What can Iga \u015awi\u0105tek learn from Carlos Alcaraz?<\/p>\n
After Elena Rybakina<\/a>\u2019s serve supremacy decided her Australian Open quarterfinal win over Iga \u015awi\u0105tek<\/a>, the Polish world No. 2 had another rough day during her uneven 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 loss to Maria Sakkari in the Qatar Open quarterfinals Thursday.<\/p>\n As \u015awi\u0105tek and coach Wim Fissette<\/a> groove in the controlled baseline aggression and patience that she wants to define her play, her serve\u2019s ineffectiveness at earning free points is becoming more of a limiting factor on the court. There is only so much any player can do when their serve is unable to offer a release valve \u2014 even a generational talent like \u015awi\u0105tek, who was broken five times across the second and third sets by Sakkari.<\/p>\n Starting so many rallies from neutral or defensive positions on both serve and return compounds \u015awi\u0105tek\u2019s need to win cheap points in other ways, which leads to more baseline errors as she attempts to earn those easier wins.<\/p>\n A reference point to understand how even the current best in the world can only do so much with serve limitations might be the strides Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> has made over the past year. Before Alcaraz started to make big improvements to the shot last summer, he was more vulnerable to the kind of defeats \u015awi\u0105tek has been suffering of late. Ones where there isn\u2019t much in it, but the match becomes an arm wrestle because even successful holds of serve are a struggle. Though against Sakkari, it was the excessive variance in \u015awi\u0105tek\u2019s serve reliability that mattered. Of her 10 holds, four were to love.<\/p>\n \u015awi\u0105tek knows this, and said after losing to Rybakina in Melbourne that she will continue to make tweaks to her serve, if not a wholesale change to a motion which is less fluid than most and so has more places at which it can change slightly from point to point and thus become less reliable.<\/p>\n The 24-year-old even said she would take the extreme measure of skipping WTA 1000 events (the rung below the Slams) to work on her game \u2014 a pledge she has made good on by skipping this week\u2019s Dubai Duty Free Championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s some stuff on the serve that I want to change, and I already changed that in the pre-season, but then matches come and you don\u2019t have that much time to think about this. You don\u2019t want to think about these kind of details when you play,\u201d she said in her news conference in Melbourne.<\/p>\n \u201cSo then it comes back to the old patterns. So yeah, I\u2019ll focus on that \u2026 I see Carlos, for example, changing his serve every year. For me, it\u2019s one little thing takes a much longer time.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week will have served as a reminder to \u015awi\u0105tek that she can\u2019t take too much longer to fix an issue that is holding her back and leaves her much closer, in points terms, to the world No. 3 Rybakina than the No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka \u2014 another player who came through even more serious issues with her serve earlier in her career.<\/p>\n \u2014 Charlie Eccleshare<\/p>\n How did the best of the rest on the ATP Tour hold their positions?<\/p>\n Come the end of this week\u2019s ATP tournaments, one thing held steady across three finals and two continents: the best players in each field went all the way to the end. At the Dallas Open, the Rotterdam Open in the Netherlands and the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds faced off in the championship match.<\/p>\n On a tour whose biggest prizes are so dominated by world No. 1 Alcaraz and world No. 2 Jannik Sinner<\/a>, it is vital for those competing below them<\/a> to deliver when those two are absent.<\/p>\n In Dallas, No. 1 seed Taylor Fritz and No. 2 seed Ben Shelton played out a seesawing final. Both players came through serious jeopardy to reach it: Fritz was two points from defeat in a deciding tiebreak during his quarterfinal against compatriot Sebastian Korda, while Shelton had to save a break point at 5-5 in the third set of his semifinal against defending champion Denis Shapovalov of Canada. Like Fritz against Korda, Shelton had to win a third-set tiebreak to take the match; he came from a set down to win in his quarterfinal and semifinal.<\/p>\n When he and Fritz met, Shelton came from a set down for a third time, and saved three championship points on his own serve when Fritz was leading 5-4 in the third, before breaking Fritz in the very next game and serving out the title 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.<\/p>\n The win makes Shelton the first American man since Andy Roddick to win three or more titles above the ATP 250 level \u2014 this ATP 500, the Canadian Open ATP Masters 1000 in 2025, and the ATP 500 Japan Open in 2023. The high-variance nature of his wins at the Dallas Open, especially given that he sits at 46th for break frequency in the top 50, can be taken two ways: He produces his best play on the biggest return points; he needs to more reliably break serve to make matches less of a flip.<\/p>\n \n Ben Shelton\u2019s Dallas Open trophy is the fourth title of his career. (Glenn Hoder \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n Fritz played despite managing knee tendonitis and an oblique injury, and Shelton said in his on-court speech that \u201cwhat you\u2019ve done this year, dealing with adversity, fighting through injuries, nags here and there \u2026 The competitor that you are the work that your team does \u2014 you\u2019re an inspiration. I think every kid at home should watch how hard you compete day in, day out when you\u2019re not feeling 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n During a news conference before the final, Fritz had said that some of his choices to play through injury in 2025 had been subject to \u201cvalid\u201d criticism.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been times for sure when I\u2019ve made the wrong call with it. The main concern for a long term has been my knee \u2014 it\u2019s not something that gets better with rest \u2026 You need to just work through it. Not necessarily play through it, but if I wasn\u2019t playing I\u2019d be doing all the same rehab.\u201d<\/p>\n Shelton was the only No. 2 seed to take home the trophy: Australia\u2019s Alex de Minaur beat Canada\u2019s F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 6-2 to win the Rotterdam Open (500) in his third final appearance there, while, to the delight of his home fans, Francisco Cer\u00fandolo beat Italy\u2019s Luciano Darderi 6-4, 6-2 to win the Argentina Open (250) at the first time of asking.<\/p>\n \u2014 James Hansen<\/p>\n Positive signs for a returning star?<\/p>\n The Qatar Open\u2019s last four was much less chalky than this week\u2019s ATP tournaments, but the event also offered a possible reset for one of the WTA Tour\u2019s bona fide stars: Zheng Qinwen.<\/p>\n Zheng\u2019s return from an elbow injury in her playing arm should make an already exciting group of players at the top of the rankings even more intriguing, if she can rediscover the form that she displayed before that injury.<\/p>\n Her Qatar Open campaign was her first tournament since September, and the 23-year-old won two rounds before pushing the tour\u2019s in-form player, Rybakina, all the way in a tight last-16 match. It was 2024 that showed how much of a factor Zheng might be, in which she reached the Australian Open final and won women\u2019s singles gold at the Paris Olympic Games, beating \u015awi\u0105tek, the overwhelming favorite, on her favorite court in the semifinals.<\/p>\n \n Zheng Qinwen described playing pain-free as the most important thing of her Qatar Open run. (Karim Jaafar \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Zheng, currently ranked No. 23, can beat anyone \u2014 and her serve, sometimes deadly, sometimes erratic, looked to be smoother and more reliable in the three matches she played last week, especially a three-set win over Sofia Kenin in which Zheng hit 20 aces.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t pray for winning matches. I just prayed for a normal elbow,\u201d she said of her rehabilitation process after beating Kenin.<\/p>\n With a massive following in China and mega commercial appeal as a result, Zheng receives a huge amount of attention wherever she plays. Her tennis merited the hype for a year and a half, and if she can get back to that kind of level, then the WTA Tour will be an even more interesting place.<\/p>\n \u2014 Charlie Eccleshare<\/p>\n A test for a young talent\u2019s mentality?<\/p>\n At just 18, Mirra Andreeva is miles ahead of the curve by any conceivable tennis metric. She\u2019s the world No. 7, a two-time WTA 1000 champion and a major semifinalist.<\/p>\n Since reaching the French Open last four almost two years ago, Andreeva hasn\u2019t really gotten close to winning a first major, which is understandable for someone so young. What is, on the face of it, more surprising is that since winning those two WTA 1000 titles, at last year\u2019s Dubai Tennis Championships and BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Andreeva has appeared to be going backwards.<\/p>\n At last year\u2019s French Open, Andreeva unraveled in front of a hostile home crowd from 5-3 up in the first set and 3-0 up in the second against world No. 361 Lo\u00efs Boisson, ultimately losing 7-6(6), 6-3. She smashed a ball into the upper tiers of Court Philippe-Chatrier after missing a routine volley during the second set, and asked for one of her team members to leave the court.<\/p>\n Since then, she has endured a number of similarly distressing defeats since, at times in tears during games and changeovers. The worst of them was a Wuhan Open defeat to Laura Siegemund in China last October, when Andreeva was openly weeping on court. During a three-set, last-16 defeat to Victoria Mboko at the Doha Open, similar flare-ups occurred twice down the stretch.<\/p>\n As Andreeva heads into the next four weeks of tennis, she has 2,000 points and two titles to defend. The pressure of expectation can be great \u2014 so too the pressure that progress on court and off it should be linear when it so often is not.<\/p>\n \u2014 Charlie Eccleshare<\/p>\n What is the future of February\u2019s ATP Tour events?<\/p>\n February in men\u2019s tennis is expected to look very different in a couple of years, with the upcoming ATP Masters 1000 event in Saudi Arabia likely to be slotted into the calendar from 2028.<\/p>\n The ATP is still working on what it calls \u201ccalendar optimization\u201d for 2028, and the schedule is not expected to be announced until early next year.<\/p>\n But over the weekend, with decisions to be made about how the calendar is rejigged, tour chairman Andrea Gaudenzi was in Buenos Aires for the conclusion of the Argentina Open. The South American swing is hugely popular with fans and many players, and so any change there will be keenly felt \u2014 as with the Rio de Janeiro Open, which begins this week, and the Chile Open in Santiago that ends the month.<\/p>\n Gaudenzi has previously expressed a desire for concurrent swings of tournaments, one in South America and one in West Asia, but that would come with player-attraction concerns for the South American events. They are 250-level (Argentina Open, Chile Open) and 500-level (Rio de Janeiro Open), while the new Saudi Arabian tournament is 1,000-level and will have considerably more prize-money potential.<\/p>\n ATP Tour chief executive Eno Polo, meanwhile, was in Dallas for the Dallas Open last week, before heading to Doha, where this week\u2019s Qatar Open is staged.<\/p>\n Tour chiefs frequently attend events to get a feel for them and understand what makes them tick, with Polo making regular trips since his appointment in September as he acclimatizes to his new role.<\/p>\n Gaudenzi\u2019s presence in Argentina garnered plenty of attention, as the tennis world waits to see how the ATP manages Saudi Arabia\u2019s entry onto the tour, and which events will have to be adjusted as a result.<\/p>\n \u2014 Charlie Eccleshare<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Shot of the week<\/p>\n Taylor Fritz breaking out the improvisational part of his game to nick a point against compatriot Marcos Giron:<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfbe\u00a0ATP:\u00a0<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfc6 Alex de Minaur (1) def. F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime (2) 6-3, 6-2 to win the Rotterdam Open (500) in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is his 11th ATP title. \ud83c\udfbe WTA:<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfc6 Karol\u00edna Muchov\u00e1 (14) def. Victoria Mboko (10) 6-4, 7-5 to win the Qatar Open (1,000) in Doha, Qatar. It is her first WTA 1000 title.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcc8\ud83d\udcc9 On the rise \/ Down the line<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcc8 Victoria Mboko enters the top 10 for the first time, moving up three places from No. 13 to No. 10, a career-high ranking. \ud83d\udcc9 Jo\u00e3o Fonseca falls five places from No. 33 to No. 38 after losing in the opening match of his Argentina Open title defense. \ud83d\udcc5 Coming up<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfbe\u00a0ATP\u00a0<\/p>\n \ud83d\udccdDoha, Qatar: Qatar Open (500) featuring Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Bublik, Arthur Fils. \ud83d\udcfa UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel \ud83d\udcbb Tennis TV<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfbe WTA<\/p>\n \ud83d\udccdDubai, United Arab Emirates: Dubai Tennis Championships (1,000) featuring Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Amanda Anisimova, Alex Eala.<\/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":472031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,1794,428],"class_list":["post-472030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ben-Shelton-Tennis-Dallas-Open-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Zheng](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Zheng-Qinwen-Tennis-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Untitled-ezgif.com-video-to-gif-converter.gif\")
\ud83c\udfc6\u00a0The winners of the week<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc6 Ben Shelton (2) def. Taylor Fritz (1) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to win the Dallas Open (500) in Dallas. It is his fourth ATP title.
\ud83c\udfc6 Francisco Cer\u00fandolo (1) def. Luciano Darderi (2) 6-4, 6-2\u00a0to win the Argentina Open (250) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is his fourth ATP title.<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcc8 Alex de Minaur returns to his career high of world No. 6, moving up two places from No. 8.
\ud83d\udcc8 Maria Sakkari reenters the top 40 after rising 18 spots from No. 52 to No. 34.
\ud83d\udcc8 Marin \u010cili\u0107\u00a0ascends 18 spots from No. 61 to No. 43.<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcc9 Amanda Anisimova drops two places from No. 4 to No. 6 after losing in the opening match of her Qatar Open title defense.
\ud83d\udcc9 M\u00e1rton Fucsovics leaves the top 50, falling 12 places from No. 49 to No. 61.
\ud83d\udcc9 Rebecca \u0160ramkov\u00e1\u00a0leaves the top 100, falling 21 places from No. 82 to No. 103.<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udccdRio de Janeiro: Rio de Janeiro Open (500) featuring Jo\u00e3o Fonseca, Francisco Cer\u00fandolo, Ga\u00ebl Monfils, Matteo Berrettini.
\ud83d\udccdDelray Beach, Florida: Delray Beach Open (250) featuring Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Tommy Paul, Valentin Vacherot.<\/p>\n