Shanghai and Wuhan Breakthrough Titles: Davidovich Fokina Finally Wins a Big One

Let’s start with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who spent most of his career losing finals and has now stopped. The 27-year-old Spaniard beat countryman Rafael Jodar 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 to win the Shanghai Masters, his first Masters 1000 crown. He lost the first five finals of his career, including a Masters final in Monte-Carlo back in 2022 (we remember). He has now won three in a row, with Mallorca and Chengdu earlier this year.

The route was not a pretty one. He edged Tiafoe and Hurkacz in deciding-set tiebreaks, got a quarterfinal walkover-in-spirit when Arthur Gea retired after 22 minutes, then beat Alexander Zverev in the semis. Zverev had led their head-to-head 6-1 and had already clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking, so that one stung. In the final he was a set and a break down, which is apparently where he’s most comfortable. Federer was even in the building, by the way, if you needed one more reason to be nervous.

And Jodar? The 20-year-old became the youngest Shanghai semifinalist ever, and the week also included a nasty exchange with a ball kid in the round of 16 that got him a warning and a lot of social media heat. He apologized, kept winning, and fell one match short. Not a bad week’s work, all things considered.

Chwalinska Wins Wuhan, Kartal Wins Hearts

If you had Maja Chwalinska–Sonay Kartal as your Wuhan final, please tell us your lottery numbers too. The Polish 16th seed beat Kartal 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 43 minutes, saving three break points late and converting her third match point. She had already beaten Iva Jovic, Maria Sakkari and Iga Swiatek, so this was not a soft draw.

The numbers are a little silly. It’s Chwalinska’s first career title, and she’s just the fourth woman to win a maiden tour-level title at a WTA 1000. It follows her run to the French Open final as a qualifier in June, so the “one-slam wonder” label is officially dead. She goes from No. 22 to No. 11 in next week’s rankings.

Then there’s Kartal, who arrived in Wuhan ranked No. 170 in just her second event back after a six-month layoff (spinal stress fracture) and left as the lowest-ranked WTA 1000 finalist since the format began in 2009. She saved three set points in both sets against Jelena Ostapenko in the semifinals (7-6, 7-6) and jumps to No. 50. Wuhan was also the last WTA 1000 of 2026, so everything from here on is a sprint to the finish.

One footnote: Alex Eala, now No. 19, lost to qualifier Han Shi 6-4, 3-6, 3-6 in Wuhan, her third straight loss to a lower-ranked player. We’re not panicking. (We’re slightly panicking.)

What’s Next: Ningbo and Almaty Open the Door

Monday, October 19 brought the start of the Ningbo Open, a WTA 500 headlined by world No. 1 and defending champion Elena Rybakina, with Jessica Pegula, Elina Svitolina and Iga Swiatek (still chasing a WTA Finals spot) also in the field. Eala is in there too, looking for a reset.

On the men’s side, the Almaty Open is underway, and Stefanos Tsitsipas has already survived an all-one-handed-backhand slugfest against Kovacevic, which is what we call a connoisseur’s match. Basel arrives next week, and the indoor season is about to get loud.

The Asian swing delivered.

Alcaraz Defends His Japan Open Back-to-Back Title

Carlos Alcaraz went back to back in Tokyo, defeating Jiri Lehecka 7-6(4), 6-4 in Tuesday’s Japan Open final at Ariake Coliseum to become the first player in 32 years to win consecutive Japan Open singles titles. His 10th ATP 500 title, his 27th overall, his third of 2026 — and arguably the most confidence-restoring one given the wrist injury that swallowed a chunk of his season.

Alcaraz had advanced through the draw with a 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-1 win over American Alex Michelsen in the earlier rounds. Lehecka pushed him hard enough in the opener that it went the distance, but once that tiebreak was settled, the Spaniard didn’t look back.

For Japanese tennis fans, the main emotional storyline of the week belonged to Kei Nishikori, who made his final Japan Open appearance in 2026, having announced he plans to retire at the end of the season. Nishikori won the tournament twice — in 2012 and in 2014 — and also reached the final in 2018. An exit from a great career, watched by his home crowd, at the oldest ATP tournament in Asia. That’s the kind of thing that makes the sport feel bigger than just results.

Alcaraz heads straight to Shanghai now, where he is absolutely a factor for the title.

Djokovic’s Dramatic Seventh Beijing Crown

Also on Tuesday: Novak Djokovic won the China Open after his opponent Alex de Minaur retired from the final, extending an astonishing unbeaten streak in Beijing and winning the 102nd title of his career. But the number that stands out even more than 102 is the way he got there.

Daniil Medvedev was disqualified from his semifinal against Djokovic on Monday after hitting a ball into the stands and striking a spectator in the front row. Djokovic was serving for the match at 7-5, 5-3 when Medvedev smacked a backhand that sailed out of the court — the ball had bounced off the advertising boards and back toward him, and he caught it at the wrong moment.

“It was 100% an accident,” Medvedev said afterward. “You can see that I didn’t hit the ball in anger.” He also said he felt horrible when he saw what happened. Djokovic — who was disqualified from the 2020 US Open after accidentally striking a line judge — said he knew exactly how that felt. Both semifinals ended prematurely: Hubert Hurkacz retired with an adductor injury earlier in the day against de Minaur, meaning neither finalist had actually finished a semi.

The result was still historically significant. Djokovic extended his perfect record to 34 wins in as many matches for his seventh title in the Chinese capital — his first since 2015. He will finish the season with a title for the 21st consecutive year, a first in tennis history. With 102 ATP singles titles, Djokovic now sits just one behind Roger Federer’s career tally of 103.

“I always want to visualise myself with the trophy, particularly here in Beijing,” Djokovic said during the ceremony.

Zheng Qinwen Wins at Home, Bartunkova Makes Her Mark

The WTA China Open was the week’s richest story, and it started with chaos. World No. 1 Elena Rybakina was knocked out in the first round by Alina Charaeva on Saturday. A day later, world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka followed, losing to 20-year-old Czech Nikola Bartunkova 6-4, 6-3 in the third round. The tournament’s two top seeds were gone before the second week arrived.

Bartunkova, who entered ranked 34th in the world, kept going. She reached her first WTA 1000 semifinal after beating compatriot Karolina Muchova — the Wimbledon finalist — 6-3, 6-0 in the quarterfinals. She started the year at number 126. She left Beijing at number 28. Those are the kinds of weeks careers are built around.

In the semis, Mirra Andreeva ended Bartunkova’s run. The 19-year-old French Open champion reversed a two-match losing streak against Ekaterina Alexandrova, coming through two tiebreaks — 7-6(4), 7-6(3) — to reach her first Beijing final. At 19, she became the youngest China Open semifinalist since Ágnes Szávay in 2007.

But Zheng Qinwen had other plans. Zheng defeated Andreeva 7-5, 6-4 in Saturday’s final to take the China Open title in front of a Beijing crowd that had been willing her forward all week. The Olympic gold medalist pushed through a competitive first set and then closed it out cleanly in the second. A huge result for Chinese tennis and for the tournament. Andreeva had been going for her fourth title of the year — she’ll have other chances, and soon.

Shanghai Masters: The Big Stage Opens

The Rolex Shanghai Masters got underway Wednesday and gave us a solid opening day. Matteo Berrettini handled Aleksandar Kovacevic without drama. Daniel Altmaier came from a set down to defeat Holger Rune 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in the result of the day. Arthur Fery beat Marin Cilic and Wu Yibing gave the home crowd something to cheer with a win over fellow wild card Michael Zheng.

The draw has the full cast: Djokovic seeking his fifth Shanghai crown, Alcaraz riding form from Tokyo, Zverev in the mix. Defending champion Valentin Vacherot — who became the lowest-ranked Masters 1000 winner in history when he took Shanghai last year — has a very different kind of tournament to navigate this time around.

The final is set for October 18. We’ve got a week left, and the Asian swing is not done with us yet.

He was down 5-0 in fifteen minutes and nobody panicked. Well, we panicked a little. But Botic van de Zandschulp — world No. 41, veteran of five-set US Open thrillers, certified chaos survivor — was apparently fine, thanks for asking.

Van de Zandschulp opened his Shanghai Masters campaign against compatriot-in-difficulty Daniel Mérida Aguilar and promptly made it look like a disaster. The first set was a quiet catastrophe: 1-6, gone before most people had found their seats. Then something clicked. Botic broke immediately in the second, held his service games like a man who had not just been bagelled, and levelled the match at one set apiece. In the third, Mérida started gifting double faults and unforced errors like they were going out of style, Botic broke twice early, and that was more or less that. 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. Match to the man from Wageningen.

It is not pretty tennis. It is not supposed to be. What Van de Zandschulp has been doing all year is finding a way, and after climbing from No. 75 to No. 41 — with that US Open quarterfinal run doing a lot of the heavy lifting — “finding a way” is looking increasingly like a skill set rather than a fluke. Up next on Saturday: American Alex Michelsen, world No. 35. We assume Botic will go down a set first, just to keep things interesting.

Meanwhile, Griekspoor’s China Swing Continues to Be a Whole Mood

Tallon Griekspoor lost in the first round to a qualifier ranked 187th in the world. Pavel Kotov — Russian, ranked 187th, hadn’t won a Masters match in two years — showed up and simply refused to let Griekspoor breathe. The first set went to Kotov 6-4. Griekspoor had one break chance in the second set, at 4-4, and could not convert it. Tiebreak. 7-4 to Kotov. Match over.

This is, for those keeping track, Griekspoor’s third first-round exit in China this year. He lost to Shapovalov in Chengdu, to Rublev in Beijing, and now to a qualifier in Shanghai who had been essentially invisible at Masters level for two years. The continent is not being kind to him.

Which is a shame, because the guy was winning Davis Cup doubles with Van de Zandschulp just a few weeks ago (the Netherlands beat Colombia in qualifying, heading into the 2027 draw). Some weeks you’re the guy saving match points. Some weeks China just takes your lunch.

Why Court Surface Changes the Way Tennis Is Played

A tennis surface affects how much speed the ball keeps after the bounce, how high it rises, and how confidently players can move into position. Those differences influence rally length, serve effectiveness, return opportunities, and preparation time.
Surface alone does not determine a winner. It changes the conditions in which each player’s strengths and weaknesses operate. Court speed can also vary within the same broad category, so two hard-court tournaments, for example, may not play identically.

How the Three Main Tennis Surfaces Compare

Hard Courts: Balanced but Not Always Identical

Hard courts generally provide a relatively consistent bounce and can suit many playing styles. They often create a more balanced contest between serving and returning than the extremes associated with slower clay or faster grass.
That does not make every hard court the same. Surface construction, the amount of grit in the coating, indoor or outdoor conditions, temperature, and tournament setup can all affect court speed. Some hard courts reward aggressive serving and early ball-striking, while slower versions give returners and baseline players more time.
Because the bounce is usually predictable, all-court players can often use a broad mix of tactics.

Clay Courts: Higher Bounce and Longer Rallies

Clay usually slows the ball after the bounce and tends to produce a higher bounce than faster surfaces. That often leads to longer rallies and gives returners more time to react.
Movement also matters. Players need to be comfortable sliding into shots and recovering efficiently, while stamina and patience can become more important. Heavy topspin can be especially useful because the higher bounce may push opponents farther behind the baseline or force them to strike above a comfortable contact point.
Big serving still matters on clay, but the surface can reduce some of the advantage from winning very short points. Strong returners, consistent baseliners, and patient point-builders may therefore become more difficult opponents than their overall rankings suggest.

Grass Courts: Lower Bounce and Faster Points

Grass generally produces faster points with a lower bounce and less reaction time. Strong serving, early ball-striking, and attacking the first available short ball can become particularly valuable.
Handling low balls is also important, especially for players who prefer higher contact points from the baseline.
Grass creates an analytical challenge because the season is relatively short. Players usually have fewer recent grass matches than hard-court matches, so surface-specific records can come from smaller samples. That makes opponent quality and underlying serve and return numbers especially important.

How Court Surface Can Influence Tennis Betting Odds

Bookmakers account for surface conditions when setting tennis betting odds, which helps explain why a matchup may be priced differently from the players’ overall rankings.
Faster conditions can increase expectations for service holds, short points, and sets that stay close enough to reach tiebreaks. Slower conditions may create more return opportunities, longer rallies, and additional chances for service breaks. Those differences can affect how bettors interpret match-winner prices, game handicaps, totals, and other markets.
After evaluating how the surface may affect serving, returning, rally length, and the overall matchup, bettors can compare those expectations with the markets available for tennis betting online. That is more useful than backing a player simply because they have historically performed well on that surface.

Which Surface-Specific Stats Matter Most?

Recent Win-Loss Record on the Surface

Recent results on the same surface can be more informative than a player’s overall season record, especially after a change in conditions. Raw win percentage still needs context: a strong record against lower-ranked opponents is not equivalent to the same record against elite competition.

Serve and Return Performance

Service holds, return effectiveness, and break opportunities can help show how well a player’s game fits the court. Their importance changes with court speed. A strong server may gain more from quick conditions, while an effective returner may have more opportunities on slower courts.

Head-to-Head Results by Surface

An overall head-to-head record can hide useful context. Several meetings on clay may tell bettors less about a match on grass, where the bounce, movement, and reaction time are different.

Recent Form and Quality of Opposition

Surface data is most useful when combined with current form. Consider who the player has faced, how competitive those matches were, and whether recent results reflect improving performance or a favorable schedule.

Match Playing Style to the Surface

Labels such as “clay specialist” or “grass specialist” can be useful shorthand, but the underlying reasons matter more. Big servers and aggressive first-strike players may benefit when opponents have less reaction time. Defensive baseliners and strong returners may benefit when slower courts extend rallies and create more chances to neutralize the serve.
Heavy-topspin players can use a higher bounce to move opponents out of position, while players comfortable taking the ball early may handle quicker conditions more effectively.

Why Rankings Can Be Misleading Across Different Surfaces

Tennis rankings reflect results accumulated across many tournaments and playing conditions. A higher-ranked player is therefore not automatically the stronger player in every surface-specific matchup.
Rankings are useful context, but they work best alongside same-surface performance, recent form, matchup style, serve and return statistics, and opponent quality. A lower-ranked player whose game fits the conditions may be much more competitive than the rankings alone suggest.

Surface Changes and Other Conditions to Consider

Players need time to adjust when moving from one surface to another. A clay-to-grass transition, for example, changes movement, bounce height, and the amount of time available between shots.
Other conditions matter too. Indoor courts remove wind and weather, while heat, altitude, and tournament-specific court speed can change how the ball travels. Two matches listed as “hard court” can therefore play differently depending on the venue and conditions.

A Practical Checklist Before Assessing a Tennis Match

Before assessing a tennis matchup:

1. Identify the surface and likely court speed.
2. Check each player’s recent record on that surface.
3. Compare serve and return performance.
4. Evaluate how the players’ styles interact with the conditions.
5. Review head-to-head matches played under comparable conditions.
6. Consider recent form and opponent quality.
7. Compare the expected match pattern with the available odds.

Surface analysis is most useful as one part of a broader matchup assessment. It can explain why a player may perform differently from one week to the next, but it should not be treated as a standalone prediction method or a guarantee of betting value.

Tennis is a sport that requires maximum performance and complete self-confidence. Even the most experienced players can struggle to come close to that ideal after a period spent off the court while rehabbing an injury. If the injury was serious, the player has a long road to travel from physical healing to reaching match-ready status. Attempting a comeback too soon can be dangerous and potentially lead to permanent decline, so timing the return to play just right is key.

The Impact of Injuries in Tennis

While it’s possible to keep playing with a couple of bruises or a creaky joint, severe injuries knock out players from matches instantly. Tennis is very demanding on the body and as an individual sport puts the injured competitor at a huge disadvantage. Most players will accept their fate and withdraw from a tournament if the doctors deem the injury serious or believe it could get worse from continued play. The recovery plan nearly always prevents the player from practicing or even maintaining basic fitness. This may be prudent from a medical perspective, but it completely undoes months of preparation and resets the clock. Several weeks on the shelf is enough to drop out of shape and lose the mental edge.

Physical and Psychological Recovery

The first objective is always to repair any physical damage resulting from the injury, i.e. reduce swelling on the hurt joints or heal a torn muscle. This stage runs its own course, as the body simply takes time to recover, even with the help of appropriate therapy. Once the source of discomfort is addressed, the player faces the next hurdle, which is to regain full functionality of the affected body part along with improving general fitness. Only then the player can start working on getting back his normal movement range and achieving full fluidity. When the body works normally and movement patterns are looking effortless, there is only one thing left to address – and that’s playing tennis at a high level again.

How to Know It’s Time to Play Again?

Before an injured player appears in a professional match, he must clear a series of benchmarks in a controlled environment. Progressing from therapy to training happens gradually and at some point training activities start including practice matches. A support team that includes both medical experts and tennis professionals should closely monitor these matches and follow up with the player after them to see if there is any residual pain. The decision when exactly to take the final step and get back to competition is individual and depends on the player’s age and injury history in addition to his current physical issue. It’s a process that should never be rushed, even if a big tournament is just around the corner or the player is pushing for the green light.

Can the Player Come Back Better than Ever?

The expectations of the fans and sportsbooks like PowerPlay for players coming back from injury are usually modest at first. Losing even a few months in the middle of the tennis season throws the player out of his rhythm and makes it hard to start winning right away. There are certainly exceptions, and they are more common on the lower levels of tennis where players can compensate for the time off by learning new techniques during recovery. A fully healed injury allows the player to continue developing and reach the next level in the future. On the other hand, rushed comebacks that lead to repeated injuries could result in permanent tissue or ligament damage with potentially career-defining consequences for tennis players.

A serve clocked at 158 miles per hour draws gasps from a crowd and headlines the next morning, and rightly so. What almost never makes the recap is what that same serve, repeated hundreds of times across a single match and thousands of times across a season, is quietly doing to a shoulder and elbow that were never designed to move quite that fast.

The tennis serve is widely considered one of the most demanding single actions in any racket or throwing sport, and for good reason. During the acceleration phase, the shoulder can rotate internally at angular velocities exceeding 2,500 degrees per second, an extraordinary speed that the joint has to decelerate almost as quickly once the racket makes contact with the ball.

That deceleration phase, not the acceleration everyone celebrates, is where a lot of the real physical cost gets paid. Slowing down a limb moving at that speed places enormous eccentric load on the same shoulder and elbow structures responsible for generating the speed in the first place, and it’s a demand that repeats on every single serve, whether it’s an ace or a routine second serve in the middle of a long rally-heavy match.

A five-set match at a Grand Slam can easily push a player’s serve count into the hundreds once first and second serves are combined across every game. Multiply that across a full tournament run, then across a full season of tournaments, and the raw number of times a shoulder has to generate and then decelerate that much force becomes genuinely staggering, far beyond what most fans watching a single highlight serve ever stop to consider.

Connective tissue absorbs a meaningful share of that repetitive load, more than most players think about when the focus stays on shoulder strength alone. A daily habit built around collagen peptides gives the body raw material for tendon and ligament maintenance, which matters considerably for a player serving hundreds of times across a demanding match and thousands of times across a full season of tournament play. Naked Nutrition markets a grass fed, unflavored version aimed at exactly this kind of steady, unglamorous maintenance rather than a short-term performance spike.

This isn’t about chasing extra miles per hour on the radar gun. It’s about the boring, cumulative maintenance that decides whether a player’s shoulder is still cooperating deep into a five-set match, and deep into a career, rather than becoming the reason that career ends earlier than the talent behind it would have suggested.

The specific risk factors behind serve-related injuries have actually been studied in real depth, not just assumed from how violent the motion looks on slow-motion replay. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis published in Advances in Rehabilitation Science and Practice pooled data from 29 studies and identified 130 distinct risk factors associated with serve-related injury, with weekly tennis volume, dominant shoulder rotation strength, and shoulder internal rotation range of motion all showing statistically significant associations with injury risk. Two specific kinetic measures, downward force at the shoulder and inward force at the elbow, showed particularly strong associations with injury among the factors studied.

That finding on weekly volume is the one worth sitting with for any player logging heavy serving reps in practice on top of match play. It suggests the injury risk isn’t just about how hard a player serves in a given match. It’s about the total accumulated volume of serves across practice sessions, matches, and tournaments that a shoulder has to absorb and recover from, week after week, for months at a stretch.

The review also flagged the deceleration phase specifically as a high-risk window, reinforcing that the moment right after contact, when the arm is fighting to slow itself down after generating that much racket-head speed, deserves just as much attention in a strength and conditioning program as the acceleration phase that actually produces the serve speed everyone celebrates.

This kind of finding tends to surprise casual fans more than it surprises anyone who has actually worked with serving athletes, since the visible, celebrated part of the motion, the toss, the load, the explosive swing through contact, is only half the story mechanically. What happens in the fraction of a second immediately afterward is just as demanding on the joint, even though almost none of it shows up in a slow-motion highlight package.

This creates a genuine tension for any player chasing more pace on serve, since the very adaptations that generate a bigger serve, greater shoulder rotation speed and range of motion, are the same adaptations the research associates with elevated injury risk if they aren’t paired with matching strength and recovery work behind the scenes.

The review’s authors noted that seven of the risk factors they identified came from three or more separate studies, which is a meaningfully stronger evidence base than a single isolated finding. Weekly tennis volume, age, body mass, and height all fell into this more robust category, giving coaches a genuinely evidence-backed shortlist of variables worth monitoring rather than just a long list of possibilities with thin supporting data.

Coaches and strength staffs who understand this have started building deceleration-specific strength work directly into a player’s off-court program, rather than only training the muscles that generate racket speed. A shoulder that can produce a huge serve but can’t control the deceleration afterward is carrying risk that a radar gun reading alone will never reveal to anyone watching from the stands.

Age and cumulative years of play showed up as meaningful risk factors too, which lines up with what tour veterans often describe anecdotally: a serve that felt free and easy in their early twenties starts costing noticeably more in recovery time by their late twenties and thirties, even when the mechanics themselves haven’t changed much at all across that stretch of a career.

Recovery tools away from the court matter considerably here too, particularly for players managing a heavy serving workload across a demanding tournament stretch. Heat exposure increases blood flow to fatigued muscle tissue and triggers mild activation of heat shock proteins that support cellular repair, a different mechanism than what stretching alone accomplishes for a shoulder absorbing repeated high-velocity deceleration forces. That specific mechanism is part of why a cedar barrel sauna has found its way into some players’ post-match recovery routines, used as one tool among several rather than a substitute for the strength work that actually protects the joint doing all that work.

None of this means a player should serve more cautiously or sacrifice the weapon that separates the biggest hitters on tour from everyone else. It means the shoulders and elbows generating those record-setting serve speeds need a level of deliberate maintenance that matches the demand being placed on them, since a serve that big is also, by the research’s own measure, a serve that carries real risk if the supporting strength and recovery work isn’t there behind it week after week.

The next time a highlight reel serve lights up a stadium and a headline, it’s worth remembering that the number on the radar gun is only half the story. The other half is everything happening in the weight room and the recovery room that determines whether that same shoulder can keep producing serves like it for years, rather than becoming a cautionary tale about what a big weapon eventually costs the arm generating it match after match.

USTA Southern California Executive Director Trevor Kroneman recently recognized the City of Newport Beach with the USTA Southern California Tennis Towns honor at Palisades Tennis Club. Council Member Sara Weber accepted the award on the city’s behalf.

Local tennis coaches, players and community leaders attended the award presentation.

Kronemann said the Newport Beach Tennis Towns award is personal to him. Forty years ago this week, as an 18-year-old, Kronemann arrived at UC Irvine with a California dream. “Right here at Palisades Tennis Club, I played in countless memorable practices, collegiate matches, prize-money tournaments, and World TeamTennis matches — experiences that are forever ingrained in me and that played a major role in my success as both a player and a coach,” Kronemann said.

He continued: “Newport Beach is the epicenter of tennis in Southern California. If you were to place a pin on a map here and draw a 75-mile circle around it, you would find more than fifty Grand Slam champions who have made Newport Beach their home — players like Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Rick Leach, Lindsay Davenport, Phil Dent, John Fitzgerald, and Scott Davis, among many others.”

Kronemann thanked the countless coaches who have grown, and continue to grow, the game in the area, giving back to the next generation: Phil Dent, Taylor Dent, Ross Case, Robert Van’t Hof, Billy McQuaid, Syd Ball, Cameron Ball, Greg Patton, Hank Lloyd, and so many more.

Kronemann singled out club owners, such as Ken Stuart, Eric Davidson, and Steve Joyce, who over the years have “given us a place to play, improve, and connect.”

Kronemann was a longtime player for the Newport Beach Breakers of World TeamTennis, and served as the team’s head coach from 2007 to 2013.

“Thank you to the adult league players, the tournament competitors, the social players, and everyone who loves our sport. Your passion, energy, and enthusiasm make this one of the most special places on the map for the world’s healthiest sport — tennis,” Kronemann concluded.

A Growing Tradition

Since launching in 2025, Tennis Towns has recognized communities with rich tennis traditions and strong player engagement. Our first six honorees – Bakersfield (March ’25), Ojai (May ’25), Claremont (August ’25), Long Beach (October ’25), Coachella Valley (May ’26), and Palos Verdes Peninsula (July ’26) – were each celebrated for preserving tennis history while promoting the game’s future. The series not only honors communities with outstanding facilities, programs, and tournaments, but also highlights the volunteers, coaches, and advocates who make tennis a vibrant part of local life.

The Tennis Towns series spotlights thriving tennis communities across our region—from the Central Coast to San Diego, and from the Inland Empire to the Pacific Ocean. Each community has a unique story, shaped by its history, its achievements, and its contributions to the growth of our game. These towns create opportunities for players of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. From private clubs and college courts to public parks, they champion grassroots, community-driven programs while fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment.

This spirit reflects the mission of USTA Southern California: to promote, develop, and grow tennis to inspire healthier people in Southern California communities.

The Grand Slam tournament in New York has become not only a celebration of tennis but also a showcase for the sports betting industry. Sportsbook mobile apps, prediction markets, promotions, and push notifications with match predictions surround spectators at every turn. The US Open reflects a trend that has spread far beyond the stadium: in the United States, it has never been easier to win or lose money on sports.

Tennis is ideally suited for this. The many intermediate outcomes within each match, a detailed scoring system, and a season that stretches across nearly the entire year make it one of the most “convenient” sports for betting. The market for mobile apps and betting ads is oversaturated, and the US Open represents the peak of activity on these platforms.

A Bet on Court 13 and an Attempt at a Fresh Start

On the second day of the tournament, Bryan Cevallos and Dev Ramautar sat among a sparse crowd on Court 13, watching Kimberly Birrell face Petra Marcinko. Ramautar wagered $20, Cevallos $28, on the Australian’s victory. Both admitted they had never heard of her opponent, ranked No. 77.

The day before, each had lost more than $200 betting on Novak Djokovic, who unexpectedly lost in the first round. “Because of Djokovic, everything went down the drain,” Ramautar said. “But today is a fresh start.” Birrell won in three sets, the friends collected their winnings, and headed to Court 5, where the next leg of their parlay awaited.

Kalshi Becomes an “Official Partner” of the Tournament

That same morning, the USTA announced the prediction markets platform Kalshi as the “official prediction market partner” of the US Open. The company’s branding appeared on courtside signage, and the tournament’s official mobile app began sending push notifications with predictions under the Kalshi logo to subscribers. According to data from the analytics site TickerTracker, trading volume on tennis outcomes during the first week of the Open significantly exceeded figures for other sports.

Kalshi declined to comment. USTA chief Craig Tiley stated that the partnership allows the organization to “be at the forefront of innovation in global sport and deepen fan engagement while ensuring the integrity of the sport.” Prediction market operators and sportsbooks are fighting in courts over the fundamental differences between their models, but for the average fan, it all blurs into a single environment of apps, odds, “predictions,” and advertising banners. Ramautar and Cevallos, for instance, use New York-licensed sportsbook FanDuel and are not well-versed in the finer legal distinctions.

A Generation for Whom Legal Betting Has Always Existed

Both friends are under thirty. Ramautar is 27 and repairs aircraft at JFK. Cevallos is 25, works in the IT department of two medical centers, and lives with his parents. Both grew up in Queens, a few miles from Arthur Ashe Stadium, with no expensive hobbies or taste for luxury. In 2018, the Supreme Court opened the door to widespread legalization of sports betting, and in 2022 New York launched mobile betting. Ramautar recalls that long before he came of age, he was already planning to start betting “because he thought he understood sports really well.”

They bet on everything, but love tennis most of all. They discuss parlays on Discord, watch low-level matches from Qatar late at night, and place live bets on individual sets. During peak periods, spending reached $1,000 a week; later, the friends cut their budget to around $100. But before the US Open, they set aside extra money in advance.

The popularity of sports betting grows year after year, largely because placing a wager on a match outcome can now be done online without leaving the stands. The ability to bet today exists not only at sportsbooks but also at most online casinos around the world, from the United States to Brazil and Australia. This became clear while reviewing australian sign up no deposit casino bonuses and industry directories from other countries where tennis is popular, including the United States. It emerged that the functionality of iGaming platforms almost universally includes sports betting alongside classic casino games. The global accessibility of such services explains why stories like those of Ramautar and Cevallos repeat themselves across different continents with the same regularity.

When Accessibility Becomes a Diagnosis

A study by Epic Research, covering more than 197 million American adults, found that the number of gambling disorder diagnoses in states with legal betting grew by more than 60% between the first quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2026. The authors note that the increase cannot be attributed to a single legislative event due to the phased nature of legalization. Harry Levant, director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University and a gambling addiction counselor with more than a decade of personal recovery, puts it bluntly: “The product is not designed for entertainment. It is designed for rapid, continuous consumption.”

Ramautar admitted that he had sometimes considered calling a gambling helpline and closing all his accounts. “But I never did,” he added. Under state law, sportsbook advertising on TV and radio must include contact information for addiction support. FanDuel, for its part, claims to offer a “comprehensive set of tools”: deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion, and risk monitoring by trained specialists.

Monday and Tuesday at the Courts: Promos Pull Them Back In

On Monday, Ramautar lost $100 on a parlay after Arthur Fils was eliminated, but then ran his bankroll up to nearly $500 through a series of small $10 bets before putting it all on Frances Tiafoe. Tiafoe won only in the early hours of Tuesday, and the day ended with a gain of more than $900. Cevallos was less fortunate: down $265. Both acknowledge that FanDuel promotions, odds boosts, and deposit bonuses create a fear of missing out. “Even when you want to take a day off, it’s almost impossible when they give you three tennis boosts every day,” Cevallos said.

On Tuesday he tried to recover his losses, climbed to $140 in profit, then lost a bet on the tie-break of the first set of the Ruse–Zheng Qinwen match. Later, in the empty stands of Court 4, the friends debated the line between “having fun” and “degenerate gambling.” For them, the line is crossed when someone bets rent money or goes into debt. Both hide the size of their bets from their parents.

59% of “Serious Abuse” Directed at Female Tennis Players Is Linked to Betting

The accessibility of betting is hurting more than just fans’ wallets. A WTA and World Tennis study covering the 2025 season found that 59% of cases of “serious abuse” directed at players came from bettors who had lost money. World No. 3 Jessica Pegula noted at a press conference that tennis players cannot sign their own contracts with betting companies, yet they receive waves of hatred on social media while sportsbook logos hang right behind the court.

A Modest Win Against a Backdrop of Tens of Thousands in Losses

By the end of the tournament’s first week, Cevallos was up $177 and Ramautar had accumulated around $2,000. Asked whether he planned to withdraw the funds before the second week, Ramautar replied: “Absolutely not.” He explains that winnings feel “unreal”: having lost $500 that grew from an initial $10, he perceives it as losing ten dollars, not hundreds.

Both then revealed the overall statistics from their accounts. Since 2022, Ramautar has lost more than $50,000. Cevallos has lost more than $33,000. Neither plans to stop. Ramautar dreams of winning a million someday. Cevallos says he might quit if he ever recoups his $33,000. High up in the stands, looking out over the court, they talk about the future — and open the app for the next bet.

The top seed defeated the American 6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 on Sunday at Arthur Ashe Stadium, claiming his second career major and his first US Open crown after a runner-up finish back in 2020. For Shelton, it was another final lost to the one player who seems to have his number entirely.

A Head-to-Head That’s Turned One-Sided

Zverev is now 6-0 against Shelton across their careers, and the current run reads as more than a coincidence. He has won 13 consecutive sets in the rivalry, a stretch dating back to 2024 at the Cincinnati Masters — the last time Shelton managed to take a set off him.

Sunday’s final followed a familiar script. Zverev was, per usual against Shelton, almost untouchable on serve. He faced just one break point across the entire match, closing out long stretches with 88 percent of his first-serve points won.

Shelton’s Push in the Third Set

Shelton did have his moment. After dropping the first two sets, he broke through in the third, aided by a rare Zverev lapse — a service game at 0-30 undone by two missed forehands and an errant volley at net. Shelton served it out to get on the board, holding serve 12 consecutive times without facing a break point in the process.

It didn’t carry into the fourth. Whether it was the cumulative effort of clawing back into the match or simply Zverev settling back in, Shelton’s level dropped noticeably, and the German closed out the set — and the title — in comfortable fashion.

The American Drought Continues

Andy Roddick’s 2003 US Open title remains the last men’s major won by an American, and Sunday did nothing to change that. Shelton will take some consolation in a new career-high ranking of world No. 4 come Monday, and a run to a Grand Slam final is no small thing on its own. But the manner of the loss — a sixth defeat in as many meetings — raises the question of whether Zverev has simply become a stylistic problem Shelton can’t yet solve.

For Zverev, the win caps a career year that already included a first major at the French Open, and puts him in range of Jannik Sinner for the year-end No. 1 ranking. The German, long regarded as the best player of his generation without a Slam to his name before 2026, now has two — and a claim to being the sport’s most dominant force this season.

Because let’s rewind for a second: this wasn’t a one-off. Rybakina also beat Sabalenka in the Australian Open final back in January. Sabalenka, for her part, got her revenge in Indian Wells and Miami — so the two have been trading haymakers all year like it’s some kind of extended, extremely expensive rivalry podcast. But when the lights are brightest and the trophy’s on the line? Rybakina’s the one lifting it.

The stat that actually matters here

Forget the head-to-head for a second (Sabalenka still leads 10-7 overall, for what that’s worth — not much, apparently, when it counts). The number that really stings for Sabalenka: 99 weeks. That’s how long she’d been parked at world No. 1 before Sunday night. Rybakina didn’t just win a tournament — she ended an era. New US Open champion, new world No. 1, same building.

Sabalenka, meanwhile, is stuck on a stat line that’s starting to feel a little cursed: nine Grand Slam finals, four titles. She’s collecting runner-up trophies at a pace that would make even the most patient tennis fan wince on her behalf.

First set: Rybakina reads her like a book

The opening set was basically a returning clinic. Rybakina’s first serve betrayed her early — a rough 27% landed in — but it didn’t matter, because she was busy dismantling Sabalenka’s service games instead. Three break points survived at 1-1 (barely), a break conceded at 2-2, and a near-disaster at 2-4 that Sabalenka just barely wriggled out of. Set one, Rybakina, 6-4. Textbook.

Second set: Sabalenka finds her fight (briefly)

Give Sabalenka this much — she didn’t fold. Rybakina had her cornered at 4-5, 15-40, staring down set point, and then… two wild, full-blooded winners from Sabalenka later, the danger had evaporated. Two games after that, the Belarusian finally cashed in her break and levelled things up, 7-5. For about twenty minutes, it looked like we were heading somewhere unpredictable.

We were not.

Third set: business as usual

Rybakina shook off whatever mild irritation she was carrying, broke Sabalenka right out of the gate at 1-1 off the back of some genuinely gorgeous returns, and then twisted the knife again at 4-2 while Sabalenka’s frustration became increasingly visible to anyone watching. From there it was a formality — Rybakina served it out and slammed the door shut with an ace on match point. Curtain.

What it means going forward

Three majors now for Rybakina — Wimbledon (2022) and, in the space of eight months, both hard-court Slams of 2026. She’s not just back at the top; she’s actively rewriting how this rivalry with Sabalenka gets talked about. And Sabalenka? She’s got a genuinely brutal question to sit with this offseason: how do you keep reaching finals and keep running into the exact same wall?