James Hansen

This entire grift relies on convincing people that they don't know how to do the things they have always known how to do, and ironically, if it works, we will, in a very short amount of time, forget how to do all the things we have always known how to do.

Serena Williams reenters tennis anti-doping test pool, a requirement for return to competition Players in the pool have to be available for daily testing for six months before being allowed to play a competitive event.

Serena Williams is preparing for a possible return to tennis by reentering the sport's anti-doping pool and whereabouts requirements.

Players need to spend six months in the pool before playing an event.

@mattfutterman.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/athletic/685...

Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track instructs insolvency lawyers & restructuring firm to lead process to strike deal with vendors owed millions - letters warn companies must accept HALF of money owed or GST risks being put into bankruptcy. Athletes still only paid half of money owed.
t.co/4lojBMoFL2

Who among my Bluesky cohort wishes to discuss Isaac Chotiner 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 Ben Smith

1) Learner Tien obviously should have been on the Breakthrough ATP Tour list instead of Jack Draper

2) I think Learner Tien will finish 2026 ranked lower than he is now

Fils was right there before the injury I think. Maybe not at slams yet but at 1000s, sure. Mensik has some technical and physical things that scare me; Fonseca has the most intrinsic and natural upside but think the "big breakthrough" won't happen until 2027

At the moment it feels like Sinner and Alcaraz are optimizing for each other AND getting the benefits of grinding the others even further into the dust, while the others are optimizing for Sinner and Alcaraz but not making each other change

Sorry, maybe I was unclear – that's what I want / am interested to see too. To see Fritz or de Minaur play the way they do against Alcaraz and Sinner and lose and then bring it to everybody else and win, or win differently, and make everyone else evolve. I don't see them pushing top two, agreed

I agree about the younger gen being more likely to be more disruptive. I do think that when I watch Fritz and de Minaur in particular play so differently and push Alcaraz or Sinner, that they need to keep that energy in their other matches. Because it will have more impact. Even vs. Djokovic say

We know Sinner and Alcaraz can adjust for each other's strengths. But can Alex de Minaur, Taylor Fritz, Alexander Zverev, et al take the effective, but thus far pyrrhic adjustments they make against the top guys and turn them into meaningful advantages elsewhere?

One of the interesting subplots of men's tennis in 2026 is going to be how the chasing pack can do what the Big Three and Sinner / Alcaraz do so effectively, which is to use the experience of playing each other to generate marginal gains there and huge ones against the rest of the field.

The Big 3 Moat Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and the developmental ouroboros

Don't think he's on Bluesky but Matt Willis (mattracquet on X) wrote a pretty definitive piece on this phenomenon theracquet.substack.com/p/the-big-3-...

One of the advantages of having a hyper-optimized tennis rival is that everything you do for and against that rival is an order of magnitude more effective against everybody else. Same dynamic in the Big Three's constant meetings

They were already absurd in 2024, but they're now taking specific strengths from each other's armoury to adapt in different settings. That Alcaraz was a few points here or there from winning that could be scary for Sinner, but then Sinner did the same on the natural surfaces...

A fitting end to men's tennis in 2025, with two guys in their own little self-building world, feeding off playing each other to grow stronger and stronger together and move further and further into another galaxy

it's pretty much what dimitrov did at wimbledon but it requires executing to a godly level for a very long time...

Alex de Minaur hitting even flatter than normal on both sides according to Tennis Insights / Tennis Viz, and using slice. All contributing to keeping the ball out of Sinner's strike zone and making him bend and hit up

The men's tennis season has been so dominated by Sinner and Alcaraz that feel-good stories have been hard to find. Even/especially in Turin where pretty much everyone else has looked mentally and/or physically fried.

So TF for FAA ⬇️

www.nytimes.com/athletic/680...

Alexander Zverev being exasperated by other players executing high-risk plays on big points would be fair (it's irritating, sure!) if, you know, he ever threatened to do that

The combination of two absolute-runaway best players in the world and rising parity on the ATP Tour has made it one of the tougher years I can remember for the world rankings to feel like they truly mean something outside of who finishes on top

How the kingmaker of men’s tennis sent the sport into turmoil by trying to save it Andrea Gaudenzi's two-week tournaments were meant to give players riches and transparency, but robbed them of their most precious commodity.

Why two-week Masters 1000 events were meant to save tennis — and ended up ruining it instead

www.nytimes.com/athletic/680...

@mattfutterman.bsky.social

A Long Warm-Up Podcast Episode · The Call with Court Theory & Friends · 11/09/2025 · 1h 8m

Joining the crew on The Call!
If you love my Tennis breakdowns on @groundpass.bsky.social
I am going to be talking more about the culture, media and news around tennis with @courttheory.bsky.social and Friends on The Call. First episode is Live now.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

YouTube video by Tennis TV Carlos Alcaraz vs Taylor Fritz EPIC! | Nitto ATP Finals 2025 Highlights

The forehand slice dig in this point, for example, is completely off the wall youtu.be/pKjXTOF0ShQ?...

This is a player who would probably be first to admit that his movement and defense are not at all in Alcaraz's league, and he came pretty damn close to matching him for the best part of that

Incredible match by Taylor Fritz, the great maximizer of his era in men's tennis. Sometimes maximizing is not enough — but maybe that should be OK, given how many others in the top 20 don't even manage that

And never more so than the two forehand misses on two set points in this tiebreak

Ben Shelton trying to force the issue far too much against a player who is never going to make him do too much from neutral

So clear that Iga Swiatek, a player who uses the word "intuition" about tennis more than anyone, is getting caught between the instincts she is trying to unlearn and the ones she is trying to reintegrate in tight moments. And yet still will likely finish world No. 2 with a GS title and a ton of wins

Aryna Sabalenka, Nick Kyrgios will play ‘Battle of the Sexes’ tennis match organized by agency The WTA world No. 1 will take on the ATP No. 652 in December in Dubai.

The Battle of the Sexes has a significant place in tennis history.

In Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios' version, it's unclear what is at stake, beyond the commoditisation of the name — and an invitation to criticize women's tennis after either result

www.nytimes.com/athletic/677...

Wouldn't be fair to Iga Swiatek or Elena Rybakina to class that as a Swiatek fall-off. Rybakina would have beaten anyone in the world 6-1 6-0 playing the way she did. Swiatek concern should be that serve speed / potency has come at the cost of stability (which she knows based on news confs here)