#simona halep

1. simona halep unexpectedly announced her retirement at the transylvania open.

2. newly-back to the tour, belinda bencic continued her incredible return run by claiming the abu dhabi title, ousting defending champ elena rybakina.

3. in a freak (although not unexpected) turn of events, the top american seeds of the dallas open (including defending champion tommy paul) crashed out before the quarters.

4. “european-imposter-why-is-he-in-texas” casper ruud reached the final, but was ultimately defeated by canadian darkhorse denis shapovalov. maybe it was the fact that his bf won a title the week before, but shapo went on an insane run, ousting the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th seeds.

5. carlos alcaraz arrived cold and freezing in rotterdam, netherlands to a R2 match against none other than botic van de zandschulp.

6. bozocaraz -> goatcaraz won his first indoor hc title, became the youngest atp 500 champion, and first player to have one on all surfaces.

7. a diva crashed the doha courts, and by diva i mean a cat.

8. doha was cursed for our seeds, notably with only 3 reaching the QFs and only one seed reaching the SF. more on that below.

9. perhaps it was her conversation with her absolutely beloathed (hawkeye) or maybe it was her realization that she had a certain player in her draw but the ever-inconsistent-in-singles-chaos-bringer jelena ostapenko extended her h2h with 3x defending champion iga swiatek 5-0 to reach the final.

10. amanda anisimova took the first WTA masters of the season, and her maiden wta1000.

11. former RG semifinalist and former world no. 8 diego schwartzman played his final match in buenos aires, retiring from his professional career after 15 years.

12. okay time to address the elephant in the room. where were you when jannik sinner got suspended? whatever your opinion is, the bottom line is this: the entire anti-doping regulation system is shit. also have some nuance! The End.

13. newly put under the spotlight, 18 year old joao fonseca started the golden swing by claiming his maiden title in buenos aires. the next gen is bright

14. miomir kecmanović decided that the del ray beach singles title wasn’t enough; he grabbed the doubles trophy as well.

15. honestly, i forgot abt this tournament. all i recall: hamad medjedovic did the splits, injured himself, and yet, managed to beat stefanos tsitsipas. take that as you will. in addition, title defender ugo humbert unsurprisingly took marseille again.

16. the us open announced new changes to the mixed doubles formatting which would prioritize singles players (among other things), in efforts to increase engagement. doubles specialists revealed that they made this change without any input from the players themselves. yeah…..

17. novak djokovic, carlos alcaraz, grigor dimitrov, and stefanos tsitsipas played tennis on camels

18. famously pigeoned matteo berrettini finally fought back against renowned-pigeonizer novak djokovic, beating him in straights in doha.

19. horrifying details behind stefano v*kov’s coaching ban became revealed. genuinely, such a hard read about the abuse v*kov inflicted upon her. very very concerned about elena, especially as more of her team begins to leave, and she continues to defend him

20. okay another serious topic: emma radacanu’s stalker. the same man followed her all the way from her tournament in SINGAPORE, and approached her in dubai. absolutely sickening behavior.

21. dubai continued the trend of many upsets. particularly, clara tauson—of taking aryna sabalenka to a tiebreak at AO + auckland winner fame—faced aryna again and WON. she also defeated karolina muchova on route to the final. more on that below.

22. everyone’s favorite 17 year old mirra andreeva made history in dubai, becoming the youngest wta 1000 winner ever. and she did it in the biggest way possible: defeating iga swiatek and elena rybakina in the QFs and SFs. she’s now made her top ten debut. again, the next gen is bright bright bright!

23. madi keys entered the top five without playing since AO. i’m not mad about it.

24. surprisingly calm andrey rublev won doha and sebastian baez defended rio.

25. enjoy this moment between felix and bublik.

26. learner tien defeated acapulco first seed z*verv (who hilariously has had a nightmare of a golden swing) for his second win over a top ten player. next gen!

27. speaking of acapulco, multiple players suddenly withdrew due to what appeared to be mass food poisoning.

28. and finally: the WTA debuted their new rebrand. very green and very underwhelming (at least their logo, i do like their player concept videos)