Another week in tennis has passed, and now we can look at what happened. Quite a lot went down, both on and off the court, and we’re going to go over the biggest stories from the world of tennis.
Champions Corner
First, let’s do a bit of diligence shouting out some of the top performers last week.
Carlos Alcaraz returned to form in Rotterdam, making the final on his debut performance at the event. He then bested Alex de Minaur in the final to win the trophy, a first one since Beijing of last year.
It’s a much-needed bounce back for Alcaraz disappointed at the Australian Open. In the other ATP event in Dallas, we had Denis Shapovalov returning to form by winning the trophy. He defeated Casper Ruud in the final, claiming the biggest title of his career.
Watch Alcaraz semifinal highlights against Hurkacz below, which was a great match!
On the women’s side of the sport, we had Anastasia Potapova play some brilliant tennis in Cluj-Napoca to win the event by beating Lucia Bronzetti in the final. In the other final in Abu Dhabi, we had Belinda Bencic join the ranks of mothers who won trophies since coming back from motherhood.
Simona Halep Retires From Tennis
A rather big name has bid tennis farewell as Simona Halep announced that she’s retiring from the sport following her loss at the Cluj-Napoca event. It’s an event that was played in her native Romania and the commentators were baffled why Halep was smiling for much of the match as she was losing.
It’s not what we know of her, but then she dropped the bomb. It wasn’t announced before but the former No 1 is done with the sport. Happy retirement, Simona!
Roger Federer and Elmo
Roger Federer shot a commercial which isn’t news as he shoots one every other week. But this one is special as he teamed up with Elmo to explain about his On brand which he’s an investor in. The commercial was specifically shot to be aired during the Super Bowl.
Aryna Sabalenka Calls Out Tennis Ball Quality
In some minor tennis drama, world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka called out the quality of tennis balls on social media.
The Belarusian posted a tennis ball that is going to be used next week in Doha before playing, in pretty good conditions, and after 25 minutes of play looking terrible.
This has been a topic for a long time now in tennis as tennis balls get bad pretty quickly, much sooner than before, causing a lot of problems for players. The increase in injuries involving joints such as the wrist has been prominently attributed by several players to the bad quality of tennis balls.
When they get all fluffy, players need to hit them harder to put some pace into the balls and that creates more wear and tear than before.
Redfoo Makes Professional Tennis Debut
Musician Redfoo, who is best known as part of the musical duo LMFAO who had some hits in the early 2010s, made his professional tennis debut. The 49-year-old made his debut at an ITF event in Sharm El Sheikh, losing easily in two sets.
Redfoo is probably best known in the tennis world as the former boyfriend of noted tennis star Victoria Azarenka, whom he used to date from 2012 to 2014.
Stefanos the Late Bloomer
In a bit of lighthearted news, Stefanos Tsitsipas made headlines on social media after admitting that his first kiss happened at 21, which apparently is pretty late by today’s standards. That means that he won the ATP Finals in 2019 before his first kiss – some nice trivia for you.
What’s Coming Up Next?
Next week is going to be an amazing week of tennis. We’re going to quickly go over what you can expect next week.
On the women’s side, we will have the first one out of the two WTA 1000 events that will be played in the Middle East. It’s going to be played in Qatar and most of the top names will obviously play at the event, so if you’ve missed some high-level WTA tennis, it’s coming.
On the men’s side, we have a couple of events as well. There is the Buenos Aires event which will feature Alexander Zverev as the top seed and Holger Rune as the second seed.
Then, there is the ATP250 event in Delray Beach with Taylor Fritz being the top seed. Another 250 will be played in Marseille with Daniil Medvedev leading the charge there.
Overall, plenty of tennis to be played with three men’s events and two women’s events.
