21st July 2025
It has been exactly a week since the Wimbledon final and the road to the US Open is now beginning. The year’s final major kicks off in just over a month, and while last week was a bit of a lull, North American hardcourt action well and truly gets under way this week.
There was still plenty of action over the past seven days, though. Keep reading to find out all the latest from the world of tennis.
Champions corner
Even though Wimbledon just ended, it didn’t mean that tennis stopped. Tennis almost never stops, with a handful of 250 events on the ATP and WTA Tours. Here’s a look at who won:
- Nordea Open (ATP 250) – Luciano Darderi (image on top) beat Jesper de Jong, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
- Gstaad Open (ATP 250) – Alexander Bublik beat Juan Manuel Cerundolo – 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
- Los Cabos Open (ATP 250) – Denis Shapovalov beat Aleksandar Kovasevic – 6-4, 6-2
- Hamburg Open (WTA 250) – Lois Boisson beat Anna Bondar – 7-5, 6-3
- Iasi Open (WTA 250) – Irina Begu beat Jil Teichmann – 6-0, 7-5
The big result of the week was Bublik securing his maiden clay title, with the Kazakh continuing his red hot form. After beginning the year 3-10, he is now 17-5 since the start of the Madrid Open.
Big names withdraw from Canada Open
2025 Wimbledon champion Jannik Sinner has withdrawn from the Canadian Open citing a need to recover following his Wimbledon triumph. The Italian apparently dealt with some physical issues during the event as well, so perhaps it’s an injury.
Novak Djokovic also withdrew from the event wanting to recover and better prepare, but that shouldn’t surprise anybody since he hasn’t been playing all the Masters for a while anyway. He’ll likely opt to play in Cincinnati instead.
Carlos Alcaraz also won’t be playing in Canada as he too had a pretty long event at Wimbledon and likely will take time to rest up a little before returning in Cincinnati. Top Brit Jack Draper is out too, despite losing early in London.
This plethora of withdrawals have sparked more talk about how congested the tennis calendar is.
Calendar changes
Something interesting was observed this week in relation to the ATP calendar. The Masters in Canada will be played only 14 days after Wimbledon, which is the shortest distance between the events.
Back in 2009, the distance between them was 35 days with 2017 onwards being mostly 21 weeks. This year’s 14 is by far the shortest and is signaling a trend that most players aren’t happy about as the calendar remains not only long but congested as well, as opposed to most players advocating and wanting a shorter one.
Federer becomes part of a meme
Roger Federer took his wife to a Coldplay concert not too long ago and it became pretty big news in light of recent events at a Coldplay concert. The CEO of tech firm Astronomer was recently caught with a woman not his wife during a Coldplay concert, which became huge viral news around the world.
As Federer did the same, he became a meme in the tennis community; however, he was actually caught with his wife so no harm was done, but many tennis fans joked that it was a missed opportunity to get caught with Rafael Nadal.
Jabeur announces break from tennis
Fan favorite Jabeur announced on social media that she is taking a step back from tennis to rediscover the joy of ‘simply living’ as she put it. Jabeur has had a really strong run in the last couple of years, making three Grand Slam finals.
She didn’t win any of these and has pushed herself a lot in the last year battling injuries, but now she’s prioritizing other things instead of tennis. She has largely struggled this year. Jabeur did not specify whether she will return to tennis anytime soon or at all.
Federer and family visit Nadal Academy in Mallorca
Federer recently visited Nadal at his Mallorca Academy with his family and was spotted chatting with the Spaniard and in good spirits. Not only that, but his twin daughters who play tennis were spotted on the court as well.
They’re about to turn 16, but it’s unknown whether they are pursuing tennis seriously or are simply playing for fun. Federer is on record saying that he would not be pushing his kids into tennis.
Coming up this week
With the US Open series slowly starting, we’ve got a lot of events coming up in the coming week. On the men’s side, we have the Washington Open, which is an ATP 500 event and will feature lots of great players.
Besides that, there will be a clay event held in Umag in Croatia and another one in Kitzbuhel, Austria. On the women’s side of the sport, we’ll have two events: a hard court event in Prague and a hard court event in Washington as that event is a dual event. Expect plenty of tennis and plenty of news next week.
