Our regular tennis feature, The Base Line, is back for the 2026 season, as we look to keep you up to date with the relentless and fast-paced nature of the ATP and WTA Tours. Who were crowned champions, who struggled to make an impact, and what moments stood out over the past seven days?<\/p>\n
Title winners<\/p>\n
Daniil Medvedev<\/a> captured his second title of the season in Dubai in slightly unfortunate circumstances, after his opponent, Tallon Griekspoor<\/a>, had to withdraw from the final with a hamstring injury that he picked up in his semi-final triumph over Andrey Rublev<\/a>.<\/p>\n It is his 23rd career title, and, incredibly, the first time he has ever won the same event twice, after his victory in Dubai in 2023.<\/p>\n “That’s what is crazy about it,” Medvedev said. “I never did it in any city in the world, and the first time I do it, it’s (via) a walkover…<\/p>\n “We knew before the start of the week, the way I was practising, I couldn’t miss a ball. We knew it was going to be a great week. It was a great week and I’m looking forward to the next tournaments to come.”<\/p>\n Following his win in Brisbane at the start of the year, Medvedev has now won three titles since October, signalling that he is playing some really good tennis again after going over two years without a trophy.<\/p>\n The courts in Dubai were super quick and favoured big servers, and Medvedev clearly really enjoyed conditions that are becoming rarer on tour. He was excellent all week and was imperious in his semi-final win over Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Russian now moves up to 11th in the world rankings and is closing in on a return to the top 10. He heads to Indian Wells with loads of confidence, especially considering he is a two-time finalist in ‘Tennis Paradise’.<\/p>\n After a slow start to 2026, Flavio Cobolli<\/a> reminded everyone what a fine young player he is, winning the Acapulco title after defeating Frances Tiafoe<\/a> 7-6(4), 6-4<\/a> in the final.<\/p>\n It is the third title of the 23-year-old’s career, and his second at ATP 500 level, while it is his first victory on a hard court. As a result, he is set to move up to a career-high ranking of 15th in the world.<\/p>\n Over in Santiago, Luciano Darderi<\/a> captured his fifth ATP title – all coming on clay – after the second seed sealed a hard-fought 7-6(6), 7-5<\/a> victory over Yannick Hanfmann<\/a>.<\/p>\n Darderi has had a good start to 2026, reaching the Australian Open last 16 and the Buenos Aires final. With this victory in Chile, no man has won more titles on clay than Darderi (5) since 2024.<\/p>\n Cristina Bucsa<\/a> had a magnificent week in Merida, seeing off the likes of Donna Vekic<\/a>, Zeynep Sonmez<\/a>, Jasmine Paolini<\/a> and then Magdalena Frech<\/a> 6-1, 4-6, 6-4<\/a> in the final to win her first WTA title.<\/p>\n Prior to the week, Bucsa was on a five-match losing streak, but flipped that on its head to reel off five wins on her way to glory, triumphing at 500 level.<\/p>\n She will now rise to 31st in the world rankings and become the top-ranked Spaniard.<\/p>\n Finally, Peyton Stearns<\/a> won her second WTA title after defeating Taylor Townsend<\/a> 7-6(8), 7-5<\/a> in the Austin final.<\/p>\n A big moment for the American, who lifted the trophy in the same city where she went to college, and will move back into the top 50 in the world.<\/p>\n Listen to the audio version of this article on Spotify<\/a><\/p>\n Biggest strugglers<\/p>\n Defending champion in Dubai, Stefanos Tsitsipas<\/a>, suffered a first-round defeat<\/a> to Ugo Humbert<\/a>, as his woes continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n An utter shadow of the player who reached two Grand Slam finals and won the ATP Finals years ago, the result was also a massive blow to his rankings, tumbling down to 43rd in the world, symbolising his fall off.<\/p>\n It is the first time in eight years that he has left the top 40, and it doesn’t look to be getting better for the Greek star.<\/p>\n Over in Acapulco, second seed and two-time champion Alex De Minaur<\/a> suffered a stunning 6-1, 6-7(4), 7-6(4)<\/a> defeat to qualifier Patrick Kypson<\/a>. It was the Americans’ first tour-level win in two years, and easily the biggest win of his life.<\/p>\n Top seed Alexander Zverev<\/a> also fell to an early exit in Mexico, losing in the second-round<\/a> to Miomir Kecmanovic<\/a>. It was the latter’s first-ever top-five win, but he ended up losing to eventual champion Cobolli in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, Zverev went on to win the doubles title<\/a>, though, alongside Marcelo Melo<\/a>.<\/p>\n Finally, defending Merida champion Emma Navarro<\/a> struggled yet again to make much of an impact in a tournament, losing 6-4, 6-4<\/a> in the first round to Shuai Zhang<\/a>.<\/p>\n With those lost ranking points, she drops down to 25th in the world, meaning she is outside the top 20 for the first time since the start of 2024.<\/p>\n Standout moment<\/p>\n Following the events at the Australian Open, where Coco Gauff<\/a> was seen smashing her racket on camera after defeat, several players called for more privacy to vent their frustrations after matches.<\/p>\n And Austin decided to take action.<\/p>\n The tournament announced that they had set up a ‘rage room’ – an area for players to vent their frustrations in privacy.<\/p>\n “Introducing the ATX Open rage room – the first of \u2060its kind – where \u200bplayers can privately express frustration or emotion in a safe, camera-free environment,” the WTA 250 tournament announced.<\/p>\n An interesting and unique idea. Will it catch on?<\/p>\n Best rallies<\/p>\n Jack Draper<\/a> appeared at his first tournament since the US Open last year following a serious injury, and despite falling to\u00a0Arthur Rinderknech<\/a> in Dubai, he reminded everyone of his quality with a 100mph forehand winner.<\/p>\n Cobolli also produced a remarkable forehand of his own, hitting a stunning shot on the stretch past Kecmanovic.<\/p>\n Upcoming events<\/p>\n The ATP and WTA Tours head to California for one of the biggest events of the season at Indian Wells. California hosts what is widely regarded as the unofficial fifth Grand Slam, due to the event’s magnitude and beauty.<\/p>\n A gorgeous event at Tennis Paradise, the main draw runs from March 4th to March 15th. It is the third 1000 event of the season for the women, but just the first for the men.<\/p>\n Conditions tend to be very unique at Indian Wells, with the court slow, but the dry, desert air means the ball moves quicker through it and bounces higher –\u00a0 a lot like a clay court.<\/p>\n Draper and\u00a0Mirra Andreeva<\/a> are the defending champions and have a huge sum of ranking points to defend.\u00a0<\/p>\n As expected, the field is stacked.<\/p>\n Two-time champion Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, Jannik Sinner<\/a> and five-time victor Novak Djokovic<\/a> lead the way on the men’s side, while Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> and former champions Iga Swiatek<\/a> and Elena Rybakina<\/a> headline the women’s draw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our regular tennis feature, The Base Line, is back for the 2026 season, as we look to keep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-454926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}