It's the final countdown!

US OPEN
It’s the final countdown!

Are you singing after reading that title? Hope so, because I am now singing while writing this. Here we are, it’s the last Grand Slam tournament of the season: the last shot for them all at Major glory until next January. Some are ready to finish on a high, others are ready to try to drag their bodies through the finish lines, and some are hoping for a NYC miracle.

DJOKOVIC AND GAUFF DEFENDING THESE CROWNS 

• Can Novak Djokovic top another mountain? No male player has found a way to successfully defend the US Open title since Roger Federer in 2008. That should be a bonus challenge for the Serbian as he mainly tries to clinch that 25th Major title. “Hopefully, that changes this year. I mean, that's the goal. The goal is always for me to try to go all the way to the finals and fight for the trophy. That kind of mindset or approach is no different for me this year,” he told the press in NYC.
  
  Why should it be even trickier this time? Because Djokovic hasn’t played a tournament on hard since Indian Wells. He had no warm-up event for the US Open, as he took a logical break after winning the gold in Paris. Each time you say Mission: Impossible, Djokovic smiles so… “People would ask me now that you have basically won everything with the gold medal, what else is there to win? I still feel the drive. I still have the competitive spirit. I still want to make more history and enjoy myself on the tour. I still hope to inspire many young people to watch tennis and play tennis. Those are some of the reasons why I still keep on going.”
  

• What about Coco Gauff: Can she be the one to keep the crown? She would be the first one since Serena Williams (2012-2014). That’s undoubtedly the biggest question mark of that pre-tournament: will Gauff get back on track despite all the pressure on her shoulders? It’s been tough for her since that fourth-round loss in Wimbledon, and now she’s asked to rise again at the toughest moment as she defends a Grand Slam title for the first time. But she’s playing at home, and she has the guts to find a way through it all.
  
  “Obviously coming in as defending champion is a little bit of pressure, but also more of a privilege, because as my new motto is: If you defend, that means you won something before,” she told the press in NYC. (…) The last couple of practices have gone really well, which before, like, during Cincinnati wasn't having great practices, in Toronto wasn't having great practices. Here I'm having great practices, which, you know, doesn't mean I'm going to go out on the match and play great, but it does give you more confidence when you're actually practicing great the week before a tournament.”
  
  SWIATEK NEEDS A RESET

• Can Iga Swiatek go back to basics? A champion at the US Open in 2022, Iga Swiatek lands back in NYC this year in a kind of complex situation. She’s the boss of that Tour, no doubt, but she’s a contested one and one who has now been alone at the top for a while, with pressure piling. And some might feel like it has gotten to her nerves a bit. She’s the best, by far, but only when she can play with a clear mind. She lost the final at the Olympics but looked good when returning to Cincinnati, despite her loss in the semi-finals. It feels like there’s somewhere a slight blockage to go through so she can play freely again. Let’s see if it happens in NYC again. Let’s also not forget how much the clay season stretch took away from her: I still wonder if she has recovered.
  
  Last year, she was the defending champion and lost in the fourth round against Jelena Ostapenko. “Last year, I felt I had many things to defend, like World No. 1 position, all my points, and also the title itself,” she told the press. “I felt like I had a lot of baggage on my shoulders. This year, it's a little bit different. This year, I'm just trying to focus on what I should do tennis-wise to play the best game possible. My expectations are not so high compared to last year. So I will try to focus on getting everything step by step and not put too much baggage on my shoulders.”

  
  ALCARAZ AND SINNER ON DIFFERENT TUNES
  

• Will Carlos Alcaraz win his third Grand Slam of the calendar year? On paper, he is the favorite because he won Roland-Garros and Wimbledon and because of the way he did it, despite lacking solid preparation. He didn’t win a match in Cincinnati and might still carry the heartbreak of the Olympic Games final. In NYC, we’ll see if he has one more trick up his sleeve this year. “Obviously, I would love to have more matches on my belt on the hard court before the US Open. But, I mean, it doesn't affect me at all. If I look back a little bit, you know, for example, facing Roland Garros, I didn't have too many matches on clay, and it was a pretty good result. And then in Wimbledon, same thing.”
  

• Can Jannik Sinner triumph through the noise? He just won the Cincinnati Masters 1000, so his star should shine bright for this US Open despite that hip concern. However, there’s doubt about how Jannik Sinner will cope with the consequences of that doping case revelation. Despite going through the investigation, he played great at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, but he must now deal with the public eye and the other players. It might be a lot. But his margin on most of the field should be a great shield. Wait and see!

ATP/WTA 
First trophy for Noskova

Linda Noskova wasn’t going to be denied again. After losing two singles finals in 2023 (Prague, Adelaide) and one in doubles in 2024 (Abu Dhabi w/ Heather Watson), the 19-year-old Czech got the last step in Monterrey last week. Beating Elina Svitolina and Emma Navarro on the way, she clinched the first title of her young career against Wimbledon’s sensation Lulu Sun (7-6(6), 6-4). Noskova, who had to go through the tragedy of losing her mother before Wimbledon, is now ranked 25th, climbing ten spots.

In Cleveland, McCartney Kessler (#231) used her wild card to the max as she ended with the title in her hands! She had the last word (1-6, 6-1, 7-5) on the top seed Beatriz Haddad Maia in the final. She’s the first wild card and the first American to win the tournament. She had only one tour-level win in her career before this week in Cleveland.

Lorenzo Sonego got the fourth title of his career last week in Winston-Salem, denying (6-0, 6-3) Alex Michelsen’s first one. He also made sure tennis avoided (yet another huge) controversy as Michelsen wasn’t disqualified in the first set for sending a ball into the crowd, hitting someone. Denis Shapovalov was disqualified in Washington for shouting back at a spectator… But Terence Atmane in Roland-Garros also hit someone in the crowd after sending a ball violently and wasn’t disqualified either.

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Can you be influenced?

You were 70% to inform me that you were not playing tennis video games. “I don't play video games except for a couple of tablet-based memory ones,” said Cheryl though.

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
They’ve earned that (big) bag

The Top 10 players in the new Forbes ranking earned a collective 246 million dollars over the last twelve months. Carlos Alcaraz is topping that ranking with $42,3 million since the last US Open, in front of Novak Djokovic ($37,2 million), Coco Gauff ($27,1 million) and Iga Swiatek ($26,7 million). World No.1 Jannik Sinner comes 5th with $26,6 million, in front of Rafael Nadal ($23,3 million).

Naomi Osaka, 8th with $14,6 million, and Aryna Sabalenka, 10th with $13,7 million, are the other women in that Top 10. “Alcaraz’s $42.3 million is the best total by a player not named Federer, Djokovic, Naomi Osaka or Nadal in the 17 years that Forbes has compiled a tennis earnings ranking,” Forbes reports.

Forbes also has a feature about the business of being… a tennis player’s girlfriend.

Side US Open note: Did you know that last year the tournament sold for $10 million of Honey Deuces? Honey, what? The Honey Deuce is the US Open cocktail ($23) and also apparently one of its biggest assets! “That record total was an 11% increase over Honey Deuce sales in 2022. (…) As part of Grey Goose’s sponsorship deal with the US Open, the Honey Deuce is officially the tournament’s signature cocktail, made with vodka, lemonade, raspberry liqueur, and honeydew melon balls, all inside a commemorative cup,” reports Front Office Sports*.

Is chess coming for tennis? Kinda…

Magnus Carlsen wants to help you with your tennis swing. Yes, it’s a thing. No, I haven’t lost my mind. The Norwegian chess star is backing an Oslo-based SportAI, “which seeks to provide commentary and analysis for other sports, first and foremost tennis,” reports Cnet. “The AI sports technology company hopes to democratize access to technique analysis in an AI-influenced sports market projected to reach $30 billion by 2032.”

The idea is to use AI to help you improve your technique “on a more personal level using computer vision. (…) After analyzing a video from mobile phones, tennis court cameras, or broadcast feeds, SportAI can compare your technique to any number of tennis players, including the best in the world, one particular player you admire, another player you want to emulate, or the thousands of players the model saw during training. Thereafter, SportAI is able to give personalized feedback about what you need to do to improve.” Should coaches be ready for a new competition?

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Niggles only?

Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic seemed to be dealing with some fitness issues in the days before the start of the US Open, but both have played it down. "I think it is OK. I just stopped my practice just for precaution. I didn't feel comfortable enough to keep practicing, just in case everything is going to be worse,” he told the press.

The Spaniard twisted his right ankle on Saturday and had to cut practice, but he thinks he’ll still be fine to start the tournament. It’s also the same ankle damaged in Rio this year, so it's no wonder he got extra cautious here.

As for Novak Djokovic, we don’t really know. But he swears it’s not that serious. On Friday, he had to cut his practice with Holger Rune short because of some minor physical issues. “On Friday, I practiced for an hour on the outside courts, but then I had some issues, so I didn’t practice any further at Arthur Ashe. Today (on Saturday), it wasn’t much of an issue, so I practiced with Wawrinka both on the outside court and on Ashe, where we get an hour per day. So far, everything is fine, it’s nothing serious in the wider context,” he told the Serbian press.

For Ons Jabeur, it was not a niggle. The Tunisian, who reached the final in New York in 2022, had to withdraw from the US Open a few hours after the draw due to a right shoulder injury that ruined her summer. “If you are reading this post and wanting to wish me a speedy recovery, I truly appreciate it and cherish it, and if you are here to question my choices and my team, please find a little kindness in your heart because you don’t know what I have been going through for all these years,” she added on Instagram.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Split season and going down memory lane

• I was shocked when I read Peter Lundgren’s son's post announcing his death on Facebook. He was just 59. We knew he had been struggling last year, revealing he had diabetes and then a foot amputation. It’s such a sad news… A former player, he was also a very respected coach who brought to tennis or helped some of its biggest stars (Roger Federer, Marat Safin, Marcelo Rios, Stan Wawrinka). He was also one of the good guys. He’s leaving way too soon.
  

• It’s the split season on the Tour, it seems. Elena Rybakina won the month's surprise by announcing her separation from her coach of the last five years, Stefano Vukov. A coach who had attracted some heated criticism through the years for, among other things, the way he yelled at Rybakina from the player’s box. “I hope she finds a coach who speaks and treats her with respect at ALL times and does not ever accept anything less,” said Pam Shriver last year. It comes after Elena Svitolina parted ways with Raemon Sluiter.
  
  But it wasn’t going to be the only split announced before that US Open, as Jannik Sinner confirmed he had fired his physio and his fitness trainer in the wake of the positive doping tests revelation scandal. “Now, because of these mistakes, I'm not feeling that confident to continue with them. The only thing I just need right now, just some clean air”, he told the press in New York.
  

• Jack Draper insists he didn’t cheat. The British player said he got through a tough time after winning what some have described as the worst match point of all time against Felix Auger-Aliassime in Cincinnati. "It's slowly moving on," he told the BBC. "It was difficult for four or five days afterwards - it was the first time I've experienced criticism and [had] my integrity questioned as an athlete. (…) I thought he (Felix Auger-Aliassime) handled it with great maturity and complete class. It would have been easy for him to fly off the hook and feel extremely hard done by, which he was at the end of the day, looking back at the slo-mo - it was an illegal shot in a big point in the match, obviously being match point. I know my truth and that's that in that situation, I really did not know in that moment what had happened."
  

• Dunblane is making sure everybody knows the boy is from here. There’s now an Andy Murray mural painted on a wall of Dunblane’s tennis club.

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
Naomi Osaka, take a bow. Literally.

That’s one great outfit! We’re saying yes to Nike’s custom kit for Naomi Osaka at the US Open, designed by Yoon Ahn with a Harajuku theme, as Osaka wished. Tennis is showing it understands fashion statements again after a very boring Grand Slam fashion season. I am still mad at that draw that has Osaka and Jelena Ostapenko facing each other in the first round, by the way.

EDITOR’S PICKS 

You can find other picks here, including my go-to newsletters for anything tech*, anything backstage* or professional sports*, and the one for everything NIL*. If you’re a solopreneur, you might like this one, by the way.

READ: Dominic Thiem gave a long interview to the New York Times as he prepared to play the last Grand Slam event of his career in New York.

WATCH: Only in 2025, but I’ll be right there. In the meantime, you can also watch this reel to see who was there for Naomi Osaka’s production company's US Open pre-party, organized with Boardroom*.

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