The most insightful tennis news from last week! Danielle Collins’ opens up on her impending retirement as Ben Shelton’s rises to America’s top player. Have you ever wondered what the pros do with all the clothes they receive from their sponsors?
Danielle Collins opens up about retiring amid battle with endometriosis, rheumatoid arthritis: At 30 years old, American Danielle Collins is at the peak of her career, ranked 15th on the WTA Tour and recently won the Miami Open and the Credit One Charleston Open. Yet Collins plans to retire at the end of the season amid two ongoing health battles, rheumatoid arthritis and endometriosis. Full Story: ABC
Ben Shelton becomes new American No. 1: Ben Shelton became the No. 1 American in the ATP rankings for the first time Monday, surpassing Taylor Fritz. The 21-year-old Shelton, in just his second full season on the tour, reached a career-high No. 14 in the world. Full Story: Reuters
Rafael Nadal is solving a tennis riddle – and we’re solving it with him: There’s never been anything quite like solving the riddle of Nadal right now as he desperately seeks what is likely one last chance for a magical spring on his beloved red clay, playing on his surgically repaired and re-injured left hip and upper leg and various other damaged body parts. Full Story: The Athletic
Six ways to help blaze a trail for women in coaching: Here are the top six takeaways from the “Blazing a trail for women in coaching” panel and how players, providers, and current coaches can break down barriers and biases to empower the next generation of female coaches who are the norm rather than the exception. Full Story: USTA
100 Days to Go: The Race for a Tennis Place at the 2024 Paris Olympics: All eyes will be on the ATP and WTA rankings of 10 June – the day after Roland Garros – as the first key milestone for determining the majority of players who will take part. Full Story: ITF
Schedule for the Davis Cup Finals group stage announced: The United States will start its campaign on September 11 against Chile in Zhuhai, China, before then going on to play Slovakia and Germany. Full Story: ESPN, Davis Cup
Bulgarian umpire banned for life over corruption violations: Bulgarian umpire Pavel Atanasov has been banned from tennis for life. His violations included manipulating matches’ scoring data for betting purposes, facilitating wagering, conspiring to commit corruption offenses, wagering on tennis matches, and failure to report corrupt approaches. Full Story: ESPN
Waterdrop Using Tennis As Global Growth Strategy: Waterdrop launched in Europe in 2016, first with dissolvable, sugar-free hydration cubes meant to promote sustainable hydration by encouraging consumers to bypass single-use plastic bottles in favor of sustainable bottles with the added Waterdrop product. Tennis quickly offered a vehicle to tell the story. Full Story: Forbes
Intercollegiate Tennis Association and PlaySight Extend Partnership: The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) announced a partnership extension of PlaySight as an Official Live Streaming Partner of the organization. Full Story: ITA
A Collegiate Match Overturned: A Big 12 conference tournament matchup between TCU and Kansas State was overturned based on an order of strength violation. Full Story: Go Frogs Editorial Note: This is exceedingly rare.
Where do player clothes go? Players are inundated with clothes from sponsors, and can’t keep them all. Full Story: Tennis
This Week in Professional Tennis
| Date | Tournament | Tour/Level | Location |
| 4/23-5/5 | Mutua Madrid Open | ATP 1000 WTA 1000 | Spain |
