Rest & Re-ignite

ATP & WTA

The Top Stories: Rest & Re-ignite

We’re in the North American hard court swing! Here are three of the top stories from both tours heading into the first lead-up tournaments to the US Open.

Taking a chill pill

Sorry Canada, no soup for you. The ATP’s top dogs — Sinner & Alcaraz have pulled out of the Toronto Open, citing that they need more recovery time before competing again. When you look at the schedules they’ve have, it makes sense.

Sinner has played 22 matches in the last 10 weeks across four countries. That stretch includes making the finals of Rome and Roland Garros, and winning Wimbledon — all after 3 months out of competition. While he’s been a winning machine, getting to the finals of every tournament he’s played, even robots need down time.

Alcaraz has somehow done even more. Since April, he’s logged 35 matches in five different countries and picked up five titles along the way. He’s been running a nonstop gauntlet — clay, grass, best-of-three, best-of-five — and still managing to play standing ovation-worthy tennis through it all.

These guys deserve a night at Ibiza’s Pacha. We’ll see them in Cincinnati.

Venus is back

At 45 years old, the 7-time Grand Slam singles champ is returning to the tour at the DC Open. Her return means that she’s technically been on tour for 32 years, and started long before I could even Google her name (or was alive for that matter).

She hasn’t won a main draw singles match since 2023, but who cares? She isn’t chasing rankings or trophies at this point. She’s chasing the joy of competition.

To that end, I’m not worried about her timing — hitting a forehand is second nature by now. The bigger question is: does she have the physicality? Can she sprint out to the corners, plant, recover, and repeat… against players that could be her kids?

We’ll find out in DC. C’mon Venus!

Will you accept this rose, Andre?

Holger Rune’s coaching carousel continues. This week’s McKinsey consultant? Andre Agassi.

Ahead of the DC Open, Rune spent three days training with the 8-time Slam champ, talking technique and tactics at the tournament where Agassi won five titles. On paper, it’s either a brilliant move… or another data point in Rune’s ongoing search for answers.

Since splitting with Patrick Mouratoglou, Rune has been working with Lars Christensen again — but Agassi’s wisdom was too good to pass up. And honestly, it’s hard to argue with that. There are only so many humans on Earth who’ve seen the top of the mountain. If you can borrow that perspective for even a few days, why not?

Agassi reportedly helped Rune refine his return and focus his attention on the right details — something the 22-year-old Dane admits has been hard to do in a streaky season. Rune is 22–14 on the year, with some big highs (beating Alcaraz in Barcelona, reaching the Indian Wells final) and some frustrating lows (six first-round losses, including a five-set exit at Wimbledon).

Is Agassi the secret sauce? Probably not. But when you're trying to find your groove again, a few days with a Hall-of-Famer can only help.

Let’s see if it sticks.

Trivia

Only one player in the Open Era has ever won a major as a qualifier. Who was it?

A. Thomas Muster

B. Li Na

C. Goran Ivanisevic

D. Emma Raducanu

Find out at the bottom!

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Which I think parlays nicely into:

Meet the Player

Stefanos Tsitsipas

From: Greece 🇬🇷

Best Slam Result: Final (AO & RG)

Career High Ranking: 3

Fun Fact: His parents met at a WTA event, where his mother was a player and his father was a ref. Legend has it that there were some favorable line calls that day.

Game Analysis: Stefanos is good at tennis. The glaring problem? With how fast the game has gotten, his one-handed backhand can’t keep up. Players pick on it like it’s the short nerdy kid on the playground.

Career Prediction: While Tsitsipas has been a consistent Top 10 player since 2019, he’s in a rough patch. He’s dropped to 27 in the world, and hasn’t strung together two wins in a row since April. My gut feeling? We won’t see his one-hander back in the Top 10 ever again — it’s going extinct.

Around the Net

Some of my favorite tennis content I found on the internet this week…

🎨 What’s the best tennis court color? Respond to the newsletter to let me know your favorite!

😮 How Brad Gilbert started coaching Andre Agassi, and how he took him from 30 to No. 1 in the world.

🧠 One of the biggest reasons why playing Federer was so challenging, according to Nadal

Answer

D. Emma Raducanu