Tennis is a spectacle, and this week was no exception. Shifts in Grand Slam schedules, reflecting on the Australian Open triumpt of Madison Keys, and the discovery of an obscure tennis rule that prevents Keys from playing in an upcoming WTA tournament. The headlines you may have missed last week.
How Madison Keys’s Australian Open Win Measures Up: The American’s charge to her maiden major title may be one of the best in history. Full Story: Sports Illustrated
The Australian Open reinforced one of the unwritten rules of tennis: No player ever wins a war with the fans. Full Story: Tennis
US Open adds 15th day, shifting to Sunday start in 2025: The US Open is expanding to 15 days this year, shifting to a Sunday start for the first time in the Open era that began in 1968. Full Story: ESPN
Zero appetite for 15-day Wimbledon: Wimbledon organisers have “zero appetite” to turn the Championships into a 15-day event, according to former British number one and four-times semi-finalist Tim Henman. Full Story: Reuters
Pam Shriver recovers her Grand Slam trophies that were stolen during L.A. wildfires : The 22-time Grand Slam doubles champion said she felt like she ‘won another major’ with the recovery of her hardware, though her car is still missing. Full Story: Tennis
The WTA tour rule that just knocked Madison Keys out of the Austin ATX: Under WTA rules, 250-level tournaments are only permitted to feature one top-10 player in the WTA rankings, unless the defending champion returns with a top-10 ranking. Keys’ run at the Australian Open, in propelled her into the top-10, thus makes her ineligible to enter the tournament because the higher-ranked Jessica Pegula is already in the field. Full Story: The Athletic
The Dallas Open Gets a Glow-Up: The 2022 debut of the Dallas Open at SMU’s Styslinger / Altec Tennis Complex offered the first glimmer of hope that the city could regain the glory of its 1970s- and ’80s-era tennis heyday when stars like John McEnroe and Boris Becker won the World Championship Tennis Circuit finals at Reunion Arena. Full Story: D Magazine
How The 1% Will Socialize Around Tennis In 2025: A private tennis club partnered with a luxury hotel brand to build a chic social network rooted in wellness, community, cocktails, shopping, and the most proper sport to the nexus: tennis. Full Story: Forbes
How the Australian Open became the tennis Silicon Valley: This year’s innovations have been especially visible. Coaches are sitting in pods on the three main courts with tablet computers packed with live stats, rather than in a box above the court and in the stands, where they had to lean over to chat with players craning their necks and cupping their ears to hear a potential gem among the noise. Full Story: The Athletic
Why do tennis players do on-court interviews?: That says players must attend media opportunities after each match, which give them opportunities to “put across their opinions on their performance and provide valuable exposure to the media and fans”. Players can be fined up to $50,000 for failing to attend these media opportunities. Full Story: BBC
Why Are Tennis Balls Fuzzy?: Unlike basketballs, footballs, and soccer balls, tennis balls come adorned with a fuzzy exterior. These tufts serve—no pun intended—a crucial purpose, one that players are mindful of when a game or even a career is on the line. Full Story: Mental Floss
This Week in Professional Tennis
| Date | Tournament | Tour/Level | Location |
| 2/3-9 | Dallas Open | ATP 500 | United States |
| 2/3-9 | ABN AMRO Open | ATP 500 | The Netherlands |
| 2/3-8 | Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open presented by Abu Dhabi Sports Council | WTA 500 | United Arab Emirates |
| 2/5-11 | Transylvania Open | WTA 250 | Romania |
