Welcome again to the Monday Tennis Briefing, the place The Athletic will clarify the tales behind the tales from the previous week on court docket.
This week, Jannik Sinner additional stamped his authority on males’s tennis by profitable the ATP Tour Finals towards Taylor Fritz. Elsewhere, the Billie Jean King Cup took middle stage on the ladies’s tour and Nick Kyrgios introduced his return to the game.
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The tip to a season Iga Swiatek wanted?
She cut up together with her coach, breaking apart a partnership that received 4 Grand Slams.
She misplaced her No. 1 rating to Aryna Sabalenka.
She misplaced a match to Coco Gauff, in a rivalry she leads 12-2.
Then Iga Swiatek went to the Billie Jean King Cup in Malaga to play workforce tennis for Poland and obtained again on monitor. She battled again from dropping a number of wholesome leads towards Linda Noskova, who knocked her out of the Australian Open in January, then walked on court docket half-hour after that with Katarzyna Kawa for a 6-2, 6-4 win over Marie Bouzkova and doubles world No. 1 Katerina Siniakova to beat the Czech Republic 2-1 and transfer into the semifinals.
Swiatek skipped the previous two editions to recuperate from the WTA Tour Finals. A flourish of wins and camaraderie in Malaga seems to be simply what the physician ordered firstly of her new partnership with Wim Fissette.
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Emotional intelligence, knowledge, and hard love: Who’s Wim Fissette the coach?
Matt Futterman
Will rankings assist Nice Britain on the Billie Jean King Cup?
Nice Britain’s doubles gamers Heather Watson and Olivia Nicholls have been spectators on the Billie Jean King Cup.
Britain have overwhelmed Germany and 2023 champions Canada 2-0 with all 4 victories in straight units — due to the wonderful performances of singles gamers Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu.
The pair are No. 24 and No. 58 on the earth however their rankings could be nearer had been it not for Raducanu’s numerous accidents over the previous few years. They play to a really related stage and each elevate their sport in a workforce atmosphere.
Emma Raducanu has thrived within the Billie Jean King Cup in 2024. (Fran Santiago / Getty Photographs for ITF)
Nice Britain’s singles workforce successfully options two gamers worthy of prime singles billing, a useful benefit when the second-tier gamers by world rating go head-to-head within the opening rubber of a tie. Raducanu led off for Nice Britain towards Germany and Canada and was a stage above her opponent. She thrashed world No. 91 Jule Niemeier 6-2, 6-2 within the win over Germany on Friday after which beat Canada’s world No. 103 Rebecca Marino 6-0, 7-5. Boulter adopted up with straight-sets victories of her personal.
Subsequent up for Britain is a semifinal on Tuesday towards Group USA’s conquerors Slovakia, with world No. 41 Rebecca Sramkova in outstanding kind. If Boulter and Raducanu maintain enjoying the way in which they’re then Watson and Nicholls will stay as lively on the Malaga match court docket as the remainder of us watching.
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Emma Raducanu has achieved all-or-nothing tennis. Now, can she simply play?
Charlie Eccleshare
How do the ATP Tour Finals have an effect on the Australian Open?
The largest knock-on from the boys’s tour finals to the primary Grand Slam of 2025 most likely occurred earlier than the occasion began in Turin, Italy. When Novak Djokovic determined to not play — and to relinquish his 1,300 rating factors as defending champion — he sealed his destiny of falling outdoors the highest 4 seeds in Melbourne, making him a fairly nightmarish quarterfinal opponent for anybody in that prime 4 if he goes deep in Australia, the most important he has received greater than every other.
The remainder of males’s tennis has roughly two months to obsess about how far forward of them Jannik Sinner is. Carlos Alcaraz is excused after beating Sinner 3 times out of three in 2024 and profitable the 2 majors that Sinner didn’t, however the Italian’s destruction of the sphere on Turin’s laborious court docket made plain what all of them have sensed: the period of tennis as chess is on hiatus.
Casper Ruud, a three-time Grand Slam finalist, has declared himself a dinosaur at 25.
“I’m not going to begin enjoying a distinct type of tennis now,” he mentioned in a information convention in Turin.
“I must flatten out the photographs extra. From protection, particularly on laborious court docket, I must take a bit extra threat.”
A couple of different strays: Alex de Minaur is aware of he must take a break and get wholesome. Taylor Fritz goes to really feel excellent a couple of potential match-up with Alexander Zverev. Alcaraz will kiss the bottom figuring out that he shall be enjoying an outside event.
GO DEEPER
Jannik Sinner wins ATP Tour Finals with serve masterclass towards Taylor Fritz
Matt Futterman
What does Nick Kyrgios have in retailer for tennis?
Whereas the perfect gamers on the earth had been duking it out in Turin final week, Nick Kyrgios introduced that his on-court comeback is imminent.
Kyrgios hasn’t performed competitively since reaching the 2022 U.S. Open quarterfinals due to critical knee and wrist accidents, however he has pencilled in a return to tennis at subsequent month’s Brisbane Worldwide, one of many tune-up tournaments for the Australian Open. Kyrgios, 29, additionally intends to compete at his dwelling Grand Slam in January.
“That is most likely the perfect I’ve felt in two years,” Kyrgios mentioned in an interview with Australian broadcaster 9News as he introduced his comeback.
“It was a 15 % probability that I used to be going to get again to enjoying at this stage and right here we’re.
“To get again on the market in entrance of the house followers goes to be sick.”
Kyrgios, who additionally reached the Wimbledon ultimate and received the boys’s doubles on the Australian Open in 2022, might battle to make a serious influence right away, however he may play a giant half in Melbourne as a disruptor; nobody will need to face him in entrance of his dwelling followers within the early rounds.
A few of the wider tennis group may also have misgivings about his return. In early 2023, Kyrgios pleaded responsible to assaulting former girlfriend Chiara Passari in 2021, however was not convicted. In March this yr, he steered in a publish on X that Sinner needs to be “gone for 2 years” following his two optimistic assessments for clostebol, an anabolic steroid; in September 2024, Kyrgios was criticized for writing “second serve” underneath an image of himself and Sinner’s girlfriend, top-20 WTA participant Anna Kalinskaya.
Ridiculous – whether or not it was unintended or deliberate. You get examined twice with a banned (steroid) substance… you have to be gone for two years. Your efficiency was enhanced. Therapeutic massage cream…. Yeah good 🙄 https://t.co/13qR0F9nH2
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) August 20, 2024
Kyrgios, who has been praised for his evaluation as a broadcaster for ESPN and the BBC on the Grand Slam tournaments throughout his lay-off — together with interviewing WTA gamers on court docket in post-match interviews — was fined $10,000 in 2015 after on-court microphones picked up the Australian telling Stan Wawrinka that Thanasi Kokkinakis had “banged his girlfriend” throughout a Rogers Cup match in Montreal, Canada.
Kyrgios later apologized for the comment on Fb, writing: “My feedback had been made within the warmth of the second and had been unacceptable on many ranges.”
Charlie Eccleshare
Shot of the week
Viktoria Hruncakova slingshotting Slovakia into the final 4 in Malaga.
Energy 🆙
Unbelievable shot from Hruncakova🔥#BJKCup pic.twitter.com/sGrNuVFLdG
— Billie Jean King Cup (@BJKCup) November 17, 2024
Beneficial studying:
🏆 The winners of the week
🎾 ATP:
🏆 Jannik Sinner (1) def. Taylor Fritz (5) 6-4, 6-4 to win the ATP Tour Finals in Turin. It’s the Italian’s eighth title of 2024.
🏆 Kevin Krawietz / Tim Puetz (8) def. Marcelo Arevalo / Mate Pavic (1) 7-6(5), 7-6(6) to win the ATP Tour Finals in Turin. It’s the German pair’s third ATP title collectively.
🏆 Alexander Blockx def. Jurij Rodionov 6-3, 6-1 to win the Hyogo Noah Challenger (Challenger 100) in Kobe, Japan. It’s the Belgian’s first ATP title.
🏆 Ethan Quinn def. Nishesh Basavareddy 6-3, 6-1 to win the Paine Schwartz Companions Challenger (Challenger 75) in Champaign, Il. It’s the American’s first ATP title.
📈📉 On the rise / Down the road
📈 Fritz strikes up one place to No. 4 on the earth, a career-high rating, whereas Casper Ruud strikes as much as No. 6 forward of Novak Djokovic.
📈 Caroline Garcia advantages from compatriot Diane Parry dropping 56 rating factors, shifting up one place and returning to the highest 50.
📈 Blockx reaches a career-high of No. 204, up 45 locations from No. 249.
📉 Daniil Medvedev falls one place from No. 4 to No. 5; Djokovic falls from No. 6 to No. 7.
📉 Harriet Dart drops out of the highest 100, falling 13 locations from No. 88 to No. 101.
📅 Arising
🎾 ATP
📍Malaga, Spain: Davis Cup that includes Rafael Nadal, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Taylor Fritz.
📍Rovereto, Italy: Citta’ Di Rovereto (Challenger 100) that includes Borna Coric, Martin Landaluce, Luca Nardi, Dino Prizmic.
📍Montemar, Spain: Il Montemar (Challenger 75) that includes Fabio Fognini, Sumit Nagal, Pablo Carreno Busta, Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
📺 UK: Sky Sports activities; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV, Challenger TV
🎾 WTA
📍Malaga, Spain: Billie Jean King Cup that includes Iga Swiatek, Emma Raducanu, Jasmine Paolini, Rebecca Sramkova.
📍Colina, Chile: LP Open (125) that includes Robin Montgomery, Mayar Sherif, Suzan Lamens, Chloe Paquet.
📍Charleston, South Carolina: Fifth Third Charleston (125), that includes Renata Zarazua, Alycia Parks, Iva Jovic, Varvara Lepchenko.
💻 WTA Unlocked
Inform us what you seen this week within the feedback under as the boys’s and girls’s excursions proceed.
(High photograph: Angel Martinez / Getty Photographs; Design: Eamonn Dalton)
