Will one Grand Slam\u2019s decision affect the tennis ticketing equation?<\/p>\n
As Grand Slams keep racking up attendance records, the first of the year has made a small decision that could prove to be a seismic one.<\/p>\n
The Australian Open will cap grounds pass allocations for 2027, on the back of a record-breaking 2026 event which saw just under 1,370,000 fans visit. The tournament announced the move last week, with Tennis Australia\u2019s chief commercial officer Cedric Cornelis saying in a statement that \u201cthis decision reflects the growing popularity of the AO and will help ensure fans are able to make the most of everything on offer across the precinct.\u201d<\/p>\n
At last year\u2019s event, a string of record-breaking attendance days put pressure on the tournament\u2019s infrastructure, as well as on the thing that fans want to see: The tennis. Sales of grounds passes, which run $59 AUD (around $40) were paused on the first Sunday, but otherwise went unregulated, leading to lines stretching around field courts which do not have many vantage points for those who can\u2019t find seats on the courts themselves. This effect was exaggerated when rising talents with fervent new fanbases, like Alex Eala of the Philippines and Jo\u00e3o Fonseca of Brazil, took the courts. On the first Thursday over 100,000 fans visited a complex which has around half that many fixed seats.<\/p>\n
All four majors are navigating this balance. Increasing popularity and selling as many tickets as is possible boosts revenues; revenues can be used to reinvest in infrastructure and to make tournaments better in the ongoing arms race for supremacy between the four Grand Slams. It can also put pressure on the fan experience, though, especially because expanding the physical footprint of each tournament\u2019s site to meet demand ranges from complex to almost impossible. The Australian Open has added balconies and courtside bars to create capacity above ground rather than across it in recent years.<\/p>\n
Whether or not the other three majors follow the same plan \u2014 and what impact it will have on the 2027 edition of the Australian Open \u2014 remains to be seen. The main draws start January 17.<\/p>\n
Why a champion with a one-handed backhand should not be put down to novelty<\/p>\n
Austria\u2019s Lilli Tagger won her first WTA Tour title at the Prague Open Sunday. Tagger, 18, defeated Daria Snigur of Ukraine 7-6(3), 6-2, coming from 4-1 down in the opening set to force a tiebreak and cruising from there.<\/p>\n
Tagger\u2019s performance was punctuated by a series of flashing one-handed backhand winners, putting more spotlight on the shot which makes her something of a unicorn on the WTA Tour. Her coach, Francesca Schiavone, remains the last women\u2019s player to win a Grand Slam title with a one-handed backhand, which only makes the importance of the shot in Tagger\u2019s game more compelling.<\/p>\n
She even has a good story to explain her use of the shot, which has largely been jettisoned from both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s game because it can be easier to exploit using either high bounce or ball speed (or both) than a two-handed backhand. When Tagger was 10, coaches dissuaded her from switching from two hands to one.<\/p>\n
![\"Lilli](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26207518809424-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Lilli Tagger won her first WTA Tour title at the Prague Open. (Michal Krumphanzl \/ CTK via Associated Press)<\/p>\n
So when she was 12, she made a bet with her coach at the time that if she won a tournament, they would make the switch. What the coach taking that bet says about their faith in Tagger, their belief in reverse psychology, or both is for another day, but she won and made the change.<\/p>\n
If Tagger\u2019s backhand has a downside beyond on-court stability it might be that its rarity and potential for dazzle obscures the reason why she is on the rise, having moved into the top 50 for the first time with her title in the Czech Republic. Tagger is just over 6 feet tall and still developing an already formidable serve. It was that shot and her follow-up forehand, far more than her backhand, that carried her to junior success, including winning the French Open girls\u2019 singles title in 2025. Her height also softens the impact of any attempts to kick the ball out of her strike zone on the backhand side, which should let her protect it when needed.<\/p>\n
So, herald Tagger and her one-hander \u2014 but don\u2019t let it outshine the tools that are most likely to propel her to even greater things.<\/p>\n
And a tennis rule with a loophole that needs closing?<\/p>\n
The lucky loser is one of the funkier tennis concepts. Get knocked out of qualifying for a tournament, and whether by ranking, luck of a draw, some combination thereof \u2014 or just hanging around (depending on the event) a player can get a reprieve and find themselves in the first round. Sometimes, a player will defeat someone in qualifying, only to face them again in the first round of the main draw as a lucky loser.<\/p>\n
But what about when a player goes out of qualifying in slightly different circumstances?<\/p>\n
Cruz Hewitt, who the D.C. Open in Washington gave a canny wild card after the Australian\u2019s run to the Wimbledon boys\u2019 singles final, got through thanks to two consecutive wins over players who had to retire due to injury. The second was Zachary Svajda of the U.S., who could barely move during the third set of a 1-6, 7-6(3), 2-0 (RET) win for Hewitt, the son of two-time Grand Slam singles champion and former world No. 1 Lleyton.<\/p>\n
Svajda duly retired from the match, but his retirement due to injury didn\u2019t stop him from being in contention for a lucky loser spot. The same thing happened at the Los Cabos Open \u2014 Australia\u2019s Bernard Tomic retired from his final round of qualifying, but entered the main draw as a lucky loser. This is not against any rules, but leaves a sour taste in fans\u2019 mouths. Whether Svajda and Tomic can take advantage of their fortune remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
\u2014 James Hansen<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc6\u00a0The winners of the week<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfbe\u00a0ATP:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc6 Quentin Halys def. Alexander Bublik (1) 6-4. 7-6(6) to win the Austrian Open Kitzb\u00fchel\u00a0(250) in Kitzb\u00fchel, Austria. It is his first ATP Tour title.
\ud83c\udfc6 Luca van Assche def. Alexander Blockx (4) 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to win the Estoril Open (250) in Estoril, Portugal. It is also his first ATP Tour title.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfbe WTA:<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc6 Lilli Tagger def. Daria Snigur (8) 7-6(3), 6-2 to win the Prague Open (250) in Prague. It is her first WTA Tour title.
\ud83c\udfc6 Tamara Korpatsch (5) def. Anna Bond\u00e1r (4) 6-3, 6-3 to win the Hamburg Ladies Open (250) in Hamburg, Germany. It is her second WTA Tour title.<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcc8\ud83d\udcc9 On the rise \/ Down the line<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcc8 Lilli Tagger moves up 29 places from No. 74 to No. 45 after her title in Prague, a new career high.
\ud83d\udcc8 Luca van Assche ascends 30 spots from No. 78 to No. 48 after his title in Estoril, also a career high.
\ud83d\udcc8 Tamara Korpatsch joins Tagger and van Assche in reaching the top 50 for the first time, after rising 35 spots from No. 81 to No. 46, also a career high.
\ud83d\udcc8 Alexander Blockx rises six spots from No. 38 to No. 32 \u2014 also a career high.<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcc9 Corentin Moutet falls 17 places from No. 40 to No. 57.
\ud83d\udcc9 Leylah Fernandez drops nine places from No. 25 to No. 34.
\ud83d\udcc9 Damir D\u017eumhur leaves the top 100, moving down 15 spots from No. 87 to No. 102.
\ud83d\udcc9 Taylor Townsend also leaves the top 100, dropping 22 spots from No. 83 to No. 105.<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcc5 Coming up<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfbe\u00a0ATP\u00a0<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udccdWashington: D.C. Open (500) featuring Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Jack Draper.
\ud83d\udccdLos Cabos, Mexico: Los Cabos Open (250) featuring Denis Shapovalov, Mo\u00efse Kouame, Francisco Cer\u00fandolo, Michael Zheng.<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcfa UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel \ud83d\udcbb Tennis TV<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfbe WTA<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udccdWashington: D.C. Open (500) featuring Jessica Pegula, Elina Svitolina, Naomi Osaka, Alex Eala.
\ud83d\udccdMemphis, Tenn.: Memphis Open (250) featuring Ekaterina Alexandrova, McCartney Kessler, Maya Joint, Zeynep S\u00f6nmez.<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic\u00a0will explain the stories behind the stories from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,569,82,575,593],"class_list":["post-829140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-culture","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}