{"id":585538,"date":"2026-04-06T09:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T09:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/585538\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T09:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T09:20:11","slug":"a-college-tennis-players-leaping-shot-across-the-net-went-viral-there-was-just-one-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/585538\/","title":{"rendered":"A college tennis player\u2019s leaping shot across the net went viral. There was just one problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic\u00a0will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.<\/p>\n

This week, a superhero shot had just one flaw, a straight-sets final meant very different things to its participant, and some strange bounces of the ball.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to follow our fantastic tennis coverage, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A college tennis shot seen around the world \u2014 but should it have counted?<\/p>\n

\u201cChallengers,\u201d the 2024 film starring Zendaya, Josh O\u2019Connor and Mike Faist which sent tenniscore into overdrive, ends with a superhero shot in both senses of the word. One of the players leaps over the net to thump a smash, falling into the arms of the other in the process.<\/p>\n

Last week, during a match between Kentucky and Georgia, Eli Stephenson made one of his own, winning a point \u2014 after some involved discussion between match officials \u2014 with this:<\/p>\n

Superman? Nah. Eli Stephenson. #SCTop10<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Tvn4qeryJO<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Kentucky Men\u2019s Tennis (@UKMensTennis) April 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Luca Guadagnino may appreciate the camera work for its focus on one player\u2019s experience of a two-sided encounter, an approach he uses throughout \u201cChallengers.\u201d Stephenson\u2019s opponent, Arda Azkara, maybe not so much. But as Stephenson soars over the net, makes the smash and plants his feet in enemy territory, eagle-eyed tennis fans will be looking not at the athlete vaulting the net, but the small yellow ball.<\/p>\n

Players are normally not allowed to cross the net. The exception is when they are responding to a shot that has bounced on their side of the court, before spinning back over to their opponent\u2019s side. In this case, leaning over the net to make a shot is allowed, provided that they do not touch the net until the ball has bounced twice after whatever shot they make.<\/p>\n

Stephenson, though, took the net out of the equation entirely, so the equation changes. For this shot to be legal, he has to make it and his ball has to bounce twice before his feet hit the paint on Arkara\u2019s side. It did not, so the point should have gone to Azkara, but officials ruled that the ball had gone dead by going out of the court before Stephenson\u2019s landing, despite the video showing otherwise.<\/p>\n

Stephenson\u2019s feat quickly went viral for its athleticism and execution, prompting much discussion of its apparent brilliance \u2014 and much frantic checking as to whether or not it should have counted. Sadly for Stephenson, it should not.<\/p>\n

\u2014 James Hansen<\/p>\n

The two sides of a straight-sets final?<\/p>\n

For Jessica Pegula, the simplest match in her Charleston Open title defense was also the most important one. Pegula completed a 6-2, 6-2 win over Yuliia Starodubtseva to lift the trophy for a second time, having been taken to three sets in her four other matches during the tournament.<\/p>\n

For Starodubtseva, 26, who is Ukrainian and has not been back to her home country for four years during Russia\u2019s invasion, the match was significant even in defeat. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot around me, for the first time,\u201d she said in her post-match news conference, admitting that she had barely slept in three days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t checked any of the prize money on purpose, I never do. \u2026 But it definitely will help me in a way to feel free,\u201d she said. Her runner-up spot earns her $218,225, and\u00a0 Starodubtseva, who played college tennis at Old Dominion in Norfolk, Va., before graduating in 2022 and coaching in the Westchester area, is as familiar as any player as to how hard it is to both rise and earn at the same time.<\/p>\n

People raised money for her on a GoFundMe to fund her entry into small tournaments in the early stages of her career, when she did not have the required ranking to enter even ITF tournaments, the third tier of professional tennis.<\/p>\n

\"Yuliia<\/p>\n

\n Yuliia Starodubtseva (left) and Jessica Pegula (right) met in the Charleston Open final Sunday. (Matthew Stockman \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

For Pegula, her title extends her 2026 record to 24-4, with three of those losses coming to world No. 2 and Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina. She is also 10-1 in three-set matches, a record which is both remarkable and maybe not entirely sustainable. Last year, Pegula played (31) and won (18) more three-set matches than anyone else on the WTA Tour, but her win percentage of just under 60 was 14th among players who played 10 or more of them.<\/p>\n

Is that just the way the ball bounces?<\/p>\n

Over the past 10 days, Tommy Paul has experienced just about everything a player can experience on a tennis court.<\/p>\n

He held four consecutive match points at the end of a slugfest with Arthur Fils in the Miami Open<\/a> quarterfinals, but he couldn\u2019t close. Fils somehow came up with a wild running backhand from way off the court on one of them; on the others, Paul\u2019s own strokes erred. Fils rose again to break Paul\u2019s heart, 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 7-6(6) over nearly three hours.<\/p>\n

Paul said he didn\u2019t sleep much that night, but tennis doesn\u2019t allow for too much sulking. It was time for the U.S. Men\u2019s Clay Court Championships in Houston, and this time the tennis gods had Paul\u2019s back.<\/p>\n

How else to explain two of the craziest bounces possible, one leaping and one skittering, that got him two key points against Frances Tiafoe in the third-set tiebreak of their semifinal Saturday?<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw Francis again today,\u201d Paul said Sunday evening during a phone interview from Houston. \u201cI had to apologize like four more times. I could not believe this, but we know here in Houston, they dump a lot of clay on the court when it rains and the conditions completely change.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

By then, Paul had won the title, saving three championship points against Rom\u00e1n Andr\u00e9s Burruchaga, the 24- year-old world No. 77 from Argentina, who comes with quite the sports pedigree. His father scored the winning goal for Argentina in the 1986 men\u2019s World Cup final against West Germany.<\/p>\n

On one of the championship points, with Paul serving at 3-5, Burruchaga, sent a regulation return long off a soft, short serve. Burruchaga missed again on his second chance, and on the third Paul got to the net for a volley. Three games later, Burruchaga sent another ball long and Paul had completed his boomerang.<\/p>\n

How?<\/p>\n

He and his team regrouped after the Miami loss. They vented. They got it out, and then it was on to the next tournament to play each match, each game, on its own terms. Come the end stage of the final, Paul knew that Burruchaga would, at some point, remember where he was.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo times this week, I\u2019ve been down a break in the third, so, I mean, why can\u2019t I do it again?,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s playing well, but he\u2019s also never been in that situation. And you know nerves are going to creep in. I\u2019m playing 3-5 in my service game. I felt like that was his best chance to win the match. Obviously, looking at it from the outside, of course it was because he had match points.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut once I had saved those match points, I felt pretty loosened up about playing that return game and I\u2019m sure he felt much tighter. It\u2019s little things that the normal tennis fan probably wouldn\u2019t pick it up. They\u2019d be like, \u2018Oh he\u2019s serving for the match.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul saw an opening. He\u2019d been on the other side not long ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s nervous and he\u2019s probably going to give me a point or two if I win the first,\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what happened, and before long Paul was even, and then ahead, and then the champion.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Futterman<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc6\u00a0The winners of the week<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfbe\u00a0ATP:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc6 Tommy Paul (4) def. Rom\u00e1n Andr\u00e9s Burrachaga 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 to win the U.S. Men\u2019s Clay Court Championships (250) in Houston. It is his first clay title.
\ud83c\udfc6 Rafael J\u00f3dar def. Marco Trungelliti (Q) 6-3, 6-2 to win the Hassan Grand Prix II (250) in Marrakech, Morocco. It is the 19-year-old\u2019s first ATP Tour title.
\ud83c\udfc6 Mariano Navone (7) def. Daniel M\u00e9rida (Q) 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 to win the Bucharest Open (250) in Bucharest, Romania. It is his first ATP Tour title.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfbe WTA:<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc6 Jessica Pegula (1) def. Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-2, 6-2 to win the Charleston Open (500) in Charleston, South Carolina. It is the her second consecutive title there.
\ud83c\udfc6 Marie Bouzkov\u00e1 (1) def. Panna Udvardy (8) 6-7(7), 6-2, 6-2 to win the Copa Colsanitas (250) in Bogot\u00e1, Colombia. It is her third WTA Tour title.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcc8\ud83d\udcc9 On the rise \/ Down the line<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcc8 Marco Trungelliti moves up 41 places from No. 117 to No. 76, a career high.
\ud83d\udcc8 Yuliia Starodubtseva ascends 36 spots from No. 89 to No. 53, also a career high.
\ud83d\udcc8 Rafael Jodar rises 32 spots from No. 89 to No. 57, also a career high.
\ud83d\udcc8 Panna Udvardy rises 21 spots from No. 92 to No. 71, to complete the quartet of career-high rankings.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcc9 Jenson Brooksby falls 23 places from No. 41 to No. 64.
\ud83d\udcc9 Sofia Kenin drops 19 places from No. 47 to No. 66.
\ud83d\udcc9 Filip Misolic tumbles 24 spots from No. 86 to No. 110.
\ud83d\udcc9 Camila Osorio moves down 27 spots from No. 54 to No. 81.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcc5 Coming up<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfbe\u00a0ATP\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udccdMonte Carlo, Monaco: Monte Carlo Masters (1,000) featuring Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Ga\u00ebl Monfils.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel \ud83d\udcbb Tennis TV<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfbe WTA<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udccdLinz, Austria: Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open (500) featuring Mirra Andreeva, Jelena Ostapenko, S\u00e1ra Bejlek, Lilli Tagger.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel<\/p>\n

Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men\u2019s and women\u2019s tours continue.<\/p>\n