The first month of the tennis season is over already. While January was of course dominated by the Australian Open, last week featured two 250-level ATP and WTA events, plus a handful of Davis Cup action. Read on for a recap of the week’s tennis action, plus a look ahead at what awaits in the first week of February.
Auger-Aliassime and Mertens shine post-Australian Open
Women’s tennis saw the Singapore Open take place last week, with players like Emma Raducanu featuring. The Brit unfortunately crashed out, but the same can’t be said of Elise Mertens, who excelled by beating Ann Li in the final. It was the second title match of the year for Mertens and first trophy after she failed to win in Hobart.
On the men’s side there was also plenty of tennis played. In Montpellier, Felix Auger-Aliassime made his 17th final and claimed his seventh career title, besting qualifier Aleksandar Kovacevic. The Canadian becomes the first two-time titleist this season after winning Adelaide in early January, and extends his indoors record to six titles.
Davis Cup action
Davis Cup action also featured last week, with a handful of qualifier ties unfolding. Quite a few players participated, though most of the top names skipped it over.
Some interesting results include Japan beating the United Kingdom which means that the finals won’t feature the Brits this year. Serbia was also eliminated as Denmark proved better thanks to Holger Rune who won the crucial matches. That means that Novak Djokovic won’t have an opportunity to represent his country this year at the Davis Cup Finals.
Spain was also able to survive a tricky one against Switzerland despite not having Carlos Alcaraz with them.
Tensions in the France vs Brazil Davis Cup match
Davis Cup matches can be quite tense due to the patriotic environment and that’s what happened when France hosted Brazil this week.
During a match between Arthur Fils and Thiago Seyboth Wild the umpire made two colossal mistakes that benefited Fils leaving Wild rather frustrated, especially since Fils didn’t really intervene either.
The Brazilian took exception to Fils’ apparent lack of sportsmanship, leading to a rather firm discussion at the net while shaking hands. This included Seyboth Wild not letting go of Fils’ hand until he said everything he had to say, and jerking the Frenchman towards him. While it seemed as though the incident could escalate into a full-blown conflict, both teams helped the two keep a lid on it.
And what about these scenes from the Belgium v Chile match… Zizou Bergs collides with Cristian Garin in celebration over a great shot to break serve, which leads to Chile, unsuccessfully, trying to get a default.
Zizou Bergs makes a HUGE shot to break serve… but accidently collides with Cristian Garin in celebration ? pic.twitter.com/6H2RqRmx4m
— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) February 2, 2025
Alcaraz proves to be a humble king
Eagle-eyed fans have spotted Alcaraz at the airport in the past week as he was making his way to Rotterdam for this week’s event. What struck fans was that despite the 21-year-old being a multi-millionaire, he used a budget airline and waited for his own bags. Spanish press then reported that Alcaraz was offered an exclusive contract with a private air company however he refused it.
Novak Djokovic shows up in Belgrade
Djokovic hasn’t been seen much since his Australian Open injury but he was recently spotted back home in Belgrade during a basketball match. What created headlines was the hoodie he was wearing which lended support to the students in the country who have been heavily protesting against the government these days. While usually a beloved figure in his countries, there are those who have found his political statements recently troublesome.
Coming up this week
Tennis fans will know that the season moves forward at a dramatic pace, and that is no different this coming week.
Duel ATP 500 events unfold in Dallas and Rotterdam. There are plenty of big names on show, with players like Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul playing in Dallas and Rotterdam seeing the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Holger Rune and Alex de Minaur in action. Interestingly enough the defending champion Jannik Sinner won’t be in action in Rotterdam this year so that means we’ll have a new champion.
It’s not any less exciting on the women’s side of the sport either as there will be two really great events as well. There is the smaller one in Cluj-Napoca and the bigger one in Abu Dhabi with players such as Elena Rybakina, Paula Badosa, Daria Kasatkina and more playing.
Overall February will be starting with a bang with numerous great events. There will be no rest later in the month either, as double 1000 tournaments await on the WTA Tour and the ATP Tour gears up for the Sunshine Double.