The tennis season is nearly two months old, which means that the Sunshine Double is just around the corner. But before we head to the States, plenty of action went down this last week in the Middle East and South America, but on and off the court. Here’s your breakdown of the week’s tennis action.
Champions Corner
As always, let’s begin with champions’ corner and briefly go over the players who lifted trophies last week.
Dubai: We had the second of back-to-back WTA 1000 events, and it was a coming-of-age party for Mirra Andreeva. After flashing potential a few times, the Russian teenager finally won a big one at just 17 years old. By doing that, she became the youngest player ever to win an event of this category since its inception in 2009. She’s also the youngest top 10 player since 2006, which is another testament to how great she is. Read more on Andreeva’s racquet.
Qatar: Andrey Rublev won the Qatar Open in Doha, which was his first trophy in nine months. It was also the first final he played in six months and immediately produced a trophy. Much needed for the Russian who endured a very tough 2024 where he battled health issues, underwent surgery, and battled depression and suicidal thoughts.
Brazil: The Rio Open delivered back-to-back trophies for Sebastian Baez (as we predicted) who won last year as well. The Argentine once again proved that he’s one of the most formidable clay players out there – particularly on the Golden Swing – as he came out on top of a really tough draw.
Novak Djokovic returned to tennis
Novak Djokovic made his return to tennis at the Qatar Open though he only managed to play one match. It was a fantastic one against Matteo Berrettini who earned his first win over Djokovic though the match was overshadowed by what happened after.
A couple of days afterwards, Djokovic was spotted in the Qatar Airport limping, which caused fans a lot of worry due to his ever-frequent injury woes. His Australian Open was ruined by a leg injury and now it seems like he’s injured again.
There is no news yet about his status, but some have wondered whether he aggravated the old injury from the Australian Open. Either way, not ideal for the legendary player.
Emma Raducanu stalker incident
Emma Raducanu has unfortunately been dealing with a stalker for quite a while and he made an appearance in Dubai. Not only there but he actually followed her at every event this year so when she spotted him in Dubai, the Brit panicked.
Her match against Karolina Muchova was even stopped momentarily.
The person in question was removed and the match continued with the Czech player winning in the end. The WTA released a statement on the matter confirming that the individual will be banned from all WTA events moving forward.
More reactions to Jannik Sinner doping deal
The week before last, we had the news that Jannik Sinner took a three-month ban to avoid going to court a second time and risking a bigger suspension.
More players have reacted to the news since then with some like Casper Ruud backing the Italian. Others, like Novak Djokovic, stayed more neutral noting that the overall system hasn’t worked very satisfactorily.
“I know Sinner very well, and I fully trust him; he is a great guy. After all this, he will continue to be the best in the world,” commented Casper Ruud.
It still remains a hot topic and that’s not changing anytime soon.
Joao Fonseca settles the GOAT debate
The new darling of tennis, Joao Fonseca, has voiced his opinion on the GOAT debate. The 18-year-old Brazilian said that for him, the GOAT is Roger Federer.
So there you have it, the matter is settled. The prodigy has spoken and so it shall be. Pity he wasn’t able to back up his success in Buenos Aires though, with Fonseca crashing out in the first round of the Rio Open, clearly nervous.
Venus Williams rebukes Indian Wells wild card
The Indian Wells Masters announced that Venus Williams will compete at the event after getting a wild card entry; however, she has since come out on social media to deny that she will be playing at the event.
According to Williams, she’s overseas and won’t be attending the event, calling the whole report a falsehood. That’s a rather sticky situation especially in light of the racist abuse she and her sister suffered there many years ago. They’ve since attended the event, but there will be no Venus there this year.
What’s coming up next?
Finally, let’s look ahead to see what’s coming up in tennis this week. There will be plenty of tennis played on both the men’s and women’s sides of the sport.
On the men’s side there are dual ATP 500 events in Dubai and Acapulco. The former will see players such as Rublev, Medvedev, de Minaur, Dimitrov and Tsitsipas playing, while the latter stars Zverev, Fritz, Ruud, Paul and others. We also have the last clay event in South America, the Santiago Open, where Jarry, Tabilo, Baez, and Cerundolo will play.
On the women’s side it’s a slight lull compared to the action of the past two weeks. Two events take place, with a WTA 250 event in Austin and a WTA 500 in Merida, Mexico.
The week after, however, Indian Wells kicks off, so make the most of this ever-so-slight breather in the action.
