packed last seven days in the tennis world, with the Canadian Open wrapping up and the Cincinnati Open kicking off. With the US Open less than two weeks away now, read on as we breakdown everything you need to know from the last week in tennis.
Champions corner
In an odd scheduling twist, both the Montreal and Toronto events saw their finals played on Thursday last week, the same day that the Cincinnati Open began. Two new champions were crowned, with breakthroughs for two young players:
- ATP Canadian Open (Toronto) – Ben Shelton beat Karen Khachanov, 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(3)
- WTA Canadian Open (Montreal) – Victoria Mboko beat Naomi Osaka, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1
It’s been two years now of constant improvement for Ben Shelton, with the 22-year-old reaping the rewards by claiming the biggest title of his career so far. The American’s path was mighty impressive as well, winning three final set tiebreaks, knocking out top-10 seeds Alex de Minaur and Taylor Fritz, and even saving a match point en route. He now shoots up to a career high of No 6 in the world, and is in a great spot heading into the US Open. More on Shelton’s racquet.
For the women, teen sensation Victoria Mboko completed what was a brilliant title run in Montreal. She’d already had a great year, cracking the world’s top 100 after being ranked outside the top 400 late last year. Now she’s inside the top 30 after beating Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina and Naomi Osaka on the way to her maiden WTA 1000 crown.
Osaka does a Sabalenka
The theme of poor post-match sportsmanship on the WTA Tour this year continued, this time with Osaka putting her foot in it during her runner-up speech in Montreal.
Osaka failed to congratulate Mboko at all during her speech, which drew the ire of the tennis community – particularly since Mboko had earlier said Osaka was her idol. It was very much a full circle moment, ala Osaka beating Serena Williams at the US Open and Williams being a less-than-ideal sport.
Of course Osaka offered an apology the next day via social media, but it was a mark against her name nonetheless.
Cincinnati well underway
It really is a breakneck patch of the calendar, with the Cincinnati Open well underway already.
Impressively, both Shelton and Khachanov backed up with first-round victories despite their gruelling campaigns in Toronto. Joao Fonseca has rekindled some form as well, winning his first two matches. The Brazilian now has the chance to set up a mouth-watering clash against Taylor Fritz, should each win their next matches.
There have been a handful of upsets already too, with Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur, Lorenzo Musetti and Daniil Medvedev all out in their first matches. No such issues for top dogs Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz in their openers, with Sinner racing through his clash in under an hour. Alcaraz had a trademark dip and dropped a set, but was largely untroubled too.
For the women, it’s been calmer, with Elena Svitolina the only top-10 seed to fall so far.
Tsitsipas opens up on relationship with his father
Last month, Stefanos Tsitsipas parted ways with Goran Ivanisevic and rehired his father as coach after several years apart. The pair have had a tumultuous relationship, but Tsitsipas’ inability to get along with any other coach seems to have forced them back together. He spoke on the matter last week:
“It might not be something smooth that suddenly you see the right outcome out of it, of being back again with my father. That’s not really what the whole point is,” he said. “It is trying to figure out the person who cares the most about me and really is going to spend extra hours on the court, perfecting me, trying to get me as good as possible.
“I feel like I didn’t have enough patience anymore as well. I’ve grown since then. He’s grown since then. I feel like his perception about certain things has changed towards the better. I’m hoping we can work towards that together, and I’m hoping we can [hear] each other out.”
Coming up this week
This next week is all about the Cincinnati Open, with the finals of each event taking place on Sunday. For most players this will be their final outing before heading to New York, so expect some intense matches towards the back end of the week before a pre-US Open lull next week.
