REFORM TENNIS

“This Tuesday, April 28, the one hundredth World Team Table Tennis Championships begins in London. Kicking off at the Copperbox Arena before moving to the OVO Arena Wembley on May 2, where it runs through the finals on May 10. This is a centennial event. The very first World Table Tennis Championships were held in London one hundred years ago, and the sport is returning to the city where it all began. The last time Wembley hosted the championships was in 1954.”

“In his semi-final performance, where he was absolutely unreal, it felt like a kind of exhibition performance. The winners, he was reeling off against Alexander Zverev in that straight sets victory. He burst into tears upon sitting down in his chair after that win and was sobbing for considerable length of time. We knew he was bearing a heavy weight. He had done an Instagram post the day before and he had also put some markings on the sleeve that he wears on his arm in memory of a young boy, a 13-year-old boy we're hearing from his tennis club in Rome”

“Carlos Alcaraz is out of Madrid. Now, we knew this at the time that we recorded, I think, last Thursday, Matt, we're hearing rumblings coming out about this wrist injury being bad, being certainly more than just an excuse to pull out of an event. He didn't particularly want to play anyway, or that's too reductive. I'm sure we'd love to play, but perhaps didn't best suit a schedule tailored towards defending his role on Garros' title.”

“On Wednesday, Roberto Bautista Agut played his final match at Caja Magica, and the crowd gave it right back to him. The 38 year old Spaniard, who announced his retirement at the end of this season just last week, lost his first round match to Argentina's Thiago Agustin Tarante six two six four. But the score line was, in the words of the tournament itself, completely secondary. After the match, tournament directors Feliciano Lopez and Gabriin Muguruza, two legends of Spanish tennis in their own right, joined him on court to present a commemorative plaque.”

“But I tell you, he's gonna be a French Open champion in the future, is Arthur Fils. Health permitting. It is health permitting. But I totally believe that the revs he's getting on that forehand with speed through the air. There's not really any other like that now, now that Nadal stopped. Get David on a French radio talk show, because I feel like Fils is really being talked about in France. There's like debate happening in France. Like, is he a potential threat to Sino and Alcares? Is he not?”

“Carlos Alcarez won the World Sportsman of the Year. Irina Sabalenka won the World Sportswoman of the Year. Both accepted their awards in Madrid just days before the Madrid Open draw came out. The ceremony was hosted by two former Laureus winners, freestyle skiing star Eileen Gu and the goat of our sport Novak Djokovic. Since 2000, tennis players have won the top men's individual award 13 times, and Sabalenka joins an illustrious group of WTA winners. The sport has never been more present on the global stage.”

“On Wednesday, the WTA confirmed that CEO Portia Archer has stepped down effective Monday, April 20, right at the end of her initial contract and ahead of renewal talks. The news came through a memo from WTA chair Valerie Camillo to staff, members, and stakeholders, which was then shared publicly. No reason was given for the departure. In her note, Camillo credited Archer with expanding the tour into new markets, pushing player first initiatives, enhancing safeguarding standards, and driving tech innovation.”

“Yeah, and it got worse and worse as this match went on. You know, her first serve percentage just dropped in this match on, you know, by set. And you know, her first serve is not the most effective first serve anyway. So she kind of needs to be making a pretty high percentage to be able to get effect out of it. And then, as you said, the second serve is kind of sitting there and is very attackable right now. And I suppose the serve was an element that I wasn't expecting to have got better, to be honest.”

“Arkansas, SEC school gets rid of the tennis program. The 2025 financial report for Razorback Athletics was reported. And women's tennis and men's tennis are the least of the losers of all of the sports. Football is the only one football makes significant money, made $30,000,000. Men's basketball made $4,000,000. Then women's tennis lost 1,000,000. Men's tennis lost 1,200,000. Now every other sport that's on there, men's golf, women's golf, gymnastics, volleyball, swimming, diving, soccer, softball, baseball, track and field, and then women's basketball at the very bottom all also lost more money individually.”

“I left Tennis Australia after 20 years to take big swings at the USTA.”

“On Tuesday, Anz Jabeur announced the birth of her son, Elian Kamun, born April 20. Jabeur shared the news on Instagram with a message, a tiny miracle, a lifetime of love, alongside a photo of her and husband, Kareem, cradling their boy. The tennis world immediately flooded her comments. Coco Gauff, Emma Raducanu, Alina Svitolina, Leila Fernandez, Paola Badosa, Billie Jean King, the list goes on. They all showed up. Jabeur has confirmed her plans to return.”

“And Rybakina just continues to be in incredible form, doesn't she? This is now the first time she's won multiple titles somewhere. She has removed the Medvedev curse over her little collection of titles. She won this back in 2024, and she didn't play it last year. So she's on a real streak, actually, in Stuttgart. And those conditions, indoors, obviously we saw what she can do on an indoor hard court back in the WTA finals last year against the best players in the world.”

“Marketa Vondrousova, the former Wimbledon champion, has been charged with refusing a doping test after what she calls an acute stress reaction. This from reporting by Charlie Echolchet in The Athletic. An ITIA spokesperson has confirmed to The Athletic that Vondrousova could face a ban of up to four years and that she's under investigation for an event which took place in December of last year. Vondrousova is free to play while under investigation. On Friday afternoon, she, Vondrousova, that is, issued a statement on Instagram detailing how a random visit from a doping control official caused an acute stress reaction.”

“Solving the tennis calendar and the off-season crisis is a priority.”

“I think 31 players have withdrawn or retired from the Madrid Open so far across both draws, up from 21 on Friday. 17 women are now either withdrawn or retired in Madrid. Illness clusters mid tournament hit people like, Iga, Sam Sonnava, Maddie Keys. Coco Gauff's throwing up on court and still winning. Chillis was pulled out. So it's it's definitely a little bit all over the place, in terms of people feeling ill, but Coco did say she did not eat the tacos.”

“Camilla Giorgi, the Italian former world number 26, announced that she is expecting her first child with her husband, former ATP player Andreas Pizzuti. Giorgi retired from tennis in 2024 without so much as a goodbye tweet. But earlier this week, she responded to a few fan questions on Instagram stories confirming her plans for a 2027 return. For those who need a recap, Georgi's exit was one of the stranger stories in recent years. Her name appeared on the ITIA's retired players list without any announcement.”

“I had to live it. I had to live through the inconvenience of it. And for me, it created at least some sort of I always say proudly, whenever we have controversy, I can safely say that we have the most intense testing in all of sports. I love being able to say that. If I was getting woken up at 05:20 by a doorbell, and you have to provide your codes, if you have a gate to your house and the whole thing, if I was getting woken up, then that meant anyone else somewhere in the world was also having the threat of being tested, therefore, probably making the sport cleaner.”

“Nuno Borges, the Portuguese world number 52, had a 6-4 lead in the second set tiebreak against Tomás Martín Echeverry, and Borges delivered an Underarm Ace on Match Point. Echeverry didn't get a racket on it, put his hands on his hips, walked to the net, delivered possibly the frostiest handshake we've seen thus far of the clay season and the Catalan crowd booed. So here's the debate: Is the Underarm Serve tactical genius or is it disrespectful?”

“College tennis is facing a crisis due to NIL and scholarship changes.”

“And I think if you go back three years and watch Shelton's first steps on these clay courts as he was playing that swing, and then watch him in the Munich final and whole week this week, you will very obviously and very quickly see how much he has improved. He was all over the place on the clay. He didn't know how to move on it at all. He's such a good athlete, but normally, he's a great athlete moving in one direction, sprinting fast, on clay, you're constantly having to stop and change direction and be strong so as to withstand the sliding.”

“College tennis, in my opinion, outside looking in, I didn't play college tennis. I saw it. I watched it. I was around it nonstop growing up. My brother played four years at Georgia all the time. It's never been a better product. It is simply never been a higher quality of tennis to where, as a fan, if you get a chance to go to these matches, go. The number one player on a team that's top five in the country, sure as shit, like, they're gonna be in a major in the next eighteen months.”

“Won by the top seed, Marta Kostyuk, following an all-Ukrainian final. She beat the 19-year-old qualifier, who quite frankly, I had not heard of before this week, Veronika Podrez, 6'3, 6'4, and had some incredibly powerful words to say after the match during the trophy presentation. She said, This match today was not just a match. It was a historical moment for Ukrainian tennis. The first time two Ukrainians play in a final. I know how much work, sacrifice, tears, and sweat goes into this sport, and to be able to be on this stage.”

“The demon win was his first career top 10 win, and then currently, he has 17 wins in his first 25 career ATP matches. That's silly. That's a better start than Nadal, Federer, Novak, Alcarez, Sinner, and Fonseca. We were talking about this on Tennis Channel. Courier gets the hat tip on this. Hodard's, like, top 20 in the rolling rankings. So this is a big week for him. He's from Madrid. He's playing Madrid. It's this real breakthrough tournament, but it's not like he came out of nowhere.”

“Prospects of any age can now accept prize money in their sport without impacting their college eligibility. This change appears to be a direct result of the class action lawsuit filed by Reese Brantmeyer, the UNC tennis player who sued the NCAA over this exact rule. One catch though, the minute they enroll in college, locked out again until they turn pro. Make that make sense.”

“On Wednesday, Roberto Bautista Agut played his final match at Caja Magica, and the crowd gave it right back to him. The 38 year old Spaniard, who announced his retirement at the end of this season just last week, lost his first round match to Argentina's Thiago Agustin Tarante six two six four. But the score line was, in the words of the tournament itself, completely secondary. After the match, tournament directors Feliciano Lopez and Gabriin Muguruza, two legends of Spanish tennis in their own right, joined him on court to present a commemorative plaque.”

“Borris Becker's 1989 US Open trophy, the trophy he lifted after beating Ivan Lindell in four sets, just sold at auction this past Sunday for $357,546. That's now the most expensive tennis trophy ever sold at public auction. Interestingly enough, the $357,000 this trophy just sold for is more than the $300,000 in prize money Becker earned for winning the trophy in the first place.”

“We are looking at a new path to US Open wild cards.”

“Camilla Giorgi, the Italian former world number 26, announced that she is expecting her first child with her husband, former ATP player Andreas Pizzuti. Giorgi retired from tennis in 2024 without so much as a goodbye tweet. But earlier this week, she responded to a few fan questions on Instagram stories confirming her plans for a 2027 return. For those who need a recap, Georgi's exit was one of the stranger stories in recent years. Her name appeared on the ITIA's retired players list without any announcement.”

“On Wednesday, the WTA confirmed that CEO Portia Archer has stepped down effective Monday, April 20, right at the end of her initial contract and ahead of renewal talks. The news came through a memo from WTA chair Valerie Camillo to staff, members, and stakeholders, which was then shared publicly. No reason was given for the departure. In her note, Camillo credited Archer with expanding the tour into new markets, pushing player first initiatives, enhancing safeguarding standards, and driving tech innovation.”

“Yeah, she'd lost six times in a row to Goff. And she'd actually lost three times in a row to Svitolina. So to flip those head to heads around in consecutive matches, I agree with you, this does feel like a real step for Muchova. I talked on the pod on Thursday about some of those match up issues with Goff. Interestingly, we hadn't seen it on clay. And in my head, that would probably only help Koko Goff, but actually, I do think Muchova really played phenomenally well in this one and found a way to have a constant threat.”

“This Tuesday, April 28, the one hundredth World Team Table Tennis Championships begins in London. Kicking off at the Copperbox Arena before moving to the OVO Arena Wembley on May 2, where it runs through the finals on May 10. This is a centennial event. The very first World Table Tennis Championships were held in London one hundred years ago, and the sport is returning to the city where it all began. The last time Wembley hosted the championships was in 1954.”

“I mean, I guess one thing we could say and it does look like this is not a tear. And, you know, you you hear wrist and tennis, and immediately, where does your mind go? To some really dark places. Juan Martin del Potro, Dominic Thiem, never the same player. On the other hand, no pun intended. I was thinking ten years ago, Novak's trying to win Roland Garros for the first time, and what happens? He's you know, is he gonna beat Rafa? And then Rafa has a wrist injury. And we all say, Rafa misses Wimbledon. And then by August, he's winning gold medals and doubles and is playing the US Open. So we hope that's what this is.”

“On Tuesday, Anz Jabeur announced the birth of her son, Elian Kamun, born April 20. Jabeur shared the news on Instagram with a message, a tiny miracle, a lifetime of love, alongside a photo of her and husband, Kareem, cradling their boy. The tennis world immediately flooded her comments. Coco Gauff, Emma Raducanu, Alina Svitolina, Leila Fernandez, Paola Badosa, Billie Jean King, the list goes on. They all showed up. Jabeur has confirmed her plans to return.”

“I remember this is, like, the the shady shit that my mom. She's like, if you ever have to vomit, if you ever like, a junior tennis, it's like, you know, you you're playing in, like, San Antonio where it's a thousand degrees and you happen to play 17 matches in a day as a junior. If you ever have to vomit, go in the middle of court. It's gonna take at least twenty minutes to clean it up. Your mom your mom said that? Yeah. My mom said that. It's next level.”

“Carlos Alcaraz has pulled out of the Barcelona Open with a right-wrist injury just 48 hours after losing the Monte Carlo Masters final to Yannick Sinner, a loss that dropped him from world number one to world number two. Addressing the local media in Spanish, Carlos made it clear that this was a health call, not a tactical one, saying, 'I have to listen to my body, listen to what's best for me, and won't harm me in the future.' No timeline was given for a return to the courts, but the clock is ticking as he is set to defend his Rome title in just a few weeks.”

“Our 35 by 35 strategy focuses on building massive tennis participation.”

“Sinner pumped the gas. He's on a heater right now. Oh, he's on a heater. And listen. I know that I talk a lot of shit about the long masters one thousands. If you have confidence in a bottle and you're like center and you know you're it's gonna be you know, you play one match, you get a day off, you play it's probably easier to commit to to Madrid and Rome in that scenario. He has 24 consecutive wins in Masters one thousand events, which is the fourth longest streak in history only behind Novak who did it with 31, then again did it with 30, and then Roger did it, and then now center.”

“I feel like Goran Ivanovich is an ideal coach for this next stage of his career. The fact that, I mean, again, I always feel like I'm touching wood on his health because I can't believe this comeback. It's pretty unprecedented to come back and play like this, you know, consistently, but let's assume that that's in the past and that physically is okay. The next steps to be taken, he has the perfect guide in my view. Goran, by the way, believes that he was looking at a top 10 player in Hodar as well.”

“Carlos Alcarez won the World Sportsman of the Year. Irina Sabalenka won the World Sportswoman of the Year. Both accepted their awards in Madrid just days before the Madrid Open draw came out. The ceremony was hosted by two former Laureus winners, freestyle skiing star Eileen Gu and the goat of our sport Novak Djokovic. Since 2000, tennis players have won the top men's individual award 13 times, and Sabalenka joins an illustrious group of WTA winners. The sport has never been more present on the global stage.”

“Roland Garros announced this week that the 2026 prize money is jumping 9.5%, bringing the total purse to 61.7 million euros, or $72.7 million, making it a $6.2 million jump from last year. The singles winners will take home $3.3 million, but the real number is $102,000—that is what the first-round losers will take home. I don't know about you, but sign me up for taking an L on the red clay.”