Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.
As the ATP and WTA Tour Finals get closer, the season is slowly winding down. Two powerful serves battled in Switzerland; the rising Jack Draper won the biggest title of his career; former U.S. Open champion Sofia Kenin pulled back some form and Olga Danilovic won her first title in six years. Off court, the Tennis Hall of Fame made a big decision, the future of two tournaments came into question, and the USTA made some changes.
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How did the Tennis Hall of Fame handle Maria Sharapova’s situation?
Induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF) holds an odd place in the sport.
Halls of Fame (HoFs) are a massive thing in America. In the rest of the world, they barely exist. The Premier League has an online one, but this is a physical space in Newport, in the small New England state of Rhode Island.
On Thursday, the Tennis Hall of Fame announced its class of 2025: Bob and Mike Bryan, identical twins who were two of the greatest doubles players in the sport’s history, and Maria Sharapova, the five-time Grand Slam singles champion.
Sharapova’s selection comes with a dose of controversy. Other Halls of Fame, most notably baseball’s, have steered clear of athletes who have served suspensions for doping. Sharapova, who declined to take part in interviews surrounding the Hall of Fame announcement, served a 15-month suspension after testing positive for meldonium, a heart medication that can increase stamina, in 2016.
At the time of the positive test, meldonium had just landed on the banned substances list. She claimed she was taking the medication to treat a heart problem. However, the drug is not approved in the United States, and Sharapova, a longtime U.S. resident, was receiving it from a doctor in her native Russia.
In a statement, the Hall of Fame said it followed the same process for Sharapova as it does for other players. She met the eligibility criteria and her record was reviewed by both the voting committee and the organization’s official group of voters, which includes journalists, historians and existing Hall of Famers.
“The ITHF does not have a specific policy related to PED use,” the organization said. “Ultimately it was determined that the decision of induction should be left up to the voters.”
There is nothing controversial about the Bryans’ induction.
The brothers won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles together. Mike won two more with a different partner. They also won 11 mixed doubles majors between them, as well as men’s doubles gold at the 2012 Olympics.
Mike (serving) and Bob Bryan at the 2012 Olympics. (Luis Acosta / AFP via Getty Images)
Both were by turns giddy and emotional when discussing their Hall of Fame selection during a joint interview last Tuesday. Talking to the twins together was fitting: For years, they shared a bank account and a car as well as a home.
“Andre Agassi is in there, and he was our god growing up,” Bob said. “The list of incredible athletes in this place goes on and on and to go in there with them is just, I don’t know. It’s very, very surreal.”
“Baby-steps the whole way,” Mike said. “We kept our heads down for 23 years, just worrying about improving and trying to be the best team in the world. Then, all of a sudden, you’re putting the rackets down and seeing what you did, because you never really come up for air.”
They did a ridiculous amount. What stands out? Mainly the team events, they said. Capturing Olympic gold, with the London-hosted Games’ tennis events played at Wimbledon, rates pretty high; clinching the Davis Cup in 2007, with Jim Courier coaching and Andy Roddick and James Blake watching from the side of the court, is up there, too.
Then there was maybe the weirdest Wimbledon final ever.
In 2008, they were supposed to face each other in the mixed doubles final after Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal finished up on Centre Court. Rain came. Nadal and Federer went to five sets. Darkness was approaching and Wimbledon didn’t have its roofs yet.
So Bob, playing with Sam Stosur, and Mike, playing with Katarina Srebotnik, headed out No. 1 Court and played in front of their coaches, the officials and the stadium ushers. They kept checking the Federer-Nadal score at changeovers. When that match ended at dusk, theirs was just heading into the second set.
“We were both whiffing returns,” said Bob, who won that one. “I remember throwing the trophy up over my head just as a joke, because we knew there was no one there. The top came off and hit me right on the head. Gave me a nice little bruise.”
Matt Futterman
Why might two big tennis tournaments be sold?
Endeavor, the parent company of sport and culture giant IMG, has over the past 10 months made no secret of the fact that it would entertain offers for the ATP and WTA 1000-level tennis tournaments it owns in both Miami and Madrid.
Sports investors with access to cash from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund have made no secret that they would like to bring a major tennis tournament, for men and women, to the kingdom — a desire that has roiled the sport in the past year, only recently stalling into a mutual detente between the Gulf country and the two tours, as well as the four Grand Slams. Nothing is likely to happen before 2027 or 2028. This year’s WTA Tour Finals, in Saudi capital Riyadh, and ATP Next Gen Finals, in its second city Jeddah, will in some ways act as test beds for what happens next.
GO DEEPER
Six kings, $15m and slow progress: How Saudi Arabia’s push into tennis stalled
The two sides have communicated informally about their mutual interests, but now that communication has an opportunity to move to a different level. Endeavor announced late last week that it had retained The Raine Group, an investment advisory company, to help it sell the tournaments in Miami and Madrid as part of an effort to take the company private.
The Miami Open is one of six combined 1000-level events on the tennis calendar. (Mark Brown / Getty Images)
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) could buy one or both of the tournaments and move one of them – more likely Miami than Madrid, given the latter’s clay courts – to the kingdom. Such a deal would allow the Saudis to acquire licenses for both a men’s and a women’s tournament. That wasn’t previously available, because the WTA does not have a license for a 1000-level tournament to sell.
The Miami Open takes place at the end of March, following the tournament at Indian Wells in California, when the heat of spring and summer in the Gulf region has yet to gain full force. Flip the two events around and any potential tournament could line up after the preceding events in Doha and Dubai, moving it out of the contentious January slot that has been at the heart of discussions until now.
Endeavor still has a long-term deal with the owners of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami to hold the tournament there; Steve Ross, owner of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, spent $71million (nearly £55m) on a tennis complex at the venue in the city’s Miami Gardens district when the event relocated there from the Key Biscayne area in 2018. None of this could happen until that contract ends, either by expiring or by other more protracted means.
Miami and Madrid would fetch significant money. They are among the six combined top-level tournaments known as the Masters 1000s. Two years ago, Ben Navarro, father of future 2024 U.S. Open semifinalist Emma, purchased the Western & Southern Open, played in Cincinnati, Ohio, for more than $300million (£231m at the current exchange rate).
The asking prices have only gone up since then.
GO DEEPER
Saudi Arabia’s new $1billion proposal and the battle to control tennis
Matt Futterman
The end of a six-year wait
Six years on from her first WTA title, Olga Danilovic returned to the winner’s circle. Having lifted that maiden title in Moscow in 2018, aged 17, Danilovic beat America’s Caroline Dolehide to win the Guangzhou Open on Sunday October 27.
It would have been hard to imagine that it would take Danilovic so long to pick up title number two when she won the Moscow River Cup, but a run of injuries have slowed her progress.
A chronic knee problem forced her out of long stretches of the 2021 and 2022 seasons, but 2024 has been less challenging on that front. She reached the French Open fourth round on the back of a a remarkable, seesawing win over Olympic finalist Donna Vekic, and now she has this title. “I went to the doctor a million times,” Danilovic said at Roland Garros about the period where she was unable to stay fit.
That run in Paris served notice that this very talented left-hander was back, and this title win has rubber-stamped it. “I really showed what I can do,” Danilovic, up to a career high ranking of No. 52, said on court after beating Dolehide 6-3 6-1. “I’m very excited to be finishing the season this way.”
A season that started with a mixed doubles win for Serbia alongside Novak Djokovic at the United Cup is ending in some style too.
Olga Danilovic produced a dominant performance in Guangzhou. (Anadolu via Getty Images)
Charlie Eccleshare
Why is U.S. tennis shaking itself up?
The United States Tennis Association’s player development program wouldn’t figure to be a candidate for reorganization.
How much credit a national federation should receive for producing top players is pretty debatable, but the U.S. currently has a bevy of quality 20-somethings. The women, led by Grand Slam winner Coco Gauff and 2024 U.S. Open finalist Jessica Pegula, occupy two of the top six spots in the WTA rankings and four of the top 11. The men, led by 2024 U.S. Open finalist Taylor Fritz, occupy three of the top 17 and five of the top 23, and several of them, including Fritz, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe spent significant time in USTA camps growing up.
That didn’t stop last week’s announcement that the USTA is combining all levels of its player development tree, from the pro circuit and team events to collegiate and junior competitions, into a single department. The idea is to get them to collaborate and communicate more.
Under the new set-up, Martin Blackman — leader of the player development division for the past decade and part of the organization for nearly 20 years, is moving on. Blackman has yet to announce where he will land. He’s been a constant presence at big tournaments and has worked hard to diversify the elite junior ranks of American tennis.
Martin Blackman with then-U.S. Davis Cup captain Jim Courier (right) in 2017. (Martin Raoux / Associated Press)
Shot of the week
The thing about hitting a huge serve? Sometimes it comes back huge.
Recommended reading:
🏆 The winners of the week
🎾 ATP:
🏆 Jack Draper (7) def. Karen Khachanov 6-4, 7-5 to win the Erste Bank Open (500) in Vienna. It is his first ATP 500 title.
🏆 Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard def. Ben Shelton (6) 6-4, 7-6(5) to win the Swiss Indoors Open (500) in Basel. It is also his first ATP 500 title.
🎾 WTA:
🏆 Zheng Qinwen (1) def. Sofia Kenin (WC) 7-6(5), 6-3 to win the Pan Pacific Open (500) in Tokyo. It is her third title of 2024.
🏆 Olga Danilovic def. Caroline Dolehide (Q) 6-3, 6-1, to win the Guangzhou Open (250) in Guangzhou, China. It is her first WTA title since 2018.
📈📉 On the rise / Down the line
📈 Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard moves up 19 places from No. 50 to No. 31 after his title in Basel, earning a new career-high ranking.
📈 Olga Danilovic ascends 34 spots from No. 86 to No. 52 following her title in Guangzhou, which is also a career high.
📈 Sofia Kenin, who lost in the final in Tokyo, moves up 67 places from No. 155 to No. 88.
📉 Beatriz Haddad Maia falls seven places from No. 10 to No. 17 after retiring from her match against Bianca Andreescu in Tokyo with an injury.
📉 Felix Auger-Aliassime drops out of the top 20, falling from No. 19 to No. 27 after defeat to Perricard in Basel — where Auger-Aliassime was defending champion.
📉 Ons Jabeur falls one place from No. 32 to No. 33, casting doubt on her being seeded at the Australian Open.
📅 Coming up
🎾 ATP
📍Paris: Paris Masters (1000) featuring Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV
🎾 WTA
📍Hong Kong: Hong Kong Open (250) featuring Simona Halep, Lulu Sun, Wang Xinyu, Katie Boulter.
📍Jiujiang, China: Jiangxi Open (250) featuring Marie Bouzkova, Olga Danilovic, Moyuka Uchijima, Rebecca Sramkova.
📍Merida, Mexico: Merida Open (250) featuring Donna Vekic, Peyton Stearns, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, Laura Samson (WC).
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel
Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men’s and women’s tours continue.
(Top photo: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
