Welcome to the Monday tennis, where Athlete He will explain the stories behind the stories last week in court.
this week, Remove the Mexican open disease In Aquolco. Elsewhere, the new racket of Stefanos Tsitsipas gave him a boost and a change on the roof of the court Rokos.
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What does a new tennis court mean in the desert?
Tennis court Conditions are complicated: they will feel faster or slower for different players and play series, and conditions and balls in the atmosphere can make the same stadium completely different. One thing, not in the dispute, is that the speed of the courts is in Indian wellsCalifornia, is always a point of discussion, and this speed is always slow.
This year, things may seem different after BNP Paribas Open announced a new surface provider on the eve of the event. A press release from the event was determined during the weekend that Laykold, making the US Open courts, has been granted the contract.
Indian Wells was usually one of the slowest events of the big stadium, and this remained by speeding up a general surfaces through ATP and WTA rounds in the past few years. This step can accelerate things in California, as happened in MIAMI Open when it turned into Laykold in 2023.
For some players, this will be relief. The 6th world and the former United States of the United States, Daniel Medvedev, was voted in his criticism of the surface, as well as the slow and heavier tennis balls that many players complained (most of them in the ATP tour) recently.
“He is a shame for sport, this court,” Medvedev said in a screaming on the field while winning in the last 16 years against Alexander Zvevvin two years ago. “We must prevent playing here, and it is a frightening disgrace to sports, this amazing court. They are called difficult courts. What a shame to call this horrific court a solid court.
“I will go to the toilet, but I do not care, give me a violation of time. I will be slow like the court again. I don’t care; give me five time violations, I will go in one minute. If they allow us to play in such a court, I can allow myself to do what I want.”
The heroes last year, Carlos Alcaraz and Agha Swimik, flourish on a slower and higher surface, as the conditions are playing differently from most other solid courts, even before calculating the surface speed. Changing the tournament in the surface comes in the broader context of discussion whether the perceived general who slows down in circumstances is harmful to sports, and whether to make difficult courts play more similarly than it may not appear. Medvedev hated (although he makes the final match in Indian Wales during the past two years) and the love of other players for the surface, somehow, offered the benefits of distinguished surfaces through events. With the same tennis gets more and more, the homogeneous courts will only reduce the diversity that sport can offer.
The conspiracies in the desert this year will be more than the great and losing beneficiaries of the changing conditions.
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Mastering the surface: How Alcaraz won the major championships on difficult, herbal and muddles stadiums
Charlie Eccleshare
Was Stefanos Tsitsipas reports more than just a racket?
It was not really reasonable that Tsitispas was going to scrub the elite neighborhood in the sport he committed. Or did you do?
Evidence indicates that Tsitsipas cannot hang out with the next generation. Not only the wrong Janic and Alcaraz, either. Arthur Face struck him in Basel. Alex Michelsen hit him in the first round of Australia. They are Hammad Midiavich in Doha last month on an infected leg.
He seemed unable to know how to call the same battle that he rarely lacking during the seven years he played in top tennis. Worse than that, he did not know where he might find it. Perhaps the answer is in his corners all the time – only some different things.
Tsitsipas, who was testing a plagiard, reminds us of the Aero 98, eventually, last week, played his best tennis in almost a year to win in Dubai. One rear kick again sent the ball to explode from his corners. It was a soft touch when he needed to be. In the final match, Felix Ogir-Elias, who was gathering a strong season for apostasy. When it ended, Tsitispas was his first title on the hard field since Los Kabous in the summer of 2023 and the return in the first ten.
Stefanos Tsitsipas’ STENCILLED with the Wilson logo to comply with its care contract. (Christopher Pike / Getty EMS)
What this means for the future is unclear. The tour is now heading to the United States, where Tsitsipas rarely achieved great success. He was not forced to overcome any of the young weapons described in Dubai, and Indian Wales was not a happy place for him, although his (previous) conditions that suit his preference to move around his back. But it is safe to say that – like the knight of Monte Bethon – has not yet died.
Votrman died
Will more returne WTA players offer Belinda Bencic?
There was a welcome return in Austin last week to Petra Kvitova, twice and Wimbledon champion, who returned from a 17 -month stoppage on maternity leave. She lost to Judy Prague from Great Britain in her first match, but she was competitive all the time. Kvitova has been granted a WildCard card to play in Wells Indian this week.
Moreover, it will be interesting to see how Kvitova, 34, runs its schedule in the coming months, and whether she and other returning players will try to copy what Belinda Bencic did.
Belinda BENCIC made waves in the Australian Open, where it came out of world No. 3 Coco Gauff. (William West / AFP via Getty Images)
Bencic, a former world champion No. 4 and the Olympic champion, returned to tennis at the end of October after stopping her for 13 months, during which she gave birth to her first child. It has been achieved exceptional results since then at the beginning of 2025, when it reached the fourth round of the Australian Open and winning the Abu Dhabi Open Championship, which happened 500 levels. Noticeably, BENCIC did not go directly to playing these big events. Last year she started with ITF and low -level events, away from the main WTA tour.
“For me, it is a kind of logic,” She said Athlete In December, after she just played the range of lower -level championships. “I cannot be arrogant to expect not to play for a year and a half, then I return to the same level that I played before and I expect that I can get a competitive match. So it is important to be able to go to the lowest level to build everything again and know where I am.
“I don’t see the goal of going to a championship like, I don’t know, the Indian Wales.
BENCIC will now go to Wells Indian looking to deepen more.
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Belinda Bensic believes herself, because of the women who came before her
Charlie Eccleshare
Now, about those land cards for Indian women Wales
No need to apologize for laughing for the phrase “Wells Indian” and “Wild Card”. The championship organizers announced last week that it had given one to Venus Williams, who is 44 years old-apparently without evacuating this with the eighth Grand SAM SAM. Williams, busy with obligations in Europe, will not play.
Thus, the tournament moved. Last week, Indian Wells Sloan Stevens, 2017 US Open champion, and BENCIC added to the main clouds. not bad, Assuming that one believes in the concept of land cards in the first place.
Bencic should not need one, after it has risen to the 58th world since it returns from birth. Stevens is outside the best 100 in classification. It has not won a match at the round level since the first round of Wimbledon, and has lost 10 respectively since then. Kvitova, which will also return from birth and is a twice champion, received her salary when the Williams Wild Card was announced
The Americans also received Robin Montgomery, Alicia Parks and Bernarda Bera wild cards last week. And so did Eva Jovic, who deserves to be monitored. She is 17 years old and won matches in the Australian Open and Open. It is also from Los Angeles and you should get healthy crowds and many friends and family in the stands.
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Venus Williams will not play in Indian Wales, despite receiving to enter the land cards
Votrman died
Recommended reading:
🏆 The winners of the week
🎾 ATP:
🏆 Thomas Machiac (No. 8 seed) Dave. Alejandro Davidovich Fukina 7-6 (6), 6-2 to win Mexican is open (500) in Aquapolco, Mexico. This is the first Czech ATP title.
🏆 Tsitsipas (4) Dave. August Alias 6-3, 6-3 to win Dubai Tennis Championship (500) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is his first title 500 levels in 12 finals.
🏆 Laslo Deer Dave. Sebastian Bays (3) 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 to win Chile open (250) in Santiago, Chile. It is his first ATP title since 2020.
🎾 Wta:
🏆 Emma Navarro (1) Dave. Emiliana Arango (S) 6-0, 6-0 to win Merida is open (500) in Merida, Mexico. It is the first title of Navarro 500.
🏆 Jessica Begola (1) Dave. McCartney Kisler (5) 7-5, 6-2 to win ATX open (250) in Austin, Texas. It is the title of America’s tour of the Union of Professional Tennis players.
📈📉 In climb / below the line
📈 Emiliana Arango 53 places from No. 133 to No. 80 are transferred after running to the final in Mexico.
📈 Tsitsipas It returns to the first ten places, and moves from No. 11 to No. 9.
📈 The Maya joint It moves within the top 100 after 18 sites from No. 103 to No. 85.
📈 The learner Tian It moves within the top of 70 after a height of 15 sites from No. 83 to No. 68.
📉 Katie Polater 12 places from No. 26 to No. 38 fall.
📉 Alexander Popolk Drops 31 places from No. 51 to No. 82.
📅 Upcoming
🎾 ATP
📍indian Wales, California: BNP Paribas is open (1000) includes Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Novak Djokovic, learner Tian.
UK: Sky Sports; United States: Tennis channel 💻
🎾 Wta
📍indian Wales, California: BNP Paribas is open (1000) Includes Arena Sabalinka, Sweetic, Coco Gof, Cheng Chinen.
UK: Sky Sports; we:
Tell us what I noticed this week in the comments below, as men and women continue.
(Supreme Image: Mark C Athlete))
