Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.
This week, the season moved on to Tokyo and Beijing before arriving in Shanghai and Wuhan. Two stars seeking their best form will meet, matches just keep getting longer, and… Novak Djokovic is an ice villain?
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What can tennis learn from the ‘Six Kings Slam’ trailer?
There are lots of nonsensical things about the “Six Kings Slam,” a tennis exhibition event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It’s taking place directly after a two-week Masters 1000; Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are the top seeds in an event featuring Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz; the appearance fees are over $1.5million (£1.1m) for three days of tennis; Holger Rune is there.
The trailer, though? It rips.
Carlos Alcaraz looks like a tennis player straight out of “Dune”; Rune is the insurgent Viking; and Daniil Medvedev is riding a bear. Novak Djokovic is awoken from an icy slumber like something out of Game of Thrones.
It’s longer and has more gravitas than most movie trailers and is doing exactly what Saudi Arabia wants its buffet of global tennis stars to do: overshadow long-held concerns about its human rights record as it continues to expand its place in the corridors of power.
Upon the spring announcement of the country’s deal to host the WTA Finals from this year, Human Rights Watch said that “torture and imprisonment of peaceful critics of the government continues… Courts impose decades-long imprisonment on Saudi women for tweets.”
The WTA chairman, Steve Simon, told The Athletic that the WTA “certainly understands and respects that Saudi is something that provokes some very strong views,” while former players, including Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, publicly criticized “partnering a country with a history of repressive laws against women, that criminalizes homosexuality and free speech, and that in 2018 murdered Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident journalist who had travelled to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, to get documents he needed for a marriage license,” as The Athletic’s Matt Futterman wrote in April.
Men’s tennis and the ATP Tour still might do well to look at this trailer, if not the event as a whole, from another perspective. In the twilight of the Big Three era, men’s tennis needs to consider its next sources of the stardom and gravitas this trailer achieves, just as much as it needs to consider its place in sportswashing.
GO DEEPER
Saudi Arabia’s new $1billion proposal and the battle to control tennis
The rivalry between Sinner — who is now playing under the possibility of a future two-year ban — and Alcaraz is key, but two players cannot sustain the place of men’s tennis in culture alone. This kind of cinematic visualization of rivalries, demonstration of a bigger prize, and fantastical representation of the heights these players can reach is exactly how to appeal to a wider audience and exactly why the Six Kings has gone down this route.
James Hansen
Will WTA matches just keep getting longer?
Two weeks ago, Laura Siegemund beat Wang Xiyu in four hours and nine minutes at the Thailand Open. It was the longest tour-level WTA match since 2011.
That was then topped on Thursday in Beijing when Sara Sorribes Tormo, known for her epic matches, defeated Gao Xinyu in four hours and 15 minutes.
Having had no WTA matches last longer than four hours in 13 years, here came two inside a fortnight.
The reality is that tennis matches are getting longer and longer. On the men’s side, The Athletic revealed last year that there was an increase at Grand Slam level of around 25 per cent between 1999 and 2023, and even in women’s three-set matches there have been noticeable increases.
When women’s matches are going four hours and sets are routinely taking longer than an hour, it’s rare to be left wanting more tennis after a match finishes and sometimes, it can even be a case of feeling like less would have done.
The recent U.S. Open final between Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula was a good example of this. It was only two sets, but did anyone feel shortchanged after just under two hours of compelling tennis?
As equipment, technology and athleticism continue to improve across all levels of the ATP and WTA Tour, these long matches are only going to become more commonplace.
Charlie Eccleshare
How does shifting stardom remind tennis of the need for global appeal?
The switch to east Asia for this part of the tennis calendar serves as a reminder of the sport’s global appeal and the range of its superstars.
Kei Nishikori, the Japanese former world No. 4 who has had such a rough time with injury of late, had a thrilling run in Tokyo last week. His matches and practice sessions were packed out and he was within a point of reaching the semifinals before agonisingly losing to Holger Rune. Even after his fall down the rankings, Nishikori absolutely remains one of his country’s biggest stars.
On the women’s side, Australian Open finalist and Olympic gold medallist Zheng Qinwen is enjoying her homecoming at the China Open, and after a first-round win against Kamilla Rakhimova on Saturday, she said that the atmosphere on court was “insane.”
She added: “I never thought it would be so full in the centre court. I know they put on my favourite music. They just did everything for me.”
Zheng Qinwen signing the tennis memento of choice, the jumbo tennis ball, in Beijing (Jade Gao / AFP via Getty Images)
The prominence of the home players in Beijing has meant it’s been customary over the last few days for stars like Carlos Alcaraz and Naomi Osaka to be scheduled away from the biggest court. For a men’s 500 event (the third biggest type of tournament, below the Grand Slams and Masters 1000s), this is a testament to the sport’s depth and geographical spread.
GO DEEPER
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Charlie Eccleshare
A low-key important fourth round in Beijing?
Tuesday will bring together two Grand Slam champions who have recently shaken up their coaching setups as they search for their best form.
It’s only a last-16 match between Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka, but tomorrow’s China Open meeting has the feel of something quite significant.
Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka embrace after their match in summer 2022 (Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)
Both players really need to find a spark after difficult summers that failed to live up to their own and others’ expectations.
Gauff parted ways with coach Brad Gilbert in order to freshen things up, while Osaka has replaced Wim Fissette with Patrick Mouratoglou.
Whoever wins will feel confident in the quarterfinals against either Yuliia Starodubtseva or Anna Kalinskaya and a whole lot better about their prospects for the rest of the year. It is their first meeting since summer 2022 when Gauff triumphed 6-4, 6-4 in San Jose, California.
GO DEEPER
Naomi Osaka and the gravity of a superstar at the U.S. Open
Charlie Eccleshare
The rapid rise of Jacob Fearnley
What a summer it’s been for Britain’s Jacob Fearnley.
After graduating from Texas Christian University a few months ago, Fearnley, 23, won his fourth Challenger title of the year (and second in a row) in Orleans, France, this weekend.
Fearnley becomes a top-100 player for the first time and if he can maintain his form, he will ensure himself automatic entry for the Australian Open in January. On his Grand Slam debut in July, Fearnley reached the Wimbledon second round where he took a set off seven-time champion Novak Djokovic.
The way Fearnley has hit the ground running after swapping college tennis for the pro circuit recalls a similarly swift start from his compatriot and fellow Texas Christian alumnus Cameron Norrie at the same age six years ago.
Charlie Eccleshare
Shot of the week
Trying to break Karolina Muchova is pretty difficult when she can do something like this under pressure.
Recommended reading:
📈📉 On the rise / Down the line
📈 Jacob Fearnley moves up 28 places from No. 126 to No. 98 after his latest ATP Challenger win. It is his highest career ranking to date.
📈 Naomi Osaka ascends at least 15 spots from No. 73 to No. 58 after her run in Bejing.
📈 Bu Yunchaokete rises to a career-high of No. 83 from No. 96 and like Osaka could move higher through the week.
📉 Iga Swiatek remains at world No. 1 but drops 1,100 points after withdrawing from Beijing. Aryna Sabalenka can close the gap to just 284 points if she wins the event.
📉 Adrian Mannarino drops nine places from No. 43 to No. 52 after dropping 200 points from last year’s win in Astana, Kazakhstan.
📉 Ons Jabeur falls seven spots from No. 21 to No. 28 as her long-term shoulder injury continues to hurt her ranking.
📅 Coming up
🎾 ATP
📍Beijing: China Open (500) featuring Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev.
📍Shanghai: Shanghai Masters (1000) featuring Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻
🎾 WTA
📍Beijing: China Open (1000) featuring Aryna Sabalenka, Zheng Qinwen, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.:
Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men’s and women’s tours continue.
(Top photo: Clive Brunskill / Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
