By Chloe Wellington-Hunt
X/Instagram: @chloemwhunt

For much of Martin Damm’s life, tennis was already there.

It was there through his father, Martin Damm Sr., a former top-50 singles player and major doubles champion. It was there through his older brother. It was there when Damm was still young enough to experience professional tennis from the outside, watching what the highest level looked like before he was old enough to fully understand what it demanded.

And then, eventually, tennis became his own.

“I mean, it’s given me a lot of cool opportunities, a lot of opportunities that I don’t think many have gotten from a young age,” said Damm after his first-round 6-4, 7-6(4) win over Abdullah Shelbayh at the Winston-Salem Open. “I got to see the tennis world at the highest level with my brother at an extremely young age, through my dad and his career.”

That access helped shape a player who became one of the best American juniors of his generation. But it also created an unusual challenge. Damm did not simply have a father who understood professional tennis. He shared his name.

“I was a pretty good junior at a young age, and then I got stuck for a bit,” Damm said. “The journey that I’ve been through obviously hasn’t been easy at times, but I’m super grateful for all of it. I think everyone has their own kind of story, and I think my story is pretty cool.”

There is a temptation to look at a player with Damm’s background and imagine a straightforward ascent. He had the genetics, the knowledge around him and exposure to elite tennis almost from the beginning.

Damm knows that perception exists. He also knows what it leaves out.

“But at the same time, when your dad was a pretty successful tennis player, and you share the same name and everything, obviously there’s a bit of pressure that comes with it,” he said. “But I’m super grateful for it, and everything that he’s done for me in my game. I think when I retire, hopefully I’ll be remembered for myself and not for the son of my dad.”

That may be the thread running through Damm’s career now: becoming his own player, but also his own person.

Because somewhere between being the talented kid who had everything prepared for him and becoming a professional responsible for his own career, things stopped being easy.

Damm left home at roughly 13 years old. It is the kind of detail that can sound almost ordinary within professional tennis, where young players routinely travel internationally and organize their lives around tournaments. Damm is quick to point out that it isn’t ordinary at all.

“Tennis is super unique because you’re always alone,” Damm said. “I left home more or less when I was 13, so that’s not really normal. We don’t really live normal lives.”

Instead, there are hotels. Restaurants. Deliveries. Airports. Practices. Matches. Then another city and another hotel.

“We live in hotels, we live out of restaurants, Uber Eats and stuff like this,” Damm said. “It’s definitely not made for everyone, and it takes quite some time to get used to it.”

For Damm, there was another adjustment underneath all of that. Growing up surrounded by people who knew professional tennis meant much of the infrastructure had already been built around him.

“I think that’s something that I struggled with because, I’m not saying that everything was given to me, but everything was prepared for me, for my age,” he said.

It took losing some of that certainty for him to understand it.

“In the moment, you don’t realize it, you’re not really super grateful for it,” Damm said. “When you do hit a wall and you hit rock bottom, you just turn everything upside down. You start from the bottom up, and I think that’s something that I’ve done such a good job with.”

For Damm, rock bottom was not merely a bad stretch of results.

An injury kept him away from the sport around which virtually his entire life had been constructed. He spent eight weeks in a boot — twice — and struggled to find a way to get healthy. When tennis disappeared from his daily life, so did some of the structure that had defined him for years.

“I think majority was off the court,” Damm said of what the injury taught him. “I think us tennis players were just, you know, we’re used to doing everything just for ourselves and you know we’re out there competing by ourselves and everything kind of walls around us.”

Then suddenly, he couldn’t compete.

“So I think when you’re hurt and you can’t play tennis, you know what you do for a living, you view things a lot differently,” he said. “Obviously I was in a pretty dark place there and I just couldn’t figure out a way to get healthy.”

For an athlete, there is an obvious cruelty to that kind of injury. But Damm now talks about the period less as lost time and more as the experience that forced him to change.

“I went into boot for eight weeks, two different times, so you know it kind of tears you down,” he said. “But I was very fortunate that I had good people around me and I was able to look at life and tennis from a totally different perspective and I think I matured tremendously and I think that’s something that I needed.”

The realization is striking because Damm can now separate being talented enough to play professional tennis from actually understanding how to live as a professional tennis player.

He had been good early. Then he stalled. He began moving forward again. Then his body stopped him.

“I was obviously good at a very young age and I hit a wall kind of for a lot of years and it seemed like I was trending upwards, but yeah then the injury came,” he said.

Now, with enough distance from it, Damm can say something that would have been almost impossible to imagine while he was stuck in a boot.

“Now looking back I think it’s the best thing that could have happened to me,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’ve learned about a lot about you know people in my corner and what it actually takes to you know to be a professional tennis player, which I don’t think I knew you know completely back then.”

The people in that corner remain central to the way Damm talks about his resurgence. There is his family, his coaches and the people back home who allowed him to accept being knocked backward without treating it as the end of the story.

“It’s thanks to everyone that’s behind me, my family, my coaches and everyone back home,” Damm said. “That’s made it a lot easier for me to take a step back and settle in, being down and working our way up.”

And he has been working his way up.

The progress has increasingly put Damm across the net from players who provide an immediate measurement of where his game stands. He faced Alex de Minaur on grass in the Netherlands. He played Ben Shelton in Washington, D.C. He faced Stefanos Tsitsipas in Montreal.

“In the last few tournaments, I’ve been lucky enough to play some pretty darn good tennis players,” Damm said. “I played Deminar in the Netherlands on grass. I played Ben in a close match in DC. I played the full-on league, Tsitsipas, in Montreal.”

Those matches matter even when they don’t end the way Damm wants. The names become less intimidating. The pace becomes more familiar. The level stops being an abstraction and becomes something he has actually experienced.

“I feel like I’ve slowly gotten used to that level, but at least I’ve experienced that level a little bit,” he said. “It makes it a lot easier for me.”

There is confidence in that statement, but Damm’s assessment of himself remains unsentimental.

Asked about his game heading toward New York and the US Open, he did not pretend that reaching the top 100 meant the work was finished.

“I’m always working on something,” Damm said. “I’m 90 something in the world for a reason and you know if I was better at a lot of things I’d be higher rank.”

The US Open carries particular significance. Damm played well there last year, and for an American, there are few stages that offer a greater opportunity to measure progress.

“Obviously I want to do well at the US Open,” he said. “I did well there last year. So it’s obviously a tournament that you want to peek at. You always want to do well at Grand Slans, but especially as an American at the US Open is something that we all strive towards.”

There are concrete pieces of his game he wants to sharpen before and beyond New York. He wants his serve to make his life easier, his return to make opponents’ lives harder and more variety to give him options between the two.

“I wanna keep developing my serve. I wanna have quicker holds developing that game, kind of a little different variety in my overall game,” Damm said. “And yeah of course I’m not known to be the best returner so keep working at that game and yeah making guys you know work to hold serve and for me just to kind of ideally breeze through my serve games.”

Yet perhaps the biggest difference in Damm is no longer technical.

The player who once admits he did not fully appreciate how much had been prepared for him now understands what happens when that structure falls apart. He knows what it is like to be unable to play. He knows what it is like to hit the wall after early success. And he knows that rebuilding a career can require rebuilding the person inside it, too.

That perspective has changed the way he approaches opportunities against the game’s best.

“I have full belief that I can take it to him,” Damm said ahead of his next match. “Hopefully, I can do my best game and test myself where I am.”

And then, regardless of what happens, comes the part of professional tennis he seems to understand far better now than he did as a teenager: you go back to work.

“After the match, learn from my mistakes or learn what worked and continue to evolve as a tennis player.”

For someone whose tennis story began with a famous name already attached to it, evolution may be the most important part.

Damm does not reject his father’s influence. Quite the opposite. He talks about it with gratitude. But he is also building something that cannot simply be inherited — a career shaped by the periods when tennis was difficult, when his body failed him, when progress stopped and he had to decide whether he could start again from the bottom.

There is still, as Damm repeatedly acknowledges, “a long way to go.”

But perhaps that is the point.

The kid who grew up seeing professional tennis at its highest level is now discovering for himself what it takes to stay there. And if he gets his wish, when his career is eventually finished, the name Martin Damm will no longer require an explanation of whose son he is.

It will be his own.

The post The Making of Martin Damm: Injury, Identity and Starting Over appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

@TennisPublisher

Successful tennis careers are usually started by a series of incremental victories moving a player from a lower level of tennis upward.

Jordan Lee of Orlando, Florida chalked up another one of these cumulative match wins Monday from the first round of the U.S. Open qualifying tournament.

Less than four months ago, Lee turned 16 years old and was earning his second career ATP point at the $15,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships, an entry level USTA Pro Circuit event in Vero Beach, Florida. From there, in a matter of six weeks, he was the Wimbledon junior boy’s singles champion. And a month after that, he was reaching the singles final of the USTA National Boy’s 18s Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he unfortunately had to retire from the final after only three games with a chest problem.

However, the runner-up finish accorded him an automatic wild card into the U.S. Open qualifying rounds where in his opening match on the opening day he defeated the No. 152-ranked player in the world, Mark Lajal of Estonia 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 for his best career victory in a spawning tennis career.

Lee became a buzz-worthy character in American tennis with not only his Wimbledon junior title, but how he won it and who he beat in the final. He only got into the Wimbledon junior singles field by advancing via the qualifying rounds and then beat Cruz Hewitt, the son of Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Lleyton Hewitt, in the final after losing the first set and coming back from Hewitt serving for the match in the final set.

Lee again showcased this “never-say-die” attitude also against Lajal, an experienced player who is seven years his senior. Lee had his serve broken in the opening game of the match, but stayed toe-to-toe with Lajal for the rest of the set, but was not able to break the Lajal serve to get back on serve. Benefitting from a flurry of mishit forehands by Lajal, Lee broke serve for a 2-0 lead in the second set, waving his hands in the air to work to get the New York crowd behind him. He fought off a break point while serving for the second set at 5-3 before tying the match at one set apiece. In the third set, both players had their serves broken in the first five games before Lee finally held serve for 4-2 and then again for 5-3, capping his service game with a leaping overhead that harkened back to another athlete who has the last name of Jordan, leaping to make slam dunk in basketball. Lee was able to avoid the pressure of serving for the match by closing out the match in the next game on Lajal’s serve to give him the biggest pro singles win of his career so far.

Next up for Lee in the second round of U.S. Open qualifying is No. 208 Daniel Rincon of Spain.

The post Jordan Lee, Age 16, Reaches Another Level In Competitive Tennis With First Round U.S. Open Qualifying Victory appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

Fils captured the biggest title of his young career Sunday, defeating Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 1-6, 6-0 to win his first ATP Masters 1000 championship. A few hours later, Gauff completed her own Cincinnati coronation, defeating fellow American Jessica Pegula 6-2, 6-4 to claim the women’s singles title.

For Fils, it was a breakthrough. For Gauff, it was a return to a place where she had already experienced one of the defining moments of her career.

Fils Finds Another Gear

The men’s final appeared to be heading in a completely different direction after Tiafoe dominated the second set.

Fils had taken control early, jumping ahead and winning the opening set 6-3. But Tiafoe responded immediately, racing through the second set 6-1 and seemingly carrying all of the momentum into the deciding set.

Instead, Fils produced his best tennis of the afternoon.

The 22-year-old Frenchman completely shut down Tiafoe in the third set, breaking twice and taking advantage of an increasingly erratic American. Fils eventually completed the 6-0 set to become a Masters 1000 champion for the first time.

The victory was particularly meaningful given what Fils has endured. A lower-back stress fracture forced him to miss the Australian Open, and injuries had interrupted his progress during the previous season. He returned to competition in 2026 and gradually rebuilt his form, reaching the final in Doha, making deep runs at Indian Wells and Miami, and winning the Barcelona title on clay.

Cincinnati represented another level entirely.

Fils arrived as the No. 21 seed and navigated a difficult draw that included Alex de Minaur, Thiago Agustin Tirante and seventh-seeded Flavio Cobolli before reaching the final. He then overcame Tiafoe in three sets to become the youngest French Masters 1000 champion in history.

The final also carried historic significance. Fils and Tiafoe became the first two Black players to meet in an ATP Masters 1000 final.

Fils’ victory also made him only the third Black man to win a Masters 1000 singles title, joining Ben Shelton and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Gauff Returns to the Top in Cincinnati

Gauff’s path to the Cincinnati championship was different, but the destination was familiar.

Three years after winning her first major WTA 1000 title in Cincinnati, Gauff returned to the winner’s circle at the same tournament.

The fourth-seeded American was outstanding against Pegula, winning 6-2, 6-4 in an all-American final.

Gauff came out firing, breaking Pegula twice to race to a 5-0 advantage in the opening set. Pegula eventually settled into the match, but Gauff had already established control.

The second set was more competitive, yet Gauff continued to apply pressure with her forehand and athleticism. Pegula mounted a late challenge, but Gauff closed out the championship in straight sets.

It was Gauff’s second Cincinnati singles championship and the 12th singles title of her career.

Her road to the final included victories over Liudmila Samsonova, Ann Li, Marie Bouzkova, Marta Kostyuk and Czech left-hander Sara Bejlek. Bejlek had been one of the surprise stories of the tournament, but Gauff stopped her run with a 6-4, 6-1 semifinal victory.

Pegula, meanwhile, had eliminated defending champion Iga Swiatek in a dramatic semifinal before facing Gauff in the final.

Two Champions With Momentum

The Cincinnati champions leave Ohio at very different points in their careers.

For Fils, this is the arrival of a player who has been threatening to break through for some time. His combination of power, athleticism and improving serve makes him an increasingly dangerous hard-court opponent — and his performance against Tiafoe demonstrated that he can regroup even after losing momentum.

For Gauff, Cincinnati represents something equally important: confidence.

She has already won a Grand Slam title, reached the top of the sport and experienced the extraordinary expectations that accompanied her rise as a teenager. Returning to Cincinnati and winning the tournament again provides another reminder that she remains one of the most formidable players in women’s tennis.

And the timing could hardly be better.

With the U.S. Open approaching, both champions have given themselves an enormous boost.

Fils has finally captured his first Masters 1000 title.

Gauff has reclaimed Cincinnati.

Now, both head toward New York with trophies in hand and plenty of reason to believe something even bigger could be waiting.

The post Coco Gauff, Arthur Fils Crowned Cincinnati Open Champions appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

By Chloe Wellington-Hunt

X/Instagram: @chloemwhunt

Stefanos Tsitsipas came to the Winston-Salem Open for, admittedly, a simple reason: matches.

But as the former world No. 3 prepares for his 10th US Open, the work he is doing extends far beyond getting more time on court. After a season of impressive wins mixed with frustrating losses, months of experimenting with his equipment and changes to his life away from tennis, Tsitsipas is searching for something that has been difficult to find this year: consistency.

“I had a lot of ups and downs, that’s true. I was also going through a phase with two racquet frames that I was trying. I’m a player that never switched or changed things during my career.”

For Tsitsipas, even experimenting with his racquet represented a significant departure from the approach he had taken throughout his career.

“I was very superstitious and very close-minded with a lot of equipment,” he said. “The last 8 to 10 months have been quite difficult because I’ve been going through little experimentation on my gear and my equipment. I did gain on some things, then I lost on some things.”

Those tradeoffs made it difficult to know whether the changes were actually moving his tennis in the right direction. Now, after months of tinkering, Tsitsipas believes he has finally reached a point where he can stop searching and start building.

“Playing and feeling certain things can make you doubt sometimes whether that’s a good change or not,” he admitted. “In the last 2-3 weeks, I have established a solid foundation. I’m not conducting any more changes moving forward.”

With the equipment questions behind him, Tsitsipas hopes the certainty will allow him to focus fully on his game.

“I’m just hoping this stability and this peace of mind will finally bring something solid behind it, will allow me to take my game to the next level and just have a bit more consistency in everyday life.”

Consistency has been one of the defining challenges of his season.

Tsitsipas has produced results that show he can still compete with the best players in the world. But those performances have been accompanied by losses that have been harder for him to reconcile, particularly when he compares his current results with the standard he established earlier in his career.

“It’s been a difficult year,” he said. “I’ve had some really good wins, as you said, and then I’ve lost to players I personally don’t think I would have lost, let’s say, 4 to 5 years ago.”

The disparity has left him looking for a level he can reproduce from tournament to tournament rather than occasionally reaching his best tennis.

“It is kind of concerning that there’s inconsistencies in how I perform because I’ve beaten a few top-10 players this year, but then I’ve also lost to quite a few that are probably outside the top 30 or top 40,” he said. “I’m looking to build something a little bit more healthy in terms of my performance and my game consistency.”

That is part of what brought Tsitsipas to Winston-Salem.

Asked what he hopes to gain from the tournament, his answer–met with a smile–was immediate.

“Matches.”

Tsitsipas played both Montreal and Cincinnati during the North American hard-court swing, but he did not get the volume of competitive tennis he wanted before the year’s final Grand Slam.

“The reason I’m here are matches, so that’s pretty clear. I haven’t had a lot of matches,” he said. “I’ve played in Montreal and Cincinnati before, but that was not enough for me to build that rhythm before the US Open.”

His return to Winston-Salem gives him another opportunity to find that rhythm before traveling to New York, where another milestone awaits.

The 2026 US Open will be Tsitsipas’ 10th appearance at the tournament. Yet despite nearly a decade of trips to Flushing Meadows, the event has not produced the same defining moments he has experienced at some of the other majors.

“The US Open has been the Grand Slam that hasn’t treated me with too many good memories, to be honest,” the Greek player said. “Most of my Grand Slam memories have been built at the Australian Open, Roland Garros.”

The problem, again, comes back to consistency.

“I’ve had some good wins, but consistency would be definitely one thing to say I wasn’t in that particular event.”

Yet Tsitsipas’ search for greater consistency does not mean he wants to become more conservative.

In fact, he believes the opposite may be necessary.

When asked how he would approach coaching someone, Tsitsipas’ answer offered insight into the way he has begun thinking about his own tennis. Rather than emphasizing immediate results, he focused on giving a young player the freedom to evolve.

“Number one, I feel like we lose sometimes the importance of improvement and evolution as players,” he said, “and there comes a time where you’re constantly chasing wins, and you’re literally going to do anything to get wins under your belt.”

Winning can reinforce what a player already does well. But Tsitsipas believes that winning isn’t what matters when on the journey–it’s the process.

“But the problem with that sometimes is you lose the process of improvement because you only work around things that make you feel comfortable when you win.”

This is a lesson that the Greek star hopes to apply to his own career.

“It’s rare that you’re going to really try and experiment with things that don’t feel too comfortable with you when you’re playing,” he said. “And in my case, I felt like I’ve been stuck to my patterns a bit too long.”

For Tsitsipas, the next stage of improvement may require a lot of discomfort.

“And I’ve always looked for convenience and comfort instead of maybe being a little bit more of a risk taker and playing a style of tennis that is a little bit more daring and a little bit more evolutionary.”

That willingness to act on small openings is something Tsitsipas has observed in the players at the very top of the sport.

The difference does not always come from spectacular shots. Often, Tsitsipas believes, it is about recognizing a small advantage before it disappears.

“They’re literally taking the smallest opportunities and the smallest chances that they’re given and they go for them with high percentage tennis,” he said. “And I feel like I’ve had moments where I’ve been too passive as a player. My tennis is not to be played passively.”

Tsitsipas knows what his physical game allows him to do. The challenge is committing to it consistently.

“I’m an adult player. I have got big levers when I play, so I have big reach and I can hit hard and I can play big tennis,” he said. “And sometimes I’ve settled for a little bit too safe, in my opinion.”

One of Tsitsipas’ most significant recent changes has nothing to do with his forehand, serve or racquet. It begins with when he goes to sleep.

“I’ve started going to bed earlier. I’m a night owl.”

For years, Tsitsipas found something valuable in being awake while much of the world around him was quiet.

“I’ve always been a night owl. I feel like I just find peace and relaxation later at night because everyone is asleep,” he said. “And my biggest inspiration, my best moments come really late at night.”

Over the past six months, however, he has deliberately moved away from that routine.

“So I’ve changed that version of me, becoming more of a morning person. So in the last six months, I would definitely say I’m a morning person,” he said. “I go on about my routines earlier during the day.”

Tsitsipas sees the adjustment as part of a broader increase in discipline in his everyday life, something he credits both to himself and the support around him.

“And much more disciplined in my life. My partner also helps me with that. So we’ve established some good foundations in our life.”

For a player currently trying to establish a more stable foundation in his tennis, those small changes away from the court have become part of the same pursuit.

“And I really couldn’t be in a better place in my professional life right now,” he said, “in the way I’m building habits, in the way I’m executing small things daily to allow me to try and take my game to the next level.”

Despite the difficulties of the season, Tsitsipas feels better about the structure of his daily life than he has in some time.

“If there is a disciplined version of me, this is the disciplined version of me now. The best that I’ve seen in many years now.”

While the motivation to change came from Tsitsipas himself, he also recognizes that personal discipline does not develop in isolation.

“That came from me. It also sometimes, what I’ve noticed with it, it also sometimes comes from the people that surround you. From the people that you share your life with.”

The right environment, he believes, can influence everything from daily habits to motivation.

“All these things play out. And I’ve noticed they do help and they do give you inspiration.Sometimes you lack inspiration.”

Tsitsipas has therefore become more conscious of the effect the people around him can have on his own outlook.

“And I know it’s maybe negative saying that, but sometimes the people that surround you make you feel less inspired about certain things. So it’s really important for me to be surrounded by people that are constantly inspiring you. Constantly there for you.”

He connected that idea to the concept of Ubuntu — the idea that people become better through their relationships and shared humanity with others.

“And then automatically I feel like you want to be a better version of yourself too. Because everyone else, it’s almost like the concept of Ubuntu. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Ubuntu concept.”

Tsitsipas summarized what that means to him simply.

“It’s the same thing. I am better because of you and vice versa.”

For all the changes Tsitsipas has made, Winston-Salem offers a chance to temporarily simplify things. Soon, the quiet will give way to New York and the intensity of another US Open. Tsitsipas will arrive there hoping the matches in Winston-Salem have given him the rhythm he came searching for.

But the larger project will not be decided by what happens during one week in New York.

After a difficult year, Tsitsipas is trying to create greater stability in nearly every part of his professional life. The racquet experimentation is finished. His daily routines have changed. He is thinking more carefully about the people around him and challenging himself to play a more assertive style of tennis.

And at this stage of his career, he appears willing to give that process time.

“The long-term vision is two, three, four, five years from now. The vision is not if you’re going to win tomorrow or the next week,” he said. “Like, that’s something I don’t really care as much for.”

Photo credit: Wick Photography/ WS Open

The post Stefanos Tsitsipas Opens Up About Doubt, Discipline and the Search for Consistency appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

X/Instagram: @chloemwhunt

Quinn Vandecasteele of Murray, Utah did not look particularly rattled during a tense three-setter match. Taking advantage of the week when most players usually play qualifying at ATP 250 events but are otherwise playing in the U.S. Open qualifying event, the No 483-ranked battled for two and a half hours against Pierre-Hugues Herbert, earning him a valuable spot in the main draw for a player of his ranking..

Vandecasteele reached a career-high rank of world No. 449 in April 2026. Recently, at the Brownsburg Challenger in Indiana, he lost in the Round of 16. And now, he defeated current world No. 287–former world No. 36–Herbert 3-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 to get into his first ATP Tour main draw.

Even as the pressure increased in the match, Vandecasteele could be seen smiling at his brother–Luke Vandecasteele–and keeping a sense of energy around him. It was not a sign that he was taking the moment lightly. If anything, it was part of how he managed it.

That approach became especially important in the second-set tiebreak. Vandecasteele had struggled to consistently land his first serve earlier in the match, but rather than allowing that frustration to carry into the biggest points, he narrowed his focus.

“Yeah, just focused on playing my game,” Vandecasteele said. “Was not making a lot of first serves up until then, and just trying to make first serve and first big shot, and then see where it takes me. It was good to get an early lead, though.”

The early advantage allowed him to settle into the tiebreak, but his demeanor throughout the match suggested something else about his game: Vandecasteele is at his best when he does not become consumed by the pressure of the moment.

While some players deliberately shut out everything around them during competition, Vandecasteele takes a different approach.

“Yeah, that’s what keeps me calm the most, is trying to make sure I’m having fun out there and not getting too far in my own head, and yeah, having my brother here,” he said.

Luke and Quinn have played together since before they can remember. At the University of Oregon, the pair played doubles together.

“I mean, we’ve played since I was born together, so there’s nobody better to help me stay calm,” Quinn said.

Luke attributed some of that dynamic to their years around junior and college tennis, where interaction and team energy are far more common than on the professional circuit.

“Yeah, I mean, the smiling and stuff is definitely something I know that helps them after spending so many years with them in the juniors and then also in college tennis, where you have the team aspect,” Luke said. “That’s the kind of thing that builds that sort of relationship, I think, more than some of the guys that come up a more traditional way, so.”

From Luke’s perspective, though, there was not much need to overanalyze the performance.

“He played great, I mean, I think the result speaks for itself.”

The third set provided perhaps the clearest example of what Luke was talking about.

As his opponent began to look less settled, Vandecasteele resisted the temptation to chase the finish line. Instead, he kept points physical, stayed consistent and made his opponent continue to come up with answers.

“Just staying solid, just making work for it,” Vandecasteele said. “I’ve got the crowd as good support for me, and starting to press him a little bit. And so, just as long as I keep asking questions out there, he’ll, if he comes up with it, too good.”

It was a straightforward philosophy, and that was largely the point.

Rather than changing his game because the match had reached its most consequential stage, Vandecasteele trusted what had gotten him there. He focused on his serve, looked for the first aggressive ball and kept applying pressure without forcing the issue.

And when the match threatened to become stressful, he found ways to keep it from feeling that way.

For Vandecasteele, smiling and engaging with his brother are not signs that the competitive edge has disappeared. They help preserve it. The more relaxed he remains, the less likely he is to disappear into his own head.

On a day when several pivotal moments could have pulled him there, Vandecasteele instead stayed loose — and kept playing his game.

The post Utah Native Quinn Vandecasteele, Ranked No. 483, Takes Advantage of Winston-Salem Open Opportunity appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

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The free-to-the-public U.S. Open qualifying tournament has been for years been a huge fan favorite event

In 2026, the event is set to be perhaps the best ever.

The four-day tournament that runs from Monday, August 24 to Thursday, August 27 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center will determine the final 16 positions in the men’s and women’s singles draws, respectively, and will feature some of the most accomplished names to ever play in this portion of the tournament.

Here’s a look at some of the players who will be participating

Qinwen Zheng – Just two years ago, Zheng won the Olympic gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games. She also was a finalist in 2024 at the Australian Open. Injuries to her elbow have seen her ranking drop below No. 100 on the WTA Tour, forcing her to play in the qualifying tournament just to get into the main draw.

Kei Nishikori – The greatest player ever from Japan was a U.S. Open finalist in 2014 when he lost in the championship match to Marin Cilic. The former world No. 4 is in his farewell year on tour and he was accorded with a U.S. Open qualifying wild card by the USTA with his ranking dropping to No. 479

Bianca Andreescu – In 2019, Andreescu was beating Serena Williams in front of a raucous crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium in winning the U.S Open women’s title. A slew of injuries has hampered her career since and she has even ducked down into the Futures and Challenger levels of tennis to try to return to her top form. She now is having to win three matches in qualifying to earn a spot into the main draw of the U.S. Open.

Grigor Dimitrov – The former world No. 3 and former U.S., Australian Open and Wimbledon semifinalist is crawling his way up the rankings after his chest muscle injury at Wimbledon in 2025. An interesting fact on Dimitrov is the last player to beat Roger Federer at the U.S. Open when he defeated the five-time champion in the quarterfinals in 2019.

Three Awesome 16-Year-Old Americans – Three 16-year-old Americans – Jordan Lee, Michael Antonius and Andrew Johnson – have shown signs this year that they are set to become the next generation of great American players. Lee won the Wimbledon junior boys singles title beating Lleyton Hewitt’s son Cruz in the final in a match that received considerable amount of buzz. Antonius and Johnson each won USTA Pro Circuit ITF World Tennis Tour events this year (Antonius actually won two!) to become the youngest players to win on this “minor league” level of tennis since Carlos Alcaraz in 2019.

While the U.S. Open qualifying is free, fans should go to the USTA’s USOpen.org website for procedures to gain admittance to the event.

The post The Free-To-The-Public U.S. Open Qualifying Tournament In 2026 May Be The Most Star-Studded Ever appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

By Chloe Wellington-Hunt

X/Instagram: @chloemwhunt

Raphael Collignon’s rise into the world’s top 40 has come quickly. But it hasn’t been easy. Collignon now arrives at the Winston-Salem Open looking for a reset after a difficult stretch in Montreal and Cincinnati.

“I think it feels the same because I had a tough U.S. swing. I played Montreal, Cincinnati, I didn’t play my best,” Collignon said. “So I just come here to try to play as much matches as possible, try to play good tennis. And I feel good here. I already came last year. It’s an amazing venue, you know.”

Even though the U.S. swing might not have shown his best results, Collignon remains determined as he settles into life on tour.

“I think now I’m like two full years on the tour. So I can…know myself a bit better, know what is working,” he said. “I can more identify the parts of the matches when I have to maybe put more intensity or less, try to play better the important points.”

As for what that looks like on the court? For Collignon, it means learning to recognize the moments that matter — when to raise his level, when to remain patient and how to read what is happening on the other side of the net.

“And I think at that level is the most important, you know, try to identify the parts of matches where you can go full or just play the ball in,” Collignon said, “try to see how your opponent is mentally, you know, you identify a little bit more what you are doing better. And I think that is the main difference between now and last year or the years before.”

That learning process has been helped by having former world No. 38 Steve Darcis in his corner. Darcis has already experienced the demands of life on tour, giving Collignon someone who understands both the confidence that comes with winning and the difficulty of navigating stretches when results are harder to find.

“Of course, it’s easier, you know, because he knows the process,” Collignon said about his coach. “He knows the tour. He knows how I am feeling when I’m not winning matches or how I am feeling when I win matches, when I have the confidence. So he kind of guides me with this process.”

But Darcis’ influence extends beyond what happens on the tennis court. He also understands the less visible challenges of professional tennis — the constant travel, time away from home and emotional swings that accompany a results-driven sport.

“You know, sometimes it’s not easy to be away from home, traveling a lot,” Collignon said. “But he is there, you know, to tell me, I know what you are doing. I know what is it like to do what you are doing.”

For the Belgian, that understanding makes the process feel a little less lonely and provides reassurance that the work he is putting in is leading somewhere.

“And so it’s like easier to enjoy the process. And you have someone who tells you what you are doing is good. But you can feel it’s good because he knows what he is talking about,” he said. “So it’s easier to work in the right direction because, you know, if he tells you it’s good, it’s good, you know, it’s easier.”

There is also plenty ahead to keep Collignon motivated. The US Open is next on the horizon, followed by Davis Cup for a Belgian contingent that now features three players inside the top 40. Beyond that comes another first: Collignon has never played the Asian swing.

“No, I think the season is long, of course, but I have good goals in front of me,” he said. “You know, I have also, of course, here I want to do well because, like I said, my US swing was not the best and I have the US Open, of course. Then we have Davis Cup, which is important in Belgium.”

The Belgians now have three men inside the top 40, giving Collignon another reason to look forward to representing his country. But once the Davis Cup is over, much of what awaits him will be unfamiliar territory.

As for Asia? Collignon isn’t approaching the unknown with apprehension. He sees it as another opportunity to experience something new.

“I never went to Asia,” he said with a smile. “So it’s like exciting for me to discover new places, new tournaments. So every week is a new challenge.”

For Collignon, those unfamiliar tournaments are another part of a season filled with firsts. His ranking has changed and the stages are getting bigger, but his approach remains rooted in gradual improvement rather than the number beside his name.

After two years learning what life on tour demands, Collignon isn’t searching for one dramatic breakthrough. He is trusting that each match, each tournament and each new experience will move him a little further forward.

“So it’s like a process, you know, I think I’m doing better and better,” the Belgian said. “I’m like knowing a little bit better myself, you know, how I play good, how I can improve. So I try to do that and I think we are in the right direction.”

The post Raphael Collignon Continues to Trust the Process– and Learn Along the Way appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

By Chloe Wellington-Hunt

X/Instagram: @chloemwhunt

At 17, Cruz Hewitt is already learning what it takes to compete at the highest levels of professional tennis. But as the Australian rising star prepares for another opportunity on the ATP Tour, he isn’t talking about expectations or comparisons. He is talking about getting stronger, trusting his game and, perhaps most importantly, enjoying it.

Hewitt enters the Winston-Salem Open on a wild card after a breakout stretch that has put him increasingly in the conversation among tennis’s young players to watch. For Hewitt, the progress has been as much mental as physical.

“…It’s been a great few months, I feel like my tennis game is going a lot better and mentally as well, I feel like I’m maturing with the top plays and the kind of top 100 level, I feel, and I’m, I don’t know, just growing on and off the court, I feel like my fitness, everything’s getting better in my game as well,” Hewitt said, “but I’m excited to get another opportunity to play in a tour event, I feel that’s where I can play my best tennis.”

His maturity is beginning to translate into something more tangible on court. As Hewitt grows into himself, he has started to recognize the patterns that can make his game dangerous against more experienced opponents.

“A little bit, I think a lot more power, as I’m just getting older, I feel on my serve especially, serve plus one,” Hewitt said. “I feel that’s been a big strength in my matches recently which has helped me get kind of the first hit in the point, which is always good, so I think that’s probably the main thing.”

Even with all the pressure that comes with being a Hewitt, the 17-year-old returns repeatedly to something much simpler: he likes playing tennis.

“I feel like having fun, I feel like playing tennis, it’s a great sport, I’ve loved doing it since I was a kid, watching my dad play, so I feel like if you find the enjoyment with it, you know, you enjoy doing the hard work because I feel like when you do the hard work and now I’m seeing all the results,” Hewitt said. “I feel it just motivates me more, but no, there can definitely be challenges and days you don’t feel like it, but I feel like those are the times where it means the most.”

His father–Lleyton Hewitt–remains a source of advice, too.

“Yeah, a few advice from my dad and coaches, just play my game, I do feel when my game is on, my game is good enough at this level, just kind of back my shots and back the training I’ve done, I’ve done the work recently, so that’s probably the main advice.”

That confidence is paired with a distinctly Australian tennis education. Hewitt grew up not only watching his father but surrounded by the history and culture of a country that has produced tennis champions. When asked about what separates Australian tennis, he first mentioned an exceptional work ethic, sharing just a few of the Aussies that inspire him.

“Their good work ethic, I feel like some legends like Tony Roach, I feel like they’ve built a great path to look up to, Alex de Minaur, he’s doing a great job at that for the young kids at the moment, I definitely look up to him, so I feel like that’s probably one of the big things, the work ethic and I feel like we have kind of a grit to just dig into the match if it’s tough times, to hang around and compete well.”

For Hewitt, opportunities like Winston-Salem represent the next step: another chance to face tour-level competition, measure his game against established pros and continue closing the gap. As for his goal?

“Definitely, main draw of Grand Slams is a goal in the future,” Hewitt smiled, “but obviously it’s a lot of work to still be done, but that would be a dream to play, but right now I feel like just trying to get to these tournaments, they’re fun to play, they’re exciting to be a part of, so I feel like that’s probably the short term goal at the moment.”

Photo credit: Wick Photography / WS Open

The post Cruz Hewitt on Growing Up, Getting Stronger and Chasing the Grand Slams appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

The Wild Card Carousel

The USTA rolled out its 2026 US Open wild cards in stages, and for a while it looked like there might still be room for the three-time major champion. Gaël Monfils and Alexei Popyrin came in through reciprocal agreements with the French and Australian federations, while a wave of young Americans — Michael Zheng, Martin Damm, J.J. Wolf, Sebastian Gorzny and Jack Kennedy — filled out most of the men’s list. On the women’s side, Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens headlined, both past champions given one more shot at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

That left a single unclaimed spot in both and men’s and women’s fields , and for days the tennis world treated it like a mystery novel. Would Serena Williams, fresh off her Wimbledon comeback, take the last women’s card? Would Wawrinka, playing out his final season at 41, finally get the nod on the men’s side?

The Answer Nobody Wanted

The wait ended this week, and neither storyline broke the way sentiment suggested it should. Sofia Kenin picked up the final women’s wild card, while Serena confirmed she won’t play singles at Flushing Meadows — though she will team up with Carlos Alcaraz in mixed doubles. On the men’s side, after Alexei Popyrin got directly into the draw, his wild card went to fellow Aussie Dane Sweeny (which it has to under the reciprocal agreement with Tennis Australia) and after Damm also got into the event directly, his wild card went to Darwin Blanch, an American ranked No. 224. The last two card went to American Patrick Kypson, the highest ranked American not in the main draw at No. 115 but who has not played since Wimbledon. Wawrinka, the man who lifted the trophy here a decade ago, was left out.

Wawrinka’s exclusion has stung in a way that goes beyond one player missing one tournament. This is the Grand Slam where he owns his best career winning percentage — north of 74% — built on a run to the 2016 title over Novak Djokovic, plus semifinal appearances in 2013 and 2015. Now ranked outside the top 120, he needed a wild card just to avoid qualifying rounds altogether, and the USTA simply didn’t hand him one.

Why It Happened

Part of the explanation is structural. Monfils and Popyrin (and eventually Sweeny) arrived via the USTA’s reciprocal wild card agreements with Tennis Australia and the French federation — arrangements that exist independent of resume or sentiment. Part of it is that the USTA clearly prioritized giving American juniors, college stars, and Next Gen Accelerator players a taste of the main draw. And part of it, fans have pointed out loudly on social media, is just the uncomfortable math of a limited number of cards against a long list of worthy names — Wawrinka, Grigor Dimitrov, and Kei Nishikori (who did receive a qualifying wild card) were all competing for scraps in the same window.

None of that makes it feel less strange. A three-time major champion, in his farewell season, watching a tournament he once won hand its remaining invitations elsewhere is the kind of ending players don’t imagine when they’re hoisting a trophy on Ashe.

The post Stan Wawrinka Surprisingly Denied U.S. Open Wild Card In Farewell Season appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.

This will mark Williams’ competitive return to the US Open, where she last played in 2022. The 23-time Grand Slam and six-time US Open singles champion won the US Open Mixed Doubles title in 1998, with Max Mirnyi. 

The following Mixed Doubles transactions were also announced: 

• Following withdrawals by their previous teammates Jack Draper and Elena Rybakina, respectively, Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz have re-paired as a team and earned direct entry into the main draw, based on their August 17 combined singles ranking.
• The teams of Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev and Peyton Stearns and Christian Harrison received the two wild card entries into Monday’s eight-team Qualifying draw.
• Diana Shnaider, who was previously directly entered into the main draw with Daniil Medvedev, will have the opportunity to re-pair and retain direct entry by the time the draw is made mid-afternoon on Sunday. 
• Following the withdrawal of Jelena Ostapenko, Marcelo Arevalo re-paired with Kristina Mladenovic. That team retained direct entry into the Qualifying draw based on their combined doubles ranking. 

The Mixed Doubles Championship will begin on Monday, August 24, with an eight-team Qualifying competition played on Grandstand, beginning at 11 a.m. The Main Draw first round and quarterfinals will be played on Tuesday, August 25, in Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium, with the Armstrong matches free to attend. The semifinals and finals will be played in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday, August 26, beginning at 7 p.m.

ESPN2 will present live coverage Tuesday, August 25, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., followed by additional coverage on ESPN+ on the ESPN App from 3 – 5 p.m. The semifinals will be presented live on ESPN2, Wednesday, August 26, from 7-9 p.m., with the Mixed Doubles Championship final beginning on ESPN and ESPN+ at 9 p.m.

The latest competitor field is below. 

2026 US Open Mixed Doubles Championship – Confirmed Teams

MAIN DRAW

DIRECT ENTRANTS

Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic

Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz

Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud

Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli 

Amanda Anisimova and Learner Tien

Diana Shnaider and TBA

WILD CARDS

Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori

Alex Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime

Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe

Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev

Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils

Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz

Jakub Mensik and Karolina Muchova

Emma Navarro and Tommy Paul

QUALIFIERS (2)

QUALIFYING 

DIRECT ENTRANTS*

Katerina Siniakova and Henry Patten

Gabriela Dabrowski and Harri Heliövaara

Luisa Stefani and Neal Skupski

Aleksandra Krunic and Mate Pavic

Kristina Mladenovic and Marcelo Arevalo

Erin Routliffe and Lloyd Glasspool 

WILD CARDS 

Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev

Peyton Stearns and Christian Harrison

*Direct entry into Qualifying was based on best combined singles or doubles ranking.

2026 US Open Mixed Doubles Championship Schedule and Format

Monday, August 24 – Qualifying (Eight teams competing for two entries)

Grandstand; 11 a.m. start (Free to attend with Fan Access Pass)

Tuesday, August 25 – First Round and Quarterfinals

Louis Armstrong Stadium; 10 a.m. start (Free to attend with Fan Access Pass)

Arthur Ashe Stadium; 11 a.m. start

Wednesday, August 26 – Semifinals and Final

Arthur Ashe Stadium; 7 p.m. start 

Scoring and match format: 

• Qualifying through the Semifinals: Best-of-three-set matches with sets to four games; no-ad scoring (tiebreak at four-all); 10-point tie-break in lieu of third set.
• Final: Best-of-three set match with sets to six games (tie-break at six-all); no-ad scoring; 10-point tie-break in lieu of third set. 

The post Full U.S. Open Mixed Doubles Field, Highlighted By Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz, Plus Event Schedule appeared first on World Tennis Magazine.