{"id":419721,"date":"2026-05-01T07:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T07:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/419721\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T07:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T07:32:10","slug":"tennis-right-now-five-stories-that-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/419721\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis Right Now: Five stories that matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now into the Madrid Masters semifinals, Sinner is just two wins from becoming the first man in the history of the format (1990 onward) to win the first four Masters tournaments of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never take things for granted. I try to understand what’s working very well in certain conditions,\u201d said Sinner, whose form bodes well for Roland Garros where he aims to complete the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my motivation, trying to put myself in the best possible position to win as many matches as possible, and that’s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

WTA\u2019s new world order<\/p>\n

Sabalenka continues to assert herself as the game\u2019s dominant No.1 \u2013 but she has a new No.2 snapping at her heels in Elena Rybakina.<\/p>\n

For much of the past three years Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek occupied the top two spots, but a resurgent Rybakina has displaced Swiatek and set a career-high ranking in the process.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka and Rybakina have also established the game\u2019s best rivalry<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since losing their thrilling AO 2026 final, Sabalenka beat Rybakina at both Indian Wells and Miami and emulated Sinner by completing the \u2018Sunshine Double\u2019.<\/p>\n

She built a 15-match winning streak \u2013 ended in the Madrid quarters by an inspired Hailey Baptiste \u2013 and is currently enjoying her 80th consecutive week at No.1.<\/p>\n

Rybakina, meanwhile, leads the 2026 points race to the year-end WTA Finals<\/a> after her recent claycourt title in Stuttgart.<\/p>\n

Both she and Sabalenka are among the favourites to hoist their first Roland Garros trophy.<\/p>\n

Young talents rising<\/p>\n

Since the Australian Open, many of the sport\u2019s brightest rising stars have thrived.<\/p>\n

This has been especially so on clay, where teenagers Rafael Jodar and Mirra Andreeva, and 21-year-old Arthur Fils, are building momentum ahead of Roland Garros.<\/p>\n

MORE: Rafael Jodar explodes onto global stage<\/a><\/p>\n

Fils missed much of 2025 with a back stress fracture, but since returning has blasted his forehand bigger than anybody and owns an nine-match winning streak after triumphing in Barcelona and progressing to the Madrid Masters semifinals.<\/p>\n

Also going deep in Madrid was Jodar, the explosive 19-year-old Spaniard who triumphed in Marrakech \u2013 his first ATP title \u2013 then reached the semis in Barcelona, where he pushed Fils to three.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 19-year-old Andreeva is 12-1 on clay this year after prevailing in Linz, reaching the Stuttgart semis \u2013 where she fell to Rybakina \u2013 and advancing to the Madrid final, where she is on the cusp of her third WTA 1000 title.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz and Swiatek looking to rebound<\/p>\n

Since triumphing at AO 2026 and completing his own career Slam, things have taken a tough turn for Carlos Alcaraz.<\/p>\n

The Spanish star opened the season with a flawless 16-0 record, but this was blemished by Daniil Medvedev in the Indian Wells semifinals, then an early loss in Miami.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz has since announced he will miss Rome and Roland Garros \u2013 both events at which he’s the defending champion \u2013 due to a wrist injury, which flared in Barcelona and has sidelined him since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now into the Madrid Masters semifinals, Sinner is just two wins from becoming the first man in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-419721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}