The American Edition

ATP

Tommy on top

American Tommy Paul won the biggest title of his career this weekend at the Queen’s Club in London (ATP 500), defeating Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in a drama-filled final, and taking home a $400k check.

By winning his second title of the year, Paul jumps to No. 12 in the world, and surpasses Taylor Fritz to become the top-ranked American man. But if he wants to remain top dog, he’ll need to continue posting strong results, since Fritz and Ben Shelton are right behind him in the rankings.

One thing’s for sure, Tommy is in great shape to make a deep run at Wimbledon, a title that hasn’t been hoisted by an American man since 2000.

Trivia

🇺🇸 The four American greats below combine for a whopping 37 grand slam singles titles, but only one of them won a “career grand slam”, meaning they won each slam at least once. Who was it?

A. John McEnroe

B. Pete Sampras

C. Jimmy Connors

D. Andre Agassi

Find out at the bottom!

WTA

The biggest save

A first kiss is kind of like winning a match where you’ve saved match points, unforgettable and a tale you’ll likely tell your friends more than once. American Jess Pegula now has another dinner party story after not only saving 5 match points this past weekend, but doing so in the finals of a big tournament.

The World No. 5 defeated Anna Kalinskaya 6-7(0), 6-4, 7-6(3) to take home the trophy in Berlin (WTA 500), also beating Coco Gauff on her way to the title. Not only was this Pegula’s first trophy on grass, but she’s now won 8 of her last 9 matches against top 10 opponents, setting her up to be a serious contender at Wimbledon next week.

Check out full highlights of the final here (5 min).

Olympics

Watching tennis at the Olympics like

Here’s a heads up - if you turn on a match at the Olympics this year, you might not recognize some of the players. In what feels like droves, many of tennis’ top stars have opted to skip the Olympics this year. While each athlete has their own reasons, one common rational has been to protect their health against the physical demands of changing court surfaces.

Let me explain. We just finished a grueling clay court season, and now we’re in a short grass-court swing that concludes at Wimbledon. Those competing in the Olympics will go back to playing on clay for just that event, and then transition once again to hard court tournaments that lead into the US Open.

Why that matters. Each surface is wildly different, and requires players to adapt physical, technical and strategic parts of their game. For this reason, transitioning from one surface to another takes a large toll on a player’s body, and can lead to injuries.

While there are other reasons not to play (the lack of ranking points, being over scheduled, etc.), many cited the surface change as a major reason. Below is a list of top players who won’t be representing their respective country:

🇺🇸 Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda, Madison Keys

🇹🇳 Ons Jabeur (Tunisia)

🇧🇾 Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus)

🇬🇧 Emma Radacanu (Great Britain)

🇷🇺 Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov (Russia)

🇪🇸 Paula Badosa (Spain)

Despite these withdrawals, there will be plenty of familiar faces at the games. Nadal and Alcaraz are teaming up to play doubles, Coco Gauff and Tommy Paul are leading the American squads, and Gael Monfils will surely put on a show in what’s likely his last Olympics.

Around the Net

• Despite having one the biggest rivalries the sport has ever seen, Roger and Rafa are undeniably close off of the court, which was evident in Roger’s documentary 12 Final Days. In honor of their relationship, here’s a throwback of the two of them laughing uncontrollably during a joint interview they did back in the day

• There have been many accurate tennis player imitations over the years. How does this Andy Murray impersonation talking directly to Murray himself stack up?

• What happens financially when you win a slam? Listen to Andy Roddick break it down

Answer

Despite winning 14 grand slam titles overall, Pete Sampras is incorrect. It is D. Andre Agassi