There are thousands of professional tennis tournaments played around the world, but four stand above everything else. The Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open are tennis’s Grand Slam tournaments — commonly called the majors. Winning any one of them can define a career. Winning all four puts aContinue Reading
As always on the Challenger Tour, it seems there are first time winners, and players reaching career highs. Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo won his second Challenger title of his career, and second this year, in an epic fight at the Szczecin event. He moves up to #154, which is the highestContinue Reading
On the women’s ITF tour last week, Anna Siskova won the biggest event, taking out the W75 in Le Neubourg. This was her third title of the year, and the biggest of her career. She moves to a career high of #196 now. The first time winners last week wereContinue Reading
A year after Guadalajara provided the breakthrough moment of her young career, Iva Jovic returned to Mexico and proved that her first title was only the beginning. The 18-year-old American successfully defended her Guadalajara Open crown with a commanding 6-4, 6-2 victory over compatriot Peyton Stearns, completing a flawless weekContinue Reading
Most of professional tennis is built around individuals. Players travel the world under their own names, accumulate their own ranking points and compete for their own titles. The Davis Cup is different. Players represent their countries. Singles specialists become teammates. Doubles can suddenly decide everything. Matches can be played inContinue Reading
For almost the entire tennis season, the world’s leading players are rivals. Then, for three days, some of those rivalries are temporarily put aside. The Laver Cup divides six leading men’s players from Europe and six from the rest of the world into two teams: Team Europe and Team World.Continue Reading
Professional tennis can make its biggest stars extraordinarily wealthy. Win a Grand Slam and the prize cheque can run into millions. Reach the later stages of the biggest ATP and WTA tournaments and a player can earn substantial sums in a single week. But that is only one end ofContinue Reading
Why can a player win a tournament and barely move in the rankings, while another jumps 30 places after one exceptional week? Why can someone lose in the first round and still move higher? And why does a player sometimes fall dramatically in the rankings exactly one year after producingContinue Reading
A serious injury can keep a professional tennis player away from competition for months — sometimes more than a year. During that time, their world ranking can fall dramatically. A player who was ranked inside the Top 20 before an injury might return to find themselves outside the Top 100,Continue Reading
Follow a major tennis tournament and you will regularly hear that a player has moved into the Top 10, reached a career-high ranking or dropped several places — even though the official rankings haven’t been updated. That’s because commentators and fans increasingly follow live tennis rankings. Live rankings calculate howContinue Reading
