Family affair gone sour, seeds lost in the wild and a confession

ATP 
Stefanos Tsitsipas and his dad. Again.

Stefanos Tsitsipas is no longer coached by his dad. Wait, isn’t this the second time? Yes, it is. It was the very short-lived Mark Philippoussis era. So what’s the difference now? Well, the manner in which Apostolos Tsitsipas was made to get outta here. I mean… If you don’t cringe while watching this video (starting at around 2’35) of Stefanos Tsitsipas tearing down his father after losing against Kei Nishikori in Montréal, you’re cringe-immune. “My father hasn’t been very smart or very good at handling those situations or trying to read what’s happening inside the court. (…) That’s really poor performance, and it’s not the first time he has done that, so I’m really disappointed,” he said, for example.

Apostolos Tsitsipas has been an issue for his son's career for a very long time now. It's no secret. The way he spends matches talking to him on every point would drive every other player crazy. Okay, we know that. But listen, this Stefanos Tsitsipas’s rant is what happens when one should have terminated that coaching situation eons ago. Humiliating his dad publicly like that surely brought Tsitsipas more issues than solutions.

Proof? His entire announcement about splitting from his dad as coach doesn’t sound like someone taking charge of his destiny and moving forward. He spends half of it explaining he behaved badly, that it was mainly his fault and that his dad has done everything for him. Does he have a plan for a new coach? No. Will he stop having his dad around at tournaments? Wait for it: no. He announced the change “with a heavy heart” and finished by saying, “My father will continue to travel with me and be there to support me and provide assistance off the field, as I have always wanted.” This is a child who has just been put into the corner after a tantrum. This is not a 26-year-old professional athlete deciding to switch teams. It’s not even close to what it was when he brought Philippoussis in. He cannot even let his father home from now on.

Stefanos Tsitsipas - and at this point, his dad too - needs a clear cut to get going in this world on his own for once and see if he can get his career back on track without having his father to praise or to blame for it. Maybe the damages done by the family dynamic are already too big to fix. Maybe what his physio Christos Fiotakis said after quitting is to be remembered: that tennis was no longer Stefanos's priority, that goals weren’t met. Tsitsipas needed a wake-up call for some time now, but will it be this one? Can you imagine the atmosphere in this team now? Again, he did well in dropping his dad as a coach the first time. He ruined everything when he ran back, and now it’s a mess. His dad has been his coach from the start, he knows no other way of being in that team. How is it supposed to work? Once the anger passes, how many chances for them to say let’s do this again, we’re all good? Also, please let me know which reputable coach would even volunteer to be in the middle of the father and son drama. I’m waiting.

WTA / ATP 
Gauff struggles, Anisimova comes back, Djokovic takes a break

IN: Amanda Anisimova is back, and it’s great news. We need her out there battling it out with the best players. Surely one of the greatest backhands on Tour, also. She went through a lot the past few years; she took a break, and now she’s building her way back up. That final in Toronto, beating Aryna Sabalenka and Emma Navarro on the way, will do great things for her ranking and her confidence.

OUT: Coco Gauff logically struggled in Toronto after the Olympics. She tried, and that’s the main thing, even if that wasn’t enough for Gauff, who got beaten by Diana Shnaider. Yes, she had some big points to win in Canada before defending her titles in Cincinnati and the US Open, but as we said last Thursday, she’s in a tricky situation this summer after what happened at the Olympics.

“I can move on from it,” she said after the loss. “These are all things that I feel like I can easily fix, it just comes to getting more reps. I didn’t have the usual preparation I usually have going into this swing, so I’m trying to keep everything in perspective. I even felt that in my last match, I didn’t really feel very comfortable, I just was able to edge those out. So, I think today I’m just going to try to learn from it, and I feel confident going into the next couple weeks, because I do feel like I’m building the points the right way, I’m just making a lot of errors, so I just got to find the court.”

Daniil Medvedev, coming back from clay, took the door too, in Montréal. He was beaten in his first match, by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (6-4, 1-6, 6-2). “I started off not playing too well, something that we knew could happen after coming from clay court matches, it has happened to several players. It's tough because I had trained well these days, but when I began playing, I felt that I wasn’t performing well. I couldn’t make any passing shots, lost some points I shouldn't have lost. From that moment on, everything became very tough, but still, I gave it my all,” he said.

Also out, obviously, is defending champion Jannik Sinner, but we’re getting on his case a bit further down below.

ON A BREAK: Novak Djokovic wasn’t in Montréal, and he won’t be in Cincinnati either. The recently crowned Olympic champion is taking a well-deserved break after his triumph in Paris. His right knee is surely very thankful for it, too. But now, what does it mean? Playing in New York for the US Open without competing beforehand? It seems. Skipping the US Open? Seems a very wild guess because he’s defending the title and still chasing the number 25. Can he hope to win the US Open without a warm-up event? I’m sorry, have you forgotten how to spell Novak Djokovic? So let’s see… This year, remember, he hasn’t played a lot. So, for now, the trend is respected.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Should we?

You were 75% thinking the Tour should take a one-week break after the Olympics.

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Rublev opens up, Sinner still struggles

Well, a little while ago, we were wondering if the time had come for the Tour to try to help Andrey Rublev’s mental health, as it seemed we had lost him on the way. Rublev found his tennis way back in Montréal and also seemed ready to fix whatever he could regarding his out-of-control outbursts.

It’s reassuring to see him being able to discuss the topic, even if that can’t be easy to come and say you’ve been suffering from depression for years that led to burnout and so to looking so distressed on the court. “I guess it was already a long moment of everything, and I started to burn out because I was struggling for many years with depression, with many things outside of the court,” he said. “I guess this year it's when I couldn't handle it anymore, and it started to just explode. It started to explode more and more on the court because, in life, I was able to stay calm, but inside the court, I was burning everything,” he said.

Jannik Sinner is not doing that well, and we didn’t really see it coming. Well, maybe we did when that hip started to refuse to go on in Madrid, but he then recovered pretty well, so we kind of forgot about it. Then he got sick in Wimbledon and sick again right before the Olympics. That immune system is clearly trying to tell him something… Anyway, he came back for the Masters 1000 in Montréal, and… it didn’t end well.

Sinner, who was the defending champion, started the tournament normally but totally crashed (6-3, 1-6, 6-2) in the quarter-finals against Andrey Rublev. Losing against Rublev isn’t a red flag because we all know how good he could be. The schedule was also going crazy in Montréal due to the weather conditions. Still, it’s the way Sinner lost that didn’t reassure anyone regarding his fitness as he just imploded. Why? Tough to say. It could be the hip again, it could be the consequences of having been sick for so long and so out of the court for too long, it could be something else. But he clearly looked flat and out of it there.

“For me coming here and making this result, even if it's like this, it's a good result because in the position where I have been in was and is not easy. So, you know, you have to accept it. (…) I think these things are a bit more mental than physical, for sure. Even if I know that my body is not as trained as I would like to be because of last week, it was also mental for sure. Let's hope to get back in shape. Obviously, now making miracles in the next five days is not possible, but being ready for Cincinnati and at 100 percent, I don't think it is possible. But then, for the US Open, for sure, I want to be back, which is also the main event for the U.S. swing, the last Grand Slam of the year. So I'm aiming for that,” he told the press. We’ll know soon if Sinner’s body and mind are still up for battle until the end of this season.

Things are getting worrying for Alex De Minaur. The Australian has withdrawn from the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati after having also given up on the one in Montréal, as he is still suffering from the injury he sustained at Wimbledon. As he explained in London, “It's a hip injury, a little tear of the fiber cartilage that is at the end to the adductor." He couldn’t play in singles at the Olympics but played in doubles. The worrying factor, added to the obvious one - hip injuries are on the “please not this” tennis list - De Minaur’s injury is rare, and doctors seem to be puzzled about how to treat it. But the Australian is keeping up with all the recovery he can and has made his way to Belgrade to train with Janko Tipsarevic. Will he be able to play at the US Open?

As for Casper Ruud, he nearly played more golf than tennis in Montréal as he had to withdraw in doubles and in the second round of singles due to illness.

If there’s one thing for you to take from athletes, let it be sleep

Sleep is essential for the brain and the body. Everybody knows that. It doesn’t change the fact that some people struggle with it. If you’re in that case, have a look at this article from the BBC about how to sleep like an Olympic athlete. It would also surely work by saying “like a professional tennis player,” as professional athletes are also professional at sleeping: full nights and naps are part of the job. Things learned on the way: Team GB had sleeping pods during the Olympics “to help optimise the quantity and quality of sleep for athletes in a high-pressure and unfamiliar environment.”

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
Who you gonna call? Athletes, maybe?

• Be Open. The USTA has launched its campaign for the US Open 2024, which will celebrate equality and diversity. “The 2024 campaign will take place over the course of three weeks and features a variety of events, including Open Pride, AAPI celebrations, and the US Open Equity Experience, an immersive event taking place near Court 17 that celebrates “the power of tennis” and the impact it can have on society.” 
  

• Is sports investment bulletproof? Well, very good question! While we were focused on the Olympics in Paris, Front Office Sports was hosting its Huddle in the Hamptons event to talk about the athlete investor playbook. During one of the talks, Adewale Ogunleye, who played 10 seasons in the NFL and now leads the sports and entertainment division at UBS, said, “Sports and entertainment is almost a bulletproof industry. No matter the time, the date, the structure, athletes and sports and entertainment will be needed.”  And added, “Athletes are realizing that they’re more than just athletes. I think athletes are understanding that they’re brands, they’re businesses.” You can read the debate here.

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READ: What type of mushroom are your outfits, sneakers, couches? Yes, that might soon be questions to get used to. As Retail Brew reports, fashion (Hermès), interiors (Ligne Roset), and the auto industry (General Motors) are all turning to the mushroom trend via the Mycoworks company. What do I mean? Mycoworks uses a mushroom-based tech to replace material like leather which lands at the right timing for all the sectors looking to raise their sustainability efforts. They use their exclusive technology, fine mycelium, “which is a renewable substance found in the roots of mushrooms”.

READ more: I’ll admit, I didn’t know that athletes at the Olympics could receive free healthcare in the village. And apparently, many athletes didn’t know either! It’s been quite fascinating to then see those from the USA enjoying a level of free healthcare unavailable in their country and taking social media to talk about it. SI has a great feature on the topic. If you want to know more about what’s going on behind the (sports) stage, give a try to The Scouting Report*, The Athlete Exec*, Front Office Sports* and NIL Wire* or Goalside Gossip*.

WATCH: Do you want to see what the life of a tournament director looks like? Well, the LTA followed Jamie Murray at The Queen’s, and the first episode is out.

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