LONDON — Team Europe has taken the early upper hand at the 2026 Laver Cup, grabbing a 3-1 lead over Team World after an entertaining opening day at The O2 Arena.

Playing in front of a partisan London crowd, Europe got important contributions from veterans and newcomers alike, while Team World’s Brandon Nakashima provided the lone point for Andre Agassi’s squad.

The Laver Cup format makes every Day 1 match worth one point, with the value increasing to two points on Saturday and three on Sunday. The first team to reach 13 points wins the competition. (Laver Cup)

Ruud Gets Europe Off to a Winning Start

Casper Ruud provided the first point of the competition, overcoming Francisco Cerundolo 6-7(4), 6-4, 10-8 in a dramatic rematch of their 2024 Laver Cup opener.

Cerundolo had defeated Ruud in straight sets in Berlin two years ago, but this time the Norwegian found a way to turn the match around.

Ruud appeared in trouble after losing the opening-set tiebreaker, but he broke Cerundolo at 4-4 in the second set and forced the deciding Laver Breaker.

The match remained deadlocked at 8-8 before Ruud produced the decisive points, closing out the two-hour, six-minute battle to put Europe ahead 1-0. (Laver Cup)

It was an important start for Yannick Noah’s European team, particularly because Ruud was facing the only player who had previously beaten him in Laver Cup singles.

Nakashima Answers for Team World

Team World immediately responded.

Brandon Nakashima, making his Laver Cup debut, defeated Jakub Mensik 6-1, 3-6, 10-7 to even the competition at 1-1.

Nakashima came out firing, racing to a 5-0 lead and taking the first set in just 16 minutes. Mensik, however, showed why he is one of Europe’s rising stars by turning the momentum around and taking the second set.

The match ultimately came down to another 10-point Laver Breaker.

Mensik actually led 6-4, but Nakashima calmly fought back, winning five of the next six points to close out the victory.

Andre Agassi’s decision to bring Nakashima into the lineup paid immediate dividends. Team World vice-captain Patrick Rafter said the team had been disappointed after Cerundolo’s narrow loss, but Nakashima quickly changed the mood.

The American’s victory made it 1-1 and set up a crucial night session. (Laver Cup)

Jodar Announces Himself on the Laver Cup Stage

The biggest breakthrough of the day came from Team Europe’s Rafael Jodar.

The Spanish teenager, making his Laver Cup debut, defeated Alexander Bublik 6-2, 6-3, giving Europe a 2-1 lead.

Jodar’s victory was particularly significant because Bublik was expected to be one of Team World’s wild cards throughout the weekend. Bublik also had to return to the court for the night’s doubles match alongside Taylor Fritz.

Jodar has entered the Laver Cup as one of the event’s most intriguing rookies, and his performance gave Europe another young player capable of contributing immediately.

Alcaraz and Mensik Give Europe the Advantage

The final match of the opening day featured perhaps the most anticipated doubles matchup of the session.

Carlos Alcaraz and Jakub Mensik teamed up for Team Europe against Taylor Fritz and Bublik of Team World.

With the singles matches split 2-1, the doubles point carried significant importance. Europe came through, giving Noah’s team a 3-1 advantage heading into Saturday.

The result means Europe has established a two-point cushion, but the lead is hardly decisive. Saturday’s four matches are worth two points apiece, meaning Team World can erase the deficit very quickly.

A Strong Opening for Noah — But Plenty of Tennis Remains

Day 1 produced exactly what makes the Laver Cup different from a conventional tournament: momentum swings, teammates coaching from the bench and matches decided by the unique 10-point Laver Breaker.

Europe won two singles matches, with Ruud and Jodar delivering victories, while Nakashima gave World its first point. The doubles victory then allowed Europe to finish the day with a 3-1 lead.

The atmosphere at The O2 was another major part of the opening day. The London crowd was heavily engaged throughout, particularly during Nakashima’s comeback and Jodar’s impressive debut.

But perhaps the most important takeaway is that the competition remains wide open.

Team World won the Laver Cup in San Francisco last year with a 15-9 comeback, its third title in the previous four editions. Europe arrived in London looking to reclaim the trophy on home soil. (Laver Cup)

After Day 1, Europe has taken the first step toward doing exactly that.

But with Saturday’s points doubled and Sunday’s points tripled, the four-point scoreline is only the beginning.

Day 1: Team Europe 3, Team World 1.

And the Laver Cup is already living up to its reputation for momentum swings, drama and team tennis.

The post Europe Takes 3-1 Laver Cup Lead Behind Jodar’s Breakthrough and Ruud’s Revenge appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

By Chloe Welington-Hunt

X/Instagram: @chloemwhunt

BUENOS AIRES — Argentinian Alex Barrena remembers last year’s Buenos Aires Challenger final perhaps a little too well.

The Argentine had spent the week working his way through the draw in his home city before meeting Román Andrés Burruchaga in the final. Burruchaga wasn’t simply another opponent. He is one of Barrena’s best friends on tour, someone with whom he had spent countless hours training.

Barrena lost 7-6(4), 6-3. A year later, he admits it took some time to get over it.

“The truth is, that match took me several nights to get over,” Barrena said. “It left a very big thorn in my side.”

There are tournaments players want to win, and then there are tournaments that carry something more. For Barrena, Buenos Aires belongs firmly in the latter category.

“It’s a tournament that every Argentine wants to win,” he said. “And on top of that, playing the final against Román, who is my best friend on tour—we’ve been training together for a long time—that added something else. It hurt. It was hard for me to let it go.”

He eventually did.

Or at least enough to return with a very simple objective.

“This year,” Barrena said, “we’re going for redemption.”

Finding His Way Back

That pursuit continued Thursday with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over fellow Argentine Juan Pablo Ficovich, sending the 23-year-old into another Buenos Aires quarterfinal.

This result continues an encouraging stretch of the tour for Barrena after a season he doesn’t attempt to sugarcoat. As he shared, this year hasn’t been his best,

“I don’t think I had a good middle part of the year,” he said. Then he reconsidered his wording. “Pretty bad, I would say.”

That admission carries more weight when placed against what happened a year earlier.

In April 2025, Barrena captured his first ATP Challenger title in Tucumán, defeating Santiago Rodríguez Taverna in the final. He added another Challenger title in Santa Cruz two months later. By September, he was back in a final in Buenos Aires.

Success changed the environment around him.

For the first time, 2026 became what Barrena describes as his first full season at Challenger level. Suddenly the opponents were better every week, expectations were different, and the physical and mental demands accumulated.

“Maybe you come into the year with high expectations because you’re coming off a year where practically every tournament you played, you were doing very well,” Barrena explained. “But you’re also constantly facing opponents from another category, every match, and that weighs on you physically and mentally.”

Barrena has also been making changes to his game, something he views less as an immediate fix than a process.

And lately, something has begun to click again.

“In these last tournaments, I’ve started playing well again,” he said. “I’ve found my direction. I’ve started enjoying it again, and I think that’s what’s important.”

For Barrena, results and everything happening away from competition aren’t neatly separable.

When asked whether his difficult stretch was purely about results or whether he had felt something missing physically or mentally, he acknowledged how quickly one can feed the other.

“More than anything, it was the results,” he said. “That also leads to you not feeling as good off the court. Obviously, everything has an influence. It’s not like you can separate what’s happening off the court from what’s happening on it. If there’s a player who can do that, I applaud him, because I can’t.”

Now, he says, he feels himself moving in the opposite direction.

“I’m feeling better and better. I’m improving my level, doing new things, and I think that’s leading me down the right path. Hopefully it continues that way.”

The Art of Keeping an Opponent Guessing

Barrena’s tennis isn’t necessarily built around overwhelming opponents with sheer power.

Instead, there is uncertainty.

During his post-match press conference, one reporter described Barrena as perhaps the Argentine player with the most “hands” on the Challenger circuit—a reference to his feel and ability to manufacture different shots—and asked how he maintains the element of surprise once opponents become familiar with his game.

Barrena’s answer offered a glimpse into how deliberately he reads the other side of the net.

“It’s complicated when everyone knows you,” he said. “But when you start hitting the ball harder, the other guy has that doubt: ‘If I give him a step, he’s going to hit it. I have to take a step back.’”

That’s when Barrena starts looking for opportunities.

“You have to see where he’s standing on every shot,” he explained, “and from there you can execute it in the best possible way.”

Against Ficovich, another weapon was particularly important: the serve.

Barrena acknowledged that it had deserted him somewhat during the difficult middle portion of his season.

“I think I lost it a little bit in the middle of this year,” he said. “It wasn’t working as well. But now we’re serving more and more, practicing it more, and trying to get the most out of it.”

Physically, meanwhile, he feels remarkably fresh despite a heavy run of matches.

“Marito and Dani do an exceptional job,” Barrena said of his team. “Physically, I feel very good. I’ve played a lot of matches in the last few weeks and I don’t feel tired at all. I feel very fresh physically. That’s all their work.”

Learning to Win the Weekend

There is another hurdle Barrena is trying to solve.

He has been reaching the closing stages of tournaments again, including recent semifinal appearances in Europe. But getting deep into the draw and actually finishing the job are different challenges.

“The semifinals have been testing me a little lately,” he admitted.

Barrena believes something changes once a player survives until the final days of a tournament.

“When you get to the weekend of a tournament, another tournament starts,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how you got there—whether you won in three sets, whether you won every match easily. It’s a different tournament.”

It’s a fascinating way of viewing Challenger tennis: Monday through Friday as one competition, the weekend as another.

“We’re working on it differently now,” Barrena said, “to see if I can turn that around and start winning on the weekends.”

That mentality could matter in Buenos Aires, particularly because this week comes with an unusual emotional component.

Barrena isn’t simply playing in Argentina. He is playing at home.

Against Ficovich, that didn’t necessarily guarantee an entirely partisan crowd. Both men are Argentine, both have friends around the tournament, and both understand the particular intimacy of playing Challenger tennis in front of people who actually know them.

For Barrena, that intimacy isn’t pressure.

“I know all the Argentines,” he said. “Fico is from here too. Friends come, they support me. I like it. I don’t feel more pressure because of that.”

Quite the opposite.

“I love playing in Buenos Aires,” he said. “I’ve been lucky enough to do well here. I enjoy it here, I like the conditions, and obviously my family and friends come. I feel very close to them during the match, and I like that.”

“Everyone Has Their Own Time”

At 23, Barrena is also uninterested in measuring his career against somebody else’s timetable.

Asked whether his age creates pressure as younger players emerge around him, his response was immediate.

“No, not at all,” he said. “Everyone has their own timeline.”

Then he repeated it.

“Everyone has their own timeline, their own difficulties. I went a long time without playing. I don’t feel any pressure at all in that sense.”

There was, however, one perception about himself that amused him.

A reporter told Barrena that whenever he watched him—whether on television or around tournaments—he always seemed angry.

Barrena smiled at the premise.

“No, serious,” he corrected.

Apparently, that seriousness is learned.

“I used to be the opposite,” he said. “And they told me I needed to start being a little more serious, so I try to do it that way.”

The post Alex Barrena Is Enjoying Tennis Again — And Looking for Redemption in Buenos Aires appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

The Laver Cup returns to London this weekend, bringing six of Europe’s top players together against six stars representing the rest of the world in the ninth edition of the unique team competition.

The 2026 Laver Cup will be played Friday through Sunday, September 25–27, at The O2 Arena, the same venue that hosted the memorable 2022 edition and Roger Federer’s final professional match. (Laver Cup)

And there is an added storyline this year: Team World comes to London as the defending champion.

Team World won the 2025 Laver Cup in San Francisco 15-9, giving the World side three victories in the last four editions. Team Europe, meanwhile, has won five of the eight Laver Cups played since the event began in 2017. (Sporting News)

Alcaraz Leads Team Europe

Team Europe captain Yannick Noah has assembled a young but highly accomplished group led by Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev.

The European lineup:

● Carlos Alcaraz

● Alexander Zverev

● Flavio Cobolli

● Rafael Jodar

● Jakub Mensik

● Casper Ruud

Arthur Fery is the alternate. (Laver Cup)

Alcaraz gives Europe perhaps its biggest individual attraction. The Spaniard enters the event as one of the leading players in the world and will be making his presence felt in the distinctive Laver Cup environment, where singles stars suddenly become teammates—and doubles partners.

Zverev brings something different: Laver Cup experience. The German is making his seventh appearance and has been part of every Team Europe victory, while also holding the event’s all-time points-scoring record. (Laver Cup)

Ruud is another Laver Cup veteran. The Norwegian will make his sixth appearance, second only to Zverev among the 2026 players. (Laver Cup)

But this European team isn’t simply about experience. Cobolli, Mensik and Jodar represent the next generation of European stars, making this a particularly interesting combination of established players and emerging talent.

Agassi’s Team World Defends Its Title

Andre Agassi will captain Team World, with Patrick Rafter serving as vice captain.

The World roster is:

● Taylor Fritz

● Alex de Minaur

● Brandon Nakashima

● Alexander Bublik

● Learner Tien

● Francisco Cerundolo

Ignacio Buse is the alternate. (Laver Cup)

Fritz and de Minaur provide experience at the top of the lineup, while Bublik adds an unpredictable element and will be making his Laver Cup debut.

Nakashima, Tien and Cerundolo also give Agassi several different styles and potential singles and doubles combinations.

The World team’s confidence comes from its recent history in this competition. After Europe dominated the early years of the Laver Cup, Team World has changed the balance considerably, winning in London in 2022, Vancouver in 2023 and San Francisco in 2025. (Sporting News)

Friday Starts With Ruud vs. Cerundolo

The opening match Friday will be a rematch of the 2024 Laver Cup opener in Berlin, with Casper Ruud facing Francisco Cerundolo.

That match begins the afternoon session at 1 p.m. local time.

Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz are also scheduled to see action Friday, while Jakub Mensik and Alexander Bublik are both slated to play singles and doubles. (Laver Cup)

The Friday night session begins at 7 p.m., with another singles match followed by doubles.

That doubles match could be particularly intriguing because one of the Laver Cup’s biggest attractions is seeing players who normally compete against one another suddenly attempt to form partnerships.

The Laver Cup Format

The scoring system is what makes the Laver Cup so different from a normal tennis tournament.

There are up to 12 matches over three days:

Friday: Four matches, with one point awarded for each victory.

Saturday: Four matches, with two points awarded for each victory.

Sunday: Up to four matches, with three points awarded for each victory.

The first team to reach 13 points wins the Laver Cup. If the teams are tied after 12 matches, a deciding doubles match is played. (Laver Cup)

That scoring system means that a team can dominate Friday and Saturday and still have to fight through Sunday. Conversely, a team trailing early can dramatically change the competition with a strong final day.

The Sunday Factor

Sunday is where the Laver Cup can become especially unpredictable.

Because victories are worth three points, every match carries enormous weight. The opening Sunday match is doubles, followed by singles matches only if they are necessary to determine the champion.

The captains therefore have to balance immediate needs against the possibility that their most important players will be needed later in the weekend.

And because lineups are selected progressively—with Saturday’s lineup announced after Friday night’s play and Sunday’s lineup announced after Saturday night’s action—the competition can develop strategically as the weekend unfolds. (Laver Cup)

A London Setting With Plenty of History

Returning to The O2 gives the Laver Cup an appropriate stage.

The 2022 London edition produced one of the most emotional moments in modern tennis when Federer played the final match of his career alongside Rafael Nadal in doubles.

Four years later, the event returns without Federer, Nadal, Djokovic or Murray—but with a new generation led by Alcaraz, Zverev, Fritz and the rapidly emerging players on both teams.

That makes the 2026 Laver Cup another opportunity to see the next generation create its own moments in a competition designed specifically for them.

With Team World defending its title and Team Europe attempting to reclaim the trophy on European soil, the stage is set for three days of singles, unusual doubles partnerships, team strategy and the kind of atmosphere that makes the Laver Cup unlike any other event on the tennis calendar.

The post 2026 Laver Cup Preview: Europe and World Collide at The O2 appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

By Chloe Wellington-Hunt
X/Instagram: @chloemwhunt

BUENOS AIRES —Argentinians Santiago Rodríguez Taverna and Mariano Kestelboim have spent years traveling the world playing tennis.

This week, they get to do it at home — and, for the first time, together.

The two Buenos Aires natives joined forces at the YPF Buenos Aires Challenger, bringing together two careers that have taken markedly different routes through professional tennis. Rodríguez Taverna, 27, has climbed as high as No. 157 in singles and played on one of the sport’s biggest stages at Roland Garros. Kestelboim, 30, has increasingly left singles behind, committing himself to doubles and reaching the ATP Top 100 in the discipline in 2026.

One remains determined to climb again as a singles player. The other has discovered a new version of his career by specializing in double and sharing life on tour. In Buenos Aires, those paths have converged.

Rodríguez Taverna’s Long Road Back

Rodríguez Taverna knows what the upper reaches of professional tennis feel like.

The 6-foot-3 Argentine turned professional in 2016 and spent the following years climbing through the lower levels of the sport. His breakthrough arrived in 2022.

That season, Rodríguez Taverna captured his first ATP Challenger singles title at Tigre, not far from home in Buenos Aires. Months later, he traveled to Paris ranked outside the world’s Top 200 and fought his way through qualifying at Roland Garros. Suddenly, he was in a Grand Slam main draw. His reward was Taylor Fritz, then ranked No. 14 in the world.

Rodríguez Taverna pushed the American through five sets before eventually losing a match that lasted more than three and a half hours. Later that summer, his ranking climbed to a career-high No. 157.

Four years later, he is trying to work his way upward again.

At the Buenos Aires Challenger, he described a game still built around taking control before his opponent can–dictating on the court with energy and aggression.

“I think I’m an aggressive player,” Rodríguez Taverna said. “I try to take the initiative with my forehand.”

The formula is straightforward.

“I think my serve and my forehand are my biggest weapons,” he said. “I try to use those to control the points.”

His career has also taught him that possessing the weapons is only part of surviving professional tennis. The other battle happens internally.

“Tennis is a very difficult sport mentally,” Rodríguez Taverna said. “There are moments when you’re more nervous, moments when things aren’t going the way you want, but I think you learn how to manage those situations better as you play more matches.”

His answer to those moments has become increasingly simple: stay calm, concentrate on the next task and resist the temptation to let a ranking or result become bigger than the tennis itself.

“I try to stay calm, focus on what I have to do and not think too much about the result,” he said.

That mentality makes sense for a player who has already experienced how quickly professional tennis can change.

“The goal is to keep improving, keep moving up in the rankings and play at the highest level possible,” he said. “I try not to think too far ahead.”

Kestelboim Chooses a Different Path

Kestelboim’s story begins with a choice. Long before he had to decide whether to prioritize singles or doubles, he had to choose between Argentina’s two great sporting obsessions.

He trained soccer at Boca Juniors as a kid. He played tennis at Club Náutico Hacoaj in Tigre. For years, he did both.

“I did both until I was 15 years old, when tennis started becoming more professional,” Kestelboim said. “That’s when I started training more in tennis, started finishing school independently, and, well, I dedicated my life to it.”

Part of the decision was about more than athletic ability.

“It was a little difficult for me to socialize with the people in soccer, and tennis didn’t have that aspect,” he said. “So little by little, I started leaving soccer behind to stay with tennis.”

The boy who left Boca for an individual sport eventually spent years grinding through professional singles.Kestelboim reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 387. But his career has taken a dramatically different shape in his 30s.

At the beginning of 2026, he made another choice.

“Starting this year, I began playing only doubles,” he said.

The decision has opened doors.

Kestelboim broke into the ATP doubles Top 100, reaching a career-high No. 96. He also made his Grand Slam debut this season, competing in men’s doubles at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.

“I’m happy,” he said. “I’m playing tournaments that I had never played in my life, so it’s nice. It’s nice to be able to experience that.”

Yet his relationship with singles is more complicated than simply leaving it behind. Kestelboim still enjoys it.

In fact, ask him which version of tennis he finds more compelling as a game, and the doubles specialist gives a surprising answer.

“I enjoy the strategy and the game that develops in singles more,” he said.

The problem is no longer desire. It is preparation.Kestelboim trains his body for doubles now. Entering singles means asking it to endure something it is no longer specifically conditioned to do.

“I’ll play the occasional tournament, but I’m not training for it,” he said. “Sometimes I feel a little uneasy about playing because I’m not trained to play a three-set singles match.”

Earlier this year in Germany, that tension produced one of the stranger episodes of his season.

Kestelboim defeated former Top 100 player Sumit Nagal in a third-set tiebreak — one of the singles victories he remembers most fondly.

Then he learned he was expected back on court approximately two hours later.

“I wasn’t — as I told you — prepared to play,” Kestelboim said. “So I had to withdraw.”

His priorities were clear. Doubles had become his new path.

What One Has, the Other Can Use

That is what makes Rodríguez Taverna and Kestelboim an intriguing pairing.

They haven’t arrived at doubles from the same place.

For Kestelboim, it is now the center of his professional life. He watches more doubles, trains specifically for it and has reshaped his game accordingly.

“I think with doubles I’ve learned other things,” Kestelboim said. “I’ve learned to volley a little better.”

For Rodríguez Taverna, doubles exists alongside a continuing singles career.

But the characteristics he identifies as the foundations of his singles game — a strong serve, an aggressive forehand and the desire to take the initiative — translate naturally to a doubles court.

One partner has spent the year learning the nuances of the format.

The other arrives with the first-strike weapons to exploit them.

And while their partnership is new, neither man is new to doubles. Rodríguez Taverna has previously climbed as high as No. 144 in the doubles rankings, while Kestelboim’s specialization has now taken him inside the world’s Top 100.

Their opening match in Buenos Aires showed how little time professional players are given to figure out whether a new combination works.

There was no gentle introduction yesterday–They had to figure it out while losing to American Ryan Dickerson and Turkish Arda Azkara. After dropping the first set 7-5, they took the second 6-4. Then came the match tiebreak, where the difference between advancing and leaving the tournament was reduced to a handful of points.They won it 12-10.

Home Means Something Different

There is another thing Rodríguez Taverna and Kestelboim unmistakably share.

Buenos Aires matters to them.

Rodríguez Taverna was born here. So was Kestelboim.

For Rodríguez Taverna, playing at home provides something the professional tour usually takes away: proximity to the people who actually know him.

“I really enjoy playing here in Argentina, with my people, with my family and my friends who can come watch me,” Rodríguez Taverna said. “It’s something very nice, and I try to enjoy it as much as possible.”

Kestelboim’s answer is even more visceral.

Ask him what he enjoys when he isn’t playing tennis, and his answer is essentially Buenos Aires itself.

“I love the city of Buenos Aires,” he said.

After years spent moving between tournaments, the things he misses aren’t complicated.

“I really like being with my friends, with my family, with my girlfriend,” he said. “Going to a café and feeling — feeling the Argentine people, honestly, does me a lot of good.”

The post Different Roads Home: Santiago Rodríguez Taverna and Mariano Kestelboim Join Forces in Buenos Aires appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

By Chloe Wellington-Hunt
X/Instagram: @chloemwhunt

BUENOS AIRES — Ryan Dickerson is an American tennis player who loves clay.

He knows that makes him something of an anomaly.

Dickerson played his undergraduate tennis at Duke University before spending his graduate year at Baylor. When he turned professional in January 2022, he initially stuck to a familiar version of life on tour: driving his car from tournament to tournament across the United States.

Eventually, though, his career pulled him much farther south.

“I played mostly in the U.S., just kind of driving my car around in the States,” Dickerson said. “Then I started having some good success there and kind of ended up in South America just in general, because I love the clay.”

At first, the decision was practical. Challenger draws in South America sometimes presented opportunities for Dickerson to get into events at a lower ranking. He came for the tennis.

Then he kept coming back.

“I just kind of found a home here a little bit,” he said. “I really met some cool people and made some great connections, and really just liked the atmospheres and just how the tour is run.”

Over the past year, South America has gone from a useful stop on Dickerson’s schedule to one of the central pieces of his professional career. Beginning last September, he started spending extended stretches on the continent, sometimes competing for around 10 consecutive weeks.

Dickerson still considers New Jersey home, but “home” becomes a somewhat loose concept for a professional tennis player competing 30 or 35 weeks a year.

He estimates he now spends roughly 20 to 25 weeks each year in South America. He has developed connections in Mendoza, Argentina, although the relentless nature of the professional circuit makes establishing a true training base difficult. After Buenos Aires, for example, another tournament — and another country — awaits.

There is another complication: Dickerson doesn’t speak Spanish.

“It’s a fun challenge, I’d say, here in South America, just because I don’t speak Spanish at all,” he said. “So it’s a lot of Google Translate going on.”

He also frequently travels alone. There aren’t many Americans following the same South American swing, which means Dickerson has had to navigate unfamiliar cities, countries and cultures largely on his own.

Yet the experience has given him something he doesn’t always find playing comparable events back home: atmosphere.

“I love the fan atmosphere in South America,” Dickerson said. “It’s way different, because sometimes in the U.S., you play in colleges and universities, and the fan turnout’s not the same. But here, it feels like you’re really playing for something.”

An American Built for Clay

For a player developed through the American college system, Dickerson’s preference for clay is unusual.

He doesn’t merely tolerate the surface. He actively seeks it out.

“I think clay just really fits me well,” he said. “I always liked slower surfaces, so even in college, I picked schools that would be kind of outdoor mainly throughout the year.”

The preference goes back further than college. Dickerson grew up playing on slower hard courts and spent considerable time on Har-Tru, the green clay common at American tennis clubs.

Red clay was different, but not entirely foreign.

“I kind of fell in love with the slower surfaces, and my game really adapted to playing well on slow surfaces,” he said. “So when I got the opportunity to play on red clay, it felt like a really nice fit.”

His game has evolved alongside his surroundings.

Dickerson describes himself as “patient aggressive.” He wants to dictate with his forehand, use the entire court and look for opportunities to move forward and finish points at the net.

That becomes especially important in South America, where he routinely encounters players who have spent their lives developing on clay.

“A lot of these guys are really tough grinders where they can run forever and make a ton of balls,” Dickerson said. “How I try to have success a little bit more is where I try to be on the front foot and play aggressive and try to finish at the net.”

His demeanor has changed, too.

College tennis encouraged Dickerson to be animated. Earlier in his career, he remembers expending far more emotion between points, particularly after winning them.

Professional tennis has taught him to conserve it.

“As I’ve progressed on tour, I realized it’s definitely a very inefficient use of energy,” he said.

Now, he tries to remain even-keeled throughout matches — a temperament he says is much closer to the person he is away from the court.

The Matches You Play For

Ask Dickerson about his favorite memories in South America and his mind goes to a match he didn’t even win.

It came in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, against Bolivian Juan Carlos Prado Ángelo.

Under the lights, with Prado playing in front of his home crowd, the two battled deep into a third set. Dickerson remembers roughly three hours of tennis and a stadium that responded to virtually everything Prado did.

When Prado won a point, the place erupted. When Dickerson won one?

“It’d be dead silent,” he said. “It’d be like a pin drop.”

Dickerson ultimately lost the match. Years of college tennis, however, had taught him how to embrace being the visiting player in a hostile environment.

More importantly, the result hasn’t diminished the memory.

“It was still an unbelievable memory,” Dickerson said. “That’s what we’re playing for, right? We’re playing for these types of moments — under the lights on big stadium courts and with the crowd really being into it.”

He has experienced a handful of those matches during his travels through South America. He has won some and lost others.

The outcome isn’t always what he remembers.

“That’s kind of what you dream about, right?” he said. “Playing matches like that.”

Finding a Second Home in South America

For all the countries Dickerson has visited, his life as a professional tennis player doesn’t leave much room for sightseeing. Tournament weeks are regimented. Practice, recovery and matches dictate the schedule. Too often, traveling through South America means seeing little beyond a hotel and a tennis club.

“Hotel, site, hotel, site,” he said.

But, according to Dickerson, the people are harder to miss. For the American, that has become perhaps the most meaningful part of his time in Argentina and across the continent.

“They’ve been extremely welcoming for me,” he said. “I don’t speak the language, and I don’t speak Spanish, but they’re really helpful, like working with me. They’re happy that I’m here, and I feel that. I feel welcomed.”

That welcome matters when you’re thousands of miles from New Jersey, traveling mostly alone and relying on Google Translate to bridge the gaps.

“The people around me have been willing to try to help me any way they can, kind of offering assistance or advice on how to get around and stuff like that,” Dickerson said. “So I would say just the people here have made it really easy to be here for a long time.”

Four years after turning professional, Dickerson’s tennis career looks considerably different from the one he began in January 2022.

Back then, he could load up his car and drive to his next tournament.

Now, a substantial portion of his season unfolds thousands of miles from home, on red clay, often surrounded by fans cheering for the player on the other side of the net and conversations taking place in a language he doesn’t speak.

Somewhere along the way, though, South America stopped feeling quite so foreign.

The post Meet American Tennis Player Ryan Dickerson, The World No. 499 Who Has Grown to Love South America appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

By Chloe Wellington-Hunt
X/Instagram: @chloemwhunt

BUENOS AIRES — There are countries where becoming a professional tennis player means joining a tradition. In Bolivia, it can feel more like helping build one.

There are no endless generations of Bolivian professionals to follow through the ATP rankings. There is no enormous pool of countrymen waiting in Challenger draws around the world. The players who do reach this level tend to know one another, practice together, compete together and, when Davis Cup arrives, trade the fundamentally individual nature of professional tennis for something much bigger.

That reality was apparent this week at the YPF Buenos Aires Challenger, where World Tennis Magazine spoke exclusively with two members of the current Bolivian contingent, Juan Carlos Prado Angelo and Murkel Dellien.

They are at different stages of their careers. Prado Angelo, 21, is one of the most promising players Bolivia has produced in years, a former junior world No. 1 now attempting to translate an extraordinary junior career into success on the professional tour. Currently, Prado Angelo sits at world No. 164, after achieving a career-high ranking of world No. 151 in August.

Dellien, 29, has already experienced how unforgiving that tour can be, reaching a career-high No. 168 in July 2024 before enduring a difficult stretch that has forced him to confront the psychological demands of the sport as much as the technical ones.

But ask either player about Bolivia, and their stories begin to converge.

“Because there are so few of us in the country, so few professional players, we always try to represent the country as highly as possible,” Dellien said. “I’m very proud to be Bolivian.”

For Prado Angelo, the story of this generation of Bolivian tennis begins with another Dellien: Murkel’s older brother, Hugo.

“I think Hugo opened the way for all of us,” Prado Angelo said. “Normally there aren’t many Bolivian tennis players, and he was the one opening the path. He’s an example for everyone.”

That assessment is supported by what Hugo Dellien has accomplished. The older Dellien reached world No. 64 in 2022, becoming the highest-ranked Bolivian man since Mario Martínez reached No. 60 in 1983. He later became the first Bolivian to reach the third round of an ATP Masters 1000 event, doing so in Rome in 2025.

But perhaps the most revealing evidence of what has changed in Bolivian tennis came this spring.

At Roland Garros, Hugo Dellien and Prado Angelo both emerged from qualifying and entered the singles main draw. It marked the first time in the Open Era that two Bolivian men competed in the same Grand Slam singles main draw. For Prado Angelo, it was his Grand Slam main-draw debut.

A pathway that once appeared exceptionally narrow is beginning to accommodate more than one player.

“We have a really nice team now,” Prado Angelo said, mentioning Hugo and Murkel Dellien, Boris Arias and Federico Zeballos. “We get along very well, and I think now we compete equally with anyone.”

From Junior No. 1 to the Professional Tour

Prado Angelo knows something about carrying expectations.

In 2023, he became the first Bolivian boy or girl to reach No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings since the combined rankings were introduced in 2004. Weeks earlier, he had made another piece of Bolivian tennis history at Roland Garros, becoming the country’s first player to reach a junior Grand Slam singles final. He defeated American Learner Tien in the semifinal before falling to Croatia’s Dino Prizmic in the championship match.

Junior success, however, comes with an uncomfortable reality: eventually, it stops mattering and what matters is being able to take success as a junior to the pro circuit.

“It’s a difficult experience, changing from juniors to the professional level,” Prado Angelo said. “A lot of people here compete to make a living, and they leave everything on the court.”

He believes he adjusted relatively quickly. That assessment is difficult to dispute.

Prado Angelo won his first ATP Challenger title in Lima in 2025. In 2026, he qualified for his first Grand Slam main draw at Roland Garros. Then in July, at the ATP 250 in Umag, he came through qualifying and defeated Lukas Neumayer to earn the first ATP Tour main-draw victory of his career.

“I got used to it relatively quickly,” Prado Angelo said of professional tennis. “In a short amount of time, I was already playing Challengers, and hopefully soon I’ll be playing ATP events.”

That progression has also required him to reconsider what pressure means.

In a country with relatively few professional tennis players, Prado Angelo discovered early that success can concentrate attention.

“There aren’t many players in Bolivia, so people focused a lot on me,” he said. “It was difficult for me to play matches.”

For a teenager who had already become the best junior in the world, expectations were not theoretical. Every milestone suggested another one should follow.

Prado Angelo said working with a psychologist has helped him understand and manage that pressure. At some point, he said, something simply “clicked.”

“I started handling it much better,” he said. “But after you have a good result or certain things happen, there’s always some pressure that comes with it. It’s a little complicated, but you have to know how to manage it.”

His ambitions remain clear.

This year brought his first Grand Slam main draw, his first ATP main-draw win and the best ranking territory of his career. Now he wants to use the South American swing to position himself for another step forward in 2027.

“My dream is to dedicate myself to tennis, to be a professional and to get into the Top 100,” Prado Angelo said. “I’m happy, and now I’m trying to keep improving and keep moving up in the rankings.”

He has identified some of the smaller pieces that could help him get there: improving his serve, sharpening his backhand and developing his slice.

Yet away from tennis, the life he describes is strikingly ordinary.

“I like being with my family, being with my friends, spending time with them, watching movies and series,” he said. “Just enjoying myself and resting.”

For a player whose adolescence was defined in part by rankings, international tournaments and expectations, perhaps there is value in that simplicity.

For Murkel Dellien, the Battle Has Been Mental

If Prado Angelo’s story is about learning how to handle the expectations created by a rapid ascent, Murkel Dellien’s is about navigating what happens when progress stops feeling linear.

Dellien reached a career-high No. 168 in July 2024. Two years later, his ranking has fallen substantially; he sits at No. 423 this week.

He does not attempt to disguise what that experience has been like.

“As for the year, it’s been a year with a lot of ups and downs, maybe with very few good results and a lot of negative ones,” Dellien said. “But I’ve kept fighting, and hopefully now things will start to fall into place.”

The struggle, he explained, extends beyond one season.

“The truth is, it’s been very difficult for me,” Dellien said. “I’ve been going through this for a year and a half, two years now.”

That is where the mental side of tennis enters the story.

The sport can appear brutally simple from outside the court: win enough matches and the ranking rises; lose them and it falls. But rankings can obscure the psychological cycle underneath. Losing produces doubt. Doubt changes how a player responds to pressure. A few points can begin to carry the emotional weight of an entire season.

Dellien has been trying to interrupt that cycle.

“I’m working a lot on the mental side at the moment,” he said.

He recently changed psychologists, a decision he says has already helped considerably.

At Buenos Aires, Dellien saw evidence of that work not simply in the result of his opening match, but in how he managed himself throughout it.

The opponent was someone Dellien knew well — and someone he said he had never beaten despite several previous meetings.

“I think it was a good match,” Dellien said. “In the end, I’m very happy with the result because we had played each other many times before and I had never been able to beat him. So it was a very difficult match for me, mentally as well.”

This time, he did not allow the history of the matchup to determine the present one.

“I was able to stay consistent mentally throughout the entire match on court,” he said. “That’s helping me a lot.”

It is an important distinction. Dellien’s immediate goal is not framed around a particular ranking or a dramatic promise to return to where he once was.

Instead, he is trying to enjoy playing tennis again.

“Right now, I’m focused on enjoying myself on court, concentrating on the things that I can do and that I can control,” Dellien said. “So I’m just taking it step by step, enjoying myself on court, and trying to get back to my best tennis.”

Two Brothers, Two Different Careers

There is another unavoidable dimension to Murkel Dellien’s career: his surname.

Hugo Dellien has spent years carrying Bolivian tennis onto the sport’s biggest stages. He reached No. 64 in the world, played the main draws of Grand Slams and accumulated 15 Challenger titles through May 2026.

Murkel’s journey has been different.

He reached No. 168, and in 2024 won his first Challenger singles title in Brașov, Romania. Remarkably, Hugo won a Challenger in Iași that same season, making the Delliens the first brothers since Francisco and Juan Manuel Cerúndolo in 2022 to win Challenger titles in the same season.

Murkel is realistic about the gap between their careers. But he does not speak about it with resentment.

“We’re very far apart in terms of where we are in our careers, but my brother and I have a very, very good relationship,” he said. “With all the experience he has on tour, he always tries to pass that on to me, and I try to take advantage of his advice to continue developing my career.”

In Buenos Aires, that relationship became tangible.

Murkel was scheduled to play after Hugo. Rather than retreating into his own preparation, he followed his brother’s match.

“I followed his entire match,” Murkel said. “I’m happy that he won and that I was able to win as well.”

For one afternoon in Buenos Aires, both brothers walked off court winners.

When an Individual Sport Becomes a Team

Professional tennis is of course structured around the individual, but Davis Cup temporarily changes that equation.

Both Prado Angelo and Dellien arrived in Buenos Aires after representing Bolivia, and both returned repeatedly to the experience when discussing what their country means to them.

Dellien described those weeks as something fundamentally different from ordinary tour life.

“I enjoy Davis Cup week because we only get those weeks twice a year,” he said, “and I’m always going to carry my country’s flag proudly.”

Prado Angelo spoke just as warmly about the bond within the team.

“We had a really beautiful week with the team,” he said. “We were very united.”

That matters in a tennis nation like Bolivia.

The country’s relative lack of depth could easily be viewed only as a disadvantage. There are fewer players, fewer examples to follow and less margin for one generation to disappear before another emerges.

But the same scarcity has produced something else.

The Bolivians know one another. They follow one another. Hugo Dellien opened a path; Prado Angelo explicitly acknowledges it. Murkel watches his brother before taking the court himself. Prado names Boris Arias and Federico Zeballos when discussing the group rather than speaking only about his own ascent.

And when Prado Angelo was asked about the transition from being the best junior in the world to fighting for every ranking point as a professional, his answer inadvertently captured something larger about Bolivian tennis.

At this level, everyone is fighting for something.

For a ranking. For a living. For the next tournament. For the chance to reach a Grand Slam or an ATP main draw.

For Prado Angelo, the destination is the Top 100. For Murkel Dellien, the immediate challenge is quieter: rediscovering his best tennis and learning to enjoy himself on court while doing it.

Their trajectories are different. So are their rankings, their ages and the expectations surrounding them.

But the flag beside their names is the same.

And for a country with so few players scattered across the professional tour, that small Bolivian flag carries considerably more than a nationality.

It carries the sense that every step forward makes the path a little wider for whoever comes next.

The post For Bolivia’s Juan Carlos Prado Angelo and Murkel Dellien, Tennis Is About More Than Themselves appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

By Chloe Wellington-Hunt

X/Instagram: @chloemwhunt

BUENOS AIRES — Less than a day before taking the court alongside Mateo del Pino, Argentinian Lucio Ratti was dealing with a much more basic question: whether his legs would cooperate.

The world No. 373 had cramped badly the night before in singles against Federico Coria, the problem arriving at perhaps the worst possible moment — as he was trying to close out the match.

“I’d already been dealing with it, and it finally hit me completely right when I had to close out the match,” Ratti told World Tennis Magazine. “I was upset, obviously, because of the way it happened.”

By the next day, he was back on court at the YPF Buenos Aires Challenger with friend and fellow Argentinian, Mateo Del Pino. His legs still hurt. Del Pino noticed it during the warmup. But Ratti had known the soreness was coming and did what he could to get himself ready.

“I warmed up really well,” Ratti said. “I was treating it so that I could play at the highest level possible.”

Then he and Del Pino went out and won their doubles match.

For the two Argentines, playing together did not require much introduction. They have known each other since they were kids, are close friends and have already shared the court at several tournaments. Their partnership in Buenos Aires was less an experiment than a reunion.

“Lucio and I have known each other since we were really little,” Del Pino said. “We’ve already played several tournaments together, so we decided to play together here, and luckily we won.”

Ratti put it even more simply.

“It’s always fun to play with Mate,” he said. “We’re really good friends.”

The friendship helps, but so does the fact that their tennis is different.

Del Pino gravitates toward the net. Ratti is more comfortable constructing points from the baseline. In doubles, those contrasting instincts give each of them room to do what comes naturally.

“He’s more of a baseline player,” Del Pino said. “I like being at the net more. So we understand each other really well on court.”

Ratti agreed, describing their games as different but complementary.

“He likes playing forward more, while I’m probably a little more structured from the baseline,” he said. “I think that helps too.”

Their paths into tennis, however, sound remarkably similar.

Del Pino started at three years old after watching his father play. He picked up what he remembers as a “little racket” and began hitting. Tennis soon became a family affair. He has two brothers, and the sport runs throughout the household.

Ratti grew up about 100 kilometers from Buenos Aires in Lobos, where his father also played. He started in the local tennis school, moved into tournaments around the area and eventually progressed to national competition.

“I gradually kept progressing until I got here,” Ratti said.

“Here,” of course, is professional tennis — a destination that can subtly change the relationship a player has with a sport he first picked up as a child.

Del Pino and Ratti still love tennis. Both are quick to say that. But neither romanticizes what pursuing it professionally demands.

“As you get older, you have more pressure,” Del Pino said. “At some point you start feeling like it’s a job.”

He rattled off the routine: physical training, gym work, stretching, practice. The repetitive work that takes place far away from crowds and scoreboards.“Every day you have to do the things you have to do,” he said. “Mentally, you know that it’s a job.”

Ratti feels the same tension. Playing tennis for a living is a privilege, he said, but loving the sport does not mean loving every day of it.

“There are days when we don’t really feel like it, or days when we struggle more,” he said.

Del Pino jumped in.

“When it rains, right?”

The two laughed.

Even then, Ratti continued, you train.

“We still have to go practice even if we’re tired or whatever,” he said. “We know we have to do it because it’s something we need.”

Maybe that is part of why doubles offers something different.

As they both mentioned, singles can be brutally isolating. Every decision is yours, every mistake belongs to you and there is no one standing on the same side of the net to interrupt a bad stretch. Del Pino does not hesitate when asked which version of tennis he enjoys more.

“For me, they’re two different sports,” he said. “Singles is more individual, more solitary.”

Doubles gives him someone else.

“I have a partner, someone who encourages me and supports me,” Del Pino said, smiling as he added another benefit: “There are points that he basically gives me for free.”

“That gives me a lot of positive energy,” he said. “So I prefer doubles to singles.”

Ratti sees the tradeoff. Doubles creates its own pressures — different positioning, different patterns and two opponents across the net instead of one. But it also gives a player something singles cannot.

“You can lean on another person,” he said. “Maybe you’re going through a bad moment and the other person can pull you out of it or help you.”

In Buenos Aires, they did not have to search far for that person.

The partnership came together when Del Pino sent Ratti a message asking if he wanted to play. There was not much deliberation.

“I immediately told him yes,” Ratti said with a smile. “Absolutely.”

They entered roughly two weeks before the tournament.

“We really wanted to play,” Del Pino added.

Their differences continue when they leave the tennis court. Del Pino describes himself as the more family-oriented of the pair. When he gets time away from tennis, he wants to be home with his family and his dogs. Ratti heads for Lobos.

“I’m definitely more of a friends person,” he said. “Whenever I have a little bit of time, I try to go back, meet up with friends, make plans. I like being able to relax back in my hometown.”

While they two have different games and different personalities, they share a love for the game, and ultimately, a bond that goes beyond the court.

The post Argentinians Mateo del Pino and Lucio Ratti Bring Friendship — and Opposite Games — to Buenos Aires Challenger appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

By Chloe Wellington-Hunt

X/Instagram: @chloemwhunt

BUENOS AIRES — Uruguay’s Joaquín Aguilar Cardozo keeps winning. It sounds simple when put that way. The 21-year-old has won four consecutive ITF singles titles, carried a 23-match winning streak into the main draw of the YPF Buenos Aires Challenger and, on Tuesday, extended it again with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Carlos María Zárate.

But ask Aguilar Cardozo what has changed, and he does not talk like a player who suddenly discovered how to win.

“I think it’s a change that I’ve been making for a long time,” Aguilar Cardozo said. “It’s just that now, you could say, I’m starting to see the fruits of it.”

That distinction matters.

The world No. 384’s rise over the past several months has been dramatic on paper. He won the M15 in Villa Constitución in July, followed it with back-to-back M15 titles in Asunción and then captured another M15 in Mar del Plata. Then came Davis Cup.

Representing Uruguay against Estonia last week, Aguilar Cardozo defeated Markus Mölder 6-2, 6-1 in the opening rubber, playing in front of a packed home crowd in Montevideo. Uruguay went on to win the tie.

“I played Davis Cup in Uruguay last week, and I was able to play at a really good level,” Aguilar Cardozo said. “There were a lot of people watching, the stadium was full, and I got to play with my people and my friends there. It was an incredible experience, and I enjoyed it a lot.”

Days later, there was little time for him to linger on it.

He traveled to Buenos Aires and entered Challenger qualifying, where his first opponent Monday was Mateo Del Pino. Aguilar Cardozo won 6-1, 6-2.

His next opponent was considerably more familiar – Federico Aguilar Cardozo.His twin brother.

The final round of qualifying became the first match between brothers in the history of the Buenos Aires Challenger. Joaquín won 6-4, 7-5 to earn his place in the main draw.

For two players who have spent virtually their entire lives sharing tennis, there is still nothing normal about looking across the net and finding your brother there.

“It’s a little uncomfortable for us to play against a brother. It’s always uncomfortable,” Aguilar Cardozo said. “It’s like you don’t want to win, but you have to because it’s also your job. Once we’re on the court, we go all out.”

The brothers have been doing some version of this since childhood.

Joaquín was born in Paysandú, Uruguay, but moved to Argentina as a child, where greater access to players, coaches and training helped facilitate his development. Tennis was not merely Joaquín’s pursuit, either. Federico played, and so did their older brother.

For their parents, that meant a household in which tennis could become nearly inescapable.

“At the beginning, when we were kids, maybe it was a lot because my older brother played too,” Aguilar Cardozo said. “So we were talking about tennis all the time — at lunch, at dinner, from the moment we woke up.”

Time has changed that dynamic.

Their older brother no longer competes professionally, while Joaquín and Federico spend much of the year traveling. Instead of tennis being the thing the family could never escape, the sport has increasingly become one of the things bringing them back together.

“As the years have gone by, it’s become more fun,” Aguilar Cardozo said. “Now that it’s just my brother and me playing, and we both travel a lot, we don’t see each other as much. I think we’re all enjoying it a lot as a family.”

This week offered one of those increasingly rare reunions. His parents were in Buenos Aires. So was his older brother.

And away from the court, the brothers are capable of leaving tennis behind.

Aguilar Cardozo said music is one of the things the siblings share. When their schedules allow them to be together, they go out to eat, attend concerts or catch a show.

“We travel so many weeks that it’s difficult for the three of us to be together,” he said. “But when we are together, we always do things. We go out to eat or go to a concert or a show. The three of us really like music, and we enjoy that.”

For now, though, tennis is demanding plenty of his attention.

The transition from the ITF World Tennis Tour to the Challenger Tour is notoriously difficult. Aguilar Cardozo has noticed the difference himself. It is not necessarily that players at Futures events are incapable of producing Challenger-level tennis. It is how long they can sustain it.

“In qualifying, maybe there isn’t that much of a difference,” he explained. “But once you’re in the main draw of Challengers, I think there are players who can sustain a good level for longer. In Futures, maybe there are guys who play at that level, but they can’t sustain it for as long. They play really well for a while and then their level drops. Here, I think they sustain it much more.”

Aguilar Cardozo is beginning to prove that he can sustain his own level there, too.

Before arriving in Buenos Aires, he had already reached his first Challenger quarterfinal in Piracicaba, Brazil. In Buenos Aires, he survived qualifying and then needed just over an hour Tuesday to dispatch Zárate, 6-2, 6-1.

Next comes another test at the level he is trying to make his permanent home: Francisco Comesaña.

Yet the most revealing part of Aguilar Cardozo’s recent run might be the way he talks about it. Four consecutive titles could invite a player to identify some breakthrough moment — a technical adjustment, a newfound confidence, a week when everything suddenly clicked.

Aguilar Cardozo rejects that premise.

“I’ve been doing things very well with my whole team for a year and a half, two years,” he said. “As time went on, I improved a lot in every aspect. Now the results are coming, but it’s something I’ve been working on for a long time.”

The post For Uruguayan Joaquín Aguilar Cardozo, Results Are Finally Catching Up to the Work appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

Tennis is a global spectacle that commands the attention of millions of fans year-round. From the pristine grass courts of Wimbledon to the vibrant hard courts of Melbourne, professional tennis operates as a multi-billion-dollar ecosystem. At the heart of this financial engine lies a complex network of corporate sponsorships and commercial partnerships.

Top-tier companies across luxury goods, banking, automotive, aviation, and digital entertainment invest heavily in the sport to gain exposure to an affluent and engaged demographic. This article explores who sponsors the world’s biggest tennis series, breaking down the specific deals, financial figures, and tournament partnerships that keep the sport thriving, including the expanding presence of modern gaming and betting operators.

The Four Grand Slams: The Pinnacle of Tennis Commercial Value

The four Grand Slam tournaments represent the most lucrative properties in tennis. Due to their global reach and tradition, they command the highest sponsorship fees in the industry.

1. Australian Open: Innovation and Automotive Dominance

• Title Partner: Kia Corporation
• Estimated Annual Value: ~$35 million – $40 million
• Key Partners: Rolex, Emirates, Luzhou Laojiao, Infosys

Kia has been the official major partner of the Australian Open since 2002, marking one of the longest-running sports sponsorships in Australia. In recent years, the tournament expanded its portfolio with Chinese liquor brand Luzhou Laojiao and tech titan Infosys, while Emirates supplies the official tournament fleet and fan experiences.

2. Roland-Garros (The French Open): Luxury and Financial Heritage

• Premium Partners: BNP Paribas, Emirates, Lacoste, Renault, Rolex
• Estimated Annual Value (BNP Paribas): ~$20 million+
• Key Partners: Wilson, MasterCard, Haier

BNP Paribas has sponsored French tennis for over 50 years and remains the lead sponsor of Roland-Garros. Automobile giant Renault recently replaced Peugeot, introducing electric vehicle integration across the tournament grounds. Rolex acts as the official timekeeper, reinforcing the event’s luxury positioning.

3. Wimbledon: Tradition Meets High-End Brands

• Official Timekeeper: Rolex
• Official Ball: Slazenger (Longest partnership in sports history, since 1902)
• Key Partners: Barclays, Jaguar Land Rover, Stella Artois, Evian, Vodafone

Wimbledon is famously conservative with court-side advertising, maintaining a clean look compared to other events. However, its commercial value is massive. Banking giant Barclays recently replaced HSBC in a deal reported at over £20 million annually, while IBM powers the tournament’s advanced data and AI analytics.

4. US Open: American Financial Powerhouses

• Principal Sponsors: J.P. Morgan, Chase, American Express, Emirates
• Estimated Annual Value (Per Lead Partner): ~$15 million – $25 million
• Key Partners: Deloitte, Rolex, Cadillac, Tiffany & Co.

Held in Flushing Meadows, New York, the US Open generates the highest commercial revenue among all four majors. Wall Street institutions like J.P. Morgan and American Express provide significant backing, offering exclusive perks, VIP hospitality, and fan activations across the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The ATP & WTA Tours: Global Series Sponsorships

Outside of the Grand Slams, the professional tours are managed by the ATP (men’s) and WTA (women’s), both of which secure overarching tour-wide sponsors as well as venue-specific partners for their Masters 1000 and Premier events.

Emirates serves as the Premier Partner of the ATP Tour, featured prominently on the net posts at over 60 tournaments worldwide. On the women’s side, healthcare giant Hologic signed a landmark multi-year title sponsorship with the WTA, representing one of the largest financial commitments in women’s sports history.

The Growing Role of Sportsbooks and Online Casinos

In recent years, the commercial landscape of tennis sponsorship has undergone a major shift with the integration of betting operators, sportsbooks, and online casinos. While tennis governing bodies historically maintained strict distance from the gaming industry to preserve integrity, modern regulations and integrity monitoring systems have allowed regulated platforms to become major financial contributors.

1. Tournament and Tour Partnerships

Gambling and gaming operators now provide crucial financial support across various levels of professional tennis:

• Davis Cup & Billie Jean King Cup: International team competitions have partnered with global operators like Betsson and 1xBet to fund event operations, international broadcasts, and player prize pools.
• ATP Challenger & WTA 125 Series: Lower-tier professional circuits rely heavily on sports betting and gaming sponsors to maintain financial viability. Companies in this space frequently sponsor tournament streaming rights, data integration, and court banner placements.

2. Hybrid Entertainment and iGaming Platforms

Modern sports fans increasingly engage with digital entertainment ecosystems during live sporting events. The convergence of live sports streaming, in-play wagering, and online casino gaming has created new avenues for brand partnerships. Fans following international tournaments often explore diverse gaming options, ranging from match odds to interactive platforms such as Joker8 Casino, which reflect the broader trend of digital gaming integration within the sports media landscape.

While Grand Slam events limit direct court-side gambling logos due to local advertising laws in countries like France and the UK, digital broadcast sponsorships and regional betting partnerships continue to expand rapidly across Asia, Latin America, and North America.

Summary of Major Tennis Sponsorship Deals

To illustrate the sheer scale of investment in tennis, here is an overview of some of the most notable sponsorship agreements in the sport:

• Kia & Australian Open: ~$35M+/year (Automotive)
• BNP Paribas & French Open: ~$20M+/year (Banking)
• Barclays & Wimbledon: ~$25M+/year (Financial Services)
• Emirates & ATP Tour: ~$15M+/year (Aviation)
• Hologic & WTA Tour: ~$15M–$20M/year (Title Partner)
• Betting & iGaming Sector: Estimated $100M+ annually across tour data rights, streaming, and regional tournament sponsorships.

Conclusion

The sponsorship ecosystem of world tennis is a dynamic blend of heritage brands and modern digital enterprises. While prestigious financial institutions, luxury watchmakers, and premium automakers continue to anchor the four Grand Slams, the broader ATP and WTA tours are increasingly supported by technology firms, healthcare giants, and regulated gaming platforms. As digital broadcasts and fan engagement evolve, the commercial backing of tennis will remain one of the most lucrative and diverse landscapes in global sports.

The post Who Sponsors the World’s Biggest Tennis Series? Inside Tennis Sponsorships and Partnerships appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

He was flat on his back on Court Philippe-Chatrier, hands over his face, sobbing. Four years earlier, on that same clay, Alexander Zverev had gone down screaming with a shattered ankle, wheeled off mid-semifinal against Rafael Nadal, his season over. This time, he was there because he’d won.

By 2026, Zverev had made a habit of losing the matches that mattered most. In 2020, in an empty US Open stadium built for global events nobody had a script for, he went up two sets on Dominic Thiem and lost in five. Four years later at Roland Garros, he took a two-sets-to-one lead against Carlos Alcaraz and watched it slip away again. Then came Melbourne in 2025, no lead to blow, just Jannik Sinner playing tennis he couldn’t touch.

Two ATP Finals titles, from 2018 and 2021, sat in his cabinet as consolation — genuine silverware, but increasingly the ceiling rather than a stepping stone. Then 2026 handed him something no script would have written.

Zverev Sheds His ‘Nearly Man’ Skin

Sinner, the overwhelming favourite, cramped and collapsed in a Paris heatwave against Juan Manuel Cerúndolo, blowing a two-set lead in one of the tournament’s great upsets. Alcaraz never took the court, sidelined by a wrist injury that also cost him Wimbledon. The draw that had broken Zverev three times over lay wide open, and online betting sites suddenly made him the man to beat.

According to tennis betting odds on the Ozoon online betting site, Alexander Zverev was listed as the clear 13/8 favourite to claim his first Slam after Sinner’s shock exit, and he duly delivered, beating Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5-7), 6-1 to become the first German man to win a major since Boris Becker in 1996. “This court is very, very special to me,” he said. “It’s special in a very positive way, but also special in a negative way, because I had some of the toughest moments of my life here.”

Three months later, he beat Ben Shelton in four sets at the US Open to claim his second slam in the space of three months: “I think God has seen how hard we worked, how much we suffered, how much pain we went through.” Two majors, one season, thirteen years in the making.

Those two ATP Finals victories are no longer the jewels in Zverev’s trophy cabinet. So, who’s still stuck in the same purgatory that the German once used to call his own? Here are the only five men in history to have won the ATP Finals but never a Grand Slam.

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Stefanos Tsitsipas only survived his 2019 group because Nadal lost a tiebreak to Daniil Medvedev after beating Tsitsipas himself days earlier. What he did with the lifeline was the real story: a 6-3, 6-4 demolition of Roger Federer in the semifinal, saving 11 of 12 break points in the great man’s last appearance at the tournament, then a final against Thiem that went to a deciding tiebreak — only the fourth in the event’s history — won 6-7, 6-2, 7-6.

But with the world seemingly at his feet, Novak Djokovic became his ceiling: a two-set lead surrendered in the 2021 French Open final, then a tight three-set loss at the 2023 Australian Open, the same story twice over. What does it do to a career when one man keeps standing in the same doorway?

Grigor Dimitrov

Grigor Dimitrov earned the nickname “Baby Fed” as a compliment that curdled into pressure. In 2017, ranked sixth, he went unbeaten through London — Thiem, David Goffin, and Pablo Carreño Busta in the group, Jack Sock in the semifinal, then a rematch with Goffin, fresh off dumping Federer out, in the final, won 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 before he collapsed face-first on the court.

Two years later, he produced the best win of his career, finally beating Federer at a major after seven straight losses, five sets deep at the US Open — only to find Medvedev waiting in the semifinal, just as Nadal had waited the year he lifted the Finals trophy. The talent was never in question; the door simply never opened.

Nikolay Davydenko

Nobody talks about Nikolay Davydenko, and that’s almost the point. He was outside the world’s top ten in May 2009, then Shanghai Masters champion by October, having beaten Djokovic and Nadal back-to-back. London gave him no favours either — a loss to Djokovic in round-robin play, wins over Nadal and Robin Söderling either side of it — before, in the semifinal, he did something he hadn’t managed in thirteen attempts: he beat Federer.

The final against Juan Martin del Potro was businesslike, 6-3, 6-4. He’d beaten all three defining champions of the era in a fortnight and never reached a Grand Slam final; Federer stopped him at the semifinal stage four times. Davydenko never sought the spotlight, and tennis mostly forgot him.

David Nalbandian

David Nalbandian wasn’t even meant to be at the 2005 Finals. Ranked 12th, he only got in the field because Andy Roddick pulled out injured, forcing him to cancel a fishing trip and fly to Shanghai as a replacement. Federer arrived on a 24-match winning streak in finals, an Open-era record, having beaten him already that week. None of it mattered.

After crushing Davydenko 6-0, 7-5 in the semifinal, Nalbandian came back from two sets down against Federer in the final, clawing through 6-7, 6-7, 6-2, 6-1 before winning the decider in a tiebreak. His only Grand Slam final had come three years earlier, an unseeded 20-year-old blown away by Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon.

Uniquely among Argentine men, he reached the semifinals or better at all four majors — beating every great of his generation without ever aligning it with the trophy that mattered.

Àlex Corretja

Àlex Corretja’s story is the cruellest of the five, because he fell the same way twice. In 1998, he’d already lost the French Open final to countryman Carlos Moyà in straight sets when the two met again that November for the year-end title in Hannover. Corretja arrived having beaten Andre Agassi and saved three match points against defending champion Pete Sampras.

Facing Moyà once more, he went two sets down again — the exact passive tennis that had cost him the major months earlier — and he refused to repeat it, winning three straight sets in a four-hour epic to become the first man to win the event without a Grand Slam to his name. Three years later, he lost a Roland Garros final to Gustavo Kuerten and called it, flatly, the worst memory of his career.

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