We've lost them on the way

US OPEN
We’ve lost them on the way

Stefanos Tsitsipas had an awful draw for his first round in NYC for someone in dire need of confidence. So, obviously, he lost against Thanasi Kokkinakis. At this point, it’s not even that he lost; it’s that he finally admitted what we all saw this year, except through parts of the clay season: his game has taken a wall. And the joy he finds in playing, too. The good thing is that he seems ready to admit something is wrong. That might have also been triggered by this very public feud with his father and coach.

I don’t know where his heavy forehand, serve, and intensity have gone, but the spark has left the building and taken it all away. “I’m nothing compared to the player I was before. I remember myself playing when I was younger, playing with adrenaline on the court, feeling like my life depends on the match... These things, I feel like they have faded off, and my level of consistency hasn’t been as big. My concentration used to be at its highest, back then, and that’s something that has dropped,” Tsitsipas told the press. The Greek thinks he might feel the effects of a burn-out. And I’m left wondering if it’s not also or, more, an identity crisis. If he wants to get back on track and matter between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in the coming years, he has no choice but to take strong steps now. He has lost enough time already.

Holger Rune and Emma Raducanu are just starting their career, but I feel they’ve lost their way for a bit too long by now and need a reality check. I don’t understand what’s going on with the Dane: he goes from playing the semi-finals in Cincinnati to getting destroyed in the first round of the US Open. he’s been giving up and down a whole new dimension this year. And there have been way too many post-defeat excuses on social media from himself or his mother. There’s also been way too much instability in his team: he needs calm and steady now.

"Yesterday was a great disappointment. (…) I played extremely bad tennis. Without offending my opponent, I only managed a 39% first serve and many unforced errors. This is not what I or anyone should expect. I need to analyze everything now. This is not satisfactory for me or my fans; I will not disappoint you anymore,” he said on social media. It's not a reassuring post because there’s too much care about justifying himself to others and feeling bad about disappointing people (that he doesn’t know). If he cannot play just for him and so go through all this just for him, it’s not ideal. Something’s been broken and needs fixing quickly because his game is all about confidence.

Emma Raducanu? It’s not clearer. Skipping the Olympics to play in Charleston…and then returning home and not playing until the US Open? That never made any sense, and it killed whatever chances she could have had in NYC. She spent the summer telling everybody she knew best what she should be doing. Well, maybe she doesn’t. Maybe it’s high time for her to admit that maybe she doesn’t already have all the answers. She had a very good patch on grass, but it wasn’t enough to build her whole end of the season. I don’t understand what she’s doing unless there’s an undisclosed medical reason. It was good to see her so sad after that loss in New York against a very good player because she needed to be taken out of that mix of denial and bad decision-making she’s been on. If she likes the game and wants to return to the top, she must play. That’s it, no shortcut. “Tennis players must play tennis matches,” reports The Guardian, wondering about this whole Raducanu mystery. And, like, it makes sense.

US OPEN
Iga Swiatek is not impressed

Sometimes, your World No.1 won’t fight for a thing. Sometimes, she’s Iga Swiatek. Never afraid to speak her mind on matters that she feels comfortable engaging, Swiatek delivered again at the start of this US Open. Aligned with what she said in Cincinnati about players having to play too much, in NYC, she accused the Tour of not caring about protecting players’ health.

Players complaining about scheduling is nothing new, but the new 1000 events in two weeks seem to have triggered a whole new level of discontent. Iga Swiatek is done with all of this, and she said so after winning her second-round match at the US Open. She feels players are becoming an endangered species (is that why Leonardo DiCaprio keeps showing up at tennis? 👀 ) and that they’re not consulted enough. “We want to at least be in the loop. It would be nice for us to have some impact because I don't think our sport is going in the right direction. there are people saying that I don’t have to play so many tournaments. But truth to the fact is that we have so many mandatory tournaments that we literally need to show up and we don’t have time to work on stuff or live peacefully because from one tournament we’re going straight to another,” she said.

The WTA, asked about it by ESPN, answered that the players’ council was consulted and that the volume of play hasn’t been raised. “The new schedule, which was developed in consultation with representatives of players and tournaments, does not require players [on average] to play more than they would have played in previous years, but provides more predictability for the top players and better pathways for aspiring players," new tour CEO Portia Archer said. "The WTA will continue to listen to player and tournament feedback and will be open to making adjustments in the future as may be appropriate."

Swiatek won’t back off, though. “It would be easy to fix for people who are in charge, but they already made plenty of decisions and they promised so many things to tournaments, basically, I mean, WTA, for example, that it would mean for them to change their mind, which is tricky because it’s business,” she said. “We don’t even have time at the end of the year because the first tournament starts on the 29th of December. The season is for sure too long. I think it needs to be changed because also it’s going to be better for fans who are not going to see their favourite players pull out or getting injured so much, and we can present better quality.”

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
A gamble?

It was 50/50! Half of you can be influenced to buy brands from your favorite player, but half wouldn’t get that wallet out. “If the clothing is cool, then yes,” said Marlon. Reason still prevails, maybe then: quality first.

Iga Swiatek says the Tour isn’t considering players’ health right now. Do you agree?

BUSINESS / MEDIA 
Signings, records, and rejection

• It’s not breakup season for the US Open and ESPN. They’ve indeed announced that they will commit to each other until 2037, thanks to a new deal starting in 2026. 12 years guaranteed. “ABC will continue to air matches during the final Sunday of the two-week tournament and also carry “Middle Sunday” matches,” says the announcement.

• The BJK Cup is entering its “glow up” era. The ITF has signed “a new multi-year global partnership with e.l.f. Beauty”, so the brand became the exclusive skin and cosmetic partner of the event (November 13-30 in Malaga, Spain). “e.l.f. Beauty champions diversity and believes that self-expression is the key to unlocking beauty for any individual. The brand’s ethos aligns seamlessly with the Billie Jean King Cup’s commitment to excellence, equality, and empowerment,” said Billie Jean King Cup Limited Chair Ilana Kloss.

• Talking about beauty standards, Venus Williams has teamed up with Dove to launch the brand’s first-ever limited-edition Dove beauty bar. The mission? Help girls stay in sports. The name of the bar? #KeepHerConfident. “This launch aims to raise awareness of the Body Confident Sport program, a first-of-its-kind and scientifically proven set of coaching tools developed in partnership with Nike to build body confidence in 11-17-year-old girls", said a statement.
  

• The US Open started with a bang, announcing that 74,641 fans attended their first Monday. It’s the most in a single day in the tournament's entire history. The record came with another record as the night session saw 31,775 fans coming in, with the day session number reaching 42,886 fans coming in, which is the second most in history.
  

• Someone is raining on Andy Murray’s legacy parade. A little while ago, we shared that Murray’s legacy project in Dunblane was getting funded despite some opposition due to the fact that it would be taking place on green belt land. Well, now it seems that the opposition won, as Judy Murray's charity, the Murray Play Foundation, announced it wasn’t going ahead with the project anymore. “Plans for a tennis centre near Sir Andy Murray's hometown of Dunblane have been scrapped over planning issues and rising costs,” reports the BBC. So this £20 million project, “to build a community multi-sport facility at Park of Keir to mark the tennis legacy of the Murray family,” is gone before even starting. The reasons given are a combination of factors, including “Significant increases in construction and energy costs, the prolonged planning process, and ongoing discussions with governing bodies.” Andy Murray’s reaction came in three words: “What a surprise.”

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Crutches, migraine, and that heat

Some days are tougher than others for athletes out there. When the season gets closer to its end, and they’re made to play in the heat and humidity of NYC for the US Open, distress often lands. Victoria Azarenka battled through a rough patch of migraine in her second round as she still found a way to beat Clara Burel (6-1, 6-4). By the end of this ordeal, she just rushed to put sunglasses on. The intense lights all around were surely not helping her. "I don't know how I played the match. I just tried to, you know, hope that it's going to get a little bit better. I'm wearing glasses for a reason right now. It looks probably weird and awkward on TV. But I have a chronic migraine sometimes, and it couldn't be a worse time to start it, on the match. It's just tough to deal with,” she said on the court.

As far as Naomi Osaka is concerned, she hopes her toughest days are in the past. After beating Jelena Ostapenko (6-3, 6-2) in the first round - her first Top 10 win in four years - the Japanese player took to social media to share a picture of her on crutches a year ago to explain why she cried so much after winning that match. “I’ve been asked why I was so emotional yesterday and honestly if you don’t even include coming back from pregnancy, New York being my home etc, this was me a year ago. I legitimately couldn’t walk without pain and I didn’t know if I could play at a high intensity anymore. So yeah this sport means a lot to me,” she posted.

The heat at the US Open, again. It’s not only that it’s hot, but the humidity level is insane. I covered my fair share of US Open tournaments on-site, and that heat can get disgusting. You don’t want to get out under any circumstances. So, playing tennis? At a professional level? Watching tennis in the stands? Oh, no, thank you. We can still all remember the images of Rafael Nadal drenched in sweat on these courts. Some players have it worse than others, depending on how their bodies react to humidity. Tomas Martin Etcheverry was, on Wednesday, one of the players suffering a lot as he vomited on the court (yet still won!). I’m a broken record on this, and so many players have said the same: one day, something really bad will happen, and unfortunately, you feel that until it happens, nothing will change. The current heat rules aren’t enough.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Djokovic adds one more record to his list

Novak Djokovic’s book of records has turned into an encyclopedia. Well, here’s one more page: by winning his second-round match on Wednesday at the US Open, Djokovic secured his 90th win at the US Open and became the first player in history to clinch 90 wins at each Grand Slam event (94 in Melbourne, 96 in Roland-Garros and 97 in Wimbledon). Side note: he was already the first ever one being able to brag about 80 wins at each Major. In New York, “he’s just the fourth tennis player ever to reach that milestone, male or female, after Jimmy Connors, Chris Evert and Serena Williams, who had 98, 101 and 108 career wins in Flushing Meadows, respectively.”

Talking about Djokovic, his former fitness trainer Marco Panichi gave an interview to Tennis Majors about what it was like to work with the man who’s now chasing a 25th Grand Slam title.

It’s sad, frustrating, and infuriating, but unfortunately, it’s been happening for most players every day or every week for years, and it will not stop now. Caroline Garcia took to social media after losing in the first round of the US Open, adding to a rough past this year, to showcase the horrendous messages she was getting. She blamed the betting companies for this situation. The Tour has tried everything to protect players’ social media from this hate, but we know it’s a lost battle.

As I said multiple times over the years, I don’t get why players keep going on social media to read the comments… Like, really, get outta here. You’re not influencers, your money bag doesn’t depend on your engagement rate or whatever. And if it starts to depend on it, you have a problem on your hands. Post, read your fav people’s posts, and get out. Repeat. Every coach on Tour would be so happy if you guys would stay off your social media comments section. Especially after a loss. This also could give time for their teams (IMO, every player with the budget to do it should have a social media manager to deal with all of this) to clean the place before players set an eye on it. Because if they think tennis is about to close the door on these betting deals… Obviously, we could also believe in educating people commenting on decency, but like… Yep. Social media detox, everybody. Especially you here, the sensitive one: put that phone down.

The United Cup still doesn’t care about your holiday season. Tennis Australia announced that the tournament will start on December 27th and end on January 5th. It will still involve mixed teams (18 countries featuring up to 3 men and 3 women) and will be played between Perth and Sydney (which gets the semi-finals and finals, too). The bag? AUD $15 million minimum and 500 points.

Dan Evans won the longest match ever at the US Open: 5h35! And he delivers on the drama by doing that despite being down 4-0 in the fifth set against Karen Khachanov (6-7 (6-8) 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-4).

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
Osaka is saving Nike’s tennis fashion year

As said on Monday, Nike’s custom kit for Naomi Osaka at the US Open, designed by Yoon Ahn with a Harajuku theme, as Osaka wished, is a wonder. Is it fully redeeming Nike for the horrendous outfit they gave Osaka at Wimbledon and Carlos Alcaraz at Roland-Garros? The jury is still out.

I prefer the black-and-white version of that US Open kit on Naomi, but the green for the day session was really popping up. Finally, some bold statements are being made in what has been such a dull tennis season on the fashion front. “Especially the US Open outfits, I feel like they are a little bit more flamboyant. When I was putting on my outfit today, I was, like, ah, I hope this isn’t too much! Because I had the tutu and then I had the bow jacket, and it was green, I felt like everyone was staring at me funny. And then I put the headphones on, that was a real killer. I was, like, you know what, embrace this maximalist style. And then it made me feel better, another player came up to me and asked to take a picture. I hope it was a positive picture, it wasn’t, like, ‘Oh, my God, look at her.’ When I put on the outfit it’s almost like a super suit, so I try to channel that,” Osaka told the press.

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: I suggest these two Wall Street Journal features for you today. The first one is about the consequences of the US Open letting people wander around in the stands during the play, and the other one is about Coco Gauff’s supposed-to-be-struggling forehand.

WATCH: Andy Roddick doing what he’s always been very good at: talking about all things tennis, here with Good Morning America.

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