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“Carlos Alcaraz has pulled out of the Barcelona Open with a right-wrist injury just 48 hours after losing the Monte Carlo Masters final to Yannick Sinner, a loss that dropped him from world number one to world number two. Addressing the local media in Spanish, Carlos made it clear that this was a health call, not a tactical one, saying, 'I have to listen to my body, listen to what's best for me, and won't harm me in the future.' No timeline was given for a return to the courts, but the clock is ticking as he is set to defend his Rome title in just a few weeks.”

“Nuno Borges, the Portuguese world number 52, had a 6-4 lead in the second set tiebreak against Tomás Martín Echeverry, and Borges delivered an Underarm Ace on Match Point. Echeverry didn't get a racket on it, put his hands on his hips, walked to the net, delivered possibly the frostiest handshake we've seen thus far of the clay season and the Catalan crowd booed. So here's the debate: Is the Underarm Serve tactical genius or is it disrespectful?”

“Roland Garros announced this week that the 2026 prize money is jumping 9.5%, bringing the total purse to 61.7 million euros, or $72.7 million, making it a $6.2 million jump from last year. The singles winners will take home $3.3 million, but the real number is $102,000—that is what the first-round losers will take home. I don't know about you, but sign me up for taking an L on the red clay.”

“Borris Becker's 1989 US Open trophy, the trophy he lifted after beating Ivan Lindell in four sets, just sold at auction this past Sunday for $357,546. That's now the most expensive tennis trophy ever sold at public auction. Interestingly enough, the $357,000 this trophy just sold for is more than the $300,000 in prize money Becker earned for winning the trophy in the first place.”

“Prospects of any age can now accept prize money in their sport without impacting their college eligibility. This change appears to be a direct result of the class action lawsuit filed by Reese Brantmeyer, the UNC tennis player who sued the NCAA over this exact rule. One catch though, the minute they enroll in college, locked out again until they turn pro. Make that make sense.”

“He was simultaneously maybe the first person in history, and now he's created, like, a clone who was simultaneously the best offensive and defensive player at the same time during his prime. It was always you excelled at one of the skills, and I think he was maybe one of the first that melted those two together where it's like, can't go through me, can't go around me. What are we doing here?”

“When I got to neutral against Fed, Rafa, Novak, Murray, I was actually behind. So you're trying to play from a place where you're not totally neutral all the time. I tried coming in a ton against him, I tried staying back a bunch. I basically had to take shots at certain points and risk at certain points because if we were neutral, then I was actually behind.”

“Rafa could bully you with a heavy ball and still clear the net by four feet. So the net didn't even come into play. It would bounce just past the service line, and it's effective as if most people hit it four feet in front of the baseline. Right? So he didn't have to be perfect for it to be insanely heavy and effective. And so you feel that, and maybe you start playing that out over four or five hours, it's death.”

“The flexibility is like nobody I've ever seen. Right? We talk about power. We talk about Roger's grace, Rafa's power. We don't even say Novak's flexibility. Like, it needs to be in that conversation. There's a reason why you don't get hurt. But just the discipline of and the obsession with—the question I always have with Novak—would he have been as much of a maniac about his diet, about his fitness, if he didn't feel like he was the one chasing?”

“It's just the daily discipline. Like, the constant discipline over time over time. And that's the question mark with Jannik and Alcaraz—it's what they're doing currently times four as far as amount of time that they've been doing it. That's the difference between these 20 slam winners and Alcaraz and Sinner right now. It's not just that the tennis is phenomenal; you've got fifteen years to go.”

“I remember, when we walked in, to the stadium for the first time, Kipse reminded me of that she was playing, there twenty years ago and, you guys beat the Americas. And she was saying, in this weekend, it's gonna happen again. So, yeah. Her words, were true.”

“As Kim mentioned, Belgium upset The US finalists last year. They have won the Legion King Cup more than any other team 18 times, so it was a big upset. And, Hana got her first top 20 win. She's 21 years old. She's had an incredible season so far. Just broke into the top 100 for the first time.”

“I'm working already a long time with the same team, which I feel really good with. But we always said that if I would get to a point where I would be close to a 100, it would be very good for me to have a ex player in my team, because it's always it's always different to have the opinion of someone who has felt the emotions on court, who who knows how it is to play there, to play for the first time.”

“It's not only, yeah. The the experience. It's also a bit tactical. She or I play a bit like she did. Also using the slice and having to make my opponent play bad, not just winning it by having big strokes because, yeah, a lot of, players have good strokes, nowadays on tour.”

“I went twenty minutes before the match match with Kirsten to the to the court already. There were a lot of people in the crowd and we just stood there for a few minutes. So we talked a bit and she just told me to to enjoy the moment that this is what we all been working hard for.”

“And one thing that's definitely true is when you get hurt and when you get in the cycle of injury, injuries tend to happen more often. Right? And and not necessarily in Draper's case because one's an elbow and one's a a knee, so it's different parts of the body. But when you see someone who has an injured right knee and they come back and all of a sudden there's a left ankle turn, all of that shit's connected somehow.”

“I don't know. Call me crazy, but I think you could play a masters masters 1,000 in seven days if you had to. Wasn't it amazing to be able to follow a tournament and have it maintain our attention the entire time? And you build. There's drama. And it's like And there's not a lot of space there.”

“It's unfathomable that someone as good as Medvedev loses o. And everyone's like, it's not his best service. Guys want a Masters 1,000 on clay. I understand it's not his best service, but he that's it. It only is like a massive argument.”

“If I'm his coach, don't even mention points to defend. Right now, let's you know what I would do? I would say, I don't care what Earth thinks you're ranked. We're deducting those points right now. You're ranked 90. And we're gonna have the mentality of coming back where we're gonna earn our lunch every day.”

“I might let you take the tip of my pinky and cut it off before losing oh, no. I'm just telling you, like, that is that would be really hard for me to get over. Yeah. That would matter to me. That would hurt my ego so bad. And maybe that just says a lot about my own insecurities.”

“Well, to be to be honest, I'm gonna lose the number one of the world. I don't know if he's gonna be in this, in this tournament or in the next one. So I just I defend, you know, a bunch of points that, that is gonna be really difficult to to defend all.”

“Starting with team USA heading to Belgium captained by Lindsay Davenport, the Americans are sending 18 year old Eva Jovic to make her BJK cup debut. She reached a career high of world number 16 last month and is currently the youngest player in the WTA top 20.”

“The challenge is actually that programs have been dropped. So no one's getting the opportunity because the money is going towards NIL. So I actually think it's a bit of a crisis. I think that we gotta, like, lean in big time and, and find a way to stop those programs from being dropped because those are the opportunities.”

“I've just really been maximizing every single day, putting all my effort on recovery, on doing the right things. And, obviously, we have a very, very strict guideline that we follow. It's not it's not just by, oh, I think it's fun to be on the tennis court. I I'm gonna go on the tennis court. It's because I'm allowed to.”

“On Sunday, ranked 200 in the world and playing with a wild card, the 39 year old came back from a set down to beat world number 32 Tallon Griesbauer. That made him the oldest match winner in Monte Carlo since 1973 and gave him a 145 masters one thousand match wins, the most by any French player in history.”

“Iga's dropped to number four in the world, hasn't reached a final this season. Her game is the Spanish school, heavy top spin, extreme RPMs, grinding opponents behind the baseline. Royce has literally built his career coaching that style. The first tournament together for the duo, Stuttgart April 13th, clay season officially is on.”

“It appears that some rivalries may not ever leave the court, they just move into the boardroom. Now Andy's selling sneakers made of castor beans, corn and seaweed, meanwhile, Roddick's sitting on a 3% stake of On Running, a company valued at nearly $20 billion. His stake alone is worth around $375 million.”

“Monte Carlo kicks off this weekend. Quick reminder, it's the only non-mandatory Masters 1000 and the withdrawal list reflects that. Five big names out, Novak Djokovic with a right shoulder, Taylor Fritz healing some tendonitis, Jack Draper still managing an arm injury, and 2025 semifinalist Davidovic Fekina is out with an abdominal tear.”

“Lopez said of the actions by Alcaraz that it shouldn't be normalized, but it is not surprising for a 22-year-old. He said that Carlos needs to control those impulses, especially in front of the opponent. You don't want to show those weaknesses to the other side of the net, but that beyond that, that's just how Carlos releases tension.”

“Reports broke this week that the WTA finals are potentially leaving Saudi Arabia after this season. The three-year deal with Riyadh is done, and the front runner to host starting in 2027, Charlotte, North Carolina, serves hometown in just a few hours drive north here of Charleston.”