20th October 2025
It was a busy seven days in tennis last week, with three ATP events, two WTA tournaments and an exhibition in Saudi Arabia as well. For those who weren’t able to stay across all of it, here’s a recap of the sport’s biggest storylines on and off the court.
Champions’ corner
Six players hoisted trophies last week:
- Almaty Open – Daniil Medvedev beat Corentin Moutet 7-5, 4-6, 6-3
- European Open – Felix Auger-Aliassime beat Jiri Lehecka 7-6(2), 6-7(6), 6-2
- Nordic Open – Casper Ruud beat Ugo Humbert 6-2, 6-3
- Six Kings Slam – Jannik Sinner beat Carlos Alcaraz 6-2, 6-4
- Ningbo Open – Elena Rybakina beat Ekaterina Alexandrova 3-6, 6-0, 6-2
- Osaka Open – Leylah Fernandez beat Tereza Valenova 6-0, 5-7, 6-3
Ruud with an impressive shot in Stockholm this weekend:
INSANE ?
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 19, 2025
Casper Ruud with an INCREDIBLE pass! ?#BNPParibasNordicOpen pic.twitter.com/2SxdS6cHP3
Seizing the headlines on the weekend was Medvedev ending his 882-day title drought. The Russian had gone trophyless since Rome 2023, falling one match short on six occasions over the last 18 months. Fernandez also picked up her first title in a long time, edging out teen Valenova for her first trophy since 2022 (excluding the Billie Jean King Cup).
Over in Saudi Arabia, the second edition of the Six Kings Slam was a monumental flop. No matches lasted longer than an hour and 16 minutes, with the event truly looking like an exhibition, despite the final delivering another chapter in the Sinner vs Alcaraz rivalry.
Race for ATP Finals heats up
Notably, each of the title winners on the ATP Tour were players in the running to make the ATP Finals next month. With Auger-Aliassime, Ruud and Medvedev all adding 250 points to their tallies, here’s how the race sits heading into this week:
- Alcaraz – 11,040
- Sinner – 8,500
- Djokovic – 4,580
- Zverev – 4,280
- Fritz – 3,835
- Shelton – 3,720
- De Minaur – 3,545
- Musetti – 3,485
- Auger-Aliassime – 3,155
- Draper – 2,990
- Ruud – 2,745
- Medvedev – 2,610
With Draper out injured for the remainder of the season, and the top six looking reasonably secure in their positions, there are essentially five players vying for two positions. De Minaur and Musetti are in the box seat with 300+ point leads over the chasing pack of Auger-Aliassime, Ruud and Medvedev.
However, strong results over the coming three weeks could vault any of the chasers into contention. There’s also the Djokovic question: will the Serb play in Turin, or withdraw ahead of time, as he did last year? Do so, and Auger-Aliassime is in prime position to qualify, with a healthy lead over Ruud and Medvedev.
Rybakina keeps WTA Finals hopes alive
Over on the WTA Tour, Rybakina’s title in Ningbo means the Kazakh is now favorite to edge out Mirra Andreeva for the final spot at the WTA Finals.
Jasmine Paolini secured her spot at the year-end event by making the semi-finals in Ningbo, meaning just one place remains for Andreeva and Rybakina to contest. Andreeva’s steep drop off in form means that Rybakina will qualify if she makes the final four in Tokyo this week.
Rune suffer heartbreaking injury
Tennis fans around the world were subjected to a tough sight last week when Holger Rune suffered an Achilles injury in court.
The Dane was leading Humbert in the pair’s semi-final at the Nordic Open on Saturday when he pulled up sharply at 2-2, 40-40 in the second set. It quickly became apparent he would be unable to continue the match, with Rune in tears on the side of the court.
He’s since posted on social media to confirm that his Achilles snapped and he’ll be undergoing surgery:
“It’s gonna be a while before I can step on court again. It’s tough. I had so much joy on court in Stockholm and it’s unbearable to think that I will not feel this energy for some time now.
“My Achilles is full broken on the proximal part meaning I need operation already next week and from here rehabilitation. Thank you for all your support now and always. Without you nothing would be the same. See you as soon as possible.”
Fritz goes deep on ball speed
Off the back of Rune’s injury, both Draper and Fritz weighed in on the ATP Tour’s schedule online, with Fritz giving an interesting insight into the difference between court speed and ball speed.
“Injuries are going to happen… we are pushing our bodies to do things they aren’t supposed to in elite sport,” Draper wrote. “We have so many incredible younger guys on the tour right now and I’m proud to be a part of that, however, the tour and the calendar have to adapt if any of us are gonna achieve some sort of longevity….”
“Facts, also seeing more injuries and burnout now than ever before because balls, courts, conditions have slowed down a lot making the weekly grind even more physically demanding and tough on the body,” Fritz replied.
“Balls make a much bigger difference on how fast the court plays than the actual court speed. Shanghai last year had a very high CPI but the slow balls we used made it play slow. This year the balls were still slow and they also slowed the courts and it was brutal.
“I can say with certainty every ball we play with consistently, with the exception of the US Open ball that is used for Toronto, Cinci, US Open is much slower and more dead compared to when I started my career.
“A lot of people struggle to differentiate between slow ball / slow court. It’s only something I have picked up in recent years. It’s easy to play with a slow ball and just think the court is slow when maybe it’s not and vice versa.”
Coming up this week
It’s another busy week in tennis, with two events on each of the tours. For the women, it will be all eyes on Tokyo as Rybakina hunts WTA Final qualification at the WTA 500 event there, while a 250 takes place in Guangzhou too.
The ATP Tour has two 500-level events (Basel and Vienna) featuring stacked draws. Medvedev will look to continue his ATP Finals push, and has a great opportunity with Musetti drawn in his quarter. He’ll have to bring his best if he’s to overcome top seed Sinner though. In Basel, Ruud and Auger-Aliassime continue their pushes, with American’s Fritz and Shelton top seeds.
