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Ben Rothenberg

@benrothenberg

Please do check out my tennis writing, BOUNCES, at benrothenberg.com

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Latest posts by Ben Rothenberg @benrothenberg

Jannik Sinner beats Joao Fonseca 7-6(6), 7-6(4) in a match of seriously super duper quality that lived up to the hype.

Big showcase for Fonseca after a slow start to this season.

Sinner will get Learner Tien in the Indian Wells quarterfinals on Thursday.

11.03.2026 03:21 πŸ‘ 40 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2

Jannik Sinner beats Joao Fonseca 7-6(6), 7-6(4) in a match of seriously super duper quality that lived up to the hype.

Big showcase for Fonseca after a slow start to this season.

Sinner will get Learner Tien in the Indian Wells quarterfinal.

11.03.2026 03:15 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Another big win for Learner Tien, reaching the ATP-WTA 1000 Indian Wells quarterfinals by beating Davidovich Fokina in a third set tiebreak, saving two match points.

Tien awaits winner of Fonseca-Sinner.

11.03.2026 00:25 πŸ‘ 25 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

β€œLet this game go; we’ll start the third set serving,” coach Mariano Puerta tells his player Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Tien then swiftly held at love.

This is normal coaching, but if anyone could have placed a bet in that instant, hoo boy.

10.03.2026 23:24 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Casual 103 mph forehand winner by Learner Tien…

10.03.2026 23:15 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Seven Years Later, a Sabalenka-Osaka Sequel The two superstars will finally face off at Indian Wells for their first match since a defining classic at the 2018 U.S. Open.

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...

09.03.2026 22:33 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Seven Years Later, a Sabalenka-Osaka Sequel The two superstars will finally face off at Indian Wells for their first match since a defining classic at the 2018 U.S. Open.

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...

09.03.2026 22:33 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
If you see something, say something In which Amanda Anisimova alleviates all my fears.

Enjoyed this by @fortydeucetwits.bsky.social on Amanda Anisimova finding a touchstone in Alysa Liu this year.

forty-deuce.ghost.io/amanda-anisi...

09.03.2026 17:20 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

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.

09.03.2026 02:10 πŸ‘ 23 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

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

07.03.2026 08:18 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

cotton candy > mustard

this has been your Jannik Sinner 2026 fashion update

07.03.2026 02:56 πŸ‘ 32 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

Pantyhose on the beach!!! πŸ’€

07.03.2026 00:26 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
The "Women of Tennis" Calendars, Now and Then A look back at how the WTA wanted to be seen on the world's walls decades ago.

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-...

06.03.2026 23:27 πŸ‘ 20 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 2
Preview
How I Became A Target For Right-Wing Freaks At The Australian Open | Defector Before I went to Melbourne in January to cover the Australian Open for Defector and a couple other publications, I spent some time in New Zealand with my family. We lived there for five years when I…

How I became a target for right-wing freaks at the Australian Open:

05.03.2026 16:51 πŸ‘ 66 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 4
Preview
How Tennis Players Are Escaping the Emirates Players including Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, and a whole host of Challenger players have mostly been successful at finding ways out of the UAE.

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...

05.03.2026 06:32 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Update today from the ATP:

04.03.2026 18:32 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Flight From the Fight: Tennis Amid the Iran War "The negligence from ATP is crazy," a player told Bounces as a Challenger was aborted amid nearby explosions from the war.

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...

04.03.2026 00:11 πŸ‘ 27 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Very glad to hear!!

Always glad when anyone can still find and read the book, I remain proud of it.☺️

03.03.2026 16:23 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

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.

02.03.2026 20:26 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Still pending, I hear!

02.03.2026 20:14 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

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.

02.03.2026 19:35 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0

Not yet. Last I’ve heard, all tennis personnel have been waiting for UAE airspace to reopen.

02.03.2026 18:13 πŸ‘ 17 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
As War Erupts, Tennis Is Grounded in a New Reality As war breaks out in the Middle East within range of the tennis tour, a new normal for this global sport is undeniable.

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...

02.03.2026 03:00 πŸ‘ 33 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 3

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.

28.02.2026 05:10 πŸ‘ 25 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Very, very excited to get more of @avarwallace.bsky.social in tennis!

www.nytco.com/press/the-at...

26.02.2026 16:06 πŸ‘ 22 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Post image

Frances Tiafoe won this tennis match

26.02.2026 05:33 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Ever Ambitious, Craig Tiley Makes His Next Move From Africa to Australia to America, Craig Tiley has kept his eyes on the horizon for chances to advance. Next stop: the U.S. Open.

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...

25.02.2026 02:38 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Thank you!

25.02.2026 00:18 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Ever Ambitious, Craig Tiley Makes His Next Move From Africa to Australia to America, Craig Tiley has kept his eyes on the horizon for chances to advance. Next stop: the U.S. Open.

Lots of thoughts about Craig Tiley, his legacy in Australiaβ€”the successes and the failuresβ€”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...

24.02.2026 23:42 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 3

Wonder if you can see how long it’s been Level 4? Might be years.

24.02.2026 21:58 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0