\u2022 Icky self-promotion: preorder this Rafael Nadal collab here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 1. Alexander Zverev thwarted<\/a> both Ben Shelton and history in Sunday\u2019s men\u2019s final to win the 2026 U.S. Open men\u2019s title. Andy Roddick, to his dismay, remains the last American champion at a major. Meanwhile, three months ago, Zverev was the best player in tennis history to have never won a major. He\u2019s now won two of the past three\u2014with a Wimbledon final sandwiched between\u2014and is the de facto men\u2019s tennis MVP for 2026.<\/p>\n 2. Elena Rybakina<\/a> may not play the look-at-me game. Her corners may be a bit sharp. But wow, she\u2019s a fine tennis player\u2014so much easy power\u2014and a worthy No. 1.<\/p>\n 3. Shelton did not reverse the curse and, in his first major final, couldn\u2019t quite summon his best tennis to topple Zverev. But after beating Carlos Alcaraz in a spellbinding witching-hour quarterfinal, resetting to beat Frances Tiafoe in the semifinals and gaining experience Sunday, Shelton leaves with his head high and his ranking (No. 4) the highest it\u2019s been.<\/p>\n 4. Aryna Sabalenka did her usual two-week residency in New York. She has advanced to the past four U.S. Open finals and won twice. What a generational player, but for the fifth time in nine major finals, she lost a three-setter she could have (should have?) won. Her run of 99 weeks at No. 1 now ends. Her year featured no major titles for the first time since 2022. She smashed her racket after match point on Saturday, and it made for an apt gesture for a frustrating year.<\/p>\n 5. Alcaraz did not defend his title in New York, losing to Shelton in a match that rewarded the insomniacs with its quality and drama. But for a guy playing in his first event since April, recovering from a concerning wrist injury, Alcaraz could consider this tournament a win. I\u2019m told an hour or so after the match, Craig Tiley and other tournament personnel went into the locker room to check on him. It was 4:30 a.m. ET. Alcaraz popped up, wearing a smile, and said, \u201cThank you for the stage.\u201d As he left, he thanked all the remaining personnel. As one of you noted<\/a>, \u201cThe guy handles a loss better than most people handle a grocery store queue\u201d<\/p>\n 6. Tiafoe, again, reached the semifinals, making good on his annual guarantee to elevate for the U.S. Open. He had few answers for Shelton but left New York proud, having improved much of his game, including his on-court decision making. But his best impromptu, instinctive move this tournament? Him hugging Alex Michelsen after their dramatic quarterfinal and then squeezing tighter when Michelsen began sobbing? It was almost unendurably touching and said more about Tiafoe than any press release of agent-crafted imaging.\u00a0<\/p>\n FOE-NOMENAL \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8<\/p>\n From two sets and a break down, and then a break down in the fifth, Frances Tiafoe defeats Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6! pic.twitter.com\/8PMMeQ0ETh<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n 7. It was a bit of a strange event for Coco Gauff. In the eyes of many, she entered as the favorite, especially coming off her play at Wimbledon and in Cincinnati. She didn\u2019t fulfill those expectations, but she played to her seeding, won some battles and took a set from Rybakina in the semifinals before retreating a bit in the third set. It was a slightly disappointing campaign\u2014in the sense that she didn\u2019t win; such is the standard\u2014but no crisis, and no real sting. Her disposition after the loss reflected that.<\/p>\n 8. The U.S. drought is over! An American wins! In a wild boys\u2019 final, Marcel Latak saved, squandered, and eventually beat top seed Guto Miguel of Brazil to become the first American to win the event since Taylor Fritz in 2015. Inexplicably, the USTA scheduled the boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 final simultaneously. On the girls\u2019 side, in a rematch of the Wimbledon final, Sun Xinran defeated Anna Pushkareva in the final, 6\u20134, 4\u20136, 6\u20130 to take the title. Colette Lewis has you covered<\/a>, as ever.<\/p>\n 9. Jessica Pegula may or may not win that elusive major\u2014for the third consecutive U.S. Open she lost to a smoldering Sabalenka in the semifinals\u2014but she is so admirable on so many levels. A stat that says a lot about Pegula: She failed to qualify for 12 majors before hitting her stride in her mid-20s. It\u2019s hard to say a player deserves to win a major, but if she, say, pulled a Madison Keys and went on a heater in Australia, I can\u2019t imagine a title going over better in the locker rooms and in the back corridors.<\/p>\n 10. Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakov\u00e1 completed the Career Slam together, taking the women\u2019s doubles title (their combined ranking: No. 3). In a three-set final, they beat American wild cards Robin Montgomery and Ashlyn Krueger (combined doubles ranking: No. 113). We\u2019ll start banging the drum now: Siniakov\u00e1 is a Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n 11. In men\u2019s doubles, six of the top eight men\u2019s teams made the quarterfinals. In the end, American Christian Harrison and his British partner Neal Skupski won their second major, defeating Germany\u2019s Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz 6\u20134, 7\u20136 in the U.S. Open final on Saturday.<\/p>\n 12. Three favorite images of this event: Michelsen losing a five-setter to Tiafoe and burying his head on his opponent\u2019s shoulder. Alcaraz losing in a fifth-set tiebreak at 3:33 a.m. ET and leaving the court smiling, wearing an expression of, Shucks, I wish I had won; but it was fun to be a part of that. Qinwen Zheng seeing her team after a quarterfinal loss and both crying and laughing, the perfect encapsulation of a bittersweet result. She made the jump from qualifier to quarterfinalist, but then failed to close it out.<\/p>\n 13. I had the good fortune of spending some time with various wheelchair players, particularly Tokito Oda, the most dominant player in tennis \u2026 until Saturday when\u2014in the upset of the tournament?\u2014Britain\u2019s Alfie Hewett beat Oda, 6\u20130, 7\u20136. Hewitt also won the doubles title alongside fellow Briton Gordon Reid<\/a> on Friday. On the other side of the ledger, for Japan, Yui Kamiji pulled the summer double, defeating No. 2 seed Diede de Groot of the Netherlands 6\u20132, 1\u20136, 6\u20133.<\/p>\n 14. Who\u2019s old enough to remember the mixed doubles event? Held again the week before singles play commenced, it featured various stars (and doubles regulars) in a shortened format. Karolina Muchov\u00e1 and Jakub Men\u0161\u00edk\u2014neither of whom did much in the singles, make of that what you will\u2014took the title, which was nice because it has been a while since Czech players had tasted sweet success at a major. The new format might enrage the purists, but they are a minority (not even a particularly vocal one). Every major should be thinking like this.<\/p>\n 15. There were some winners and some unforced errors, but it\u2019s hard not to consider the first Craig Tiley Era U.S. Open a success. It was a three-week lollapalooza with record attendance, and surely, record revenues. There were a lot of complaints, but many came from the \u201cIt\u2019s too crowded, and no one goes there anymore\u201d camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n 16. Predictably, it became less of an issue as the tournament progressed, but the affordability\/inaccessibility issue should not go unacknowledged. Thanks to many of you for your private messages.\u00a0<\/p>\n A few points: A) It\u2019s complicated<\/a>, especially given New York\u2019s lax scalping\/reselling laws. B) It\u2019s totally within the USTA\u2019s power to do more and put more restrictions on Ticketmaster, if the political will exists. C) The USTA, to its credit, was already thinking during this tournament about how to improve this in 2027 and floated a few ideas by me.<\/p>\n 17. What do we do about these late finishes and the unserious optics of play ending at 3:33 a.m. local time? In an age of self-driving cabs and personalized cancer vaccines<\/a>, we should be able to solve this riddle. Three ideas: Start the Arthur Ashe Stadium night session earlier, say, 6:00 p.m. ET. (There were two day matches that often ended hours before the night session.) Play one match, \u00e0 la Roland Garros, and pray no one gets hurt, but have a doubles match on hand to fill out the session. Jim Courier had the intriguing idea to move to no-ad scoring. He rightly points out that the points aren\u2019t the extender; the multi-deuce games are.<\/p>\n 18. Alexandra Eala<\/a> did herself proud in a knock-down, drag-out battle against her friend Iva Jovic. She then stayed in New York for a week, practicing on-site, getting treatment and hanging out with friends like Eva Lys. Next month, you can catch her representing the Philippines at the Asian Games. On Dec. 8, she will play Janice Tjen in a Manila exhibition that could break the Roger Federer\u2013Rafael Nadal record (51,954) for most fans to see a live match. Careers are long and sinuous. But now, there are literally zero reasons not to enjoy this story.<\/p>\n 19. Matthew Futterman has a new tennis book, The Cruelest Game (order it here<\/a>), and the U.S. Open validated the concept. Keys saved match point in one match and blew it in her next outing. Fritz cruised into the second week\u2014a fair bet to win the event\u2014until he lost a 2\u20130 sets lead in the third round and crashed hard. Michelsen was up two sets and a break \u2026\u00a0 and collapsed into the arms of his opponent. Arthur Gea, getting in as a lucky loser, won three matches (and nearly $500,000) only to blow a lead in the quarterfinals and depart with bittersweet emotions. All but one of the 128 players in the draw will leave New York on a losing streak? Cruel is putting it charitably.<\/p>\n 20. I feel like I\u2019m obligated to mention the influencers, though, truthfully, I don\u2019t have strong opinions. Rule 1: Respect the sport and the players. Abide by that? Tennis should be able to accommodate the ring-light brigade, no matter how cringe<\/a> they may be. I posed this question on X, and the responses were immensely helpful. What does the U.S. Open get out of this? The influencers\/creators get their clout and show off their brands. Hey, look at me! Validate me! I was at this cultural event! I know players! But the event? The event has sold its tickets and sponsorships, and everyone knows about Honey Deuces and trucker caps. Apart from feeding the algorithm and tennis breaching the mainstream feed\u2014and maybe that\u2019s enough\u2014what\u2019s the point? Wouldn\u2019t this be better suited for lesser events and tournaments that really need the bump? Do this for Charleston and Dallas, not the event that already draws Taylor Swift and President Donald Trump. For all that plagues tennis and this event\u2014starting, for instance, with the inaccessibility, unaffordability and the capitulation to Ticketmaster or the Kalshi stain (see below)\u2014an army of influencers ranks low on my list.<\/p>\n 21. Learner Tien and Michelsen are friends, fellow Orange County natives, born barely a year apart, and they have already played each other five times. More symmetry: On successive days, they lost heartbreaking five-setters. Both losses will sting. Both players, with some detachment, should be thrilled by their progress. Speaking of short-term sting and long-term satisfaction \u2026<\/p>\n 22. Quite unexpectedly, Linda Noskov\u00e1 won the previous major, Wimbledon. Isn\u2019t that supposed to turn your life upside down and change everything? Noskov\u00e1 backed up her breakthrough with a thoroughly impressive U.S. Open, winning four rounds and nearly taking out the two-time defending champion in a quarterfinal that ended 7\u20136 in the third set. (And the next person to speak ill of Noskov\u00e1 will be the first.)<\/p>\n Serena Williams and Venus Williams lost in a thrilling first-round doubles match at the U.S. Open. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters<\/p>\n 23. Two things can be true at once. The Williams sisters are titans not just of this sport, but of all sports, and their remarkable story and achievements will echo for generations. They are not beyond criticism, either. Their comeback and longevity inspire; two champions still out there at a combined age of 90. And it\u2019s a pity it hasn\u2019t come accompanied by more joy and grace. Closed practices. Uncommon demands made on tournaments. As you likely know, after losing in the first round of doubles, the Williams sisters, again, chose not to fulfill their media<\/a> obligations. It\u2019s easy to disrespect the media, and it\u2019s particularly in vogue these days. But this is also a show of disrespect to the tournament (a tournament that, like Wimbledon, gave the sisters wild cards). It\u2019s a show of disrespect to the other players (all of whom endured press conferences<\/a>, even under brutal circumstances). And, ultimately, it\u2019s disrespectful to the fans, who might dunk on the media, but devour the content and want uncurated, unscripted independent exchanges. Grinning behind clenched teeth, the USTA declined to fine Venus and Serena, though this is standard operating procedure. Look, the haters are going to hate, no matter what. The lovers will defend, no matter what. The middle, reasonable 70% of us\u2014too often ceding ground to the yellers on the algorithmically-advantaged margins\u2014will realize that people are complicated. But rules are rules. Bad behavior is bad behavior. The USTA, it appears, disagrees, but breaches should be acknowledged\u2014especially, not except\u2014when committed by the powerful.<\/p>\n 24. I had a friend joke that players should be forced to play the first set of their matches in the same attire they walked onto the court in. This was a nod to Fritz and his smoking jacket<\/a> and Naomi Osaka in her Allen Iverson\u2013inspired get-up, among others. I reposted that facetious line and heard from many of you, often unhappily. To be clear: Tennis\u2019s answer to the NBA and WNBA tunnel outfits is awesome. Tennis needs more of this, not less. If players use fashion as a canvas for expression, that\u2019s great. I\u2019d still pay to watch Osaka play points attired in this.<\/a> But the more color, creativity, talking points and outlets, the better.<\/p>\n 25. It\u2019s become axiomatic that college tennis is having a big impact on the professional game. (And we need to add Francisco<\/a> Cer\u00fandolo\u2019s name to the litany of college tennis alums.) But I spoke with many coaches who are distressed by the state of the sport, including NIL battles, transfers, seniors seeking fifth seasons, and the glut of international players. A coach told me: \u201cIt\u2019s the Wild West. I don\u2019t even know how to recruit or what to tell the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n 26. That photographer looks familiar. Wait, it\u2019s Landry Shamet <\/a>of the NBA champion New York Knicks who, for the third year, positioned himself not in the suites, but in the pit.<\/p>\n 27. This is a bummer topic, and I acknowledge that bleating at every major gets old for you, dear readers. But something is fundamentally wrong with a sport that blithely tolerates so many injuries to so many players. Jannik Sinner, Holger Rune, Victoria Mboko, Jo\u00e3o Fonseca, Jack Draper, Emma Raducanu, Sebastian Korda, Hailey Baptiste and more missed the U.S. Open. All are 26 and under, and none were able to post. And who knows how many players there are like Montgomery, a lovely ascending player, who, unremarked upon at the time, recently missed eight months with a wrist injury. Injuries are part of sports. True. But you know what else is a part of most sports? A committed effort to research and address these injuries, and hack the playing conditions and schedule accordingly.<\/p>\n 28. The Italian men and the Czech women lead the proverbial clubhouse. But the draw also points to other tennis hotbeds. Led by Eala, but including players from Indonesia (Tjen), Thailand (Lanlana Tararudee and Mananchaya Sawangkaew), and Hong Kong (Coleman Wong), Southeast Asian tennis is on the rise. And between the Argentines in the men\u2019s draw (11), Peruvian Ignacio Buse, Paraguayan Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, and a welter of Brazilians in the juniors (though, remarkably, none in the men\u2019s or women\u2019s draw), South American tennis is reemerging.<\/p>\n 29. From the boulevard of broken dreams that is the qualifying draw, top-10 stalwart Grigor Dimitrov and reigning Olympic gold medalist Zheng were among those who successfully passed the guard\u2019s desk. Former champion Bianca Andreescu was up a set and a break and then lost in the final set of the final round. Kei Nishikori, a 2014 U.S. Open finalist, lost to fellow Japanese player Rei Sakamoto in the last major of his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n Michael Zheng fell to Arthur Gea in the third round of the U.S. Open. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters<\/p>\n 30. Five players didn\u2019t escape Week 1, but impressed nonetheless. Jaime Faria of Portugal, who beat Shelton last month, took a set off Alcaraz. Overlooked American Michael Zheng, the NCAA champion with a bright future, advanced to the third round. Alina Korneeva, a former junior rival of Mirra Andreeva, fell to Keys. Lilli Tagger (and her one-handed backhand) looks more comfortable with each passing event. Buyunchaokete\u2014known professionally as Bu Yunchaokete\u2014dominated Rafael J\u00f3dar and might be the best of the Chinese players.\u00a0<\/p>\n 31. I was warned about this during qualifying week (thanks to you, tipsters) and saw it firsthand. The subset of fans openly gambling on matches is wild. Fans cheering (and jeering) players\u2014you\u2019re messing up my parlay\u2014as if they were racehorses. More money was wagered on points than the $140,000 the winners would receive for qualifying. The addictive, manipulative quality of it all. It\u2019s either how my mom feels watching people smoke marijuana in public\u2014what was once illegal and taboo has been normalized\u2014or we are going to look back at this as a huge public policy and moral failure. Speaking of \u2026<\/p>\n 32. It\u2019s hard to exaggerate the profound disappointment and revulsion that must greet the U.S. Open\u2019s deal with Kalshi<\/a>. Sometimes integrity has to trump commerce. Doesn\u2019t it? Tennis has a huge match-fixing problem, so much so that an entire integrity agency tries to monitor corruption. (Note this list of caught match-fixers<\/a>, so long it could be serialized.) Meanwhile, tennis players complain often\u2014rightly\u2014about the online death threats, harassment and bile they receive from losing bettors. So much so, the WTA has encouraged us to cover the \u201cthreat matrix<\/a>\u201d that assesses severity.<\/p>\n Knowing that a major event and a national federation\u2014a governing body\u2014has sold itself to a company that is, effectively, predicated on profiting from inside information? That creates more fixing opportunities? That is already in the crosshairs<\/a> of New York\u2019s governor and attorney general\u2014perhaps not the kind of people you\u2019d want to antagonize if, say, you were a New York-based nonprofit? That will endanger the safety and mental health of more players? That caters to bettors who are often anonymous and work through blockchain<\/a>? When the \u201cevent contracts\u201d are \u201cregulated\u201d by the supine CFTC?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHypocrisy\u201d or \u201ctrashy<\/a>\u201d doesn\u2019t do it justice. It\u2019s totally unprincipled. This sport has close calls. This is not one of them. This Kalshi deal will go down as a stain, an abject moral failure. And next time the USTA trumpets its commitment to player mental health or trumpets Uber credit<\/a> and $1,000 American Express vouchers as evidence of player welfare support, be appropriately skeptical.<\/p>\n 33. Particularly with the ubiquitous Ro (a telehealth company for which Serena is a brand ambassador and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, is an investor and board member) commercials, there was chatter about the status of GLP-1 drugs regarding anti-doping. In tennis terms, it\u2019s a strange no-man\u2019s-land. Right now, GLP\u20131 drugs haven\u2019t been moved from the \u201cmonitoring\u201d column, which means they are not prohibited. It\u2019s hard to make a credible case that they aren\u2019t performance-enhancing. Yet plenty of other substances enhance performance and are still legal. Interestingly, this hasn\u2019t been decided yet. But we will continue to, well, monitor this space.<\/p>\n 34. This is a deep cut, but what a wild and wacky 2026 it\u2019s been for Otto Virtanen\u2014especially for a player outside the top 100. He played Alcaraz in Barcelona, the match that preceded Alcaraz\u2019s long layoff (and featured this shot<\/a>). Virtanen qualified at Wimbledon and then beat Shelton. In New York, he failed to qualify but got in as a lucky loser, then nearly upset Andrey Rublev before losing 7\u20136 in the fifth.<\/p>\n 35. Can this be right? When players are assigned to show courts at Wimbledon, they\u2014or, more accurately, their management agencies\u2014get 40 tickets? At the U.S. Open, it can be even more, depending on the player and the context. I\u2019m inclined to side with labor, especially in this sport, but the tournaments do have a point when they contend that total comp packages go beyond the prize money figures.<\/p>\n 36. A friend threw this one my way, and it\u2019s worth a thought. (With the obligatory reference to Nada\u2019s great \u201cif\u201d press conference moment<\/a>.) But if, if, if Federer had converted his match points (on serve!) against Novak Djokovic at 2019 Wimbledon and the 2011 U.S. Open\u2014and in the latter case, gone on to win the event\u2014we would have a three-way majors tie of 22 among the Big Three.<\/p>\n 37. Will doubles players sue the ATP? Will the majors\u2014which have no love for the ATP and no plans to reduce doubles\u2014support the players?<\/p>\n \u00a038. Will the ATP start offering appearance fees to top players\u2014as opposed to season-end bonuses\u2014at Masters 1000 events?<\/p>\n 39. Three more stories to watch: <\/p>\n 1) Will the North American city that will host the WTA Finals and more (after this Indian Wells stopgap) help reverse the WTA\u2019s dismal finances? <\/p>\n 2) Will the Saudi Masters 1000 event be ready by 2028, given construction challenges and supply chain snarls owing to the Iran war? <\/p>\n 3) Will the USTA fill Kathy Rinaldi\u2019s position at player development?<\/p>\n 40. After significant time off due to injury, Montgomery returned, qualified at Wimbledon, won a WTA title, and wasn\u2019t offered a U.S. Open wild card? But Patrick Kypson, who won two matches in 2026 and had been out since Wimbledon, was? The Wimbledon junior champion, teenager Jordan Lee, was in the qualifying draw? But teenager Darwin Blanch, who had lost six consecutive matches coming in, got a main draw slot? The Venus Williams situation? The transcontinental caper that was the Stan Wawrinka mess?<\/p>\n Wild cards are, essentially, a necessary evil. Tournaments need a way to subvert rankings and get stars or late entrants (or former champions who are still competitive) into the main draw. Fine. And you could even argue, as a reward for their investment, that the majors staging the events deserve some of the special dispensation for homegrown talent. Fine. But we need some guardrails and guidelines here. We like player X. Player Y isn\u2019t represented by our agency. We have a reciprocal agreement with the other majors (except for Wimbledon, which has the dignity to opt out). Those are not reasons to give or deny these increasingly valuable slots. This summer proves it: All parties would benefit from some rules of the road, a basic wild card framework.<\/p>\n 41. The pretournament labor kerfuffle ended peacefully and, more critically, quietly. The players got a fat raise (a 20% increase in the prize pool), a contribution to a benefits plan and a seat on a commission. The USTA firmly said no to some sort of profit-sharing formula. There was no player protest, the way there had been at the previous two majors. I am amused that Wimbledon may have stumbled onto a key lever: comp tickets. I am told that if players had played hardball\u2014pulling out of mixed doubles in protest; disparaging the event publicly\u2014the U.S. Open was prepared to pull the players\u2019 comp tickets, which, they estimate, are worth $5 million annually. Meanwhile, the new front: The majors want to appoint players to the commission, while the players want their own reps. Plus, Alcaraz declining to lend support is a blow to the labor side.<\/p>\n Roger Federer was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in August. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n 42. Federer was not only inducted but also helped the Hall of Fame immeasurably. Before his ceremony, he took part in a private dinner hosted by a wealthy tennis fan. As part of Federer\u2019s appearance, the HoF received what I was told was a seven-figure donation. Attention now turns to next year. Will Serena Williams be on the ballot? Given the \u201cfive years after being a significant factor\u201d criteria, she is either eligible in 2027 or the clock resets. As is so often the case, her desire will take precedence. If she wants, for instance, to be inducted alongside Venus, the Hall will have to wait. One surefire pick next summer: Ash Barty. Especially as few players are coming down the pipeline (thanks largely to the dominance of the Big Three), how about we reconsider a composite category for figures like Juan Carlos Ferrero, who both won and coached major singles titles? Note that Dick Gould, the John Wooden of college tennis, a 17-time title-winning coach, is not in the Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n 43. We are a few weeks removed from the last one and a few weeks out from the next, but we must talk about the 12-day Masters 1000 event. We should demand experimentation and innovation. But we should also demand that when that experimentation is the equivalent of New Coke<\/a> or the metaverse, the courage\/humility exist to admit failure. I\u2019ve asked about the ATP cutting bait and rewinding these contracts, and I\u2019m told: \u201cIt\u2019s more complicated than you might think.\u201d But players (and coaches) don\u2019t like them. Fans don\u2019t like them. They crowd out other 500 and 250 events, but they also have the perverse effect of elevating the majors, as players aren\u2019t forsaking the long Masters 1000s to maximize their chances at the four majors. Stretched like a tube sock, the Masters tournaments brag about record attendance (and you want to say, no kidding, you larded your event with tons of extra sessions. Attendance better not decline). A tennis executive I spoke with has a good idea to clean up the summer mess. Stage the men in Canada and the women in Cincinnati during the same week, then flip them. The downside is that the men and women don\u2019t play together, but the tournaments get even more sessions. Players, coaches and fans go to two events in two weeks. The calendar opens up.<\/p>\n 44. Speaking of which, keep an eye on Saudi Arabia. The ATP Masters 1000 is on the 2028 calendar. But the facility isn\u2019t finished yet, and the war in the Middle East has disrupted supply chains. The ATP will be monitoring, I\u2019m told, setting up thresholds that must be met to avoid postponing this event to \u201929. Meanwhile, keep an eye on the WTA Finals in Indian Wells. Good for the WTA for recognizing Saudi Arabia wasn\u2019t the answer, but suffice it to say, the \u201926 purse will be less than the \u201925 purse. But then the WTA will announce a new home (and a deeper relationship with a different American market), and this will be a win.<\/p>\n 45. As much as we talked about players digging deep and playing through adversity, Chris Evert sets the standard (especially lately). She is an American treasure. She is a life force. Here\u2019s to seeing her back soon in the Republic of Tennis.<\/p>\n 46. This comes up every year, even among current and former employees. The USTA does a lot of good and features many capable, well-intentioned and hard-working people. And it suffers such an unfortunate reputation. I\u2019ve likened it to Snowball in George Orwell\u2019s Animal Farm: The leader who gets, conveniently, scapegoated for everything that people don\u2019t like, fair or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n But I wonder if a lot of it stems from the USTA structure, the dual missions of minting money and growing the sport. It\u2019s not just an awkward juxtaposition; it\u2019s untenable. Especially in today\u2019s sports marketplace, you\u2019re either a profit-driven behemoth or a nonprofit that acts like one. You can\u2019t be both. The Yankees, for instance, may charge exorbitant prices for tickets, parking and concessions, but they don\u2019t then plaster the ballpark with images and PSAs of under-resourced kids playing baseball, or send hourly press releases about reaffirming commitments to various social justice causes and groups. The USTA runs this carnival of commerce, taking money from Kalshi, selling $100 caviar confections, getting a cut of the Ticketmaster resale and talking openly about Disneyfication. Fine. But then, it turns around and trots out the names \u201cBillie Jean King\u201d and \u201cArthur Ashe\u201d at every occasion, touts its \u201cpublic park\u201d site, and positions itself as a beneficent humanitarian NGO? Sorry, no. It just doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0<\/p>\n 47. Let\u2019s all resubmit the periodic question (still in search of a remotely satisfactory or mollifying answer): Where is Peng Shuai<\/a>? This remains the most chilling and strange sports story I\u2019ve ever covered. A former top tennis player\u2014accessible, communicative and extroverted\u2014made an explosive allegation against a high-ranking government official. And, subsequently\/consequently, she has been effectively disappeared by the autocracy. No public appearances, no social media presence, no travel outside China, no ribbon-cuttings, no kids\u2019 clinics and no ceremonial tournament director role for reassuring optics. She\u2019s gone from the public square. And tennis\u2019s collective response is, Welp, that\u2019s China for you. What can ya do? The WTA is going broke, so we need this market. See you in a few weeks for the slate of tournaments (and a cup named for a social justice advocate) that we\u2019re still holding there!<\/p>\n 48. Thanks for all your notes about Tennis Channel and Served. On the former front, immodestly, it may lack a high-powered PR engine, but I\u2019d put the daily pregame show\u2014featuring both Jim Courier and Lindsay Davenport unplugged\u2014against any live sports studio show. And on the latter front, thanks, especially to everyone who came to the live show with the players. We\u2019re just a couple of knuckleheads talking tennis. Ultimately, it\u2019s you\u2014the audience\u2014that has made it what it is. We\u2019ll be taking our show on the road to the Laver Cup for live shows later this month\u2014details to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n 49. So long, farewell to Stan Wawrinka, Sorana C\u00eerstea, Ga\u00ebl Monfils, Rajeev Ram<\/a>, Steve Dinkes and Venus Williams (?).\u00a0<\/p>\n 50. We shall miss Monfils, who, 19 days before the men\u2019s final, pulled off the shot of the tournament.<\/a> Treat him well, Swiss financial <\/a>sector.<\/p>\n Mixed doubles magic from Monfils \ud83e\ude84 pic.twitter.com\/cdz9aHyL7m<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) August 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n BACK TO THE DAY JOB. ALWAYS FUN HANGING OUT WITH YOU ALL IN TENNIS-LANDIA!<\/p>\n![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/01m2ejq26tdeax5w4td0.jpg\" "\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/01m2ejwqg9jdcvepr5j3.jpg\" "\\"Michael")
<\/p>\n![\"Roger](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/01m2ejm49vecbb4pn3gs.jpg\" "\\"Roger")
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