There's a ton of fascinating, stakes-raising angles to Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka's first match in more than seven(!) years, happening tomorrow at Indian Wells.
Read at Bounces, including a book excerpt on their 2018 U.S. Open classic:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/aryna-saba...
Enjoyed this by @fortydeucetwits.bsky.social on Amanda Anisimova finding a touchstone in Alysa Liu this year.
forty-deuce.ghost.io/amanda-anisi...
A mid-match injury retirement for Coco Gauff, only the second time in her career (Cincinnati 2022). Looked like a left forearm injury.
Alex Eala advances 6-2, 2-0, and has some very effusive words for International Women's Day in her on court interview.
Oh my. Anne White rocking both 80’s extremes - big hat big print pose, and girl in teen mag true life story.
I survived this era with an orange post-punk mohican and a lot of dub reggae and Afrobeat
cotton candy > mustard
this has been your Jannik Sinner 2026 fashion update
Pantyhose on the beach!!! 💀
Had a lot of fun turning back the pages of time, literally, to what women’s tennis wanted itself to look like in the 1980s.
We talk about the tennis calendar all the time; this time it’s different.
Free for all to read at Bounces, but please subscribe!
www.benrothenberg.com/p/the-women-...
How I became a target for right-wing freaks at the Australian Open:
Happy to have some good news to share about the war in the Middle East, at least through the very narrow lens of tennis players and personnel finding recent success in escaping from the UAE amid the conflict.
Read at Bounces:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/daniil-med...
Update today from the ATP:
After a Challenger was aborted in UAE amid war, players were furious at ATP's response.
"The negligence from ATP is crazy," a player in Fujairah told Bounces.
Plus, an update on how Russian singles stars escaped Dubai while doubles players couldn't:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/tennis-ira...
Very glad to hear!!
Always glad when anyone can still find and read the book, I remain proud of it.☺️
I reached out to ATP-WTA 500 Washington tournament owner Mark Ein about this; amazingly, he told me he’d had zero contact from the WTA before today about a new stateside tournament joining his existing week of the calendar.
Still pending, I hear!
After years of absence, a WTA 250 is returning to Memphis, this time to be played on outdoor hard courts. Takes the Cleveland sanction.
Bafflingly, WTA 250 Memphis was put in the same week as ATP-WTA 500 Washington; the week before that would've surely be more logical.
Not yet. Last I’ve heard, all tennis personnel have been waiting for UAE airspace to reopen.
Wrote about the increasingly unignorable collisions between world politics and the tennis tours, this time with players and personnel in Dubai far too close for comfort to the newly exploding situation in Iran.
Read at Bounces:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/iran-war-t...
With her points coming off for not defending her WTA 500 Merida title, next week will be the first week since May 2023 in which Emma Navarro is not the highest-ranked Emma in the WTA rankings.
After a detour through the wilderness, Emma Raducanu reclaims the throne of Top Emma.
Very, very excited to get more of @avarwallace.bsky.social in tennis!
www.nytco.com/press/the-at...
Frances Tiafoe won this tennis match
Will be very interesting to see how it works with a guy who likes to throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Excellent post by @benrothenberg.bsky.social #tennis
www.benrothenberg.com/p/craig-tile...
Thank you!
Lots of thoughts about Craig Tiley, his legacy in Australia—the successes and the failures—and how his leadership style might translate to New York.
Free to read at Bounces, so please read and share and enjoy!
www.benrothenberg.com/p/craig-tile...
Wonder if you can see how long it’s been Level 4? Might be years.
New NCR video episode is up on Patreon now; audio version will be out a bit later:
www.patreon.com/posts/151564...
Back to Bageling.
Sub for free.
forty-deuce.ghost.io/daily-bagel-...
I think that warning has been there for a long time? At least I saw it shortly after I had gone there last year.
There’s more visible security there than usual, I have been told by a couple players there, but so far no disruptions to the tournament otherwise. Hopefully things are calming down.
I watched a whole lot more of the Olympics than I did tennis in the past few weeks, but was struck by the parallels and crossover lessons that tennis can take from the athletes, stories, formats and technologies on the ice and snow.
Read at Bounces:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/winter-oly...
